Roumen's Weblog

On Blogging

When I was just a blog reader I never understood why all the bloggers write so much about blogging. What's so special about it that they encourage everybody to do it? Why do they promote it so much? Now that I'm on the other side of the river I start to understand. So, similarly as others do it, I would like to tell you about my experiences and compare how it was "before" and "after".

By blogging you create your personal voice which is defined by your interests. People come back to your blog, because they expect to find new thoughts on the topics you wrote about before or about similar topics. Such people can give you very good feedback - it's easy, they just write a comment and it can be even annonymous! You can get wonderful insights on your thoughts - what people agree with, what they don't and if you are solving any problems they can help with them. They can give you additional information you would hardly find if you were searching for it.

People who know you personally will probably like to read your blog. They can easily find out more about you - most people are curious from the nature. And if you write something which is in their interest, amuses them or makes them angry they'll most likely tell you. That's more feedback to your thoughts. And feedback is important, unless you think you've got the best opinions in the world and you don't need it (I'm sorry for you if you are that case).

Blogging changed my life at work. I have exposed myself - most people I meet know something about me even if they don't know me personally yet. Suddenly, it's easier to meet new people and talk with them. They know what my interests and opinions are - so people who don't like them know they should avoid meeting me at all. It feels a bit strange though - somebody from USA who I'll meet once will know a lot about me and I will know almost nothing about him. I've observed that some people started to be more open to me and on the opposite some became more closed (they're probably afraid that what they tell me may appear in my blog ;-)

What else changed? I became more relevant. People seem to want to hear my opinions - especially on the topics they know I am interested in. Thanks to blogging I got in contact with people I would not have contacted before. And for these people I am already somebody, I already have some identity for them, I'm not just one more guy from the crowd.

Blogging helps me to think. It may look easy to write something down once a day but it's not, everybody who seriously tried it will confirm. When writing about a topic, you need to create a firm opinion about it and understand it well. Otherwise, people will mention it and write comments like "you absolutely don't know what you are talking about". Hopefully I've rather seen such comments in other blogs, not in mine ;-)

Blogging is fun. I have a great feeling when I post the message and I look forward to the reactions. I feel a bit of a tension "How will they react? Did I write everything correct? Will it be amusing? Will it make anybody angry?". If I get feedback like this, I feel real good - people are enjoying it. During travelling or similar activities I keep thinking what else to write to amuse my readers. A bit of an addiction at the end, but we all have something, don't we?