10 reasons to continue blogging
The last few months blogging has been great and have been a nightmare at the
same time. I started at the beginning of August 2006, so I am in
my 4th month of blogging.
The reason I started writing a blog was down to three people:
Jack Blackfrom Mindstore
, Jack
is a Scottish motivational speaker and I went to see him in Glasgow 2 times
in 1995 and again in 1996 and his seminars changed my thinking about my life. When
I went the second time I said to my friend "˜That's what I want
to do with my life'. I wanted to affect people's life so
they would have the power to change themselves, give them the tools so to speak. So
10 years on I have started that dream and I am only in the beginning phase
and writing a blog is helping the dream along.
Steve Pavlinafrom stevepavlina.com
–
Steve was the inspiration for the blog. I found Steve's site by
accident and suddenly saw a way of reaching a potentially huge audience. His
posts were also inspiring and I found he thought along the same lines as me,
which I thought were quite "˜out there', it turned out I wasn't
the only one. I then asked myself how I was going to devote time to blogging
when I had a full time job, a part time web design business and a family. Steve's
site gave some helpful tips.
Darren Rowsefrom problogger.net
"“ Gave
me the logistical information I needed to start up the blog and continue it. His
site is chock full of helpful information for any blogger just starting out
of for seasoned pro's.
It's been a tough 4 months as I wasn't getting anybody to the
site, I was getting around 10-20 visitors per day in the first month which
rose to around 50 per day in September, 100 per day in October and to around
200 per day in November. If it keeps going the way it's going
I should be reaching my goal of 1000 visitors per day by February 2007.
I also noticed the lack of comments, which frustrated me for a while but whenI let the need go they started commenting.
Making money
I also concentrated on making money from Google adsense and I have recentlylet that need go also and the money is starting to trickle in
August – $0.00
September – $5.80October – $12.74
November – $4.81 (so far)
And about $28 from donations.
Also because of my blog I managed to secure the management of another blogat around $540 per month
So why do I keep going at this blog when there is seemingly so little in it
for me? This is a question a lot of bloggers ask themselves and a lot of them
give up and stop blogging altogether. I won't give up, I want to
be talking about my blog in 2 years time and say "˜this is where my blog
took me' like Steve Pavlina or Darren Rowse.
The top 10 reasons:
10) To
make some money:admittedly
not a lot of money is made unless you've been going for a while and
you done all the right things and managed to get a good following.9) To learn
something new "“I
come across blogs, sites and people who teach me something new and it keeps
me updated in the world of the blogosphere and the net itself. I love
learning and I am constantly learning when I am blogging.8) It can land you some
extra work"“ I
have managed to secure some extra work managing a blog which provides me
with a bit extra money every month and I expect after doing this for a year
or more there will be more work in the future.7) Build connections"“ having
a blog allows you to meet with a whole host of interesting people. It's
good to have a group of people who have the same interests. They can
often help provide ideas, help with
professional services etc.6) To help
your business "“Ifyou have a business, blogging can make you seem more human and you can interact
with your customers a lot easier and a lot quicker.5) Establish yourself as
an authority on your subject "“This
is a big reason people start to blog and there are a lot of people out there
blogging who are experts in their field and their knowledge can make them
a great resource and also build up their following.4) Traffic
to your generic sites"“ By their very nature
blogs are updated regularly and therefore have more food for search engines
to digest. You can create more traffic to your generic websites as
well as interacting directly with your customers.3) It develops discipline
and ability"“ Through
natural selection a lot of bloggers will give up for many different reasons. Those
who stay at it develop a discipline of writing which can have spin off effects
in their own lives I have noticed I am more focused in general and I am more
task oriented in my regular work. I know I need to write at least
3000 words per week to keep my blog updated and bringing in regular readers. If
you write this much every week for 1 year you will have written around 150,000
words in 1 year. The average number of words per book written is 120,000 "“ 200,000. So
you will, in effect, have written a books worth in 1 year. If you have
aspirations of writing a book, blogging is a fantastic discipline to get
into.2) To know yourself"“ Strange
one this but over the last few months I have come to know myself a lot better
than before. I
have figured out inner resources I didn't know I had. Intellectually
and spiritually I have grown. It takes a child to write a blog, it
takes a man to continue writing. When you see nobody is reading your
blog, nobody is commenting on your blog and you don't even know if
anybody has seen it, it takes guts to keep writing those 3000 words per week. Believe
me in the dark hours of 5am you will get to know yourself.1) Passion –At
the end of the day you wouldn't continue
blogging if you didn't have a passion for what you are writing about. I
have a deep passion for giving people the tools to help themselves in their
own lives. I know what it's like to have those tools given to
you and how long it takes to change; I don't want to be someone who
was here in 2006 and gone in 2007. This will be a lifelong quest for
me. If you have the passion for what you are blogging about don't
give up.
If you build it, they will come!
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