I got tagged with a blog meme about why I blog by Andy, but rather than simply ennumerate my personal reasons, I decided to go bigger and describe all the reasons, personal and professional, that should encourage you to start a blog (or continue to update the one you write).
- Codify Your Thoughts
Writing forces you to succinctly, accurately describe your point. Blogs are short form and often contain a single serving of news, opinion, analysis or recommendation. This style provides an easy entrance to the world of journalism & writing in general and it's a perfect fit for those who are seeking to record their experiences & ideas - a diary for the 21st century (and, as we sometimes forget, it can be public or private). - Build Name/Brand Recognition
Whether your goal is professional or personal (though it's best applied to the former), blogging well builds credibility and creates a readership of devotees. Whil you may not have "fans" like a rock star, you'll certainly find people from diverse geographic and professional backgrounds that enjoy your writing and have a positive association with you. Outside of blogging, there's very few channels that offer this reward. - Prepare for a Book
A blog is an excellent way to display and practice writing skills and to show a potential publisher that you've developed a rapport with a built-in audience, likely to buy your book. A blog itself can even make for the foundation of a book's content or research work (and all those expenses are tax deductible). - Grow Your Business
Blogging has brought SEOmoz an incredible amount of business inquiries over the last 3 years, and the rate of emails asking us for assistance accelerates every week (last week, I counted more than 2 dozen unique requests, all of whom I sent here). Blogs build familiarity and positive branding and if I remember my business school training, the cardinal rule was - people do business with you because they know you, like you and they trust you - blogging accomplishes all three (and they show off your expertise in a subject). - Connect with Co-Workers/Employees
Blogs are, as Andy points out, an excellent tool for reaching employees and co-workers. At SEOmoz, the entire crew reads the blog daily and receive the equivalent of a daily lesson in search marketing. Blogging internally at a large or small company, when given the right freedom, creates cohesion and builds shared experiences throughout the firm - I'm a huge fan of it. - Share Knowledge
I hadn't realized it until a few months ago, but the reason SEOmoz has the open, sharing style that it does isn't because I had some great epiphany about the value, it's because of Gillian (who many of you know is also my mom). When I was little, she would always encourage me to share my food, toys, time and allowance with other kids (particularly my little brother and sister), noting, poignantly, that "if you share, you always get more." Blogging carries that mantra, too - as I've given my knowledge and experience through the blog, so have we (SEOmoz) reaped incredible benefits in terms of our own knowledge, new clients (heck, even trips to Paris). - Bolster Your Resume
A successful blogger with a considerable readership is a powerful addition to any company, particularly one who's seeking to build branding over the web. The job offers that arrive in bloggers' inboxes are often exceptional, as many folks in the search marketing and tech fields have proven in the last few years. - Establish a Written History
If, like me, you have (as Mystery Guest puts it), "the memory of a goldfish," blogging can be an excellent way to record your experiences accurately for recollection. You can do this professionally (as I do), or personally in the form of a travel blog or diary. - Create a Personal Voice
Companies often suffer from an overload of PR-style publishing. Blogs humanize people and companies to the outside world and make far deeper connections than newsletters or press releases. The less formal, more conversational style is an excellent way to truly connect and build fans of the brand. - Connect with Industry Leaders
OK, so Michael Arrington still doesn't take my calls, but at least Danny Sullivan answers half my emails :) Seriously, if you're looking to build a rapport with the giants of your field, building a blog readership base (while easier said than done) is remarkably effective. Not only can you develop relationships with industry leaders, you yourself can become one... - Make Money
I put this last on the list because, with the exception of some very smart, talented writers who can create groundbreaking content in their field (or entertain the masses with gimicky gossip), financial success does not always follow blogging. There are probably a hundred other pursuits that will earn you more direct income based on the hours invested (I know Darren probably disagrees). This rule applies only to the personal side of blogging - if you're blogging as a business or for one, it can be an excellent investment with a very direct monetary return.
