Born to Be Good by Dacher Keltner

Born to Be Good by Dacher Keltner

One of the first questions a potential blogger needs to ask themselves is why become a blogger?  The reasons can be as numerous and varied as the number of bloggers themselves.  Just a few common examples:

  • Keeping distant family members updated on what’s happening within your domesticated four walls
  • Engaging potential and existing customers in a dialogue surrounding your product and/or the marking in which your product exists
  • Allowing a team, club or other organization to have a 24/7 connection and sharing of information about their interests and activities
  • Simply evaluating the merits of the best burgers!  Sorry – just had to do it.
  • You simply need to express yourself

Regardless of the reason, every web site, podcast or magazine article with which I come into contact strongly urges that you do it about a subject in which you are passionate!  Passion will drive the success.  Passion will cause a better final product.  Passion will contribute to financial opportunities if that is your goal.

One perfect example of focusing that passion is Molly Lee Cards.  Molly is a fellow blogger and and insanely creative designer who used to have a blog with family fun and an occasional reference to her greeting cards and invitations she sells on her Etsy.com site, which is an online marketplace for selling handmade items.  I suggested to her that while I enjoy the family videos and photos, they distracted me when I visited to view her latest creation.

My thought was for her to split out the family fun into a new blog, allowing family members to keep up, but it would provide the appropriate focus needed for her cards. Not only has her site become more professional overnight, she has been transformed into constantly feeding the monster with a wonderful burst of energy, creativity and, from my perspective, head-shaking  amazement, about her cards.   I’m going to keep thinking that her increase in sales recently are due in part to that realignment. Don’t burst my bubble!   

Born to Be Good – The Science of a Meaningful Life, by Dacher Keltner.

Mr. Keltner was interviewed on a podcast I enjoyed recently and was fascinated.  He talked about how we can engineer our own “meaning” in our lives through the science behind human interactions that build rapport, relationships and happiness.  Admittedly, this might be a stretch for a “Why Blog?” post, but here’s the point:  passion can be found in a number of different areas of our lives.  If you can’t find it, engineer it.  But the critical piece is that you must find that passion.  Without it, the juice behind the blog will be watered down at best.  Your passion will be noticed in your blog.  For more background, here’s a link to a New York Times article.

So why am I doing this?

My reason is simple: at some point in my life, I plan to retire.  Retirement doesn’t mean a rocking chair and afghan.  Nope.  It means doing something new; something different.  My goal is to learn enough about monetizing blogs so that I can put strategies in place to support my nasty golf habit during retirement.  The way it’s looking though, blogging is starting to become my new nasty habit.  Remember that passion thing?

Regardless of your reason for blogging, do it for the right reason.  Take your time and identify your own personal reasons.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend help me understand and identify mine.

Explore your passion.

Dave