(Our question of the day is a fun featurette that lets YOUR voice be heard. We won’t be asking questions EVERY DAY but we will be asking them somewhat often.)
Why do you blog?
What puts the gasoline in your WordPress gas tank… the Mountain Dew in your e-diary’s gullet… the fire in your bloggy oven! Tell us why you became passionate about blogging. Has your blog had a positive impact on your life, your community, your loved ones? What has the domino effect of your blog been? Has your blog helped anyone, or yourself?
Post your answer as a comment. We would love to hear what you have to say!!
I blog because it's away to keep all my poetic musings together and to get feedback on it as well. I blog because it was a way to get out all my frustrations, and it was easier to keep than a diary. Now I blog because I've found an amazing family of friends who would do anything for me, as I would do for them. It's a way to gain exposure, a way to network and to broaden my horizons and I love it!
I blog for business marketing reasons and also personal - depending where I am blogging. My first blog was one of those private diary things way back when. My personal blog is about cats, pics, vegan food, politics, crafts, it's a catch all voice for my non-business blogginess.
I wanted a way to organize the chaos of my Internet presence so I tried to put everything on my blog in an organized central location. Like my bedroom on the Internet. I think there's a certain credibility that comes with being able to express yourself digitally. It takes creativity, writing skills, visual design skills, and a certain charisma. I also love meeting people like myself who love the Interwebz soo muches :)
Well, first off, I LOVE technology. Anything digital or mechanical that lights up, makes sound, spins or spits steam will capture my attention. I also love people. Everyone has a story. Every single person you pass on the street has an origin story worthy of a super hero, they just may not know it yet. I'm getting into blogging for the same reason I've been into social networking and podcasting. I love that moment where you connect with someone. When you talk with someone, you learn to understand another perception of life.
I want my story heard, I want to hear others' stories and I want an excuse to play with my computer. Blogging is pretty much perfect. :-)
I started dabbling in blogging with a Diaryland journal after reading and religiously following several bloggers (including Stephanie Austin, Christa Madrid and Trancejen). I thought to myself "hey, I can totally do this!", so I did for a few years on Diaryland. But as the saying goes "all good things come to an end, as did my Diaryland journal." Soon after, I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I already had my own domain name and decided to give it another try on a different platform to chronicle my adventures being pregnant and being a first time mother. Here I am 7 years later (my daughter turns 8 in December), a different CMS, but same concept.
I started thinking about blogging after I saw the movie Julie& Julia. Sounds silly, right? I started it as a personal blog and hoped my friends and family would read it, but sadly, they never do. They are all into Facebook but my daughter won't let me open an account (she doesn't have one either). So I went on with my blog, writing about my weight loss, exercise, family updates vacations, and photos. Even though nobody was reading it, I did it for myself and I really enjoyed posting. Then, over the last year, I started writing about my flea market finds and Ebay sales and suddenly there was a lot of interest. Now I get lots of visitors and there is a nice little neighborhood of Ebay bloggers that are getting to know each other, sharing tips, finds and sales.
BTW, I just bought 2 tickets to BlogCon and my daughter is coming with me!
I blog because I have 10,000 things going on in my brain at once and I want a way to get them out while being heard. I like to tell stories and share what I think, what I feel, and what I know. I love interacting and starting discussions and shaking things up. I never knew I was a blogger - until the day I hit publish.
Before that, I was an intern who was just getting familiar with social media and new ways of communicating. I started blogging for other people before I started blogging for myself officially, but my writing history dates back into the days of Livejournal. Oh, yes. SO much angst.
Today, I'm much happier and I love blogging, even if it's just my Dad that reads it. It just feels good to have that part of me out there to share with the world.
I missed this question the first time around, but I've been asking it independently on my own blog (and Facebook, and Twitter, and Tumblr) all this week. Here's a link to that post, with the answers for my blogs (all fourteen of them, at last count) and the answers I've received from other bloggers:
http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-do-you-blog.html