Blogging for knowledge, love and money?

I recently declared my intentions to blog more regularly and even managed to inspire (bully) a few others to join in too. Ever since that moment I have been asking myself why. Why do I blog and why do I want to blog more regularly?

I originally built this website because I make websites for a living and I wanted showcase myself professionally. Unfortunately all the initial enthusiasm soon wore off and this blog began collecting virtual dust.

So in an attempt to focus my mind on the task and get motivated I’d like to outline the reasons why is it that I want to blog more regularly, if at all.

To expand my own knowledge

They say that reading books and listening to videos is never as good as actually getting stuck in and practicing a task yourself. I would add to this that sharing that knowledge with others helps us to expand our knowledge even further.

Being able to articulate and explain something, particularly when it is something complex like making a website, requires you to achieve an accuracy and depth of knowledge which exceeds that required to understand it alone.

To help others

How many times have you been tearing your hair out with a problem then by some miracle you stumble upon a blog with the perfect solution?

How many times were you about to begin work on a problem and discovered that some other person had not only already solved it but shared the solution on their website and open-sourced their work?

For me both those occurrences are daily events. People are selfless enough to spend hours of their own time to help some person they will most likely never meet. Now that I am a little bit older, and marginally wiser, I would like to give something back.

For cold hard cash

I have not previously tried to make money from this website however I have decided to give it a go and donate the proceeds to charity. I will pay for the hosting and other running costs myself so 100% of the money generated will be passed on.