Sometime ago I read in 5xmom’s blog about why do you blog ie whether its for yourself, for the glory or for the money. I can’t remember which blog post was that or what she said exactly but it was something to that effect. That lady churns out blog posts, one after another, like a factory production unit, I don’t know how she does it.
Anyway, that got me thinking about where I’ve been and where I am in my blogging. When I first started blogging, I blogged for myself. It started out as my personal online diary. I blogged about myself for myself. In it, I wrote things I wanted to remember and I included useful links that I could easily search for when I needed it instead of stuffing them all in my favourites folder.
After a while, I started having readers who left comments on my blog. Having readers changed my writing style a little. I was no longer blogging solely for myself but for an audience. I started blogging for the glory of it. Its nice to have a growing base of readership and to have people dropping by leaving you comments. Nice, fun and quite ego boosting too if I may say so.
Then for those of us who began to monetize our blogs, we started blogging for the money and we no longer cared about the glory. Hahaha. Ok. Ok. We still cared about the glory but when you blog for money you lose some of the glory. Some glory but not all. You have to be careful how you manage your blog so that its still you.
After a time, you start to become bored with writing for the money so you start writing for yourself again. Thats what happened to me. I’ve come one full circle. I’m back to writing for myself again. Writing about the things and people I love, the things I observe etc, I also write a little bit for the glory and some for the money.
This way, blogging is 3 times more fun then when I first started. What about you? Which stage of the blogging life cycle are you at? For some good fun and a good laugh, you can read this – Lifecycle of Bloggers. I am sure that most bloggers can identify with it. I believe that Once a Blogger, Always a Blogger and sometimes one blog is not enough to feed the addiction. 😛
A Reader’s Toolbox: Nowadays, blogging is trendier than making a website because, you don’t need web development courses and blogging is possible without any script based web design layout . Though making a personal website too is no more difficult with the help of free website templates that include css templates as well as flash templates.
I actually started out my blogging foray as an imposter. An imposter comentator. It was for fun really cos a friend of mine had a friend who had a blog. This blog owner had a lot of enemies, one of them named V. So my friend asked me to spam this blog owner’s blog disguised as V. Needless to say, the blog owner started questioning his buddies (threaten even) who is this V, is this “the” V and how this V knew about his blog (the blog was supposedly for friends only) heheh…that was way back in 2002. And no, I no longer do that cos the blog has since been shut down..:)
Waah you are spammer. I takut! Haha. I started mine because I was building my breastfeeding website from geocities and I thought a blog would be more user friendly and easier to use. Before that I had never visited nor commented on any blogs before. So I was a total newbie when I started blogging. Really had no idea what it was all about!
True enough, I do feel that way. It was all about my personal journal than to web (and blog) design and development. Then it lead to Adsense and the joy of receiving my first cheque.
However, discipline and realization kicked in when I noticed too many blogs today spam their own blogs with advertising. So much so that it affects the way a reader would read their blog.
In the end, I now blog for others (related to web design and blogs) and let the Adsense minimally accumulate on its own to merely support my hosting.
Extra cash is just a bonus or how my readers are ‘buying’ me a cuppa for the continuous effort. 🙂
So now you’re blogging, for self, others and if the moolah comes in, well than good. 🙂 Its that way for me too. For my parenting blog, what started out as a personal journal has turned into a parenting resource for articles, craft ideas, links, etc (well at least I hope so) and as if that was not enough, I started a Mothering blog which I hope will be useful to new mothers. They were no longer so “personal” although I shared personal experiences, so I started this one for myself. Hahaha. I did it for the love of it and of course a little bit for the money too. 😉 My first blog is the parenting one and if anyone cared to read the archives and compared it with now, they will see that it has become less personal now.
*sked looking at first comment*
Spammer. Keng ah.
why i blog ah? seriously cos i was bored at my workplace that time. Then i blogged for fun. Then i blogged for my son. Then i blogged for glory. Now i blog for money and glory and my son. And now I’m lost !
Hahaha. Lost? Very easy to solve. You open one blog for money, one blog for glory, one blog for your son, kautim. Lol!
Hmm…I start blogging when I was preggie with Alvan. Before that I like reading blog, especially baby’s blog. Frankly speaking I get lots of parenting tips over blogspere :), so I though to share mine too…
Sometime and something would like to share but dunno where and who, so blogging is the right place 🙂
I start blogging for money last two months ago, now my blog getting messy..I was thinking to get a domain..
I agreed with you, once a blogger, always a blogger 😉
Well then its time to get your own domain so things won’t be so messy. Getting my own domain has been a worthwhile investment because it is much preferred and has lots more “business” from advertisers. Hahaha.
I blog for all the above reasons you mentioned. While flooding my blogs with paid posts, I ensured that the quality of my blog posts are maintained. I still blog I want to blog and also posts that my readers want to read. Heh! Have fun blogging!
Not an easy task eh, to flood with paid posts and still maintain quality. Requires a lot of hard work but its fun. Heheh.
I blog for me .. and me alone.. muahhahaah!! no seriously.. i blog because i wanna make sure.. my daughter knows what to look out for .. when she have her own baby.. coz’ whenever i asked my MIL anything.. she said she can’t remember.. so i was afraid. .that i too would be so old.. i can’t remember stuff.. blogging for money is for the fun of it.. 😉 If i get some good opps that’s great.. if i donch .. no problem.. there will be tomorrow.. 😉
Oh thats why I blog too. I kind of like the idea that my daughter can read my blog for my parentings tips and advise later on in life and see how her own mum did it instead of reading parenting books. Hehe.
Whatever one’s reason for blogging, I think the most important thing is to have fun doing it. No point getting stressed out about having to blog for the day or when it becomes a chore (unless you give up your day job for blogging of course)
I certainly don’t blog for the money or glory (although comments are always appreciated — it shows at least someone is reading my blog!). I started it as an online journal to remind me of stuff — very useful when you are middle-aged 😉
I can tell from your writing style that you write for yourself and yes it helps to remember stuff. I created a google custom search linking all my blogs to help me search for things or dates that I had forgotten. It is a very useful tool. Haha.
[…] I got this fun meme from 5Xmom the fun mom. In this meme, you are supposed to go back to your very first blog post, then copy and paste it for your new readers who do not know you to read. Its very timely for me to reflect back especially after my Blogging Life Cycle post. […]
I blog for myself and I think I still do. Blog to me is just a way of getting myself to note down the ups and downs of motherhood and a diary on the children’s growing years. In short, it is like an online diary for me. However, since blog is open to all to read, it makes writing the “online” diary a little more interesting as along the way, you make like minded friends and sometimes it really helps to know that you are not alone when facing certain struggles in motherhood.
I was just telling mamabok the other day that I would love for my children to be able to turn to my blog for parenting tips one day. Hehe.