Blogging: what is it for?

crash_D.

Hi, my question is, are there some experienced bloggers in here? if yes, could you please explain what is teh point of blogging? do you do it just for yourself? or do you use adsense and make money? what is the point? and what a blog must be like to become successful? thanks

Minisweeper

I'm not a blogger yet but I'm considering setting one up (actually i've been considering it for a while but I'm painfully lazy and easily sidetracked) I'd mainly be doing it for myself, and as a personal portal type site. I wouldnt expect much if any traffic and I certainly wouldnt be looking to create revenue from it - it'd be more used as a memory pad type thing so I could look back in x days/months/years...depends how quickly i got bored of it and gave up though.
I'm also considering (in the same way I'm considering setting one up) going travelling for a while in which case I'd definitely get something set up to let friends/family track my wanderings and experiences.

It'l be interesting to hear some other responses though...

Krak

I use mine to vent. But I will tell you if you use a blog for that purpose... don't give the URL to people you are going to vent about. Don't even let them know you have a site. Just mentioning the fact that you have a blog or a website somewhere will end you. Your life as you know it will become a downward spiral. Things will go bad, very bad. So if you do, do it just for yourself. Then in a year and a half after a person you have vented on goes through and reads every single post you have made for the past two years, you wont have to worry. You wont have to go out and buy a new domain. You wont have to move everything over, and then come up with some excuse as to what happened to your site. Because one day they were trying to get to it and noticed a sign that says "Hello, I'm gone". Yeah, you wont have that problem.

Vincent

hmmm... krak... your you hinting something??

jimw

I use my blog as an online journal, primarily for myself, but also for my family. I also have an online photo album. Writing, for me, can be therapeutic - to get out those things you can just scream about. You do have to be cautious though in what you write. Don't say anything in a blog that you wouldn't say directly to a person. And even then, be careful. I have used a plugin to convert a person's name (I write about) to another name. I use another plugin where I hide certain categories from view. No matter how you set up your blog, just be aware that if you do use a person's name, google will find it. And it can be a pain to get it removed from search engine servers.

I also use a blog to learn about the software used (php). And I frequent the support forums like here to help others with what little knowledge I have.

Minisweeper

lol Vincent, if my memory serves correctly (which is unlikely, it's appauling) Krak made some rather offensive posts about his in-laws or some other family member and they found it and read it. Something like that...

crash_D.

thanks all... special thanks to Krak: you rock.. what comes to my mind is, why vent at all? read Krylov's fable «elephant and pug» (rightside column in English).. just be that elephant, Krak

thanks guys!!

what i have decided is that i would have a blog for both, memories and content, so that people could find something useful there.. and maybe make an extra dollar via adsense... i simply want to know your opinion so please tell me whether what i write deserves to be called content... i am not promoting my blog here, i simply want to know your opinion, couse i find this lussumo community very friendly and value your opinions... thanks... for those who decide to take a look, the link is in my account page

ercatli

I read somewhere that there are estimated to be more than 30 million blogs out there. I don't know whether that's correct or not, but it does suggest that:

1. Free blogging sitres like Myspace and Blogger have a lot to answer for!
2. Most of them are not read by many people (unless some people dedicate seriously large portions of their lives to reading these things), but there are a few very popular ones.
3. Hence the main purpose seems to be to use up free webspace!
4. Lest I appear too cycnical, I enjoy reading a number of my friends' and relatives' blogs, including several who are overseas, and even the occasional random stranger's blog.

No, I don't have my own blog, but now may be the time to confess that, like Minisweeper, I am considering it, and have been for some time, and possibly will still be considering it when the WWW clogs up completely with spam (in about 3 weeks on present indications!). : (

Wanderer

I started a Blog about a year back, just my ramblings, thoughts and opinions but when I played around with podcasting I decided to turn it into an audio blog instead. Much more fun to create the episodes with music, interviews, sound effects and so on, also, the audience enjoy playing them on their iPods or mp3 players rather than sitting in front of a screen reading small print!

Podcasting is a little more work than simple text blogging but much more rewarding. Of course a good podcast has an associated web site with additional information and maybe even a forum.