The topics for some of my posts come from stories found via Google’s Alerts. Not a lot mind you, but enough. I saw an interesting column Monday that struck a nerve in me. Or, at least a thought.

Why do you blog? The world wants to know. (No really, we want to know. Read the below, and then let us know why you blog.)

Is it to make money? If so, how’s that coming? I doubt very — VERY — few bloggers make a significant amount of income blogging. (Not ghost blogging, but genuine blogging.)

Pól Ó Muirí’s “Silly bloggers” in the “Belfast Telegraph” is an interesting and quick read.

“Blogging is usually done without a fee. The love of the blog is reward enough for the blogger.

I follow the older rules of print journalism. The First Rule is ‘Fill the space’ and the Second Rule is ‘Get paid for filling the space’.”

The “love of the blog” is not enough reward. (That’s why I work.) I enjoy the process, but there are other reasons why I blog. It’s definitely not for the money. That’s something that those who don’t blog probably don’t get. Why do it if you don’t get paid?!

I blog for on-the-job training (though it’s not specifically part of my job resonsibilities; I’ve just added it). It’s a new tool that can potentially be used by current and future clients. So, might as well dive in. By doing it, I (hopefully) bring value to clients, and to my employer.

I blog because I like the attention, the links, the comments, the traffic. I’m not as blunt about it as some, but I love it no less. Afterall, it really is all about the E.

I blog because it makes me think more about the issues of PR and branding, and about what I do and what my company does. Blogging makes you think.

I blog because I learn more about my profession, about my craft. Okay, I do that by reading other blogs, but I count that as “blogging.”

I blog because it keeps my journalist skills – my curiosity, my nosiness, my writing — honed.

One piece of commentary Pól Ó Muirí that offers is dead on in comparing journalists — paid journalists — and I would say many bloggers is the degree of professionalism, skill and having a thick skin:

“Professional journalists earn brass necks and thick skin and, unlike web-wasters, they put their names and faces to their material.

Most of the comments wouldn’t make the letters pages of any decent paper.

There is no doubt that the internet provides instant access and instant commentary, but it is instant access for those who can’t make it in real journalism.

It is a case of payment envy.”

Point to ponder: “[The Internet] is instant access for those who can’t make it in real journalism.” If that is so, what would Pól Ó Muirí say about so many journalists who now blog? Like journalism, in the coming years, unless you can write well and convey your thoughts, points and information clearly, you’ll be left adrift in the blogosphere. That’s why journalists and professional communications like those in PR will claim a signifcant voice in the blogosophere, one way or another.

– Mike

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