Have you touched anyone lately?

Posted by stuart as ,

I’ve been away from my blogs for the last week or two, but keeping an eye on the feed-reader whilst working feverishly on coding a site for a new graphic designer I’ve started doing some work for.

The time away has been refreshing, and given me pause for thought about the blogs I write. I’ve started to ask myself some questions:

1. Why do I do it?
2. What do I hope to get out of blogging?
3. What do my blogs give to their readers?
4. Will I still be doing this in five, or even two, years?

It’s certainly made for some interesting thinking. I wouldn’t even pretend that I blog for the money. The only real easy money to be made from blogging is in the paid posting arena, and I’ve had my fun with that, but it seemed a little too much like a job.

I can make as much in a couple of hours slicing and coding a template for my new graphic designer friend as I make in six months of blogging daily, so why do I do it?

Do I hope to reach out and touch someone? I’m not sure. I know I’ve made some of what I would loosely term “friends” through both this and other blogs I write, and blogs I read and leave comments on. The kind words from Tom and Will in my last post attest to that.

I religiously check my feed reader daily, sometimes more often, studiously taking in all that these blogs have to offer, but most days I’m left with a slightly empty feeling after reading the latest entries. What was I hoping for? I don’t know, but it seems that there’s rarely anything new in the posts. Every now and then someone will come up with a gem, but they’re so rare as to almost be non-existant. It’s nice to read that others are having the same struggles as me trying to turn a buck online, and there’s certainly a laugh to be had from time to time, but where is it all heading?

Will we all still be writing in two or three years time about the same stuff, how we had a good AdSense day, making $5, or we made a sale from an affiliate site, or got ranked number three in Google for a keyword?

I know I’m rambling, I just don’t know why I do it. I guess I just hope that in some small way I might be able to brighten someone’s day, give them a laugh, or let them know that there’s someone else at the same place as them.