So why do I, personally, blog? From a purely financial standpoint, blogging has had a considerable (if indirect) impact growing SEOmoz's bottom line. Personally, I love to share my experiences, love to hear about how it's helped someone in their job, love the perks of press and VIP status that occassionally accompany the position (usually at conferences) and find the process itself incredibly rewarding. I've never been a talented artist in any way - I can't draw, paint, play an instrument or even produce a great design for a website (lucky thing I've got Matt around) - but blogging is my art. When I blog, my writing creates a voice and a conversation that so many people seem to appreciate (10K+ feed readers and the same number of daily uniques). I take a lot of pride in the SEOmoz blog, and in my entries, and it's thrilling to me that it's brought so many people together and helped to grow a tiny company into a slightly less tiny one.
Surely, there are dozens of other reasons to blog, so please do share. Feel free to link out to your own blog in the comments as well (but don't write out the full URL, just use the link icon in the WYSIWYG editor, please).
Doh! I submitted this to digg and it made the homepage, but since we're an SEO site and our mission is to ruin the internet and sit atop our mound of money and laugh long into the night, they buried it.
Internet successfully ruined by this post - excellent work, Matt :)
Talking about ruining the internet, since I've been winding down before moving jobs I've been joking with colleagues that I intend to 'finish' the internet by reading it all.
We were wondering what would be at the end if you finished it. We reckoned either a really big boss, some sort of Matrix 'It was all a dream' message, or (my favourite) a laughing James Bond style bad guy Matt Cutts.
Thoughts? Or should I do some work?
edit: I buried my comment
Succinct, and all very true. I have been blogging for a little over a year, while begging my wife the whole time to start a blog. I felt she actually had something to say. After a week of blogging, she has been contacted by the author of the book she is blogging about, and the LA Times for an interview?
Jealous? Sure. Happy for her? You bet, but why did I hvae to drag her kicking and screaming? There are quite a few others that I have tried to convince too. What do I do?
I've had a personal blog for a while and it started out as just a "codify your thoughts" blog... Just some stuff that I wanted to vent about. I didn't think many people would actually find it or read it. After a while I put Google Analytics on it and was amazed that hundreds of people were reading it every day. Then I started thinking about monetizing the traffic and "doing it properly", and now I'm making a couple hundred a month off it. I'm not going to get rich, but it's something.
Meanwhile, our business site has been around in its current form since 2002 and has a decent PageRank (6), but traffic-wise it doesn't do so well. We've been so busy with work for clients we just haven't gotten around to keeping it fresh.
Now we're working towards fixing that. My partner (a graphic designer) is working on a new "portfolio" of work, and the first step for me was starting a business/professional blog this past week. Once I've got some of the issues nailed down with that blog I'll probably start a more personal, client-friendly blog...
So for us there are business/professional reasons for doing it - everything from building up the content on our site to demonstrating (in written form) that we're competant at what we do.
I think the one item you missed in your list was people blog because they like to, and for some people it can be somewhat addictive. It's taken a while, but I think I've finally caught the blogging bug...
I blog because:
--My blog pulls in traffic from the search engines.
--It gives me one more place where I can display covers of my ebooks (in the margins) without blatantly promoting them. I use the ad tracker module in the shopping cart so I can see how many sales come from the blog. Enough that I'm going to keep blogging.
--I can capture the visitor's email address at my blog and send them my weekly ezine, "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week."
--It positions me as an expert in my field.
--It pulls in traffic to my website.
Joan StewartThe Publicity Hound
I initially began blogging because my company had a need for it. We've been in the custom publishing game for over 13 years, primarily on the print side of the world. But in the last few years, we've been producing sites and multimedia, but we're still thought of as 'print people'. I thought if I blogged about the online world for my company, that might help change people's minds and help grow our current customer base and wallet share.
But, of course, I also started blogging because what the world needs most is my voice. Booming from the heavens, via RSS, with clarity and truth.
I created a blog meme tracker to help know who's been tagged and to have quick access to everyone's Why I Blog post.
