Why Blog?

Advice for New/Old Bloggers

 Apparently the number of blogs on the net is approaching infinity – if you count everyone’s Myspace and Facebook notes and so on. Still, if that is true, why on earth am I writing another one? Or if it was your New Year’s Resolution to start one yourself, why should you bother? Here are three reasons.

Competing with Infinity:

Remembering that you are competing with infinity forces you to write. Forcing yourself to write can be a good thing. After all, if there are an infinite number of blogs out that, I’d guess ninety percent of that inifinite number are dead blogs (you can probably tell I’m not a math whiz here). People got too busy for blogging, ran out of ideas, or got discouraged when they didn’t get ten thousand visitors in a day. So let me let you in on a little secret: if you blog regularly you are already ahead of ninety percent of that infinite number of blogs. (Statistics may be debatable, but you get the idea). I’ve noticed when I’m very clear about what days I post, my stat numbers are way higher than back when I just posted randomly. So pick several days to post and stick with it.

For Those Who Want to Write:

If you’re like most of the bloggers I follow, you want to blog because you’re a writer, and you want to improve your writing skills. And I’m here to tell you, you’re right. Blogging will improve your writing skills, even if every post you turn out makes you cringe in disgust. That is because one very important skill a writer needs is discipline. Sure, you can complain about writer’s block as much as you want, but are you truly a writer if you never write a word because of it? If you have a blog you have to write something every week. Preferably something good that people will read, but just the act of making yourself write something regularly develops a writer’s discipline.

Good Post? Bad Post?

Lastly, blogging helps you realize what a bad judge you are of your own work. Some days I have terrible writer’s block and I search the web for hours just hoping to stumble across an idea. And when I churn out some kind of post, it sounds like I’m writing a highschool essay and I can’t imagine anyone would want to read it. And then when I check back the next day the post has a whole string of comments, and people are actually really interested in the topic! Then again, some posts you think are great disappear into the vortex of the internet without anyone noticing they exist. So you never know.

Don’t Forget the Followers!

But it is the audience interaction that really drives blogs. It’s thanks to my lovely readers and their insightful comments that I’ve learned so much in my first year of blogging. I cannot express my appreciation enough.

So whether you write a blog, or just like reading them, I hope you have a wonderful 2012.