Why Do I Blog?

This week marks my sixth year of blogging. As you may have gathered from my post last week, it's probably a surprise that I've managed to last this long. Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am.

So why do it? Why, day after (almost every) day continue to put it myself out there? A few reasons, I suppose.

• The fame. Nothing distinguishes you from the masses like having a blog. I mean, there are only 152,000,000 blogs on the internet. Famous things are popular. Therefore, because it's popular to have a blog, I am famous. (Like my Facebook page! Follow me on Twitter!)
• The money. Famous = rich, right?
• The easy content. Since posts go up more days than not, it makes sense that the actual creation of posts is simple. Knock out those words, then sit back and rake in the rewards.

Okay, so anyone who has blogged (or written anything) knows that this is not so. Blogging probably won't make you famous or rich and frequently it's not all that easy to come up with compelling, worth-while content. So for reals? Why keep doing?

• The relationships. No, I'm not famous (though I've had the opportunity to blog for some folks who are significantly more famous than me!), but I've made some really amazing relationships over the years. My virtual village lives in blogland and I am truly grateful for the friendships that I've developed.
• The book opportunities. Again, these aren't big money-makers, but due to the blog, I have been able to have a book published and am currently working on compiling a second. I would not have had these opportunities if not for blogging.
• The hard content. I'm thankful for this being a place where I can write about stuff that's hard, like coming to grips with an interfaith-marriage or tackling LGBT issues. You have made it safe to write about feeling rejected or even just anticipating rejection. Blogging has let me work out some of my crazy and I hope that it's given a reader or two the opportunity to work out some of their own crazy. 

So thanks for continuing to read. This place would be way more boring without you.

And if you figure out how to get famous and rich from blogging, let me know.

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Do you blog? Why do you do it? Leave a link to your blog and/or to your favorite blog in the comments!