Blog Meme Tracker
Thanks. I found the one you created for the '5 Things You Didn't Know About Me' very helpful in following things and I'm sure this one will be just as helpful.
Blogging is something very easy to dabble with but very few people can stick at it for more than a few months. And a lot of that is to do with the empty 'comments' section which inevitably leads to the feeling that you're toiling in the dark.
I actually find business blogging easier because it's diarised and has an overarching strategic point. I can waffle tremendously on almost any subject (an ability to sound convincing with little recourse to fact is among my dubious gifts) but its had to sustain.
Since I won the internal battle to let me blog for marketing reasons it's given my writing fresh impetus. My main worry is not slipping too much into slang and defamation (you should see the articles still in draft!!)
Anyway - thanks to all for sharing your experiences, as ever...
I find that it is easy when you're blogging for other people or for clients, but not so easy when you need to write something for your own blog.
I'm not a writer at heart which makes it even more difficult. Finding time to blog is another issue for me as I do not make money from my blog nor do I intend to in the near future. (guess i have to change that)
Rand, for all of the good reasons you've mentioned in this post I think you've left out the most important one. You have to have a love for writing. Most people can run a succesful blog for all of the reasons you've mentioned and still hate it.
Hi ,
Mantra seo
You are very true. It gets very difficult to write your own concepts in the form article, when you are not a genuine writer or don’t have writer instincts.
It's easy to see why web users don't read online - the National Endowment for the Arts (USA) published research on literacy in 2004 titled: Reading At Risk: Survey of Literary Reading in America
What use is literature?, Myron Magnet stated that “data are meaningless until we can articulate a story that makes sense out of them, and literature makes sense out of the data of human experience."
What use are Blogs if people don't read, or read them?
Time magazine wrote: "The Multitasking Generation - "In the absence of rules, it's all too easy for kids to wander into unwholesome neighborhoods on the Net and get caught up in the compulsive behavior that psychiatrist Edward Hallowell dubs "screen-sucking" in his new book, CrazyBusy. Patricia Wallace, a techno-psychologist who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program, believes part of the allure of e-mail--for adults as well as teens--is similar to that of a slot machine. "You have intermittent, variable reinforcement," she explains. "You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle. Why else do people get up in the middle of the night to check their e-mail?"
I might add "..get up in the middle of the night to check a Blog"
My blog is not as aluring as a slot machine :P
I read somewhere that 20% of teenagers have blogs. But I think 80% of them don't read (them).
The decline is literary reading is sad, though even sadder it's not surprising. Hopefully the trend will change.
One of the many benefits of reading literature is that is can be one of the best ways you can improve your own writing. I always find when I read less my writing suffers.
I never check any blogs in the middle of the night, oh wait, these have timestamps, dang.
I was one of those sad nerd/geeks whatever who actually enjoyed reading Crime and Punishment in High School. I like Shakespeare because I have to read it several times to figure out what hes sayin. The times when I get into a certain TV show (9 more months till more BSG), or several, I notice a definite decline in other areas of my life; study, with my children, etc... Reading keeps your mind awake and alive, TV is like sun on a grape. As far as blogs go, there are blogs and blogs. There is a definite difference between something like SEOmoz and fark or digg or porn or myspace or the millions of other avenues of useless drivel available on the webs. Find the good stuff.
...and then created a follow up post titled:
How Blogs Have Increased Human Intelligence by a Factor of 5
I hope you Digg it.
I would like to add "Learn to be a Better Writer" or even "Learn to be a Better Communicator." Blogging is about people and connections. Most of the reasons mentioned in Rand's post and in the comments center around community. Putting your written history, your voice, your knowledge "out there" will inevitably improve your communication skills over time (how much time is another question, right?). In my experience online, when people take pride in their blogs and have done it for a long time, it shows!
I just wanted to say that was a danged fine post.
