Thursday 4 November 2010

Why do I blog?

Time to go all philosophical on you with that eternal question: what's the point in blogging?

I won't pretend to speak for anyone other than myself. The motives of other bloggers I'm sure are as diverse as the blogs themselves. I won't bother trying to guess what they are.

Let's get the kick rolling with what I'm not attempting.

To become a professional beer writer. There's no money in it. Not unless you're prepared to invest the whole of your energy into the attempt. In any case, why should I? My day job pays better than beer writing by several motorways. And I've enough free time after work to write pretty much as much as I want.

To be a journalist. Doesn't interest me at all. That's why I avoid all that news stuff. There's no satisfaction for me in recycling the same press releases and a few hundred others.


To make myself a brand. I'm a man. A free man, not a brand.

To make money. My beer activities cost me money. Quite a bit, if I start adding it up. How much do you reckon 500 books cost?


Now let's kick the roll in the opposite direction. Why do I blog?


Alan told me to. That's really why I started. Alan McCleod wrote "You should start a blog, Ron." So that's what I did. I'm very easily influenced.

To keep track of my material. I've unearthed so much stuff, it's hard to keep in order. The blog is the perfect place to store it.

I enjoy writing. Pretty simple, really. More of an addiction than a hobby. Why else would a person as profoundly lazy as me writes so effing much?

Feedback. Running my ideas past others. Asking questions about the (many) technical details I don't understand.

Memories. My memory of events is notoriously crap. Writing up my travels saves me the bother of trying to remember them. And gives me something to blackmail the kids with in later life.

That's enough navel-gazing for another year or two. Time to return to numbers, charts, obscure texts and low-grade humour.

6 comments:

Cooking Lager said...

Fair play, mate.

I do it because cheap lager is widely dismissed and under appreciated. I want others to love it as I do. People also send you free beer, which is pretty decent of them.

DrJohn said...

I was hoping the reason you blogged was to spread joy and light throughout the world! And I think you overlooked a cost there, Ron; it usually comes in bottles and kegs....

Alan said...

I think I got into beer blogging so that one day I would run into Ron P. and tell him to start writing a beer blog. Everything other than that bears nothing to the effect I had with that one email.

Paul Bailey said...

Nice post, Ron. I'm not really sure why I blog, apart from the fact I enjoy it!

Flagon of Ale said...

I do enjoy this blog. It's clearly more full of information than any other beer blog out there.

However, there is a crap load of ads on this blog for someone who has no interest in making money from it ;)

Leigh said...

I like the breakdown, mate! me? to interact with people I like about a subject I like, and to promote people who brew the stuff that I like, to get more people to drink the stuff that I like! (phew)....