So Why Write a Blog Anyway?

If you’re wondering why I decided to start this blog now there are several reason. Probably none are enough on their own to undertake the amount of work that a blog entails but together they’re a pretty compelling motivation. And it’s kinda fun.

An Interesting Story

I think I have a pretty interesting story. There are many people out there who have made millions on the Internet but I’m not sure how many there are that have made it the way I did. Some people got some great stock options early in the lives of companies like AOL or Google. Fewer people were part of a founding team of a company that sold for a nice price or made it big. But you don’t hear too many stories of people who actually built a site on their own, never took financing and were smart and lucky enough to build it into something pretty big (and then sell it for a nice price).

photo credit: julianrod (PBUH)

 Plenty of Opinions

When I was a kid my parents threatened to get me a T-shirt that said “Everyone has a right to MY opinion”. I’ve always been one to enjoy explaining my point of view and a blog is a natural place to do so. I’ve been around the Internet since before the world wide web even existed and I’ve worked on Internet based projects for at least the last 10 years so I think I bring some experience and perspective to the topic I like to cover.

Self Accountability

Initially one of my main reasons for wanting to start this blog was to ensure that I was actually working on things instead of just goofing off. When you’re solo there is no external accountability so you need to make sure that you keep yourself productive. Especially when you don’t necessarily need an income to live a comfortable life. Of course so far I’ve spent more time on the actual blog than working on projects I could blog about but I still hope to use the blog and the (self imposed) pressure to write about interesting projects I’m undertaking to motivate myself to work on such projects.

Self Promotion

Blogs have some inherent self promotional aspects (pinging for one) and are beloved by search engines (who adore frequently updated content). There are also some good promotional opportunities for bloggers that aren’t necessarily available to other webmasters. This means that it’s somewhat easier to drive traffic to a blog than to other types of sites. And of course if you can drive traffic to a blog you can also send some of that traffic off to other projects you launch.

I Really Enjoy Writing

photo credit: MayrFor the longest time I’ve enjoyed writing of various forms. In high school it was creative writing. With my “big successful site” I had the opportunity to do some reviewing and interviews. It was never the main part of my job and I hadn’t done much of it (aside from the frequently overlong forum post) in quite a while. I actually toyed briefly with the ideal of studying to be a journalist but I’m not sure that’s a growth industry or the type of life I want to lead right now. Blogging gives me a great chance to exercise that muscle without becoming a job.

Money Making Possibilities

I actually never really thought a blog had a lot of money earning potential until I started getting into blogs a bit more and reading about guys like John Chow. I’m not sure I’ll ever build an audience like John and even if I do I’m not sure I can monetize my blog as effectively as John does but there is certainly a chance that this blog will someday bring in a few dollars.

So there you have it. For me at least the reasons I blog. If you write a blog consider what your reasons are. And if you’re thinking about writing a blog know that blogging is much harder than it looks and you’ll likely need more than one reason to keep you going.