Very detail list Rand. Nicely done. I like especially "Codify Your Thoughts" ... spoken like a geek... and proud of it... ;)
How do you get tagged? Can someone tag me? Please?
well done. - Marek
1. Pick a subject that interests you. e.g. riding motorcycles
2. Localise the topic e.g. riding motorcycles around timbuktu
3. Write at least one blog entry about 'riding motorcycles around timbuktu' every week for the rest of your life
4. Conduct some SEO activities as part of your blogging
5. In one year from your first post place some Adsense and Commission Junction smartzones on your blog.
6. Based on your available time, try to duplicate the process with other topics of interest.
7. Eventually enjoy blogging full time and enjoy enough passive income to retire.
HI, Rand
Nice to read it. You know I m feeling motivated by this post. I have some concepts in my mind to share with others. But haven’t done it before, I never posted ay article, you can say that I m a novice in the bloggers world. I was hesitating to write any post but after reading it I thought I must do it. I always used to give comments but never posted any article. Soon I m gonna post some original articles of mine.
I m very much pleased with this post, Rand. You know it was the topic on which I wanted to talk for long time. I have not only gone through your post but also have read all the comments given by experts and other bloggers. It was very interesting to read their mind about writing and posting article and blogs.
This blog post should be named here is Rand's timeless post. What a great article that has its lessons last forever.
Good Posting, Every one can learn something. Best Regards,CEO of www.makemakingmoney.net
I don't know about dozens of other reasons to blog Rand, I think you've about wrapped it up here. Blogging's a lot more complex than we tend to think it is. I'll be reading through this more carefully ...
Hi Rand,
With the help of Wordpress and other related blogging software, as an SEO Professional, we should all be blogging, sharing best practice, in whole making search a pleasent exeprience.
I find i'm so busy with work and clients, I often don't have time to update my personal blog. So I've made a pact to ensure by the end of June my blog is 100% complete, fully optimised with my design in place.
My main intention for the blog will be to share my ideas and thoughts with like minded SEOers and to constantly test my SEO knowledge and experience with ever changing SEO times.
I was previously a web developer, but for convinience, Wordpress have made my life much easier with the additions of plugins, allowing you to easily apply SEO techniques to your blog.
I'll share the url to my blog, once I'm 100% happy its all complete. Wont be long now....:-)
Great Blog Rand....
Regards
Shahid.SEO
I started blogging personally in 1997. There was a brilliant (at the time) site called scribble.nu. It is much similar to blogger now. Very easy to setup a "journal" and either just publish it on their site, or export the code and put it on your own. Or was it that I just used iframes? ewww! I blogged persobally cause I felt a connection to my blog. I didn't care who read it, it didn't judge me, and allowed me to say anything I wanted.
Blogging now seems like a great use, especially in capacities like SEOmoz. Your site has helped me, that is for sure.
I like the ideas about Why You Should Blog. I'm new to blogging but have seen direct and indirect results from blogging:
The Direct:
More traffic to commercial sites.
Way to get clients more information and get their feedback.
Share ideas and make money (a little)
The Indirect:
What a great way to learn
An excuse to research, research, research
I think the key to good blogging is consistency. If you're consistent in how often you post, what you blog about, and following the best blogs, you will see results. Maybe not overnight but they come. I look forward to following SEOMOZ.org.
These are some really good reasons to blog. I've found that blogging is just plain fun and it's a great way to learn about new stuff. I think in the last month since I've started blogging I've learned more about technology than in the previous 20 years!!! It's crazy how much information is out there. And it's definitely the best way to find out about the newest things.
I blog to create conversation. There are certainly other reasons - some of which you've covered here. But really, I'm in it for the conversation.
Another option is to write nothing at all but use the blog metophor to create a familiar blog interface.
Here is an example of a Clickbank blog I created last year based on the blog meme (needs an update). It easily makes a few hundred dollars a month, on autopilot.
Black hat? Distasteful to SEO's? Maybe, but tell that to my bankmanager, and ebooks.retailperformer.com paying customers.
Edit: not to mention hosting, templates, and SEO are free
I would start a blog and stop a blog, because I sometimes feel I don't have anything valuable to the world at large, and that it may have been done before. Maybe I should correct that assumption and just do it. Instead of doing blogger or wordpress, I was just wanting to attach it to my comic strip.
