for those of you with jobs that involve computers, this has got to be the funniest animated gif ever.
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.)
Wow... this Aces For Wishes - Celebrity Poker Tournament looks cool. I don't know that I have $350 or $500 to spend on it... but if I did, I think I'd play.
This is kinda interesting... if you fanatically follow blogs or the Google-Yahoo epic battle. In this Google Answers page you can find blogs written by various Google and Yahoo employees.
I wonder how much inside dirt one could obtain by aggregating all these blogs' rss feeds together... perhaps a My Yahoo page which details the internals of Google?
I don't read all, or even most, of these blogs, but I thought I'd share the list for those curious.
This past weekend, Diana had to go bra shopping and, since it got rolled in with our weekend walk, I was there too. I'm sure most guys who have been in a relationship have, at some point, had to go bra shopping and I am certain this has got to be one of the worst positions for any guy.
So, there we are walking through the bra section of Nordstrom's. I help finding the bras in the right size like all the other good husbands and significant others. Diana goes into the dressing room and the real difficulty starts. There I am, a thirty-something guy with greying hair, wandering alone among the lingerie section of the store. There's nothing I can do that doesn't make me look crazy in some fashion. I can't leave the section because Diana's in the fitting room. So I have to stay close by. If I look interested in the bras and panties, then I appear as some kind of weird pervert wandering around staring and fondling the goods. If I look uninterested, then I look like some kind of stalker/uni-bomber type who's aimlessly wandering around the women's underwear section waiting for my next victim.
I wander in the section for what seems like an eternity. Finally I wander across the walkway into the women's athletic equipment section. Not that I had anything to look at there, but it seems a little more "normal", and I don't feel utterly and completely self-conscious as dozens of women walk by... I'm sure the women don't think anything of me, but I could swear they glare at me with eyes questioning: "Are you a perv? or a stalker?"
I swear this is the worst lose-lose situation a guy can be in. I really don't think there's anything good to do or any action that doesn't make a guy look like some kind of maniac.
Oh well, at least we were in Nordstrom's and not Victoria's Secret. (Although everytime we've gone to Victoria's Secret, I've always found some other guys wandering alone - which leads to the eye contact and nod of understanding which says "Yes, I'm normal. You're normal. Let's just pretend this will end in one second and that this is completely normal.") Thankfully the trip was pretty quick and Barnes and Noble held a peanut butter cup cookie for us afterwards.
