In the last post on ProBlogger Kevin talked about starting a blog based upon one of your hobbies as a great way to start blogging.
As I mentioned in the introduction to that post – Kevin had really described much of my own motivations for starting my photography blog (and that of many many other successful blogs). While I did see an opportunity for profit in that blog when I started it – my main motivation for kicking it off was to share what I was learning about photography and to see if I could draw others with a similar interest together to learn from one another.
For me I always wanted to see if I could make some money from that blog – but early on it wasn’t the biggest motivation. Over the years as the blog has grown and become more profitable I suspect my motivations have changed a little – I’m still interested in the topic – but it’s certainly more of a focus to make it profitable.
Of course starting a blog on a topic you’re interested in or passionate about is not the only way – many successful bloggers have started blogs with other motivations – including to make money, to grow their profile, to drive traffic to their business etc…. (or some combination of motivations).
Why Did You Start Blogging?
Yesterdays post has got me thinking – why DO people start blogs? Has the motivation changed from a few years back when blogs first began to get popular (when I started 7 years ago most people seemed to be doing it purely for fun and to make connections)?
I’d be interested to hear about your initial motivations to starting a blog? Did you start on a topic you were interested in? Did you start with the idea of making money? Was there some other motivation/s? Also – have your motivations changed since starting your blog?
Interested to hear your thoughts!
Great question! I started my first blog to connect better with my followers. Email marketing wasn’t having a big impact with my business at that time… mind you, my list was small back then.
But even with that small list, when I began to blog and include video, pictures, and audio, I formed an instant connection with my followers which immediately increased sales of my programs.
The big impact was that I overcame many of their skepticism’s and became someone that they could trust and relate to.
So my motivation was to be able to build trust and credibility which would increase my sales and conversions. My motivation to use a blog was because it allowed me to use various forms of multimedia.
Scott Tousignant
I started my blog mainly to help promote my business (consulting to help lawyers, consultants, accountants and other professionals attract more clients & win more business). Not being a published author or well-known guru, I figured a blog might give me more visibility and credibility. And it did.
But I also found it tremendously useful in clarifying my own thinking on the topics I blogged about. Many times, when I blogged about a subject I though I knew about, the process of blogging highlighted gaps in my thinking and knowledge.
So blogging has been a trememdously useful learning experience for me too.
Ian
Hi Darren,
Since today is my one year anniversary of starting Tumblemoose, this is an interesting question – one I’ve been reflecting on over the past few days.
I started the blog as a natural platform for building my writing services business. I remember doing the research beforehand. I kept seeing something called WordPress and I ran across a site called ProBlogger and I was influenced to jump in and make a blog happen.
At this one year mark I can say I’m glad I’ve done this and I’m having a great time.
Cheers
George
I started blogging a year ago for several reasons.
First, I run workshops I consider very important and wanted to reach a wider audience with some of the messages and ideas.
Second, I’ve long has a dream of writing and this was a way of realising that dream
Third, I had some time on my hands last summer and wanted to try something new, so I decided to learn how to get a blog going from zero starting point.
Fourth, to invest in building an income generator over the long term.
Mine started as a passion to improve myself and my own dating life (not even thinking of a blog at the time).
Five years later I feel I can really help others with their dating lives and relationships and a blog is a simple way to do that.
Also, there are so many blogs out there in my niche giving out poor, socially-conditioned relationship advice, mainly from feelings rather than experience that my blog is a way to try and combat that and help out people in the process. :)
Sam
I started my blog (still not fully operational) recently for two main reasons:
1. to improve my writing
2. to create an online presence for myself
Other less important reasons were:
a. I like talking about travel, news, and cycling
b. I found there wasnt many blogs in my category
Hi Darren, I was your reader for a long time. every I want to start a serious blogging, I just feel not patience ehen the result will come. I Have one wuestion for you, in your opinon, right now, am I too late to start blogging? Thanks
I had a backlog of about 35 short articles on hand that I had been writing as part of my energy conservation “Day Job.” I wanted to get them out to a wider audience and try to get some money from them too. A because blogging seemed like a good vehicle so I started and now I keep it going
because I find it satisfying.
I knew about blogging since I was 12 years old. Had started a few personal blogs too, but got involved full time into blogging only in 2008. I wanted to do something for the society and was confused as to how shall I do it.
Blogging came out to be one of the best possible ways to influence change and affect public opinions. So I blog about important national, international, youth related and grass root issues at my blog Youth Ki Awaaz (Mouthpiece for the youth). So, the main reason behind my blog was to change the way people think about certain issues.
Cheers to all others. :)
I first started blogging because I wanted to write a personal travel diary about Japan for myself. I thought it would be less of a hassle to update my journal online than to stow a traditional paper diary in my suitcase…
I started blogging after a stint working on the Martha Stewart Show in the Art Department. I recognized the topic and process of crafting is a great way to explore our personal and professional selves. We are a work in progress and using our hands opens ourselves up to the forward movement. . .
