Ten years after initially posting a list of reasons I blog, I decided to completely revamp the post. I started blogging in middle school, though this blog does not go back that far.
While I did import some blog posts from high school, I’ve been editing and deleting old posts as of 2023, because I am preparing it for display advertising — a decision I’ve come to after plenty of careful thinking. I want to join an ad network beyond the generic Google Ads.
These are the reasons why I still blog — as well as why I create content — especially around my own life.
1. I’m great at it.
I understand blogging and the tech required to run a blog. Algorithms are not the enemy — they’re tools to work for you.
I’ve honed my blogging skills with my own blog, which has allowed me to include my blog in my portfolio or reference it in professional settings as reasons to do X technique/strategy.
Every skill I’ve learned blogging has allowed me to use it towards creating and running a business. Currently, I’m focusing on blog flipping, so I use new skills and what I’ve learned towards the next project.
Previously, I downplayed my blogging skills and lacked the confidence required to turn it into something.
Having the know-how to running a website and blog allows me to help my cousin’s non-profit diversity organization or even team up to start our own.
There is some irony to my adroit blog skills I find somewhat humorous, that I only discovered when talking to my cousin’s mother-in-law about our respective traumas: We each developed skills that fed into our professional lives as the result of out abusers.
2. People relate to personal content.
Society was built upon hiding your weirdness, not talking about mental health, and not sharing how much money you make.
All that behavior did was stigmatize mental health and pathologize being yourself.
I think the people who criticize my blogging and the content I put out severely underestimate how well my blog performs in search and on the internet in general.
Every time I publish a blog post, I’m connecting with a packed Walkup Skydome — with a line around the block. My blog posts are quoted or credited around the internet. I’m kind of a big deal, but I don’t brag about it.
I receive thank-yous and compliments daily for publishing the content that I do.
“There is nothing more lonely or terrifying than feeling unheard.”
~House of Cards
Knowing there are people out there who feel or think similarly, who experienced similar things — that is what saves lives…and it’s why I’ll never stop.
Healing loudly involves courage — and it forces society to acknowledge the effects of silence.
3. Putting thoughts into words and sharing my ideas + collaboration
Writing provides many benefits, including therapeutic efforts, by turning thoughts and feelings into words. It provides a wonderful release, and this is why I maintain an unjournal.
Blogging allows me to connect with people who share interests and experiences, and want similar things out of life. But it also opens the door to collaboration — and this is what propelled autistic-led research ten years back so that we have the research and progress within the community that we have today.
This can be said of one of my most popular posts, a list of DID alter roles. I update the list based off what I find. That post has so many comments that I had to add pagination to my comments and edit it into the theme in a jiffy.
I consider my comments section an open forum for feedback, discussions, questions and answers, and general back-and-forth communication between myself and my audience.
4. Connecting with people all over the world
This is the internet, not America. Not everyone understands USian slang, nor does everything revolve around USian politics.
I love how I follow people from all over the world, and various algorithms show me little USian news.
Beyond this, though, I am exposed to other cultures, traditions, research, and people. I don’t live inside the bubble I was raised in anymore — I embrace diversity, and I believe that that makes me a better person than I was when I lived in a bubble.
A downside to this is that not everyone finds diversity great discussions — so I seldom have things to talk about with people who think the US is the best country and that nothing should be questioned.
5. Blogging allows me to be philosophical.
If I were to get a degree, I’d go for folklore or philosophy — or both. I briefly considered sociology, but I don’t want to do anything with a degree specifically beyond the ability to say I have a specific degree.
And saying I have a folklore degree sounds utterly fantastical. (Though, to be fair, I would utilize this one towards writing fantasy fiction, probably.)
I find blogging to be a wonderful outlet for thought experiments and philosophical ponderings. I think a lot of people get caught up in needing a specific reason to discuss the what ifs or anything deeper than materialistic values and that which increases social clout.
Blogging and content creation helps me connect with people on a deeper level, about human behavior and dystopian possibilities — or topics such as time travel and the spacetime continuum.
6. To document my life!
I mean, obviously? Pretty much the biggest reason people love TikTok so much is because they learn things and get to see how other people live their lives.
Humans need story to survive. Our brains are wired for it, so anyone who says they don’t like drama is either 1) the drama or 2) actually really interested in other people’s drama.
Old school blogging relied heavily on documenting our lives — and, well, I’m definitely an old-school blogger.
7. To inspire/entertain my audience
People consume content because the want the following:
- to learn something
- to be entertained
- to feel inspired
- to relate
My blog is a mix of all of these, as I don’t seek to serve only one need. I consider my blog readers and social media followers people who contain multitudes, with all of these needs, and create content that I feel I need or want to create in the moment.
8. My blog is my platform/playground.
Every playground has its own rules. My blog is a place where anything I want to create can exist, as long as I want it to.
Social media networks and platforms do not suffice well, because they’ve their own content rules and restrictions — and can take your content or account down at any time, without warning.
Hosting my own platform works a bit different, in that the content restrictions are more lenient.
I think more people should have blogs, or at least their own website — the same handle, at the very least, as their social platforms. Too often, I see content creators losing their accounts and having to start over completely.
A blog could help avoid starting from scratch, giving at least a jump off point. It’s a solid hub to point everyone in your audience to, instead of a Linktree or similar.
9. Because I want to.
Ultimately, I have a blog because I want to.
A lot of good has come from blogging and me having a blog. I’ve received access to events as press, a direct result of having a blog to begin with.
Until blogging is no longer enjoyable, for a long period of time, I will continue doing it.
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