Great question.

Before answering it let me say that many people have commented on the time it must take for me to create my blogs. Blogging is like anything else in life, if you enjoy it and do it often it becomes increasingly easier.

In early May I took a Saturday afternoon and wrote my blog entries for the entire month. Since my blogging software allows me to pre-set  posting dates, I didn’t have to think about my blog again until June 1. Working in bunches minimizes the time it takes to write each Blog.

I’m always collecting snippets of information and researching interesting topics, that’s both a habit and my nature. The result is I always have lots of subjects to write about and am well-prepared to start whenever time allows. Many of my blogs took less than an hour to complete, while others have taken an entire day. Often I’ll see something on the web, chase it around the ether until, presto, the tapping sound coming from my keyboard tells me a new blog is being born. That’s how this blog came to life.

Why people blog is a different question.

There are many reasons. In my opinion the first reason is millions of people just want to express their feelings, thoughts and views - themselves. They want to be heard. Blogging provides a low-cost easy to use outlet for that human need.

A lot of people try to make money blogging. That’s not easy. There are three major ways to earn money blogging. First, if someone is able to create a broad following on their blog, Oprah comes to mind, then they can sell advertising, subscriptions, sponsorships and use affiliate programs to generate revenue. These are all based on the number of visitors and/or click-throughs. Very few people have that kind of appeal.

A second group of money-seeking bloggers are businesses. They simply use their blog to promote themselves. They write to attract attention, improve search engine results, promote and sell products, broadcast their brand, generate writing or speaking gigs, or sell consulting services. In this scenario people aren’t so much making money blogging as they are making money because of their blogs.

Finally, there are thousands of writers, maybe more, who earn a living writing blogs for other people. A lot of organizations, both for profit and non-profit, see the benefits of blogging and other social media but may not have the time or the ability to blog, so they hire someone to do the work for them.

Aligned Marketing has several blog-writing proposals outstanding and expects to do more of this type of work in the future.

Steve