I’d started blogging to share the guides and tips everytime I was working with my iPhone. And the posts can be a good reference or resource for those who are looking for the guides.
And I’m trying to make money from blogging and hope it can cover some of my expenses like house loan, personal insurances and extra money for my vacations.
The iPhone Blogging is my blog’s name If you’re wondering.
Cheers~~~
I have two reasons – the first is to make money because our local economy has tanked. I have a marketing background and it’s time to use the internet for profit.
My second reason is for the ability to change the world. I know the internet reaches millions of people and I want to spread the word of peace through cultural understanding. We’re all in this together and I hope to bring harmony into people’s lives.
I started blogging two months ago for inspiration and focus on my personal finance journey.
It’s been fun and I’ve learned a lot. If I can make money in the future that’s frosting on the cake.
I started blogging just to see if I could build a blog! I did and then it took off in a way I didn’t expect. But now I have a fairly popular blog with a number of loyal readers and a newsletter with a few hundred subscribers. Just enough to keep me from quitting but not enough to make any money. The need for money turned me to the idea of trying to make money this way and now I am working on blogs directed just at that. No success with that, yet.
Great question. Started my blog as a way to connect to the online knitting community, but it soon grew way beyond that. Now I regret the limited blog name and URL I chose in those early days (four years ago).
I started blogging over 6 years ago while taking a journalism class. I enjoyed the whole “community” spirit that generated from that blog. I had huge blog rolls and everyone would comment back and forth. It gave me the sense of belonging with like minded groups that were just a dream. I got out of it for awhile and recently just started back up — realizing I missed the “writing” community
Working full-time and having a family, takes a lot of time away but my writing is for me. I am struggling a bit, as it is not like it was 6 years ago. Blogging and personal journals get intermixed. So, it is learning all over again.
My blogs are Slice of Life Diet and We’re Not in Oz Any More —
The other important fact for me is that Writers are Readers Too and being in a community of other writers keeps me reading.
I had two reasons – one, I wanted to learn more about various aspects of culture – and wanted to create an online classroom of sorts. The other reason – it was a very cold weekend in Chicago, I couldn’t leave my apartment for days and it seemed like the perfect time to do it. These are the types of things that happen in life – a perfect storm of motivation and timing. So glad I did it!
I started blogging to build up my profile and spread my message – we can all have a great life AND make the world a better place at the same time.
It is only over the last 2 months that I have got more focussed and determined to make a blog a huge success, with quality posts, great design and a subscription base of 1,000s.
At first, it was my web journal to capture my thoughts, positivity and cover dating topics.
It was a few months later that I decided to develop my blog into a niche – dating/relationships/life coaching from a female perspective.
and I LOVE IT!
When I first started blogging, it was to help me work through postpartum depression. I needed an outlet, and decided it was the way to go. Initially, I started blogging on Vox.com, where I could control who sees what on a post-by-post basis. Since then, however, I’ve started on Blogger, where I blog about a ton of things. I review books, write about life, bitch about politics, etc. I never had an intent to make money.
My motivations have since changed a little. While making money would be nice, I think connecting with others is my main goal. The blogosphere is just so neat to be a part of. I’ve found myself connecting with people I’d never have connected with outside the blogs.
To have my own space on the web and to be able to speak out feerly somewhere.
If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are into blogging are the ones who are artistic on their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.
I was on the phone with a close virtual friend @MommaDJane back in December 2008 and she was telling me all about the wonderful influences she has met through blogging. I started blogging as a way to get connected with more people that have similar interests as me and pursue (and better) my love of writing.
Now that I do see revenue from my blog, it’s what keeps me moving forward knowing that the people I have met and will meet through my blog may eventually lead to my writing being better for a possible chance at writing a positive, optimistic book.
I started as a way to have an outlet to share my thoughts and opinions on my niche. What ensued after I started the blog was networking with other bloggers and partners, which have benefited me to this day.
I began my blog to jumpstart my freelance writing career. I used the topic I’ve written and been published in the most: film music. So far, I’ve maintained a daily post schedule since the blog officially launched on April 14. I’m giving myself until 6 months and then will probably pull back a bit. Seven posts a week is time-consuming and other projects are falling by the wayside.
The blog was began to give my writing an online presence, as well as my own “professional” website (which admittedly doesn’t look so professional at the moment and needs a LOT of work). The blog has made me a better writer, a faster writer (though not by much), and taught me all sorts of skills on top of it.
