Why do you blog?

[lakibuk]

I noticed that quite a few of you are writing a blog.
Why are you doing it?
Is it just masturbation? Or do you get hits from search engines?
Does anyone actually read it?

[princec]

For me, blogging on TIGsource is an alternative indie career. I would have been just as happy with a career in games journalism as a career making games. TIGsource gives me just a little taster, and it'll eventually drive a little bit of traffic back to Puppygames.

Cas :)

[ManuelFLara]

I do it mainly to improve my English writing skills :)

[Jack Norton]

For me, blogging on TIGsource is an alternative indie career. I would have been just as happy with a career in games journalism as a career making games. TIGsource gives me just a little taster, and it'll eventually drive a little bit of traffic back to Puppygames.

Cas :)
Why you didn't start your own blog then? I used the blogger.com system and takes 10 minutes to setup :)

[princec]

Because I only post once a week. With another 5 or 6 bloggers on the same mission we keep the site full and fresh and there's always something new to read every day. That's why it's now the coolest place on TEH INTARWEB ;)

Cas :)

[oNyx]

I used to do some (b)logging. But it wasn't a real blog, because it wasn't public... more like a... uhm... diary. I used it to keep track of several tasks... an instant post mortem basically ;)

Now I use a modified version of the todo module for drupal for that kind of stuff. Again it isn't public (intranet heh).

I'm not sure if I'll ever get the hang of real blogging. There just isn't enough interesting stuff I could write about... and if there is something interesting I could aswell put it into article form.

[Sillysoft]

I view my blog as a personal publishing tool. It's an easy way to enter in some content that becomes a webpage on the net. I use it for a variety of purposes: to keep a record of stuff for myself (kinda like a memoir), to put up content that other people may find helpful, to push some traffic and links to other websites I run, and to pass on links to funny/interesting stuff found about the net. I don't think that I have a very big readership, but I know that some of my meat-space friends read it, and a few internet folk as well.

[Dan MacDonald]

If you are just into record keeping you might try signing up for http://del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/danmac) You can stash links there and make comments on them. It also has a cool keyword categorization thing so you can search links easily and see how many other people link to the same thing. It's sort of a social bookmarking tool. Odd, yet at the same time sorta neat...

[GBGames]

I gave the reasons for starting a blog in my first post, but essentially I liked the idea that I have a single place to collect my thoughts and opinions.

In a way, it is like keeping a journal, but in a more community-oriented sense. You could write whatever you want in a journal, but online, you have peers who know you and can tell if you are BSing them. It keeps dialogue going between people. It's like a living forum. Bad threads die on their own, and good threads thrive so long as good blog posts are made.

Some people read it. I don't really know how many, but they're out there...watching me...

[ggambett]

I don't, and I don't think I will anytime soon. I just don't have anything interesting to say that hasn't been said before and better than I could do it.

I'm not Steve Pavlina. I'm not John Carmack. Most people don't realize they aren't Steve or John and maybe that's why 99% of the blogs out there end up being quite similar to this one (http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull).

[lakibuk]

Nice blog. :)
I also can recommend this one. Some guy's blog about the psychotropic stubstances he's consuming every day.
http://ubermorgen.sonance.net/hansbernhardblog/

[Kai Backman]

Gabriel has a valid point, but I think you lost the core issue with you comment. The key to any blog (like any activity) is for it to have a focus. For some blogs that might mean personality, ie. the blog is completely focused around a certain person and their activities. In other cases the focus might be something else. My own blog is a channel for ShortHike members to learn about what is happening day to day in the development process. As such it has a very specific audience and purpose. :D

[bentlegen]

Is there any benefit to blogging as a way of improving your [main game-selling] website's page ranking? If so, does anyone do it for that reason?

[Jack Norton]

I'm doing a blog because I can keep updating my progresses in games and at least is safer than any free forums software :D

[Hamumu]

I do it to keep people coming back. Just a little more incentive so I don't lose them as easily to the great wide internet.

[aiosup]

It's a good repository... you put there some thoughts, some links... kinda like a virtual notepad.

[etali]

I blog just for fun, and because it makes me feel like I should be doing something - if I haven't written anything for a while (as is the case now) then I know that the reason is because I haven't DONE anything worth writing about.

That makes me feel guilty and makes me start writing again :)

It seems to work - the readers, of which there are a few (from some far off corners of the world too) for some strange reason, are just a bonus.

[jpantuso]

I do it for the same reason I maintain a FAQ. It is better than a FAQ though, and better than just having news items on the site. I like the more natural, conversational, feel of blogs.

Also newsletters have become impractical. Back in the NeoWorx days we have over 100k people on our newsletter list. It was a nightmare maintaining it, and dealing with spam blocking and invalid email addresses etc.