Thought Sparks

I’ve read several blogs lately about blog burnout. Wikipedia defines burnout as, "a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest (depersonalisation or cynicism), usually in the work context." Perhaps some folks lose sight of, don’t really know why, get board with or have false expectations for what blogging is about.

I imagine that people who blog primarily for "easy money" or for any one or two reasons will run short after a while and either trudge on dutifully or just give up. If you are facing blog burnout perhaps a perspective check will cure your ailments. If not, give yourself a rest.

Here’s Phil’s Top 20 Reasons I Blog:

1. It’s fun. I enjoy writing and creative expression
2. It’s interactive. I enjoy getting comments from people and writing comments on other peoples blogs.
3. It’s instructive. I’m learning about online marketing and communication.
4. It’s flexible. I can go in pretty much any direction I want at a whim.
5. It’s measurable. With Google Analytics I can track how much traffic is coming to my site and from where.
6. It’s a career builder. Linking to LinkedIn and writing about information related to my field of web development and design lends credibility to my professional life.
7. It’s an opportunity to network. I enjoy making connections and getting to know people across the globe.
8. It’s possible to monitize the site. While I think I’ve made a whopping 1 cent from Adsense, I see how you could get a monitary return on your investment. I may position this or another blog eventually to better return income. Notice it’s not the first or last reason I blog, just somewhere in the middle.
9. It’s creative. I like coming up with new ideas to write about. If you ever read something by me that sounds like something someone else wrote, it’s a coincidence. I value originality.
10. It’s an outlet to rant about poor products. Honest feedback, criticism and critiques make for better product offerings.
11. It’s an opportunity to promote good things. When someone or some organization is doing something good, I enjoy writing and helping to promote all things for the common good.
12. It’s a new way of relating to people. Social media is much more than techno-dweeb stuff. It’s about real people sharing their lives.
13. It’s an avenue to record thoughts. I enjoy reading my previous entries and reflect on what was happening or what I was learning at the time.
14. It’s fun to have an avatar on MillionDollarAvatar.com. While not the first to come up with the idea of allowing people to post avatar’s (icons from their blog). Kevin, originator of MillionDollarAvatar has done it in a great spirit and I just like the site.
15. It’s a way to stay current with cutting-edge information. Blogging encourages interaction, which means I’m both writing and reading what others are saying about relevant topics to my life and work.
16. It’s a tool to keep my mind sharp. I strive to publish informative or thought provoking entries which requires work to develop good ideas.
17. It’s an opportunity to practice what I preach. I promote the use of technology in my work place. Being a practitioner builds credibility and integrity in my work.
18. It’s addictive. I have an addictive personality by nature and blogging just seems to fit with who I am. I list this different from being fun because sometimes it’s fun and sometimes it is addictive. There is a difference.
19. It’s a place to post photos and other media. I enjoy taking pictures and every once in a while I snap a pretty decent shot that is fun to post.
20. It’s a medium that is always changing. I love to dive into new things but am not of a maintenance person. New challenges, new ideas, new projects all gun my engines. While a blog may run on, it’s about fresh content and that makes it fun for me. I’m going to be experimenting in the future with music, video, line-art, photography and the written word. Who knows what’s next.

Why do you blog? If you aren’t why not? Jump on blogger.com today and get rolling.