This post was written by Jennifer
Get To Know You Question of the Week: Why Did You Start Blogging?
I get curious about other bloggers, but we don’t ask too many personal questions here at Network Blogging Tips. I decided to start a weekly question. I’ll try to remember to post questions on the weekend, to keep it sort of orderly.
I think we should start with the obvious… So bloggers, how come you started blogging? Forget jobs, forget networks, (unless that is how you started); tell me why you first started blogging.
My answer:
I honestly never even used computers, except in extreme passing, until I was maybe 22 years old. However, I always kept journals; pretty much my whole life. I have a big stack, so the logging of my world was old school for me. When I was the afore mentioned 22 years old, I was working as a social worker with homeless kids. I was offered a promotion to run a program, but it required computer skills. Which I lied and said I had. Actually, when asked if I could use computers well I said, “Piece of cake.” So, not a total lie. I really wanted the job.
I taught myself all about computers and started using the internet for all sorts of stuff I never knew you could use it for. Finding new info, reading news, and all that good stuff that newbies figure out. I also was teaching myself basic stuff like Word (I was seriously a newbie). I loved that I could write on the computer, and not in some bulky notebook. I started keeping my journals on the computer, then realized I could even keep one in blog style. I still have that first blog, which is yawn inducing and secret. I never give the url because it’s all mine.
A few years later I took a web writing college class for my professional writing minor. My professor made us start real blogs, you know, non-secret blogs; blogs about a decided topic not just ramblings, a blog that other people could see and comment on. At first I was miffed about being forced into a blog. A public blog sounded sort of useless to me.
What I learned was that I loved the whole interaction with others deal, which was missing from my secret blog journal. When the class ended my professor told me I should keep my blog going, or start a new one, because he thought I had one of the best blogs in the class. So I started another blog, just a basic Blogger blog, one that I actually made public. It wasen’t about anything too compelling, but I got comments, met other bloggers, spent all kinds of time on blog sites, and sort of fell in love with blogging as a whole.
I owe that college professor a lot. He sort of changed my world. I might have fallen into blogging some other way, but who knows.
How did you start?
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7 Responses to “Get To Know You Question of the Week: Why Did You Start Blogging?”
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Great idea with the question. I enjoyed reading your response.
I started blogging as a way to document my experiences living abroad so I can look back and remember all the good and bad parts of the experience. I ended up meeting people in similar situations in other countries and in the one where I live. In addition, I’ve met locals who speak English (not common for the small town we live in) and made new friends.
I love it and have now expanded to a blog in my niche with another to follow soon. I’m on the quest for a network blogging gig. My time abroad has allowed me to focus on my freelance career and blogging is what I want to do.
I have just started out. Been researching ways to use the internet for marketing purposes whilst coming up with a business plan for my start up and became absorbed with the idea of blogging.
I figured since I was starting up my business now it would also be a good time to start the blog, as a method for
1) showing my progress
2) helping others in the same boat - they can see my successes and failures
3) becoming accountable for progress - putting it online means I want something new to report. Saying I was too lazy and spent an evening watching TV isn’t going to move the blog forward any!
4) Marketing. Not right now but by the time I get the company fully up and running I hope that the traffic for the blog will be able to be partly redirected to my company where they will be able to add value.
Plus I love to put my ideas in front of others. Like I said just started so I may find that none of it will work, but it is certainly fun to play with at this point.
When I started blogging it had nothing to do with blogging or making money online. It was to help work at home moms for decent paying work. For technically challenged me, blogs were easier than websites. I only expected to reach the dozen or so people I invited. I never expected the thousands of people who visit each day!
As you can imagine, it’s very gratifying. After learning how many people enjoyed my writing and after realizing blogging was a wonderful way to experess myself, I decided to try and make a living at it.
@Lori that’s such a good reason to start blogging. I like it. That’s cool that travel gave you time to figure out what you want to do. Good luck with landing a network gig.
@Nick That’s a good plan, a business related blog. A well done blog can really help a visit. It might even help motivate, like you noted. As long as you don’t talk about business all the time, and offer useful content, it’ll work.
@Deb I don’t think I knew that. Or maybe I did. (maybe I’m being forgetful). That’s a cool starter story, especially since you have managed exactly what you wanted to do and then some. A whole lot of some actually.
I started blogging to build an online presence to help me sell my first book proposal. Three book contracts later (and a few more in the works), I think it worked!
Suffice it to say, blogging can open up a lot of doors!
Hey Susan! It’s good to see (read) you. That’s interesting. I know a lot of people use blogs as a book gateway, but not everyone can manage to accomplish it. You obviously have accomplished that and more; you’re a very nice example of how blogging can open doors. And congrats on those deals in the works
[...] it’d be cool if there was a blogging major, but so far as I know, there’s not. As noted previously, I may not have started blogging had I not gone to college, but in general, blogging, and most [...]