Why I Blog

Gleb Reys of Personal Development Ideas tagged me today in the blog meme that is sweeping the world. Thanks Gleb! His article Why I Blog was a result of being tagged by Edward Mills from Evolving Times in his article Why I Blog.

I commented on Gleb’s post that he really took the pressure off trying to come up with a blog idea today. Whew! Thanks again, Gleb. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to title this post. Hmmm.

Before I get started I’m just going to tag a few people right now to get it out of the way. Okay, you ready?

John Wesley at Pick the Brain Tag, you’re it. Wow, that was kind of cool.

Alright, now Nneka of Balanced Life Center. Tag, you’re it.

Who now, oh yeah… Mark McGuinness of Wishful Thinking… Tag, you’re it.

Johan Holmberg of The Probabilist. Tag, you’re it.

And last, but not least: Steve Olson. Tag, you’re it.

Alright, so here’s why I blog:

Steve Pavlina Told Me To

I didn’t even know what a blog was before I came across his article How to Make Money From your Blog. I was working day and night trying to create this website I had in my head. I had been studying code languages for months and struggling to produce my brainchild: a gathering place for people to discuss life, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

When I found Steve’s blog, I was dumbfounded. There it was: an online community with intelligent discussion and TONS of traffic. Then there was the money he was making! Unbelievable. I learned about WordPress and immediately dropped my late-night relationship with learning code languages. (Read How to Blog :: The Manual if you don’t know what WordPress is)

When I started to discover the blogosphere I was even more dumbfounded. Turns out, about 55 milllion other people read the same article I did.

Passive Income

One of the things I wanted to share with my readers is my passion for passive income. I had already been collecting passive assets in real estate, bulk candy vending, network marketing, eBay retailing, etc. To me, it looked like there was a passive component to blogging. I figured that once I wrote a post, it would continue to leverage that one time effort by bringing in a small income stream for as long as I keep my blog.

Now, I realize it’s not quite that simple. It takes an awful lot of work to keep up a regular blog. I see the passive component as a snowball that needs to be pushed a long way up the hill before it starts to roll on its own. Also, I’m not sure that I could sustain traffic forever if I just decided to stop posting.

To Connect With Human Beings

It wasn’t until I started to blog that I realized what a powerful form of expression it was. I’ve got a lot of ideas bouncing around my head, and not everyone on my block wants to be bored by them. I have a few close friends that I discuss these sorts of things with, but there’s only so many deep discussions one can have in one sitting.

Now, when I’m struck with and idea, I just hit my keyboard. I am not imposing on anyone because nobody clicks on my article unless they are interested in the topic. Not all of my readers like all of my material, and they are able to pick and choose the content they spend their time on.

It’s a really amazing experience when someone relates to something I wrote and leaves a great comment. It’s even better if they have their own blog and I’ve found a new place to hang out! It makes the world a much smaller place to know that there are many people out there who think like I do.

To Help Others

I pretty much did life the hard way. If I can share my experiences with others so that they might have an easier time of it, I’m happy.

To Learn

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was the first and best book I ever read on personal development. One of the many things it taught me was this: The best way to learn is to teach.

I am on a journey in life just like everyone else. When I learn something, sharing it with others helps me to understand it more. All of my friends in the blogosphere have so much to share. Together we form a living, learning community of minds that grow together.

Other’s Turn

I’m excited to see how this group of bloggers responds to my tags. These are a few of my friends in the blogosphere who think like I do.