Why do you blog? My reasons for blogging
by DannyUK
There is no such thing as a dumb question. Asking your male boss of 3 weeks “Why don’t you think you are able to satisfy your wife in bed?” isn’t a dumb question, it’s just a dumb question to ask. But asking questions brings us knowledge, and that can only be a good thing.
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The question on my mind this morning is “Why do we blog?” That’s the royal we, of course, a phrase that conjures up images of Her Majesty on a different kind of throne than the one we’re used to.
I know lots of people that blog. Some infrequently. Some privately. Some who write every day. I know blogs that are popular with hundreds or thousands of people, and some that are probably read by me and no more than a couple of others.
My problem is that quite often I will want to write something, but don’t know how to do it. My recent Tassimo review, for example, took far longer than I wanted it to, merely because it was fairly structured. It was nice to be able to do something like that as it was different, and I’d certainly do similar posts again but it felt like hard work compared to something like this post. I’m also torn between wanting to write posts about my life, and wanting to write generic posts.
The fact that I’m Chelmsford based means that the blog veers toward a Chelmsford bias quite often, and that some posts are boring for non-Chelmsfordians to read. Because of this, and because I am fairly happy (or “accepting of”) the eclectic approach, I will never build up a following on the blog. My writing isn’t structured enough or interesting enough to read ad-hoc, nor do I play the blog game of following hundreds of other blogs in the hope that others will follow mine, yet deep down I want what I’ve no doubt everyone else is after – followers, comments, acceptance and love. The latter two are more prevalent themes of life rather than blogging, but you get the gist.
So where am I going with all of this? Nowhere, really. Boredom and envy of both Kip and Mel have led me to register DannyUK.com as my domain, and to chuck the blog there, so it’s self-hosted rather that languishing on WordPress.
In two years I’ve little doubt that I will refuse to pay whatever is needed to keep the domain going and will thus revert back to WordPress, but that’s something to worry about in two years time. Meanwhile I can (hopefully) get some SEO sorted on this site so that the page views go up which will either pacify or satisfy me depending on my mood at the time.
As for now, I am halfway through writing a blog post on my Father’s Day gift (a wireless charger, no less), tempted to write a quick blog post about kids and their inability to find things that are in front of their eyes, partially thinking about why 12-year-old girls seem to hate washing themselves and continually being distracted by the recording of a sarcastic congratulatory clip I’m doing on behalf of WafflePod for another local podcast (OddcastPodcastUK).
What I should be doing is finishing this post and then sorting out the SEO, before finding a blog theme that works well, but you know what? I’m not sure I can be arsed. Which pretty much sums up my approach to blogging most of the time.
So, dear reader, tell me. Why do YOU blog?
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I blog to make sense of my own thoughts mainly. So my blog is curently more like a diary than anything. I keep meaning to sit down and go through it systematically, password protecting the really private stuff and then I can unlock it again. But, a bit like you, I can’t be arsed! I’ve never blogged in order to get reader numbers, but I think that’s a personality issue. I’m just not that in need of external validation. Don’t get me wrong, It’s nice to see people are reading things you’ve written, but it’s never been a motivating factor for me.
I need validation, which is strange as I don’t always feel that way but deep down I think it’s always true. When I moved the blog over last time I password protected everything, and every now and then I read back and unlock stuff. Not often though.
Blogging is a rare creative outlet – author, editor, designer and publisher. Beyond that it’s for reasons of ego: because I want people to like me and be interested in what I’ve got to say. Blogging has helped me come to terms with how very shallow I am. Ho-hum.
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