Reasons Why People Blog

There is a huge number of blogs that were created for no other reason than to allow the blogger to have fun or to entertain people. Humor blogs, celebrity entertainment blogs, sports blogs, art blogs, hobby blogs, many travel blogs, and most personal blogs fall into the category of blogging for entertainment and fun. Many photo blogs are also created for fun and entertainment, too.

Some people start a blog so they can expand their networking opportunities with professional peers. Through their blogs, they can establish their expertise and extend their online reach. Blogging gives them the chance to expose their content to broader audiences, which could lead to business and career opportunities.

For example, a business consultant might start a blog to gain more exposure for his work and skills, which could lead to new clients. Alternately, a middle-management employee at a large company might start a blog to demonstrate her knowledge and expertise and use that content as a way to connect with peers outside of her company, executives, hiring managers, and more. Her efforts could lead to a fantastic new job opportunity, particularly if she integrates her blogging efforts with her social networking efforts on sites like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Some blogs are created to support a business or non-profit organization. Whether or not the blog content directly or indirectly promotes the business, charity, products, or services doesn't matter. What matters is that the blog is tied to the business or charity website and enables the business or charity to share information, raise brand awareness, and extend the brand's reach across the web. Business and charity blogs are fantastic tools to jump start social media sharing and word-of-mouth marketing.

Many people start blogs so they can act as citizen journalists. They write about local, regional, national, or global news stories with a goal of sharing newsworthy information with their audiences. Successful citizen journalism blogs are often niche blogs that are focused on a narrow topic rather than on all news. For example, a blog dedicated to covering news stories for a specific state government would be a journalism blog. Often a news bloggers will feel passionately about the type of news they publish, and it's that passion that motivates them to keep publishing new content each day.

Some blogs are started as a way to educate people about a specific topic. For example, a how-to blog focused on teaching people how to start a successful business or how to use search engine optimization to increase website traffic would be an educational blog. It doesn't matter what topic the blogger is writing about as long as the purpose of the blog is to educate the audience.