My college English students are all experimenting with blogging, and many of them want to know why. Here is guidance from previous posts on this blog:
What is a blog and WHY should I do one?
What should your first blog post be about?
Should you set up your own blog?
Use your blog to become the GO-TO source for information
To blog . . . or not to blog: that’s a good first question
For some briefer opinions, check out the responses contributed to the community of bloggers on LinkedIn’s group: THE BLOG ZONE.
Brittney Wilson posted this question to the group:
Why Did you Start Blogging?
I am interested to know what made each of you decide to get online and start blogging?
For me it was lateral violence, or bullying, which is a terrible phenomena in the nursing profession in which “nurses eat their young”. I needed to share my experiences with someone other than my husband, and blogging allowed me that outlet.
Here are some of the reasons offered by group members:
Ilias Chelidonis • For me was to put my thoughts and experiences in order, you need to express yourself about all the things you’ve been through, your mistakes and successes,blogging is probably the only mean to do that.
Hao Nguyen • I’m a PR student and I started up a blog quite recently (February this year) and for me, I guess it was a way to keep in touch with the industry by connecting with fellow PR students / professionals. So far I’m very pleased with the direction my blog’s headed and I’ve learnt so much more about PR just through reading and blogging.
Rebecca Barth • After Extreme Couponing aired, I was suddenly the most popular gal around. You see, I had been couponing for years, and suddenly, when friends saw the money that they could save, they wanted to know how to do it, especially since they know I don’t spend more than about 15 minutes a week (unlike the folks on the show, though I am sure they are super passionate about what they do!). I was starting to sound like a broken record (if you are old enough to know what one of those is!), so I put it all together on a blog. I am loving it! — The Undercover Couponer
Nicole Nixen • I recently started a blog (seriously – it’s not even a month old) to keep me motivated in writing both fiction and non-fiction pieces. It is my way of applying pressure on myself to carve out time each day to this endeavor. I use the blogs to bounce off ideas I have for current projects and in the coming weeks, to post pieces of current drafts in progress.
Robyn Davis • My blog may be a bit different from others listed here, as it is a “business” blog instead of a personal blog. I started my blog to highlight my work experiences (for potential clients, etc) but, this year, I’ve expanded my blogging to include weekly article-style posts about sales, marketing, and exhibiting as a whole. It has been a great experience that, I hope, has been helpful to other professionals and I am currently in the process of moving my blog from Blogger to a self-hosted Word Press blog. This has been a challenge, but I’m looking forward to coming through on the other side even better off 🙂
Jayna Locke • Thanks for launching this topic, Brittney. It’s so interesting to see all the different reasons people start a blog.
I have had several blogs, but I started my main business blog to share what I have learned about content marketing, and also to give current and potential clients confidence in my expertise. It has been very worthwhile. I have several new clients for whom I write keyword enhanced press releases and blogs, which are my among my favorite projects.
One of the unsung benefits of blogging, in my opinion, is the self-discovery. It’s what you learn along the way. If I had the time, I would write a blog about each of my areas of interest.
Sandy McDonald • My passion for blogging started with a conviction that the world could be changed after we started an online grassroots charity aimed at warming and comforting children made vulnerable and orphaned by HIV/AIDS and poverty in South Africa. This was more a site than a blog (http://www.knit-a-square.com). Just a simple idea, ask the world’s knitters to send 8″ squares to SA to made into blankets. The response was truly amazing and took over our lives. My husband and I had to learn about the orphan crisis and this lead to http://allfororphans.com
Then reality slapped a caveat on our full time unpaid work and we had to get back to earning a living. So I started http://whyyoumustblog.com wanting to pass on what I had learned in creating community online. That morphed into working with small business or owner businesses to build their businesses online. I do have a great interest in helping people move quickly through the learnings it took me ages to understand and to save them time, money and effort.
So do any of these reasons resonate with you? Or are yours completely different? If so, please give my students more to consider.