I think “public note-taking” is a helpful way to think about blogging. I continue to blog because I enjoy it. It helps me articulate my own ideas, and it allows me to share those ideas with anyone who is interested. For me, writing blog posts is not about self-promotion or building any kind of platform. It’s about practicing the skill of writing and creating a digital repository of (hopefully) coherent thoughts to share with others. I link to my posts when I want to share ideas with friends and colleagues, and occasionally friends will interact with me via private messages when they see the posts on social media.

Friends will sometimes tell me that they want to write more, but they aren’t sure what they want to write about or how to get into the rhythm. I think blogging is a great way to get into the rhythm of writing. Some people seem to have an idea of blogging that creates a road block to them giving it a try. They think of blogging as a self-promotion platform, like it was in 2010, but hardly any one builds a personal platform via blogging. Platform-building happens via other media now. Blogging is still, however, a great way to practice writing and share your thoughts with friends.

Another hang-up I hear sometimes has to do with the topic/focus of a blog. Some people think their blog has to be about one particular narrow subject. But if you embrace the idea of a blogging as public note-taking, it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re not trying to maintain any particular niche audience. You’re practicing writing and sharing your thoughts with people who are interested. In my experience, “people who are interested” are people whom you already know. They don’t read your blog because it is a source of content on one particular subject. They follow because they care about you and/or because you sent them one particular post. So create a personal site and practice writing about anything you are interested in. Just write!

Tolle scribe!