What caught me completely by surprise was the amount of great people I’d meet because of my blog. Relationships that continue not only on the blog but on Facebook and Twitter. All hail social media! :)
Ideally, I’d like to make some money off of it, but it’s a fairly narrow niche. If it helps bring in other paid writing gigs, then that’s ideal. Either way, I’ve found blogging to be addictive.
inspired by your 31 days series last week i started a simial free series for book bloggers. i began my blog five years ago to showcase some of rhe great books i read and reviewed for the newspaper and magazines where i had columns, but we ran out of space for our print editions. since then i hosted author chats, interviews with industry leaders and so much more: a social network for published authors, a hot topics radio show, local and national book events. so my focus now is to help book bloggers build the best blog they can, where to find publishing houses that will send them free books to review how to host author chats for bookclubs through skype, how to conver your blog into a book, it’s crazy. i learned how to monetize the blog here, but i don’t focus on that part as much as i should(i squeal by paying bills every month) but i know i wouldnt hae een able to squeak if it hadn’t been for this blog.
thanks, daren!
i just started blogging actually. i just want to have an opportunity to explore on some things, and also practice my english (LOL) :P
i hope you could teach me some tips about blogging. thanks.
I started blogging last year just for fun. Now I have 8 blogs. Never intend to make money on blogging. Two of my blogs are personal. Six are about life in US and Marinduque, Philippines. Hope you visit my blog and I will visit yours.
I started blogging on a hobby I was interested in. I just expaned to other hobbies that I enjoyed. I now have over 30 blogs. Most are on music that I like. But many other topics I have an interest in.
I started my blog to help other people who were looking for work. I like to write and knew that there would be plenty of material. while other people who start blogs have trouble keeping up a schedule, I would blog a lot more if I had time. There are so many interesting and committed people our there. Thanks to all of you who are making a difference.
The one blog I recommend to everyone who will listen (besides Darren’s!) is beths blog. http://beth.typepad.com/
she writes about non profits but everyone can learn from beth.
If you have a way to help people looking for work, please connect with me. http://www.hellinthehallway.net
I actually started blogging years ago, as a way to archive the issues of the free email newsletter I’d been sending out to my animal communication clients. I discovered that I really enjoyed the format, and expanded that to a second, a hobby blog. Then a third, which covered esoteric topics like the paranormal, the law of attraction, etc (the ramblings of my brain, in other words).
Recently, I conglomerated them all by pulling them into a rebuild of my main website, under WordPress. The different blogs … which were for the most part generally related topics … became categories with subcategories.
It’s only been within the past year that the idea of actually monetizing my blogging efforts struck me as something that might help the finances as well.
Well, good question Darren! I started blogging because I am a tech savvy and thought I could cover the news as well as the bigger tech blogs.
So far things are looking good. I will be soon moving to WordPress.org to put ads on my site and improve it.
Stef
the 12 year old gadget blogger @ http://www.laptopmemo.wordpress.com
Like alot of your replies I started a blog to earn money but now I am just interested in sharing my hobby with other people who are like minded and to share in their methods and creations
I started blogging six years ago for fun. I just really enjoyed it. Not just blogging but also getting to tweak templates, finding ways to customize my blog, and experimenting with different blogging platforms.
About a year ago, I started blogging professionally. Writing is my passion and I wanted to share what I know, so I combined the two passions. It just made sense.
Now I’m looking into advertising, trying to learn my way around that. I’m not ‘there’ yet as far as having enough traffic to make any money but I am working on ‘growing’ my blog so when it is time for the next step, I’m prepared. :)
Debra
Good post. I started because I felt like I had something to say on my blog, about big companies and ethics: http://ethicalcorp.blogspot.com/
Blogging give me a way to make comment, post links and write thoughts without having to flesh them out into an article for my website http://www.ethicalcorp.com or in my magzine.
Some events are noteworthy, but not noteworthy enough for an article. Blogging helps communicate views on them to my community of readers.
Secondly, blogging means you can post links for others that they might miss on twitter etc.
I started blogging to increase my site indexation, but later I found out several other benefits in it.
My blog is now taking an informative direction helping people learn how to promote their websites in organic ways, specially through organic search engine optimization methods.
I always wanted to have a blog, never did because time didnt permit it. Full time work, full time student, full time mom… I recently had health issues that has caused me to slow down. Now Im here, doing what I like best… Educating families while having fun. Im very passioniate on matters such as family, and community. I can use my blog as an outlet and make money while doing so.
I start blogging because i want to earn money.Every one here want to earn money.
Actually the whole world is doing some thing to earn money.
Which is not the only aim of life.
I began my blog out of love for movies, TV, books and music. I wanted to concentrate on the content of entertainment and not celebrity gossip. Income on my blog would be great, but I’m looking to build a community where people come to get reliable reviews and forum to discuss what’s good and what to avoid.
I must admit, I started blogging because of one too many experiences with contractors who wanted to keep doing things the way they’d always been done, and didn’t want to face the communications tactics of the future.
