I’ve been tagged by Bill Slawski (edit: and also by Miriam Loraditch) in an interesting meme currently doing the rounds of search marketing bloggers. The meme is pretty self explanatory — tell the world why you blog (listing, ideally, five reasons) and then take a turn tagging five others. Michael Jensen of SoloSEO is once again tracking the meme, so you can wend your way to SoloSEO if you’re curious about where this meme has been.

But, for the moment, here are five reasons that I blog:

  1. I like to write.

    I began to write articles during 2005 because I wanted to provide more information about my web design business and what I thought on my website. I also wanted to return to writing — having not written anything more interesting than a set of directions since I graduated from college. The process of writing something is very satisfying to me. Given a choice, I’d quite possibly choose to spend more time writing than doing hands on work with web design, honestly. My blog(s) give me a great outlet.

  2. I need to refine my thoughts.

    In the raw, untamed lands of my brain, my thoughts run wild. Taking pen to paper (or, more accurately, keyboard to screen,) gives me a chance to domesticate my thoughts. I can spend my time writing down an argument in order to clarify, for myself, what it is I think. Sometimes, the results are inconclusive. The interactivity of blogging, however, enables me to gain very useful input from others who read what I wrote and provide their own viewpoints. Every refining detail is incredibly valuable to me.

  3. I like to ask questions.

    It’s significant that a lot of what I write falls into the general category of “why” or “how.” I like to talk about the reasons for performing a task in a particular way — whether this is a question of search marketing, website accessibility, or some other topic I choose for the moment. In day to day practice, I only get to ask myself these questions — and I don’t always have the luxury of time to investigate further. My blogging provides a venue to ask these questions more publically. I don’t know the answers: but I’m absolutely willing to go out on a limb to make some statement, in hopes that others will make their own contributions.

  4. I work alone.

    This is also the reason that I participate in forums — because my day to day work is solitary. I’m self-employed, and spend most of my professional time by myself. Sharing thoughts with co-workers is a valuable habit — having no coworkers, I try to share my thoughts with other members of the same industry. It’s a way of socializing. It may be very much on professional topics, but it enables me to form professional friendships which I would not be able to pursue locked into my home office.

  5. I like to teach.

    Blogging is a good way to share my own knowledge. While being open about the fact that there are many specialists who know far more than I do, blogging gives me a pathway to provide solid information with others. I have no way to particularly guarantee that what I teach is accurate, but I’m far from the first teacher to be uncertain. Teaching helps me learn. All in all, the process of blogging is a very effective learning tool: I learn in the writing, others learn in the reading, then I turn around and learn from my commenters, who, with any luck, learned from writing their comments. Hey, it’s just a big educational orgy.

Who I’m going to tag: