I am relatively new to the concept of blogging. In fact, this is the first blog that I created. For most people the reasons for blogging are vastly different, but the essential idea is luckily still rooted in ‘writing’.
What are the reasons that make so many people decide to put in that extra work to create and keep up a periodical publication on the interweb? For some people blogs function as an incentive to get into a writing routine. Others value the periodical nature of the medium and use it to publish their creations for a small community.
Both of these examples are not commercial. There is no benefit too the blogger apart from a good discussion with his/her readers.
Noncommercial blogs aim to:
- enable the writer to get into a writing routine
- publish periodically
- create or highlight points of discussion / broadcast an opinion
Of course, this is no definite list; there are many other reasons why some people maintain blogs. Some examples of these noncommercial blogs are Half an Hour or The Idiot Behind the Iron Mask, both of which simply exist for the sake of writing, even though the content is quite different. Of course most political blogs can also be considered noncommercial, as they aim to create or highlight points of discussion.
On the other hand, there are ‘commercial blogs’ that focus on attracting visitors that can then be funnelled to another webpage. It is these blogs that I want to focus on. A blog does not need to have ‘Buy me’ in every headline in order to be considered commercial, in fact the differences are much more subtle.
Commercial blogs aim to:
- attract traffic
- funnel this traffic into, for example, a portfolio or another project
- provide potential customers with a ‘social face’
Some might say that displaying advertisements on a blog should also be considered commercial, yet, I believe that this is not part of the reason to blog, it is an effect that results from the decision to blog: As soon as the money runs out or when the blog generates a lot of traffic, advertisements are suddenly an option.
There are a lot of positive effects of commercial blogging: They can be used to effectively launch another project without additional costs. This opens a lot of possibilities especially for the aspiring freelancer.
Yet, one has to consider the negative implications of commercial blogging. The interweb suddenly becomes one big self-driven PR-machine, which is great for the ones behind it, but on the other hand content usually suffers.
Therefore, I believe that if blogs are used to actively provide traffic for other projects, one should very much consider the implications for readers. I was very much disappointed by Panic’s marketing efforts for Coda: Suddenly full blown blog posts appeared all over the internet, which pretty much all echoed the same thing. A simple sidenote link would have done the trick as well.
However, this shouldn’t turn into a rant. I am myself guilty of being a little commercial, as this blog is directly linked to my portfolio, which I do not believe to be a problem.
My advise is to judge whether your blog (should you have one) is commercial, and if it is, try to not let the content suffer. Lastly, to get a little glimpse of the world that I have entered, I would like to hear your reasons for blog, whether commercial or not.