A fair question. I have been wavering on the idea of starting a blog since we started 5 + 8 three years ago. Asking myself the same questions people ask themselves when starting something. I have doubts about it. I fear judgement. I'm concerned I won't follow through. But, whatever, I did it and here are my reasons why.
An inflated sense of self-importance.
A most necessary quality when starting anything where you think people care what you have to say. From preachers to pundits, it takes a certain kind of person to say to themselves, "I have interesting viewpoints and I think others should listen." I fall in this category.
But, I read others' viewpoints. People I respect and trust, sure. But, more often (thanks to randomly googling things) I take total strangers' opinions as fact. We put a lot of trust in what people write on the internet. If I am being honest, I think I pretty much trust Wikipedia. If you search the reliability of Wikipedia (here's a study from Live Science, whatever the hockey sticks that is) you will get accounts of 95% accuracy to reports of banned users who are paid to write false content.
I am not going for accuracy. I am going more for opinion and entertainment. It's a lot easier and you don't need to worry about the whole fact checking thing. I kid. I'll fact check most stuff.
Writing is good for you.
I am not going to tell you. "More than ever our minds are distracted by our glowing and beeping devices..." Yeah, we know we have a lot of crap going on. But, people always had a lot of stuff going on. From mobile devices to the first radio in homes there have been distractions for a long time. But what about before technology? Before technology people had even bigger distractions like running low on candle wax and coyotes. And who cares about before technology, because it's here so we're going to have to live with it.
Which brings me to my point that writing is good for you. It's good to get all those ideas and thoughts rolling around out and into a Wordpress format. This is the first time I have written this many words since I have no idea. When was the last time you wrote 380 words? Because I seriously have no idea. Yeah, this has to be good for me.
Blogs are good for SEO.
Here's another self-serving part. Blogs are great for SEO (search engine optimization). Actually maybe just good - the SEO rules change all the time. We are in the business of helping our clients find ways to increase traffic to their sites. Blogs are good at that. More than the SEO side of it blogs are good if people care about your company or product. Let's say you have a rad beard, run an online outdoor outfitter and you write an engaging story about your recent hike through the Tcekhôthln Valley. You may mention how your self-hydrating thermo blouse kept you feeling breezy throughout your trek. Well, folks who came to read about your Tcekhôthln trek might convert to customers who want to buy your clima-controlled blouses.
That's also what you'd call a lifestyle brand. Which sounds dumb and like marketing mumbo-jumbo because it is kind of dumb and it is mumbo-jumbo. But, it is also a real thing. So, if you think you have a lifestyle brand or just a generally interesting lifestyle - you may want to start a blog.
It's a little scary.
It is good to do something scary. They say to do something that scares you once a day, but that always seemed a tad ambitious. But, it is a little scary to put yourself out there to be judged by the world's cruelest jury: the internet. At worst no one reads what you write and at best you are regularly trolled by 'Anonymous.' And you know 'Anonymous' is that one dude. Ironically, the things that scared me at first ended up being the greatest things to ever happen to me: marriage, baby, my company and Indian food.
I'd close by saying I hope this goes well, scratch that, I plan for this to go well. But as Mike Tyson said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
Bring it on, Anonymous.