The real question is WHY NOT?
It seems that nowadays everyone has a blog so one has to wonder - why not me too?
Well, there are reasons why not:
1. You need "followers".
Unless you are a person who cultivates a lot of contacts and has a really well devised social media strategy (you might not even be aware you have one - you are natural - good for you!), making a blog can be a nightmare. (This is a nightmare for me as I am not that social nor well connected!). Why make a blog if no one will read it? (I will talk about this later.) True, but for some people.
2. You need to be active.
Duh, you actually need to blog. You have to post something from time to time otherwise, why have a blog. (Personally being disorganized and interested in a lot of things - see actively trying to do a lot while in fact doing nothing! - this is the biggest hurdle i hope to overcome).
3. You need to have interesting content.
Let's face it - nobody is interested how you washed the dished after having watched an interesting film. I do that, my mom does that, why would I read about it? But if you talked about the film and what impressions it made or how you've got an interesting technique of cutting down the whole dish-washing process...Now we're talking! On the other hand, someone might be interested in your daily activities - either you are very famous or you have stalkers - take your pick! So I suggest not blogging if all you will do is give your readers a daily recap of all that you did that day or the previous week, etc.
4. Your content should include more media.
This is the one I struggle most with as I like to write but just writing today won't get you anywhere. You need to be more interactive. This is my opinion so it might not be a rule or something but that is how all this seems to me now.
This would not be a reason against but something I hate seeing everywhere now. If you can't write the language well, please don't write a blog (I am a language teacher and a linguist and I think languages have been degraded enough as it it). Use a shorter way to express yourself. FYI, my mother tongue is not English, so i am off the hook if I make mistakes. :P
Reasons for? Of course.
1. You get to promote your content.
Let's face it we live in a world of constant promotion. We are either promoting ourselves, our kids, our life style, our work, our art either we are paid to promote someone else but it cannot escape anyone's notice that any form of social media is used so that other can see you in a way you want to be seen. How many selfies do you take before uploading the one that makes you look perfect? How many times have you corrected your sentence to make you seem cooler or what not? (In my case, I tend to type some words wrong over and over so auto correct for me lol plus if I say I don't like when people use bad English/French/Swahili, etc I have to be careful myself, don't I?)
2. You get to share and learn.
You are not even aware how much content you read/see comes from someone's blog. I have learned a lot by reading other people's blog posts. And if that person is an expert in what they do and they write about it so that people who know less understand - BINGO! I am sure you have some knowledge you can impart too. And someone will read it and think how they've found out something they hadn't known.
3. You get to know people.
I know, i know - we need to get out more and hang out with people and not read their blogs. But this is also a great way to communicate things that you might not want to share in person. And this is also mass communication - you are talking to all those willing to listen. Maybe someone will read what you have written and say - hey I would really like to know this person better. Weirder things have happened. AND I am talking about normal people, not stalker variety ones.
4. You get to analyze your thoughts.
It might sound weird but people used to keep journals to help them deal with issues or enable them to sort out their thoughts. Blogs can be used in a same manner - they can help you get all that mess out of you head and then put some order on paper / screen. plus, you can read the entries in few years and think - OMG did I really think like that. Great way to keep track of your personal progress too.
All this said, let's get to business, This is my blog!
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