You Should Start a Blog

You blog whether you know it or not—even without a blog or website. You might not think of it as blogging. Yet, it is. Tweeting a photo or sharing an update on Facebook. A funny quote or story you see in your daily life. A beautiful sunset. Clueing in friends and family back home to a fun experience when you travel.

Blogging on your own website is much better than directly using services like Twitter and Facebook because you own your own content; it’s your online hub that you control. When people read your content, it will link back to you. Not some third-party site.

To spread the word to your social network—in case they don’t happen to know about or follow your blog—simply use features like WordPress.com’s Publicize and Sharing to share out the content to popular services (see Jetpack Publicize if you host your own blog).

To understand what I mean by publishing your content on your own blog—then push it from there to any social media service easily—I recommend watching this video: WordPress as Your Publishing Hub by Andrew Spittle (about 25 minutes long).

A few examples of my own blogs—several of which are brand new in the last few months.

Lance on the Go — A “moblog”, which is “mobile blogging” for quick things on the go, like from your phone, not long-form essays or big picture galleries. Not too polished or curated, just point-and-shoot and post.

Bad Français — My “Bad French” blog. As a language major (French & Spanish) I often find it hard to resist poking fun at misspelled foreign words—it’s a habit. Please don’t take offense if you or your business make it to this blog.

Theme Spotting — Geeky WordPress themes blog, fun with theme names. When you spot a theme in the wild, you post a picture of it. (Want to join the fun? See theme names at WordPress.com Theme Showcase and WordPress.org Theme Directory and then look for them as you are out and about.)

What to blog? Photos of things you see on your daily journey. Put up random notes. Whatever is on your mind. Quotes. Fun songs or videos you see online.

Why blog? Express yourself! Clue in your friends and family to your experiences. Importantly, you own the content you post—not a company like Facebook or Twitter. For me (any anyone in the WordPress community) it is good practice using WordPress itself: helping find bugs and suggesting improvements to the software. Using the mobile apps more, helping them be better.

Don’t just take my word for this, though, that you are a blogger and should blog. Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, recently explained the “why blogging” succinctly when echoing Ernest Hemingway’s expression “write for two people: one specific person and yourself.” See also The Intrinsic Value of Blogging and Short-form blogging by Gina Trapani.

Let me know when you start and I’ll follow your blog. ):}