Blogging Benefits
A lot of people ask me why I blog. I give them the obvious reason – it helps me network in the VC/tech world.
But that’s just one of many benefits I’ve gotten from blogging.
Here are five big ones:
1) It keeps my family and friends connected to me. My wife and kids read my blog. My mom and dad read my blog. My brothers read my blog. My wife’s family read my blog. My uncles read my blog. My niece reads my blog. Many of my friends read my blog. And I read theirs, if they have them. That’s why I’ll never stop blogging my personal life on this blog. Because this may be the biggest benefit of all that has come from my blog.
2) I have found a bunch of old friends that I’ve lost touch with because of this blog. People have found this blog for whatever reason and realized it was my blog and then emailed me. I have never been a great person at maintaining old relationships. It’s probably because I grew up an Army brat moving every year. But whatever the cause, blogging has provided a way that I can reconnect with old friends.
3) I have found a ton of new music to listen to as a result of this blog. There are a lot of people who read my blog that share a similar musical taste with me. They provide ideas for new music in the comments section and emails. My Amazon and iTunes bills have gone up significantly as a result, but I am making some of that back with affiliate revenues from this blog.
4) I have a place to rant. There are many people who wish I’d stop posting political stuff on this blog. I agree that it gets in the way of the top level goal, which is to network in the VC/tech world. Every time I rant, I piss a bunch of people off who either stop reading or just think I am a jerk who they’d never do business with. But I need a place to get stuff off of my chest. And this blog serves that purpose extremely well.
5) This blog is a laboratory through which I can explore the emerging world of participatory technology. Blogging itself has a lot of interesting stuff that is easily explored with a blog. But digital photography, video, music are also easily explored with some form of a platform. This blog is my platform. And it works really well.
The bottom line is that I’ll use this blog for whatever it can give me. It’s about me first and foremost. If the readers get somethig from it too, that’s a big plus.
That said, I hope you enjoy it.