Why Do We Blog?

Here are some amazing statistics. There are an estimated 1 billion blogs on the internet. That’s means on average 1 in every 7th person on earth has a blog. And if you figure only 1/3 of the world population has internet access, that means every other internet user has a blog. That’s a lot of bloggers.

So why do we blog? I think it’s a way of reaching out and having a conversation with the world. We don’t actually have to get a reply. But it’s important that we’re being heard. I suppose that just finding and keeping an audience is sufficient feedback in many cases. Because you can’t keep someone’s attention unless they want to hear what you’re saying.

We’re ultimately looking for people who agree with us, for some sort of personal validation. So when you see a blog that is not succeeding then you know there is someone behind it that has failed in their effort. Someone who is trying to do something without success.

For a blog to survive it has to touch a chord with it’s readers. But in the short run the author has to be satisfied with their efforts. They have to be happy with their work even if other people have yet to discover it.

It’s sad to watch a blog die. I’m a new and struggling blogger so naturally I search for other blogs similar to mine for inspiration. And I have found several blogs that seem right on track. But they don’t look like they will survive because they have little or no recent posting activities.

I suppose it’s natural to run out of steam and give up after awhile. Like I have done in the past with many of my efforts. But if you really want something you will keep trying, keep coming back and doing what ever it takes.

This blog in it’s present form is very new. So I know what others are going through. I have had this and several other blogs in the past with little success. Mostly because I didn’t know for sure what I wanted to say. They were experiments.

Perhaps that’s why I feel for the blogs that aren’t surviving. The internet is very democratic and painfully honest. But with 7 billion people in the world we’re bound to find a small audience that wants to listen to us.

So I guess the key is to keep trying and don’t judge your success by traffic numbers. For a blog to be accepted by the world it has to satisfy a need of it’s readers. But first it has to meet the needs of it’s author to survive in the short run.

So a blog that doesn’t succeed hasn’t met one or both of these criterion. When a blog fails it probably means the author isn’t getting what they need from their blog.