I listen to a lot of podcasts. One of those podcasts is Inside the Net (with Amber), where Amber and Leo interview various progressives in the "Web 2.0" space.
I listened to an episode today where they spoke with Mena Trott of SixApart – the company who brought us TypePad, Movable Type, and Vox (they also own LiveJournal). She talked at length about how "blogging" has become a fairly mainstream activity, and explained why a business model around blogging platforms is so lucrative.
Yet, she also mentioned that she’d neglected her blog (posting three times all of last year) because of the amount of work she’d had on her plate.
Here’s one of the founders of one of the largest blogging platforms on the web, admitting that her work keeps her from blogging.
Naturally (as you’ll all see from my post history), I identified with her plight; my regular life has a habit of interfering with my blogaholism. But it made me wonder: is blogging really all that hot?
So here’s a question for you, the visitor: Why do you blog? If you don’t blog, why do you read blogs? Does your blog ever become a chore?
Hit the comments. Anonymous posting is fair game, so there’s no excuse. Help a brother out.
Tags: blogging, inside the net, mena trott, sixapart
Technorati Tags: blogging, inside the net, mena trott, sixapart
I blog because it’s fun, to practise writing and to share stories with friends and family.
Since I started blogging every day, I sometimes panic about what I’m going to talk about that particular day, but I wouldn’t say it’s a chore.
I originally blogged to keep track of my drinking (in a fun way, not an AA way) but have since moved on to various blogs for assorted things: a comic strip blog, a fake news blog, a blog about my kids and renovation disasters. My most successful blog though is my ‘make faces in a month’ blog (linked to the charity I run) – not so much a blog as using the blog format.
I started my blog as a steam valve for stress. When I get manic, I like to vent- better at the world than my family.
I try to update at least a few times a wee, ad yes there are times it becomes tedious- when I just can’t get a hold of the inspiration.When my life becomes a whole lot of same sh*t, different day… But ultimately, it has helped out in my daily life- having a place to let it all out- and find humor in my situations… also keeps me from having to call home every day to let my family in the states know how things are going with me…. MY shrink says my blog is great self therapy.
I surfed in here with Blog Explosion and just had to comment.
I started blogging several years ago to help my long distance family say involved in my life and in the life of my kids. Over the years it’s morphed into a writing blog, a weight loss surgery blog, a family blog, a reading suggestion blog….pretty much anything that strikes my fancy.
I take part in several blog tours, helping to promote the writing of fellow artists. It scores me some free books just about every month and helps out people I admire.
The blogs I read are varied from the classic ‘mommy blog’ to writer’s blogs and friend’s blogs. It’s like a daily dose of news to me.
I’m a ex-fanzine music writer and at some point i made the jump and now have 3 blogs. When i have time i blog as an outlet for my personal interests (instead of a sketch book or guitar). Blogging is a creative outlet. I write about things related to what I call analog living(life stuff) and my other two blogs are strickly music related. Normally i work too hard at a large Interactive Agency these days and consider free a time a complete luxery and look forward to having the time to record a podcast. When i see people blogging at work or reading blogs i know it is them just muking about and i get leisure blog envy and at the same time pissed because i have to poke them towards their late deliverables.
i read blogs for personal insights because i’m a people watcher, (a little public myself but only behind the shade of my blogs). The emjoy the little slices of life that people offer that make me giggle, lots of time i don’t understand what the hell anybody is wasting their time for about 80# of the blog out there, but it does make the world seem closer yet far away. I’m certainly not in it for the money. i don’t have enough traffic for that or enough time to sincerely edit my dribble or pov and glad to see other poeple lost as well. I can’t say it is a chore. If i don’t have anything important to share i keep it to myself because I got too much other crap to do. I think there is some pyschology at play too, as i read somewhere, people like to talk and it a creative outlet, which is why the cellphone business is booming, their content is mundane but that is another issue. I would also point to this piece called Blogging Means Business that I worked on that asnwers the b2b aspect of blogs and how they have been adopted by corporate life. Thanks.
Enough with the excuses and post something allready!
Possible Topics to help break your rut:
1. What’s your baby girl been up to?
2. The pros/cons of having a Greek last name and the various mispronounciations you have encountered.
3. Current views of the Lebanese situation w.r.t. previous views on the war against terror.
4. San Diego – is it all that it’s cracked up to be?
5. Your favorite marinade and why.
I originally started blogging as an outlet – just wanted to write about things that bothered me or things I found amusing…..and no, its never been a chore (yet) – and if I don’t have anything to write about, I just don’t – but I usually do, no matter how trivial it is.
Great question! I blog for a few reaons:
-It keeps my writing skills in shape.
-It’s a way of continuing to develop my knowledge and interests.
-It’s a way to continue to develop a “digital identity” — something that will become increasingly important for professional development. In other words, it’s something that I can add to my resume.
-It’s a genuinely enjoyable creative outlet.
-The fact that it’s essentially small business management — building traffic, thinking about ad placement and design, networking — is a rather fascinating challenge.
Why do I blog? Well, I began my blog because I didn’t really have anyone to talk to in real life and I needed a way to vent, share and discuss the seemingly boring events going on in my life. An online friend of mine had intoduce it to me. I still blog for the same reasons, but due to the fact I am incredibly boring and upon reading over several entries, I tend sound like a whiney-crybaby. That irritates me to no end. I guess I kind of blog from the perspective of my personality that I don’t share in real life. This is when blogging becomes a chore. A chore to find something “blog-worthy” that sound like I am whiney and interesting enough not to be boring.
i started blogging about five years ago because it was a convenient way to keep track of collected writings. eventually, blogging became a sort of glorified list-making process, and is now the method i use to catalogue things that i find important. mostly, i’ve blogged a giant list of the books i’ve read since jan 1 2005. of course, being anal retentive, i’ve cited each one in MLA format, included the dates i spent reading it, my reactions and whatnot, and then tagged the entries according to author, genre, form, year read, and whatever other descriptive terms i deem necessary.
so, to answer your question succinctly, blogging is an action of convenience for me. a means to an end.
instead of using an individual blog for the books, i created a closed membership community on livejournal, allowed only my personal account to join, and make the entries in the community. that was before the advent of tagging on livejournal. now i feel that i could have easily included all of those entries in my personal blog. all the entries in the personal blog are locked, but i could have left the book entries open to the public.
anyway, i’m totally rambling now. seeya!
I stated blogging as a way to diary my personal life way back in the early days of usenet. Then 9/11 happened and i became more political after just leaving the WTC hours before and hearing incredible comments like :why do they hate us”?
I also focused alot on issues involving war and peace, and how it was incredibly stupid to believe that most foreign policy should be dominated at the barrel of the gun.Yet the post that caused my server to crash , as i received literally hundreds of visitors an hour, was the Texas art teacher who was fired for nude pictures.Its still the reason for most of the visits i get as i topped technorati and cnets page for one whole week.Many have stayed and i hope my writing is getting better, but i still find too many unsure why war is never going to be the solution for peace among men.Peace!