Reasons for blog creation & blog managing

[shootingstar]

Somehow I can't find personal energy and drive to do my own blog. I abandoned keeping a journal of any sort over a decade ago. Last time it was a cycling journal.

For those enthusiastic blog-creators and blog-masters on any topic(s), your main reason for creating and running your own blog:

[LBTC]

Well, my blog is a bit different. I use it to post my picture a day with a quote - the same thing as on my FlickR page. I get rare comments here and there, and seldom respond. Any time I have for responding on line to others I do right here.

Now, wouldn't it be interesting to read one TE'ers posts from all threads in one place....like a blog? hmmmmm

H&B
~T~

[NbyNW]

I kept a travel blog a couple years ago, which turned into an injury blog. It was actually a great way to stay in touch with friends and family who wanted to know what I was going through but weren't able to personally check in with me because of geography.

[shootingstar]

Now, wouldn't it be interesting to read one TE'ers posts from all threads in one place....like a blog? hmmmmm

H&B
~T~

would be pretty wild...like disconnected or happily serendiptous little TE worlds all over the place. I do believe that on some days, there's 1-3 of us here that each engage in an action (not just cycling) that has some connection without our knowledge, to another person's action of that same day.

[LBTC]

I do believe that on some days, there's 1-3 of us here that each engage in an action (not just cycling) that has some connection without our knowledge, to another person's action of that same day.

Neat idea, and probably oh so true. We rarely know the ways that our actions connect with others. Would we want to?

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[tulip]

I think it would be kinda neat to have a blog for no other reason than to keep my thoughts and photos and links in one place. But I certainly don't have the time to deal with a blog. I started one for my work a few months ago, but I've been too busy to deal with it.

I'd rather be on my bike or in my (future) garden, or just reading a book.

[Veronica]

We don't think of our website as a blog. For us it's a place to put pictures and write about the event surrounding the pictures. Our families are both back east and it's just a way of staying in touch.

I do enjoy writing though.

V.

[Geonz]

I like the ongoing nature of a blog - and have kept mine up 'cause there are people who read it :) I keep telling myself that if I were more consistent with my educational blog, people would read that too, but it hasn't happened yet.
I also like setting up a Google automatic search for terms, which is how my blog got found its first day and got a comment (totally floored me!). When I was shopping for a Dahon I put that in and then added Xtracycle. So now I get a couple links a day to people who've said that in a blog somehwere, so I can return the favor of saying "hi! you go dude!" from out of the blue.

[SouthernBelle]

I started mine as a record of my cycling all in one place that I could refer to later.

My little cycling history.

There are 2 or 3 people that cycle from places other than TE that read it to keep up with me and I read theirs.

[Kimmyt]

As a way that my family can stay informed of what I'm doing. And also so I don't bore people by droning on and on about training. If they want to read it, they can, if not... shrug. It's also a good way to be accountable. I used to find writing really therapeutic as well, but haven't had enough free time to really get back into it with my blog.

[OakLeaf]

Mostly DH and I just post links to news stories that we want to make sure our friends see. Once in a great while we'll post some commentary.

[kelownagirl]

I have had a couple of blogs which I started as a record of my thoughts and experiences in weight loss at first, then cycling, and now triathlon training. Sometimes when someone would ask me about something I had already blogged about, I would just point them to the blog. Eventually, people started reading it. It's not important to me that people read it because it's mainly for my me, but it's nice to get comments once in awhile. I would imagine that to most people, my blog is just a boring commentary about my training (my family says so, lol), but I guess if you're in a similar situation, it's nice to see someone's else's experiences. I enjoy reading people's blogs and keep up with a number of them.

[mimitabby]

I saw no good reason to have a blog until i saw how handy they were for displaying art. An easy interface and a nice format.

And because of the way the blogs are set up, you might have visitors unexpectedly.


http://mimitabby.blogspot.com

[Sheesh]

I started blogging because my students were blogging. It was a good way to keep up on the goings-on in their lives, and because they started visiting my blog, I was able to advertise events and programs that I wanted them to know about. :rolleyes:

Then, as those students graduated, I kept blogging as a way of staying in touch with them, and others in the cyber world.

