Why a Blog?

The last thing the world needs is yet another blog.

According to Technorati, as at October 2007, there are 108 million blogs. Internet World Statistics tells us that there are 366 million English Internet user. If all English users were equally spread across all blogs, each blog would only have 3 readers. Obviously such an equal distribution will never occur. In fact, the top 20 blogs have a quarter of a million registered readers between them, and possibly millions more unregistered browsers. There must be an awful number of blog authors who only write for their mothers.

It’s insane.

Why Do Bloggers Blog?

According to Josh Kenzer, there are 4 main reasons for blogging:

1. It’s part of their day job;
2. They want to monetise their website;
3. Passion;
4. They want to express their opinions.

I would add a fifth reason: Delusion. My guess is that most new bloggers start blogging for a combination of Kenzer’s last 3 reasons, but specifically Number 2: Money. Technorati tells us there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs, since they don’t count static websites) created every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second. They do this in the mistaken belief that more volume will bring more readers and therefore more revenue. Don’t believe me? Find just 5 frequently visited blogs without any form of advertising - you can’t.

Unfortunately, there are no stats for how many blogs die every day - those which might still exist, but which haven’t been posted to for many weeks, and will never see another new post. Blogs started by passionate people who very quickly became disillusioned. According to a Gartner study in early 2007, there are 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries.

Why Do I Blog?

I thought you’d never ask.

If I had to choose a reason from Kenzer’s list, I’d pick passion. I’m passionate about exposing how things really are, not what we’ve been taught to believe about the world around us. In the flood of data, I’d like to provide (hopefully) useful information.

I realise that might not mean anything, so let’s try something different.

I’ve run websites before. In 2006 I sold a conspiracy website I’d created and run for 3 years and received $10,000 for it, unbelievably. The point is, every website I’d created before was to generate revenue - to earn money.

This blog is different.

You’ll notice there are no adverts, and there never will be. I don’t even mind if no-one ever reads it, which is a really strange thing to say. The average webmaster will say this blog has no value: no revenue potential and no visitors. And that’s perfectly acceptable to me.

You see, this blog is a record of my journey. I’m reaching the age when I’m starting to think about raising a family. This is my legacy - something I wish my father had left for me. Every article I post is written with my future son in mind. I want it to be meaningful for him.

If a few others stumble across the site and find it useful, all the better. But nothing I ever write is intended to appeal to the mass market. Nothing conforms to popular views, which is exactly what I want to achieve.