Why Blog???

Initially, I wanted to find out what is blogging. I have been curious and have been researching blogging and social networking for a couple of years now due to my job as a Sr. Technical Analyst. It is pretty obvious to us all that this technology has been growing in popularity, exponentially. The last two presidential elections brought blogging into the mainstream media as a journalist tool. That made sense to the general public as it seemed logical that the news and journalist world would want to use this new method of reaching millions of readers. Most of the public left it at that.

The younger, video gamer, cell phone texters started using the social networking tool, myspace and using it in a huge way! Parents more of less dismissed it as just another phase but worried about how their children were using it. Then the news started telling us stories of sexual predators preying on children causing parents to become horrified by this 'evil internet'.

The more these technologies were being discussed by mainstream media, the fears of the public lessened somewhat. It seems as though over the recent months, the word blogging is about as common as the word aspirin. I watched the Regis and Kelly show the other day and when Regis Philbin starts blogging....(although he has little idea of what it is or why he would want to blog :-), blogging has become a new way of life for all of us.

Actually, there are quite a lot of new internet technologies coming out every day. These newer methods of collaboration over the internet can be more or less grouped together in another technology term that has been getting more press recently, called Web 2.0. (click link for Wikipedia explanation of Web 2.0)

As I gain experience in social networking, I am now concentrating on how I can earn income from blogging. This brings an interesting aspect to blogging. Bloggers must balance the increasing interest of marketing companies wanting to use bloggers for advertising and the altruistic purpose of providing quality content, advice and help to their readers. There is a fine line where blogging for income can overshadow the original purpose for blogging. There is a good mix of those who understand that earning from advertising on your blog is accepted as they want to do the same and those who want to insure that the original intent of content is keep as the primary goal.

How this will proceed in the future is yet to be determined but more than likely, the pressure of marketing will undoubtedly increase. It is up to the best bloggers to maintain the balance of earning and learning. I hope I am so fortunate as to have a serious problem trying to not earn too much money! :-)