Do You Wanna Blog? Pt 2 - Reasons NOT to Blog

So why would you not want to blog?

Well, maybe you hate blogs. Some people really find them boring. If you don’t feel that you want to contribute to the overall boredom of the world, then maybe blogging is not for you. Me – I hope it’s not boring but I cannot be constrained by such worries!  I will not be silenced! I must write what I write and send it out into cyberspace.

You probably should not blog if you start to feel obligated – you feel like it’s a chore. Why do this to yourself? At this point, there should be no sense of guilt or obligation attached. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Well! She can’t even be bothered to BLOG. I take offense to that!” No. No. No. Nobody is going to take offense if you don’t blog. There may, however, be those who applaud. These are small-minded people who probably don't even know  where to find all of the letters on a keyboard.

Speaking of offending people, you might not want to blog if you are worried about offending people. The best blogs are going to be those that are authentic – they ring true, and the reader can tell.  I say: be brave and keep in mind the old saying, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”   Accordingly, if you're planning a future in politics, you might not want to blog (Or tweet. Or post crazy pictures of yourself on Facebook).

Blogging, in my opinion, should be something that gives back to you.  There should be a return for you on this effort. That’s got to be the bottom line to any creative endeavor. Otherwise, it kind of defeats the whole purpose.

Do You Wanna Blog?

A friend and I were talking the other day and she said, “I’ve been thinking…maybe I’ll start writing a blog,” to which I promptly responded, ”Yes, you should!”

Should YOU write a blog? Blogging is a great creative outlet and while I’m no authority --the truth is that I currently have no fewer than FOUR blogs lurking out there in cyberspace. I don’t keep them all current, though I’d love to. In fact, I miss writing in them.

I decided to compile a checklist to help you decide if blogging is for you. It is solely based on my opinions. That is the number one beauty of writing your own blog: you control the content so it’s whatever YOU think. Is blogging right for you? It might be!

YOU MIGHT WANT TO START A BLOG IF:

1.   You want a website. It’s probably the cheapest, easiest way to do it. Two services, Blogger and Wordpress, offer most of this to you for free.  

2.   You ENJOY writing. You don’t have to write much. There a tons of blogs out there that are mostly pictures. But the reality is, you have to put content out there on a regular basis for readers/viewers, and this most often requires a bit of writing. Some people LOVE to write. Others hate it and find it a real pain. This is what I’m talking about.

3.   You feel comfortable putting yourself out there. This goes along with # 3. But guess what – you don’t even have to put yourself out there! You can limit who sees your blog. So, for example, only your family might see it. I have a blog like that, where I post family pictures, etc.  

4.   You want to chronicle an important life milestone, or share a skill or passion with others. Maybe you do book reviews, or write about cooking, or sports. A lot of people blog about the birth of a child, or just a particular holiday, etc. .. AND:

5.   You need to find an efficient way to share your words, pictures or other content with a group of people. This is the reason I started my “family” blog. It’s really hard to send a lot of pictures through email.  A lot of them are too big and they take forever to load on some people’s computers. I liked having a website, basically, where my family could go and read and look.

6.   You have some computer skills. Okay, you don’t have to be a programmer or software designer. The free blog sites out there are amazingly easy. But you do need to possess basic computer skills, such as cutting & pasting, formatting fonts (changing the style or size, for example), uploading pictures or other files.



Blogging in Nashville


So, do you think you want to do it? Stay tuned. I’ll have more to say in my next BLOG, when I give some of the reasons you might NOT want to blog.



This picture has nothing to do with blogging, but Toonie asked to be included because he sometimes tries to blog.