Why Should I Blog?
Posted by Paolo on 9.9.23 in Ways of Working
Ever since I started learning about web design and development, I have been interested in blogging. The posts I published in the past tended to be a mixture of technical tutorials, personal stories and thoughts on ways of working. I’ve always had a personal website or blog in some shape or form and it’s always been very much a work in progress and never really something I have been satisfied with or proud of.
I have a habit of wanting to start again from scratch and throwing away old blog posts, which is something I end up regretting. I think it’s because looking back on older posts I find it embarrassing to realise that what I once thought was a good idea to publish no longer is (or at least I don’t think it is in that particular moment). That’s probably what inhibits me from writing posts regularly now.
You might be surprised to learn that this post started out as a draft written in long hand on actual paper. I found it was a good way I could get a decent amount of words down before being distracted by other things on my computer or going off on a tangent trying to validate something I had written about. I am always aiming for longevity, but perhaps that’s not the most important aspect of blogging. So that leads me to the question of this post; why should I blog?
Back in 2014 I read an article by Sally Kerrigan on the A List Apart website and it left a lasting impression on me. The article is called Writing is Thinking and I took away some key ideas from reading it. Recently I re-read it and found the following quote:
“Choosing the words to describe your work means you’re doing it on purpose. You’re going on the record as someone who thinks about why they do what they do, and understands how each decision affects the results. And developing this knack for critical thinking will also make you better at what you do.”
Sally Kerrigan in Writing is Thinking published on A List Apart
This quote really resonated with me because I do find that writing helps me to bring some order to all the thoughts and ideas that float in and out of my head. My motivation to write this post is because I believe that if I can establish reasons why blogging is a good idea then I am more likely to do it.
The act of publishing your thoughts online shows commitment to your opinions and as a result you are more likely to question them before hand. If other people can read and engage with your posts, then you can either get some support for your ideas or be challenged on them. Either way it can be a constructive activity.
There can also be commercial or career related reasons to blog; for example, potential employers and recruiters will often look at personal websites and blogs of candidates. A blog could also be the source of revenue through advertising if it’s appropriate or some other publications may ask for you to write for them. From my point of view, I’m happy to use blogging as a tool to improve the way I think about things and hopefully improve the way I work. I also aspire to write for a bigger audience and a well known blog, but for now that’s not my main objective.
Summary
Writing allows you to:
- Think more deliberately about a topic and record thoughts and ideas to develop them
- Engage with readers that either support and benefit from your ideas or challenge them
- Improve credibility with potential employers or customers
- Build the habit of blogging, which can lead to improving the quality of your work and writing and hopefully one day get published in a well known blog