What is a blog and why do I blog?

I recently felt concerned at a comment a friend made on her blog.

"With reyna's blog kasi parang DAPAT I-FOLLOW kasi sya palang kilala kong blogger. honestly, if she isn’t my friend, i wouldn’t link her here."

Jeeesh! I never even asked her to link me up so why the comment like that? You have your free will naman to link kung sino gusto mo i link or not. She can remove me from her list and that will be fine with me. Di nya kelangan pilitin sarili nya just because she knows me.

I had to re read her blog post thrice to understand her opinions. Yeah, I get it. She was tired of seeing commercialized and monetized blogs. But I somehow felt it was a direct hit for me.

She wrote:

So I had to post a comment and react. I didn't think it would take this long.  

I used to write just to rant. It was during the time when I was the only one reading my blog. I wrote useless pathetic diary like rants of how happy I was for a sweet corn, how tired I was of my call center job, how angry I was at my brother or how I hated my friend's boyfriend. Reading back, I'd think these anecdotes are funny. 

Even if we say that people shouldn't judge other people, we can't change the fact that what we wrote today about some gross story about something we did before....... may somehow one day be used against us specially if one will think career wise. The internet is a powerful tool. To each our own kung anu anong info ang pwede naten i share sa world of blogging. But you also need to remember that Blogs are public space. It's like writing your story sa bulletin board where everyone can hear or read you. Nasa sa iyo ang decision if what you wrote is how you want to be portrayed to the world and if sa tingin mo your reader's can learn or benefit from everything you said.

Why do I blog? After I bought my own domain and paid for space to be heard (or listened or read)...... I came to the decision to post only topics and infos that can de-clutter my head from work, bring smile to my readers and share infos of what I learned. Meeting a few blogging friends and getting invites and freebies from events are also a few of the added perks of blogging.

Chatting is different from blogging. Writing from the heart is also different from writing with content. If you are the only one reading your blog, keep a diary. If you need an update central for your friends, chatmates, and relatives keep a social networking site and post alot of pics. But if you would like to share and write infos worth of your reader's stay in your web space and keep them coming back because they like what you wrote and they learned something, maintain a blog with useful content.

If you wanna know more about me, in a very personal level, you should meet me in person. Coffee tayo and let's share stories. ^_^

Some strong words you might say. Maybe I had to be mentioned in her blog and in her words "publicly criticized" to come out where I was hiding and blurt my brains out. Reading her post somehow gave me a challenge. I have been away from blogging for a month. Simply because I refuse to write while I was sad and emotionally stricken. I am still not ok. I am still lovesick.... but I will try to post more these coming days.

So going back to my title.... what is a blog?
Blogs are websites that are organized by blog posts. Anyone with an idea can start a new blog with the click of a button and share individual news stories. Blogs should reflect your unique perspective. Blogs give people like us the power of the media.

So with that said, maybe we can reflect on what are the topics we could write about. Some blogs just contain emotional rumblings... some readers can relate to that... but have we learned anything? I can say that you write well and compose great paragraphs and coherent thoughts yeah. But after reading, did it help me in some ways?

After diving into the blogging fad, I guess we should also know how to make the most of our blog. For me, I always try to put myself in my reader's shoes as someone looking for information. My blog right now maybe a smorgasboard of information since I am fascinated about alot of things. But there are a few niches enumerated by Calvin at Most Lucrative Niches for Casual Blog that you will find helpful in your blog.

Here is a very informative video for those who have no idea what a blog is and how to start one.


Have a good day! ^_^