Why Blog?

I'm not going to let this article shatter my "write about nothing and eventually it will magically result in some kind of money-making windfall" theory.

Minutes after I read that article, this showed up in my inbox (I subscribe to David Meerman Scott's blog, Webinknow).

Just as I wrote about Mimi Smartypants in my personal blog, here is yet another example of someone who started out blogging just to blog and--bam--wrote a book (The Fortune Cookie Chronicles) and became so well-known that random people now approach her in public to tell her their book groups are reading her books. Hell, you can look her up on Wikipedia because she's famous enough to warrant an entry.

If nothing else, blogging, in my opinion, is the equivalent of physically training for a race. It gets you used to sticking with something, especially if you try to force yourself to write every day. It polishes your writing skills and actually provides you with writing samples, should a future job require them. Even if nobody's reading it, your blog is still, in essence, a publication and at the very least can serve as a showcase for your talent (or lack thereof).

Blogging encourages you to learn new things; after all you have something to write about every day and my personal life is just not that interesting. While my personal blog, Motherwhatnowredux, started as a stream-of-conscious dump of whatever particular feelings or experiences I had on any given day, it has actually become sort of a sounding board for issues I find interesting from a professional standpoint. Blogging allows me to learn and grow professionally outside the confines of my real job.

Even though I average about 10 hits a day (if that), I write as if I actually have an audience. It's like singing into your hairbrush--you're less inhibited when you know nobody's watching. If I were getting paid to blog about a particular subject I'd have to worry staying on topic and always sounding professional and intellectual. The beauty of blogging to basically nobody but my mother, sister and a few random readers is that one day I can write about something at least remotely intellectual, then the next day post the latest and greatest from Engrish.com or some stupid video from YouTube. Not to mention let the f word fly if I'm so inclined.

At any rate, who knows--maybe a year from now you'll be reading my Wikipedia entry and buying my book.