Why On Earth Would You Want to Blog?!

Have you ever questioned the reason why you’re blogging? Well, maybe not on your own, but when someone asks you this question, do you really know the answer? Can you give an immediate one without hesitation?

Furthermore, would you start a blog again if you could go back in time?

Okay, enough being philosophical and all, let’s just look at some possible reasons for blogging, and explain why they’re wrong … you know, for fun.

Possible reasons why you’d want to blog

Let’s take it from the top, with the most popular professional blogging reason – to make money.

I mean, really?

There are quicker ways of making money than that. Simply go to Poland, buy 100 packs of cigarettes, take them to London and sell them. Easy money, quick, and no refunds.

Whoops, I probably shouldn’t have said that, anyway, it’s done.

If you want to follow a more common way then simply find a job, and get paid the next week.

As you may or may not know, blogging won’t make you any money right from the get go. Building a blog to any level of income takes time. Even if you don’t want to make money on the blog itself, finding some freelance writing gigs will take time too, until you have a portfolio of any kind.

So, money? … no, there are quicker and better ways of earning those than blogging.

What about this reason: becoming an expert and building your personal brand?

Yea, this one can be done more easily too. For example, contact your friends working for some recognizable brands and convince them to get you a gig of any kind, next create a website where you list these companies in your portfolio, and then simply SAY that you’re an expert. You know … something like “hey, I’m an expert here, look at all these brands, and pay attention to me!”

This is a lot quicker than publishing weekly posts for years until someone notices you on their own.

Next reason: finding customers for your business. Via a blog? Come on(!)

Why not simply invest in some online advertising or local billboards and ads. Ads have been around for many years, they are much better at finding customers than blogs.

I’ll just stop here with the reasons. As you can see, no matter what reason follows I am ready to beat it down with a silly counterexample.

Why most reasons fail to perform

The cause for such a situation is simple. As I’m explaining here, blogging is not the most effective tool for any of the most popular goals of launching a blog.

If you want money there are quicker ways of getting it. If you want recognition, or customers then same thing goes.

In a sentence, people have wrong expectations about the results a standard blog can provide.

And you know what, it’s not their (or our) fault. We constantly see sites like ProBlogger, TechCrunch, Mashable, Copyblogger, and others, and they are all successful, making tons of money purely as a result of being a popular blog.

But we don’t see all the other smaller ones that have yet to make a single dollar, or to get any recognition whatsoever. This gives us a false image of the blogosphere.

Am I saying that you won’t be able to get to any of those things with your blog? Of course I’m not saying such a thing. No matter how crowded a given space is there’s still place for new people.

Look at the music industry. There are thousands of celebrity musicians, and still Justin Bieber has come along and made a name for herself himself.

Can you be the next ProBlogger, Mashable or TechCrunch? Sure.

How to do it? How would I know (?) … But I’m pretty sure that the first and most important ingredient is to have a good reason for blogging. One that would get you going no matter what the results are.

Start with something you already have in you

Look at it this way. If you’re blogging to make money, and you don’t have money yet, then you will get mad when nothing happens, and eventually stop after 4 months or so.

If you’re blogging to get recognized as an expert, and after 4 months still no one knows who you are, then you’ll probably stop too.

On the other hand, here’s what happens if you start with something you already have.

For example, if you love cooking, and want to have a place to store all your recipes online along with some thoughts about your dishes then you can start a blog to do it. If no one ever reads it, that’s OK, you still love cooking. If you don’t earn any money from it for 2 years, that’s OK, you still love cooking, and you still have all your recipes online.

By starting with something you already have (love for cooking, in our example) you make it impossible to get bored and quit because of lack of results … the results are already there.

I truly hate to have to write this next sentence because I feel sick anytime I see it anywhere else, but here it goes:

Have passion for what you want to blog about. If there’s no passion nothing else will ever follow.

No matter what your side goals are (like money) there’s no other way of reaching them than simply blogging because you want to.

Wanting something is the main motivator in everything we do in our lives.

… “Why did you ask that girl out? I wanted to.”

… “Why do you play the guitar? I like it.”

… “Why do you eat so much fish? It’s tasty (aka I like it).”

Here’s another piece of information to prove my point. A fact known to every marketer is that people are many times more likely to buy something if they want it comparing to if they need it.

If your motivator is that you want to do something you are much more likely to succeed, in comparison to when you need something (e.g. money).

Now, this final part of the post explains my own story. I just want to tell you that I don’t think my reasons are in any way better than yours. They’re just mine. They work for me, they don’t have to work for you. You are still the architect of your projects and reasons for taking part in them. Allow people to show you different paths, but never allow them to tell you what yours should be.

Why am I blogging?

Drum roll please … because I friggin’ want to!

Blogging gives me much clarity in my life. Times where I reach some interesting conclusions after finishing a post (ones I didn’t have when starting it) are very common. The sole activity of transferring my thoughts to a computer disk is a very valuable activity for me.

In essence, I truly do it because I want to do it. And if no one ever reads this post, you know what, it was worth writing it anyway.

There’s another passion I have that’s quite similar to blogging in the way I’m describing here. I’m a singer. I sing every day or every other day. I love it. Do I care about people’s opinion or whether anyone actually likes it or not? Sure I don’t. Would I do it if I was certain not to see a dollar out of it till the end of my days? Sure I would. Why? Because I want to.

If by any chance this post ends up being read by you, please tell me – noble visitor – what’s your passion? What would you be ready to do for years to come without any tangible reward?

Karol K. (@carlosinho) is a 20-something year old writer, a web 2.0 entrepreneur from Poland, and a grad student at the Silesian University of Technology. He shares his thoughts at newInternetOrder.com. Tune in to get his blogging and online business advice.

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