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Why I blog,

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Image by Johannes P Osterhoff via Flickr

 

I confess! 

If you haven’t noticed, I have been using a plugin here on my blog which recycles old posts. It feels like cheating because I have been spending more time on the business side of my daily work hours and the number of new blog posts has been dropping as a result. It is a random process and I am constantly surprized at the content, like the PDCA recycled post from two years ago that popped up recently. Back then I proposed to look at three areas of activity in my web life: blogging, social networking and making money. People have commented about hearing more.  I could go back and see what I reported but since the question is still relevant today, I think it is worth a new response. I know that I have a completely different understanding about my mission on the web and I finally seem to have traction in the business area. So today I will cover the area of blogging. What is my purpose in continuing to blog, both here and at Cantankerous Old Coots?

Back in the old days. 

I have been blogging long enough that the truth is shrouded in mists of confusion and rationalization but when  started blogging, I believed that you could make money on the web and that while making money with your blog is hard, successful bloggers could make money. I had participated in multi-level marketing businesses for a long time but found that my personality rebelled at the marketing system from my upline. I was burned out talking to people who weren’t looking for a business. When I did some research I discovered that there were sccessful MLM business owners who made contact through the web. I didn’t understand how and I began to follow people that seemed to know what they were doing trying to learn more.

Becoming an Alpha

What I did understand was that I needed to have some authority and that one way to do this was building a successful blog. So I got serious about becoming a successful blogger, maybe even a famous blogger.   My vision at the time was that buildnig a successful blog would give me a following of people who would be a target market for my MLM business. Looking back, I see that my thinking was naïve. There was logic to my reasoning but I knew nothing about marketing. Just because I was targeting retirement aged people as blog readers, didn’t mean that they were interested in starting a business. They weren’t my target market.  But this gets ahead of my story because my business model required that I bevome a successful blogger with a list of people interested in the content of my blog. That, initially, was my reason for blogging.

 So how is that working for me?

Well despite a lot of work, spending money on blogging courses and agonizing over my niche, my blog hasn’t accomplished its original mission. My list is small and I think that the people on it are unlikely to be looking for a busines opportunity. Yet, I continue to blog.  So why am I still blogging?  What is my mission? Right now, I think it is purely selfish.

My blog is a life journal.

Part of my life mission is living an outrageous retirement lifestyle. For me that means that my wife and I are active and engaged in life. We are traveling as much as we can afford and taking time to smell the roses. Right now, my blog is more of a personal journal documenting my lifestyle and keeping me on target. These days I have modest expectations. I don’t expect to attract a wide following because my content provides limited value. I don’t provide information and advice for people planning their retirement. I don’t pretend to know the ‘right’ answers about financial planning and investments. I can’t pretend to tell people how they should live and what they should do. What I know is that life is an adventure and that you only have one shot. You don’t get a do over. I just know that up to now, I have been timid and conventional in my life. I have squandered many years and now as my body begins to let me down, I don’t have time to waste. I have just a little time left to live and I want to live it as well as possible. My blog is the documentation of that effort.

 And that’s it as I see it.

I expect that a year from now, I will have a different answer but right now September 25,2011 this is how I feel about blogging. And follow the link if you want to know what I thought about blogging two years ago.

 

{ 9 comments… add one }
  • hansi September 27, 2011, 6:43 am

    Hey you recycle old posts too. Great way to come up with new material, cause a lot of your present readers may not have been following you two years ago, so it seems fresh. Fooled me.
    hansi’s last Blog Post ..Life Without The Internet

    • Ralph September 27, 2011, 10:17 am

      Hansi,
      Say no more. I’m convinced.

  • rody September 28, 2011, 12:52 am

    Hi Ralph, i love blogging to and google adsense is the reason i blog

    • Ralph September 28, 2011, 6:05 am

      Rody,
      Tell me more! You build your blog as a vehicle for advertising revenue?

      • rody September 29, 2011, 12:14 am

        not really but i am dependent of google adsense

  • Jackie September 29, 2011, 9:41 am

    I speak my mind on the blog, there are few thing which may not entertain or concern the people close to me. I use my blog as my daily diary!
    Jackie’s last Blog Post ..Medical Assistant

  • Bill Murney October 3, 2011, 3:10 am

    Ralph, I didn’t realise that you had been blogging for so long and with your regular posts you must have cranked out a fair bit of stuff in that time.

    I know MLM is big business in the states, over here it’s looked on with suspicion and not many succeed at it in the UK. It’s a great concept but too many companies fail and all people’s hard work is wasted. I think making contact online is a far better option in MLM than trying to convince people face to face.

    To make money online I think you need a blog devoted to a micro niche market and to cater for that market however small it may be.

    Bill
    Bill Murney’s last Blog Post ..A Political Position On Alcohol

    • Ralph October 3, 2011, 6:03 am

      Bill,
      MLM has the same problems here but there are tricks that I am learning about target marketing. It may be similar to your micro niche technique. I’ll be finding out.

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