I recently started a new blog that I'll use for commenting on other cycling blogs and for pimping out the photos that I take at local races. I didn't want to widely share my other blog, so I started a new one.

velosnaps.wordpress.com (http://velosnaps.wordpress.com)

[Pedal Wench]

I blog. It's my job.

http://bitstream.soundandvisionmag.com/

Yup. A paid blogger. :o

[GLC1968]

I keep one for myself.

I've had a few over the years. They usually crop up to document a type of journey. My first one (that others actually read) was to document my experience with going on Accutane as an adult. It was extremely helpful to have all my links, photos and experiences all in one place. Unfortunately, I think I deleted it as I can no longer access it. Stupid me. I constantly got comments and questions from people who were reading it.

My second big journal/blog was about fitness weight loss. I kept it at a private site where only members of the site could read it. I felt like those members were my friends and they often posted comments, so it was helpful to keep me on track and to keep me going (and posting). I've since kind of let that one die. It started to taper off a bit when I picked up cycling and kind of moved away from exercise videos, but it's gotten worse since moving out west. I just haven't had time to keep it up.

Now I have one documenting our journey from suburban DINKs to self-sustaining homesteaders (eventually), and it's for my own reference. I don't think anyone is reading it, but I'm mostly using it as a journal. This way, I'll have a reference of when we did things and photos and links and stuff. Maybe some day, it'll help someone else considering making the same journey. I'm tempted to share the link with family and friends back east, but I haven't yet. I'm not sure why, either. :o

[Possegal]

My sister has cancer. I have a blog where I keep our family and friends updated on her treatments, when she's having scans, what the results are. It helps as it informs family who live out of town and out of country. It helps in that some of her friends will be sure to read the blog first rather than bothering her by calling. They can tell by my post if she is fine and up for a call or not. She has posted a couple times, but mostly it is me informing others of what all is going on. It has been quite helpful I think.

[shootingstar]

I never thought of using a blog to inform family members and friends. But still at this time in life, I don't have the urge to do so..yet. That means I have to write properly and behave on the open Internet..

I do take my real name Internet presence abit seriously because professionally, any colleagues can (and do) check me out. Being a librarian, means serious methods for sleuthing..:o

[shootingstar]

I'm just rejuvenating this thread topic..since more people might have comments to add.

Would be interesting... 18 months later if things have changed about blogging by you.

[Maxxxie]

I keep a blog here (http://www.maxxxie.net/), because I like putting my thoughts "out there". Mostly, it's just me whinging about my life and complaining about this and that, but there are occasional positive aspects to it. :o

I started blogging on LiveJournal, but for some reason, managing my own blog appealed to me. I was a little worried that LJ would sell out and that I'd have to pay to access my own thoughts. Screwit, I thought, I'll just host it myself. So I did. I've set it up so that it also updates my LJ, so my LJ friends have no escape from my daily whinges either :p

Max

[Jenerator]

I blog to let sponsors, friends and family follow along on an annual bike ride.

I update it daily during the time of the ride and periodically during the year if something relevant motivates me.

[Crankin]

I get blogging if you are on a trip/bike tour/other special event. It's like a travel journal.
What I don't get is why people would be interested in my day to day life. It's not so exciting. But, I guess this is the same premise as all social networking. I am sort of a voyeur of Facebook; I have a few friends, and I've made about 5 comments in reply to others in 2 years. I never post a comment out right. It feels, just wrong, to me.

[shootingstar]

I did keep a cycling paper journal over 15 years ago for a few years. Mainly to track daily & cumulative mileage plus observations during cycling or what I was feeling. Then it dwindled to only tracking my cycling touring trips. Haven't done it in ages.

Maybe Crankin, is to see blogging software as just another mechanism for communicating a particular theme (even if the theme is about 'self') and a platform for blog author to articulate in words or visually their thoughts/world perspective.

