Why I Blog?

It’s hard telling people I blog for living. Reactions range from “what’s a blog?” to “How do you make money?” People are curious but they also don’t understand that blogging is, or should I say, can be, a business.

I didn’t start out building a brand or incorporating a business entity. I started out writing about a passion of mine, weight loss. It was something personal and I used the blog as a journal and creative outlet that was helping me reach personal goals.

At first no one read except my mom and a few close friends. Honestly, I never anticipated getting many more readers then that. It wasn’t my initial goal. I was just expressing myself in a medium I knew well as a web developer.

But something happened. After a few months I realized others were reading. They were commenting, asking me questions and I was responding. Happily responding. I started to see the blog as a means to connect with people that had similar interests and goals as I did. I realized I could use the blog to not only help me reach my goals but I can help others reach theirs as well.

This was empowering and inspirational for me. I realized I loved writing (when I’m talking about myself anyway ;~P) and I love helping and connecting with others. Blogging was fun and allowing me to be creative but to turn it into a business? Now THAT takes work, a lot of work.

That’s the one thing people don’t understand the most. Blogging is so much more then writing and publishing articles online. My typical day consists of some writing, sure, but a majority of my time is reading and socializing. It’s reaching out to others, exploring new opportunities and technologies and most importantly staying passionate about my niche.

These things are all time consuming and I didn’t even get to the “business” part of it. What makes a blog a business? Well… money of course! All of the connecting and socializing is fun but I still need to pay the bills. Monetizing a blog takes even more time and energy. There’s a lot of research and trial and error involved. What works for one blog may not work for another and to find what works for yours takes, well… more time!

Some people ask why (or how) I do it when it requires so much time and energy. My answer is always, simply… “Because I LOVE it!”. I love keeping up with the trends in social media, I love the technical challenge of it, the creative aspect of visual design and layout, the writing provides an outlet and most importantly, I love the connection I make with people. That is number one for me. I have communicated and learned from people all over the world and everyday I meet someone new who affects me in a positive way.

It may have been crazy for me to leave a full time faculty position to pursue a career in such an emerging field. I make less money, work more and have no idea where I’m going. BUT it’s fun and I’m LOVING every minute of it.