Kokikabuto

Why do you want to blog?

If you cannot answer this question, you are more likely not yet prepared to start your own blog. There are several reasons why people blog. According to a report by Bonnie A. Nardi, Diane J. Schiano, Michelle Gumbrecht and Luke Swartz, there are basically 5 reasons why people blog:

1. People blog to document their life

• You want to document what happened to you during your pregnancy, etc.
  

2. People blog to write about their commentaries and opinion

• You blog to campaign against global warming
  

3. People blog to express what they feel

• You blog what you feel about working in a foreign country
  

4. People blog because they want to write

• You blog to write poems and stories
  

5. People blog to build communities

• You blog to make friends with other bloggers
  

With the advent of payperclick programs, affiliate programs, paid reviews and blog ads, more and more people, however, are starting to blog to earn money. This is evident in a large number of blogs blogging of ways to make money online.

I made this site to help my friends who want to start blogging and to serve as a helpful guide for those who have already started blogging.

Background

I started to blog in 2005 (G-Blogs) but I was not able to pursue mobile blogging because of the recurring technical problems with G-Blogs. I went on to use bravenet, blogger, wordpress.com and I currently blog in a self hosted wordpress.

One of the challenges I met while exploring the world of blogging is that I do not have a friend who actually blogs. (Yes, I am still overcoming my shyness making friends with other bloggers). This meant that I have to do my own research to understand what RSS is, spend endless hours trying to figure out how I can drive traffic to my site and skip meals just to know how to strategically place google adsense in my posts.

Just last August, I had a hard time when I started my self hosted wordpress. The customer service representative of my host sucks. He was very UNHELPFUL while I was installing wordpress simply because "they do not provide support for wordpress installation". I felt so helpless during that time because I do not have any close friend or classmate or cousin, etc who can actually help me with my concern.

Now, I am a blogging prophet, I tell my friends the benefits of blogging. I tell them that blogging can help them promote their advocacies and express their beliefs and opinions. Of course I also tell my friends that I am receiving cheques from adsense (which reminds me, my 3rd cheque hasnt arrived yet).

So here are my friends specially Ernie asking me what I now consider as trivial things. (Where do I get templates, how can I add this, etc.) and the number of my blogging friends is increasing. My friend Cathy who is in Indonesia was asking me how she can start to blog and Emily just bought her laptop. (I promised her I will teach her how she can monetize her blog as soon as she has bought a laptop).

Purpose of this blog

Unfortunately, I am not a full time blogger. I am a busy person so I need to come up with a means how I can help my friends with blogging without me teaching each of them. I do not want my friends to experience the same ordeals that I had.

I decided I will be writing a blogging guide for them so here are some of the things that I have learned which will mostly be guidelines for people who want to start blogging.