Dave Viner's Weblog

Why blog?

At work, we frequently talk about why people blog - not in a fancy marketing analysis/research way, but a fun lunchtime conversation way. I'm sure there are many reasons but I suppose that there are probably only a few main reasons why people blog. Here's the latest list with some short descriptions.

For fame

Some people blog simply for the fame of it. This person would always aim to blog frequently or only blog with super interesting articles. But the whole goal is to get other people to read the blog and that fame and recognition drives the blogger to blog.

As an artistic outlet

Some people blog simply as an artistic outlet. This person might be an underground author, someone who wants to be an author, or someone who just likes telling stories. Also, this person might be the "journalling" type... the type of person who would write in a journal and keep that journal under his/her bed.

To talk with friends

Some people blog as a means to talk with friends. This person is blogging in the same way that he or she would send a mass email to friends. This is probably the biggest category of people.

To make money

Some people blog to make money. This person definitely uses Google AdSense or other text ad provider and blogs about topics that are "high-value" according to those ad providers - e.g., breast cancer, real estate, etc.

There are probably other categories, but after many lunches devoted to this topic, these four seem like the main ones. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to judge anyone or say why you should blog or do blog.... I, and people I work with, just find it interesting to think about why people do this.

Another aspect to blogging, which is somewhat orthogonal to the types of bloggers, is that blogging is a "reader-initiated" activity. That is, I can write all I want, but you, the reader, must come here to read it. On the other hand, email is a "writer-initiated" activity where you are given my message in its entirety. Blogging is somewhat akin to posting a flyer on a message board on a college campus, whereas email is more like making a telephone call.

I don't think this difference directly influences the categories of bloggers. However, I think that this characteristic of blogging influences the reasons why some people blog. For example, I suspect that, because of this reader-initiated thing, the folks who write for their friends blog far more than they send mass emails. I know that I blog far more often than I send an email to all my friends. I would never spend thirty minutes on a Saturday afternoon composing a long email on the types of bloggers and send it to all my friends. This just seems kinda crazy. On the other hand, I've just done that with this blog entry.

Anyways... I just thought this was kinda interesting. I suspect that we'll continue to talk about this over lunch, so perhaps I'll have more to say later. I guess that makes me a blogger who writes for his friends, with a bit of the journalling/artistic type. (Maybe we should talk about the categories of blog readers next.)

Posted by dave at July 9, 2005 03:38 PM | TrackBack