Why are YOU blogging? Everyone has his or her reason. Unfortunately, it seems many people these days are blogging for the sole reason of easy money with little effort.
The success of personal blogs like those of John Chow and Darren Rowse has led many to believe they can trade a few hours a day for a few thousand dollars a month. In fact, the Vancouver Sun recently published a full page article on John Chow with the headline “Internet bucks – no effort,” implying there is no effort involved in blogging. Anyone who has ever visited John’s site automatically knows he puts in TONS of effort.
These kinds of public misconceptions about blogging are hurting the quality of the blogosphere. People should not be blogging for the sole purpose of earning money, because this lowers the quality of newer blogs and also unfairly raises people’s expectations about how easy it is to create a successful blog.
Not only that, but I think many new bloggers are forgetting the true purpose of blogging. As a result, many new bloggers are coming across as blood-thirtsty leeches looking to exploit “the sphere.” That fact is, it isn’t hard to write a few articles and throw up some Adsense. I am sure we could teach monkeys to do that. But what does it take to create a successful blog?
I am not going to pretend like I run a successful blog, because I have only been blogging for a month now. However, I can tell you that blogging success starts with an attitude other than greed. I have been a regular reader of over 20 high quality blogs for 6 months now, so I understand the difference between bloggers who do it for the money and those who do it for the benefit of others.
Take John Chow’s blog, he has written dozens of inspiring how-to articles on everything from personal finance to blogging. His articles benefit the greater good of the blogosphere and as a result, he has attracted thousands of loyal readers. I am sure he never started blogging just to make a few extra bucks.
For me, blogging is about participating in a community of like-minded individuals. I know that the business connections I will make from blogging are worth far more than any extra Adsense change. In fact, I have already had previous clients (that I’ve built web sites for in the past) stumble across my blog, admire what I am doing, and inquire that I do more work or build a blog for them.
A blog is truly a chance to “show the world” what you are doing. Whether you tame wild hyenas or run a small web design business like me, blogging is your opportunity to connect with similar people and build a community. If more people started blogging for the community instead of the money, they would see much greater success, and we would see higher quality blogs. Either way, those concerned only with short-term gain soon enough drop out of the blogging once they discover it does take effort.
Before I started blogging, I felt frustrated by not knowing any like-minded people. And by like-minded people, I mean young, ambitious, and creative entrepreneurs. I didn’t know where to meet these people. As I mentioned earlier, I have been blogging for only a month, but I have already met and chat regularly with some very interesting young entrepreneurs from all around the world. I would have never had the chance to connect with these people if I had never started my blog.
So, why are you blogging? Are you just money-hungry or are you looking to participate in a global community? Hopefully, new bloggers will understand in order to attract a large, loyal reader base, they must create original content, particpate in their surrounding community, and never give up. Survival of the fittest will eventually filter out all the low-quality, money-hungry faux-bloggers anyway.
