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3 Non-Financial Reasons Why Anyone Should Blog

3 Non-Financial Reasons Why Anyone Should Blog

Several times people have questioned the lack of ads on my own blog. It is particularly confusing because I tend to write blogging tips and marketing advice. You would have thought that meant some direct monetization.

First of all, I do monetize, just as yet not directly. If you look closely you can see that I quietly link my blog consultancy services. Perhaps I do not promote them enough, but they are there.

What about people who don’t monetize at all? Are they wasting their time? Well I have a completely non-monetized blog, my personal blog chrisg.org. I do nothing to promote it, publicize it or monetize it. It just is. Heck, I don’t always write on it.

It seems the vocal commenting minority people on Digg have come to the conclusion that all bloggers are wasting their time, but let’s ignore those opinions and ask the question,  should you blog and not monetize it?

My answer, you will not be surprised to hear, is “Yes, absolutely!”.

There are many advantages and benefits from blogging that don’t revolve around ads or selling services. I think for me the most important have been these three:

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  1. Networking and making friends – Blogging has brought me in contact with so many great people, I can’t begin to list them for fear I might miss someone out. It’s crazy how effective having a blog can be for making contacts and friends. In the real world I am an introvert and quite shy at introductions. People like me find real social situations draining. While I have managed to overcome the worst of my shyness my face to face skills have never matched up to what I have been able to achieve online, and I couldn’t hope to physically meet the diverse range of people I know through my blog.
  2. Opportunities – Many people are not entrepreneurial. We all have our own goals and they rarely make sense to anyone but ourselves. There are many ambitions people have that do not involve direct financial reward. A great blog opens doors and invites opportunities. If you want to gain a promotion, new job, change career, become more well known in your industry, get opportunities to write for trade publications, consumer magazines or even write a book, then create a great blog. Without my blog I wouldn’t have even sniffed half the opportunities that have come my way. I would say that writing books is not as much fun nor as lucrative that people think, but it is fantastic to walk into your local Borders book store and see your name on the shelves! It can be small opportunities too, I regularly get asked to review products. While not all are relevant to my audience, it is always nice to be asked!
  3. Enjoyment of writing – I put this last but it is not the least important. If you get pleasure out of writing then blogging is its own reward. Thankfully I both love writing and get paid well for it! Many people blog just to have an excuse to write and keep their skills up.

Monetized or ad-free, any type of blog is just as legitimate as any other. It’s a big blogosphere! While making money online seems to get all the press right now, there are just as many people who blog just because. And I applaud them.

Do you have a blog without any revenue streams? Why do you blog? Share in the comments …

View Comments (16)
  • I write a personal blog and have no revenue streams. I started because I wanted to keep the diaspora of my family up-to-date with my life. Or so I thought. It didn’t take long to realise that my real motivation was just to be writing again, to win back that lifelong sense of purpose which got lost somewhere between earning a living and pleasing everybody else.

    I had never even read a blog when I started. I had no idea how easily bloggers could cross paths with such amazing people. I had no idea that blogging could provide me with the challenge and motivation to just do that thing I wanted to do.

    And it has brought other opportunities to move forward with my offline writing.

    I have cut the length of this comment back so much now that I think I should go and blog it.

    In brief – I have no aversion to adding some revenue streams at some stage but if I ever get around to doing it, whatever amount of money it brings in will always pale in comparison to my real reasons for blogging.

  • I met my girlfriend through blogging. She lives in London, I live in Wales, it’s a trek, but we never would’ve met each other if not through blogging.

  • I didn’t not start blogging for money. Somewhere along the way, I thought it was a good idea, so I did. And further along the way, I realized that it just wasn’t me.

    But that doesn’t mean that I’m shutting all doors. When an opportunity comes aknocking, I will look at it objectively and see if it is beneficial to my readers, and worth my time :)

  • From my standpoint, the blogs where the author is writing about what they are genuinely interested in are more entertaining and interesting to read. Makes simple sense. I’d put that as the first priority and then the money will follow. Adage about putting the cart before the horse, etc.

  • @cerebralmum – I was remarking to my wife today how I have “met” through blogging people from all sorts of cultures, representatives of differing politics, philosophies, walks of life, geography, it still amazes me :)

    @Pelf – That’s the best idea, do what you do and be open to the possibilities :)

    @Webomatica – Yeah I think so too, you can usually tell when something is “from the heart” or “from the wallet” ;)

  • I don’t do ads on my current blog. I think they’d get in the way. I just want to write and be myself and meet people and communicate. I don’t want to worry about how many people are coming and clicking every day. I just want to be and write and hopefully share something.

    I very much dislike blogs where you can tell that every other post is trying to sell something and you are pretty sure that it’s not even something the poster knows anything about or has personally used. I generally won’t go back.

  • Thank you so much for posting this!! I only started my blog about a week ago (yes I’m VERY much a rookie) and as I do research for different styles and what works for people, I start doubting that I’m doing it right.

    Am I supposed to have all these links? Is there something I’m missing?

    Thanks for the affirmation that my blog is what it is, mine. :)

  • Nice post, Chris.

    I agree with you that a weblog should be a place for people to make contact with you.

    A good weblog is like an incubator of ideas. It will often win you you friends and clients, especially if you aren’t trying for either.

    Heavily commercialised weblogs are generally unreadable. There’s a lot of junk out there but that too will pass. People don’t read too much of their junk mail and the existence. of junk mail doesn’t shut down the literature and ideas section in bookstores.

    On the other hand, Amazon might!

  • Love the article about blogging intent. I have recently started a business blog geared toward massage therapy education. We post because we want to help therapists stay viable in their field, not because we want to promote a bunch of product. At some point there might be ads, but they will have to make it through a finely crafted filter. I personally find all the ads to be distracting. btw- Being new to blogging, I love the info on this site.

  • Yay! I’m so pleased to see this post!

    I’ve been blogging for nearly four years now, and it seems that the current toward ‘make money blogging!’ is getting stronger & stronger, as new, ad-heavy blogs weigh down what used to be a fun, exciting place — the personal web.

    None of my blogs have ads — it would pointless at my traffic level in any case — but it also means I can do what I like. I can be personal, introspective, silly, or opinionated, without concern for advertisers.

    Encourage those who blog for the love of it — read them!

  • I think the ability to position yourself as an expert in your field can really pay off. If you localize your content, depending on your field, that can even pay off better in the off-line world. The lack of ads might even help.

  • I do not monetize my blog – today. Tomorrow I might change my mind. The reason I don’t run ads on my blog is simply I don’t like the clutter. I’m all about readablility — I want my readers to come to my blog and not have to work to read, so I keep my blog clean and uncluttered.

    I think if you write well and write often you will attract an audience and within that audience are opportunities. I have made countless friends on-line, love the feedback and conversation, it has lead to a number of paying gigs, it keeps my writing muscle toned,,but most of all I like having the documentation and archive of this time in my life.

  • Interesting reading, Thank-you.
    Just one note…
    Exposure is difficult if not impossible it seems.
    I have blogs from 2006 with less than a handful of views.
    Of course these days I would actively promote my writing as well.
    Anyways, Great Reading.
    Cool.. Joey A.

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