Two of reasons especially resonate with me. establish a written history and share knowledge. In my experience as a TA this semester, my old notes from the course proved invaluable, if for no other reason than to say, oh yeah, thats how he said it. As for sharing knowledge, I thought I understood the material I was supposed to teach when I signed up as a TA, but now I know it backward and forwards and usually with an example to help you understand. I've started my own wiki to help me keep things in order for quicker and easier access. Maybe one of these days I'll start bloggin about technology and web stuff, oh wait, the whole do it now thing was a different blog entry wasn't it....
Having a written history is critical -- before blogs, I just danced around camp fires retelling my heroic battles against the 'serps' in sing-song.
I blog because I have to for work
*laughs*
And I blog to share knowledge and with the hope that the next time I'm on the market I can command an even higer salary. I'm evil and I figure evil should earn more.
Hey - it's hard work being evil!
I agree, being evil is gooooooood, lets just hope no one sees this comment of yours though. Wouldn't want your evil plans to back fire
I definitely agree with many of your reasons above. One other big reason I started blogging was to have a hands-on opportunity to "play" (and work) in a wide range of technologies and internet services.
I used WordPress for my blog and enjoy learning, researching and working with the diverse selection of resources available. I also started playing with Drupal a bit and it's amazing how many resources are available there as well. In addition, blogging provides so many opportunities for connecting with talented people and being a part of all kinds of technological innovations. (such as the community at SEOmoz of course!)
I blog, but not for business. I'll occasionally bring in ideas about search, marketing, or trademarks, but for the most part it's about whatever I feel like bringing up.
Rand wrote a post a few months ago about how it's unwise to put your thoughts about politics or religion on your business blog. I agree, so my blog isn't a business blog. I don't think I could write a blog and limit its subject matter to business.
But my main reason for blogging is that an old friend of mine (we met our freshman year of college -- 1981) is a pretty well-known blogger within her niche -- she gets a lot of mentions at Crooks and Liars and she's won some awards -- and she publicly nagged me into it, claiming I'm a better writer than she is, which is a huge lie. So I guess I blog to prove her wrong.
<on edit>I forgot to mention that I do sort of blog about search marketing. Scottie and Mike dragged me into isos a few months ago.
I think monetization can be looked at directly, but also indirectly. While the latter is much harder to measure, for a business, especially one like SEOmoz and this industry, it is probably the far greater source. One project or client gained goes a long way.
This ties into the "Grow Your Business" and the "Share Knowledge," which I think is perhaps the most powerful tag-team on the list, with an extra boost from "Build Name/Brand Recognition." Together, these help establish and build a powerful rapport with potential clients, giving them a chance to get to know you and see if there is a good fit.
I too think one of the most rewarding aspects is in helping people achieve their goals and to educate them.
SEOmoz is helping to prove that you can help educate the industry, even potential competitors, and still gain by elevating the entire industry in regards to quality, standards, and hopefully respect from outside the industry.
More importantly, it also shows that we needn't be afraid of "giving away" information at the fear that clients will just do everything themselves. The knowledge curve climbs pretty quickly, and many would just as soon put the tasks into someone else's hands anyway. The trust earned far outweighs the risks.
Thanks for sharing your insight Rand!
I have to agree with the "mind like goldfish". I'm the same way. The blog helps me out when speaking to journalists - when they ask a question, I know I had an opinion at one time, and simply go back to my blog post on the subject. ;-)
I was quite a blog-o-phobe until quite recently, when I started working on a new SEO blog for my company. Then I started blogging for my weekly radio drama show, and now we're offering blogging as a service for many of our new customers. So I guess my opinion has changed dramatically.
My reservation about blogs is the same I have with the democratization of A/V media (dig cams getting cheaper, non linear editing being cheap, distribution being easier for novices/indie filmmakers, musicians) -- it's a great and powerful tool that eliminates the need for art to be tied to a producer/distributor complex, but at the same time... what do we really have to say?