I originally started my blog to show off my artistic ability and earning didn’t even come into what I had in mind, I just wanted to get on with drawing and show how I drew and give some tutorials and other fantasy art content, but lately I have tried to monetize it with some book reviews and adsense, but even still the primary motivation is to get my work out there and use my blog to prove that I can draw, not just to me, but to others who care to follow and use my blog as a basis for drawing fantasy art.
Although distractions do get in the way from time to time, I am trying to prioritize my best blogs now and work on content specifically for them only now and letting all of my other blogs that I have lost interest in, die a horrible death!!
I too actually started to blog because I loved to go rock climbing and wanted to write about it. Who knew that I would have come this far. Kinda crazy.
I started my post to talk about social media and all the things I am active in my community with. I am using it as a job search tool as well. Trying to become an “expert” in the field. Telling my story about my job search.
I am passionate about the Red Wings and I thought I would be doing personal interest type stories about the Red Wings then I found my passions being elsewhere when I found out there was a lot of other people more knowledgeable then me. Even though I work as an usher there and have attended training camps. I am not even to the level they are.
So I am still using it as a release for my social networking endeavors and using also for blogger relations. I have made some great contacts by commenting and also on my own blog. Which I would say I would not have found them had I not started blogging.
I started blogging on Myspace in about 2005 but that was a VERY personal blog. Which I liked at the time because you could lock your audience. If you want a select community they could only read your stuff. I liked that part originally but then I moved forward.
I used to write newsletters, and they were all archived on my website. Problem was, they were sorted by date and useful content was buried. My idea was to turn some of the better articles into blog posts and file them by category, so my readers could find and use them.
I started my blog in March 06 to share images of my sketches with other members in a Yahoo Group I had joined. My blog now targets a different audience although some of my original readers are still around. It is still about my art but in a broader sense now and the artistic roads I’ve taken in my real life have largely come about from the positive feedback from my blog as well as opportunities directly coming from it. Lately I’ve started to feature other artists and crafters’ work weekly. This has brought yet another audience. I am amazed how ‘organic’ my blogging experience has been; one thing leads to another beautifully.
I wanted to a carve a new path towards my goal of securing a book deal.
Publishers had stopped accepting manuscripts, so I started blogging my stories, songs, poems and novel chapters and optimising them via reader comments.
With the advent of WordPress, this process got a whole lot easier. I’m still striving!
Thanks for asking, Darren. Best regards, P. :)
I started blogging to see if I could do it. I had been researching it and finally decided to just start one. I am using Blogger, although I think I have outgrown it. Sharing my triumph over the hurdles life threw at me and overcoming some serious mistakes was my start and now I write because I love to do so. It has less to do with making money and driving traffic -even though that would be nice – than creating a connection.
I was asked to write a guest post on World’s Stongest Librarian and I felt so honored and it was a challenge. Josh loved it and said he will post it soon. That is the connection I was referring to. You just can’t find that anywhere else.
I mentioned earlier in the comments that I created a post recently about 25 reasons why I blog.
I wanted to write more but I was on my iphone and it gets annoying writing a lot.
I have always been drawn to being pretty transparent on the internet since 1995/1996. I remember being involved in chatrooms after school in grade 9. Met some amazing people that I am actually still in contact from time to time with. It’s been something that I’ve been comfortable with for a long time.
I am diagnosed with high anxiety and depression, and most recently we realized that it’s more related to bipolar disorder. My doctor and I are trying medication to help with my moods. The thing about blogging is that I feel so much more comfortable and so much more authentic as I write and blog. The sames goes with my photography.
I wanted a space to blur the line between my photography and my desire to share thoughts online via blogging. Starting a blog is about my hobby but it’s more become away to work against my depression.
Since starting my blogs and trying to get my photography/blogging business going, i’ve stopped drinking alcohol to the point of blacking out as well.
Blogging has changed my life and given me something to wake up excited to share with the world. It’s allowed me to show my photography and the way I see the world as a great place and find the beauty. Another way to fight depression.
My day job only feeds depression. My blog is my escape route. My passion and living my life the way I want – authentic.
It’s been quite a while since I last left a comment on your blog, Darren.
Anyway, I started blogging in 2007 because I know I love to share my ideas about parenting and marriage. Being me as a product of a broken family and grew up without a mother, I became a keen observer and I want to help fellow parents and couples as well. I may not be a professional adviser, but my experiences in life tell me that I can help somehow. In short, it has been my advocacy and monetary reasons was only the second.
But when I learned how to blog, I thought it would be better if I also sharing some blogging tips on my blog in which I learned some of them from you which makes you one of my unseen mentors.
This is why I am very thankful to you, especially when you choose me as a winner from Kevin Muldoon’s Blogging Tips dot com’s contest by sharing the best blogging tip last year.
The prize is very precious to me, as I am now of the few Filipino bloggers who own a Problogger book.