Thanks God I Blog!

The idea of blogging had just pounced on my mind two years ago when I accidentally browsed the Xanga website, and that was the time I came up with my first blog Bounjour Mademoiselle. Then came my second blog Welcome To My World which I thought of as my online journal. A lot of other blogs then followed, including this one I’ve created in Blogspot. It's been interesting during my not-so-long stint at blogging to consider my friends' responses at this idea. "Blog? Unsa na?!" – with the question mark emphasized – was sometimes the wary response. Well, those were the remarks I got a few years back when the word “blog” has not yet swept the internet-savvy folks’ mind by storm, hehe! Nowadays, the comments I would hear (from those folks who are not into blogging) vary: “Blog? What for? Why the heck would I waste my time for it?” or the other version: “You really do have time for that stuff, nagsige ka nalang ug blog, ako wala koy panahon para ana”. Well, if you’re not into blogging and have just browsed this blog by chance (maybe from a different source link), then it’s sort of a perfect timing you are reading this post!

Why blog? What do we get from it? Based from what I’ve been through at blogging, I wanna share some thoughts about the benefits I got from it. Needless to say, these are the 10 reasons why I blog.

1. It's fun. Self explanatory. FUN! As in lingaw! Think of any hobby you have and you’ll definitely describe it as fun - something you love doing, something you enjoy indulging yourself with. That’s what blogging to me, a hobby… a source of fun!

2. It's a tremendous opportunity to share a message. My casual, having-fun-self has delved into the deeper me, rooted around in my heart, and stipulated that such opportunity to share faith must not be ignored. My own experience is one manifestation of God’s great love. I want to share the good life I've been blessed with… and I wanna do this in an appealing, non-preachy, uplifting manner. It is my hope that one or two persons, somewhere on this globe, may say, "That's a rather neat way to live. Think I'll check it out." From this idea, I came up with my christian blogs Echoes From The Heart and Soulful Journey.

3. It’s a unique way to communicate with family & friends across the seas. Blogging gives you an opportune way to keep in touch with your friends and loved ones whom you haven’t seen for a long time. They can always get some fresh updates from you no matter how far they are. In turn, you can also be kept posted with their life’s updates by exchanging stories. Hence, it surmounts distance barriers.

4. It's an outlet for creative writing. I’ve always been considering myself a “closet writer”. I have so many ideas in mind which I wanted to document, that is, put stuff into writing and make a journal. But with my so busy life (corporate world + life in the academe + church community + sports & leisure activities + family time + friends escapades + miscellaneous activities), I wonder if I could ever have spent sometime for making a journal. Through blogging, which eventually turned out to be a cool hobby, not only have I spent a great deal of time writing, but I’ve also been able to share my thoughts and ideas to people. Now, that’s creative writing!

5. It serves as therapy for some who need a place to vent. Blogging is a way of expressing oneself. Whether you are lonely, happy, inspired, excited, annoyed, thrilled, disgusted… you can express everything on your blog. Simply saying, your blog speaks your mind and conveys your heart. And when somebody writes a comment on your blog posting, you’re also letting that person express himself/herself. Ain’t that cool?

6. It's a way of forming friendships around the world. When you blog, you’re making yourself visible to the world wide web. A lot of people will be able to read your posts from all over the world. I’ve been noticing that a number of comments on my blog postings came from people outside my country, whew! And they’re giving good reviews to my articles! See? It’s one way of expanding your acquaintances around the globe.

7. It's a way to earn money. Absolutely! This is one true thing I can truly attest to! Why not? Google has just paid me $100 a month ago for the ads posted in my blog site. Now that’s good news to all bloggers out there! See? You get paid for something you love to do. You earn revenue from your blog by simply posting Google ads… and that’s it! Your money accumulates and you’ll just wake up one day receiving a dollar check from Google! Wahoo!

8. It’s educational. One thing I’ve learned from blogging is the HTML stuff (you know, like those CSS codes & scripts you do for web design). Well, it’s not that I’ve learned the whole thing from blogging. It’s just that blogging is one of the means to familiarize yourself with HTML. I’ve been doing a portion of web design for our company’s intranet a few years back, yet I’ve never been this meticulous on the codes & scripts, not until I had started working on my own web site hehehe! And when we finally had a formal training on Web Applications a couple of months ago, everything’s not new to me anymore, as I already had a brief exposure on those HTML stuff. Thanks God, I blog! Heheh!

9. It’s a way to promote business. Two of my friends used their blogs as a way of promoting their business (a colleague of mine who endorsed her crocheting business through Blogspot and a classmate wayback in college who made use of her Multiply site to promote her clothing business). I had created a separate blog for my pearl business too. Check it out!

10. It curtails boredom and loneliness. It’s very applicable to me, for a fact that I live on my own (as in alone, no housemate hehe!). There would be times when I just feel bored at my flat, and guess what? I’ll just go to my PC, and start scribbling with the keyboard! It’s a very healthy way to ease up the monotony.

The bottom line here is that “it’s always good to blog”. Though I’m not really urging you all to go make a blog in an instant. It’s still a matter of drive, passion and motivation. As what I’ve said, when something turns out to be a great hobby, then you’ll really have fun doing it! Don’t just force yourself to do blogging just because everybody’s doing it, and that you feel you’re left behind by the trend. Again, I say it has something to do with drive, passion and motivation. And once you have developed these three attributes, everything else follows – you’ll be having fun, you can share your thoughts and ideas, develop your writing skills, create friendship around the globe, earn money, promote your business, and a lot more!

One last cue: When you’re about to start making a blog, it sets your freedom. You can have a repository of anything that’s been cluttering on your mind. Express yourself, ‘ika nga. But this doesn’t mean posting anything offensive and foul words. There’s what we call “responsible blogging”, and it calls for a “responsible blogger”. Be one!