I'm beginning to come to terms with the signal/noise ratio inherent with blogging and the Internet in general, and am glad to see that so many people are able to get their thoughts out there that would be pretty fringe without this technology. The lines between professional research and personal opinion blur a little bit, but diversity is definitely a good thing. And I can ignore MySpace, ranters and dancing babies for the wealth of original thoughts that can find an audience that would have been unreachable just 10 years ago.
I blog as a SEO learning experience, it gives me the chance to practice and build a profile online. Also for the possibility of of getting in touch with a community and industry I'm interested in, I can practice english and writing skills also and of course it's good for my own resume.
I have a blog at Wordpress, in the process of moving it to my own hosting. My blog is:
seopractices.wordpress.com
I think it also helps level the playing field for the little guy. Many small companies can now have a voice through blogging and it gets heard, especially if they write well and are embraced by their readers.
The reasons I blog are for name recognition, to grow my knowledge and business, to share the knowledge I have, connect, and share my personal voice.
The thing that challenges me the most is making money or monetizing blogs. Without many of the other reasons already in place, it's hard to start making money right away from any blog or topical content.
I use my first blog for many of the reasons that you've listed, but I also have some other reasons, like:
- to learn about blogging, google, seo and to make experiments
- to use it as a reminder
I started blogging just because it was such an "in" thing to do and I really enjoyed it. What I am finding is a lot of the stuff that you mention above, but really, the thing that it has brought the most is a nice negotiating chip for three way link exchanges. The page rank goes fast to begin with, but "sharing" my page rank has been a bit valuable. Monetarily, it does not make lots of money directly, but the traffic, backlinks and reputation it brings to my other projects makes it totally worthwhile!
Honestly I have had a hard time, writing down my thoughts on my personal blog. However I do see the potential that a continous blogging strategy can bring. At the moment, most times I have to force myself to take the time and blog on SEO Intern.
I believe blogging should come naturally and forcing yourself to write something would only mean that you either lack the motiviational driving force behind blogging or you just really have nothing to say(write).
I would recommend that you go out and experience more, take photos, keep a time line then go back to writing. Alot of the time, I find that forcing yourself to write will only make you produce things which are not worth being read. However, recounting your past experiences via blogging creates a form of nostalgia as the feeling of success in life (not to mention a generally good post if the experience was worth mentioning in the first place).
Everyone has to start somewhere. We are not all born writers. It's not the thoughts or the ideas that I lack, it's the confidence in my writing abilities, and relaying them to an audience.
Thanks for the comments though!
That I can agree with, most of us do not have the ability to write at a professional (if there was a need to be professional in the first place) level. Due to this daunting fact, we usually stay keep clear from any form of writing (notably blogging) so that we don't look "stupid".
Its unfortunate as I am one of thoes people who can't write something without thinking about it for atleast 30 minutes. Note that even with the 30 mins worth of thought put in, the written results are nothing to brag about.
(I need to thank the guys at Mozilla though, for making "on the fly" spell checking on Firefox, which unfortunately doesn't work with this WYSIWYG comment box)
Stuff blogging, when's the Web 2.0 awards coming out? Last year it was the end of March. We await with baited..
Should be launched within the next 20 days. Sorry for the delay :)
I blog personally, because I've never had the time or energy to get into journalism full time, even though I love writing.
At university I used to contribute loads to our student newspaper, but having a blog means that I can write my thoughts and feelings on my greatest love/obesession (excluding my wife obviously) - music, whenever I want.
Professionally, I'm looking forward to starting a blog when I start my new job, as a means of building a profile (both personally & for the business) and will, and have used SEOmoz as an excellent example of how this can be done.
I think that Blogs are worthwhile only when they have interesting content. For example, I just found out about one called www.killoneperson.com in which you can submit the name of a person you would kill if you knew you could get away with it. I've also read some that focus on other thought provoking questions and topics. I usually am not interested in simply reading about other people's lives unless they do something unique.
only one?