Since blogging software allows one to make a blog either public (viewable by all, searchable by search engines) or private for a pre-select group and not searchable by search engines, it could have therapeutic value for those who naturally would scribble thoughts in a journal and for purposes of privacy, limit access to audience. Committing words to electronic screen/paper helps a person think through a big problem or difficult stage in life.

Or simply writing a blog journal may help keep some folks by being a blog author, abit more accountable for some folks, if it's a training or lifestyle/diet change blog.

Some of these Wordpress blog free templates, for quicker blog site creation, would inspire a person for private journalling. Am thinking for counsellors working with clients who may not mind journalling as a process of problem-solving.
http://mashable.com/2008/09/19/top-wordpress-themes/

But imagine, things might be different in 30 yrs. The follks in nursing homes with time on their hands.. Yea, Internet access is gonna be a necessity for alot more facilities. Blogging and social media, has some powerful applications...to hold institutions accountable in various service areas.

[Cataboo]

I think if you look at the blogs that you normally read - it's usually fairly obvious why some people blog - in the case of fatcyclist, it gave him a huge support group, was probably cathartic getting those feelings out there, and look how much good he's accomplished for various charities along the way - and he's managed to be given a few sweet bikes while he was at it.

I don't have a blog because I have nothing to say, and I'm pretty lazy. However, I've noticed I have a ton of things to say on facebook, and my friends seem to find me amusing enough, or they just pretend to do so. I've been toying with the idea of one a bit more lately because there's some business type endeavors I'd love to be able to tie into a blog.

[GLC1968]

I still blog for the same reasons I mentioned last year. I do have (or had) quite a large following on my blog about our homesteading of both people I knew in real life, and those I didn't...but I've just not had time to keep up with it lately and I'm sure many of my readers have moved on. I even have lots of good stuff to post about, too. I imagine that once we begin our next big project, I'll start blogging again to document it. If my readers come back, fine...but if not, I'll still keep using it to document our progress.

Honestly, while I know that others read it, I do it for me. I can't tell you how much joy and entertainment I get when I read old posts. It's like living those days all over again and I love it. It's really no different than a journal except that it's electronic.

I also started another blog about my fitness journey and tri training, but I have that one 100% private. No one sees it but me.

The advantage to blogging over writing in a journal is that I can access my blog from any computer. I don't have to have an actual journal with me and it's not possible to lose it (something I did once with a paper journal!!).

Blogging is about keeping track of my life's differing journeys...for me. I really don't care if anyone else follows along - so blogging is not necessarily about broadcasting one's life for the world to see (contrary to many opinions about it).

[shootingstar]

The advantage to blogging over writing in a journal is that I can access my blog from any computer. I don't have to have an actual journal with me and it's not possible to lose it (something I did once with a paper journal!!).

Blogging is about keeping track of my life's differing journeys...for me. I really don't care if anyone else follows along - so blogging is not necessarily about broadcasting one's life for the world to see (contrary to many opinions about it).

Or losing a paper journal in a fire/flood..but there's the other problem of someone's server. Haven't taken time yet to figure out how to export a copy of one's own blog for safety's sake.

But if a travel blog was written well with photos..it might be good thing to share with younger generation family members later on. Especially those of us who have illegible handwriting like moi, (vs. calligraphy :)) , good selection of photos but don't want to bore loved ones with way too many shots of same geographic area.

I am helping out with my partner's biz with our company blog. Occasionally have brainstorm ideas for posting topics, but I have to remind myself that it is a biz-related blog even if it is cycling-related. However the thought of having my own personal blog related to cycling or areas of my life, hasn't yet ignited a passionate fire that is hot enough to get me tending yet another blog garden. But admittedly, from a cycling/snowshoeing trips perspective, have seen and experienced a range of neat stuff that it would be nice to have a blog to look back at those memories in an organized manner with some commentary instead of just hundreds of digital pics.

[spazzdog]

I setup a blog space early in the year, but as of yet have done nothing with it. I'm just not in a space to create. I haven't even written in my journal for months.

I must admit, however, I watched "Julie & Julia" over the weekend and that blog-bug begin to nibble, though I KNOW mine won't be about cooking (burning things maybe) :)

spazz