Blogging

Today I read a blog by Michael Hyatt (one of the most read bloggers) about advice for beginning bloggers. I'm not a beginning blogger...been doing it for five years...but I haven't done a lot to self promote so in that sense I could still fit into the "beginning blogger" category.

He talked about having a theme. He talked about getting a good following and eventually being able to monetize your blog with ads, so it brings in a profit or at least covers the expenses of using a blogging site that costs money and having someone professionally design it. Which is a fine goal if that's what you want to do with your blog.

Me? I don't blog to make money. I don't blog to be known. Sure, there's a certain amount of joy when I see a lot of page views on my blog...but ultimately I can't really track it since I post my blog on Facebook and Blogger, and Facebook doesn't offer stats. And that's fine. I don't have the goal of making a super popular blog.

No, I blog because it's a good outlet for me. It's journaling, but with motivation. This may seem to contradict what I just said - but I am motivated by some kind of audience. I have about 15 journals and they're each about a quarter full...because I have all the best of intentions but I've never been able to be a consistent journaler. But blogging? That I can do. Knowing someone will read what I write, that's motivation.

But I don't need 100 views, 1,000 views, 10,000 views to get that motivation. Just knowing Dan reads it daily is enough. Just seeing the occasional comment that it touched one person, that's enough for me. There are a lot of things I do for selfish motivations, but blogging? I don't do it for the money, I don't do it for the glory, I do it to process. I do it to see life through the lens of, "What did I learn today?" I've grown a lot by blogging, and that's why I do it.