The Article Writer

Have you ever considered the reasons why you blog? You may have a few ideas why you do what you do, but have you ever put them down on paper and listed your reasons according to importance?

With one year ending and another about to begin I have been giving a lot of thought to what I do and why I do it. It simply isn’t enough for me to say that I am a freelance writer, rather I have to give an account for the time I spend writing for customers, marketing my business, social networking, and blogging.

I’ve been writing for many years but blogging steadily for just over two years; although I believe I can make a living without blogging, I choose to blog and for the following reasons:

1. Blogging Is Enjoyable — For me, there isn’t any reason to blog unless I like to blog. If I did not enjoy blogging, I would soon grow restless and bored. Why add another “must do” task to the daily grind? I will quit blogging the moment blogging drops to the level of flossing my teeth.

2. I Reach A Lot Of People — Although I like to think that I reach a lot of people through my websites, online work, referrals, social communities, and more, it is through blogging that a lot of people find me and I find them. Blogging is one of the best ways to connect with people across the world wide web — besides, unlike with a forum, if someone flames me I can delete their messages!

3. Blogging Is Easy — Coming up with the right words to say isn’t always easy, but once you do posting them online is a snap. Thanks to blog platforms like WordPress, all I have to do is post what I want when I want it posted and my work is done. No messing around with with HTML pages, no FTP-ing to the internet and no lost time spent on wasteful administrative tasks. (Okay, I did upgrade this blog to WP v.2.3.2 this morning, but it was a three-minute change, that’s all!)

4. Blogging Is Forgivable — If I am a little bit sloppy with my sentence structure or I mess up on a word or two, readers are much more likely to overlook a mistake on a blog then they would elsewhere. I still look at blog as being online journals, a place to write informally and without a ton of pressure to edit again and again. Where else can you find out what is going on inside this great mind of mine then on this blog?

5. Blogging Is Profitable — All right, paid links are dead and the occasional click on an ad pays me chump change, but blogging is financially rewarding. I get paid to blog on two other blogs and I’ve landed work simply because a client found this blog and liked my writing style. Blog monetization may not be what it used to be, but I have no reason to complain.

2007 is coming to an end and 2008 will give us bloggers one additional day on February 29th to blog. Unless your blogging includes Reason #1, is there any reason for you to continue blogging in 2008?

There are still a few days left in 2007, but now is as good a time as any to run down the list of the ten most read The Article Writer (TAW) blog articles for the year. Next to Time Magazine’s Person of the Year issue, I’m sure that this entry isn’t that far behind!

Some of the articles that placed big were a surprise to me. Thanks to StumbleUpon, you just never knew when an article would go viral and just how widespread its reach would be. FYI, every article that placed well was written during the second half of the year when I upped the ante with my link baiting strategy.

Without further blather, I give to you the Top 10 TAW Reads for 2007:

1. Firefox Wants You To Pay For Their Marketing Campaign — With more than 5000 page views, this article was the clear winner. Looking back, it wasn’t entirely accurate either!

2. 6 Months of StumbleUpon Fun — I thought that a StumbleUpon (SU) post would have won out, but a second place finish is still very good. I have learned that almost any mention of SU draws a strong response — SU was the largest traffic generator of TAW for the year, sending to me 44% of all traffic.

3. Your Blog Has Died And I Really Miss It! — Who says there isn’t a place for blog humor? Although it wasn’t the top visited article, it generated nearly 50 comments from readers.

4. Helium Responds To My Critique Of Their Service — I wrote about the Helium Marketplace or HM (see #5) and that elicited a response from Helium which was the centerpiece of this article. I thought HM was a bad idea back then and I still think that it is today.

5. The Helium Marketplace: Don’t Make This Terrible Mistake — see #4.

6. I Am The Fad Police: Now Cut That Out! — I like to poke fun at the various blog rulemakers who tell us how to blog, how often to blog, why to blog, etc. The nerve of them!

7. Have I Been Sending Stumble Thunder Your Way? — After posting this article, I thought using the word tsunami instead of thunder would have been a better choice.

8. Just A Blip On The Facebook Radar — I’m still not all that visible on Facebook, so I was surprised that article attracted much attention. Maybe I need to blog about Facebook as much as I do about StumbleUpon!

9. The Writing Habits Of Effective Freelancers — Yes, I do blog about writing directing my words to other freelance writers. We freelance writers not only like to write, but we also like to read about how other freelancers work.

10. Grammar Gremlins You Must Exorcise — It must have been the Halloween theme which brought in the visitors for this article. Still, grammar miscues can be a real killer and are worth discussing from time to time.

The results of this report do not include articles that appeared on my The Auto Writer blog or HTML articles posted elsewhere on this domain. Visitors to this URL found this blog first, the home page of URL second, and my auto blog third.

How about you? Have you tracked the performance of articles you have written? If so, please hit the reply button and share the link to your recap here.

Happy New Year and Happy Blogging!

I had the idea of developing a brilliant post for today but a couple of deadlines and an uncooperative internet connection scotched those plans rather quickly. Instead, as I plan on making myself scarce over the next ten days or so, I thought I’d share with my brilliant and faithful readers some link love, the final dispensation from me for 2007:

Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame shared information about a free ebook he read for us creative types. Time Management for Creative People was written by Mark McGuinness a writer and creativity coach who shares with his readers tips on how to manage your time and increase your productivity. I’ll be downloading my copy and reading it first thing in 2008.

Speaking of writers, Laura Spencer recently shared her frustrations when visiting a slow-loading website (I hope that it wasn’t this one); Georganna Hancock discussed the differences between published and unpublished work (with a surprise for me that blogging isn’t considered as published by some); Lillie Ammann posted some of her blogging goals for 2008; and Chris Bibey shared the struggles every freelance writer has this time of the year — trying to get it all done to allow for some much needed time off.

I’m a frequent visitor over at SEOmoz (gotta keep tabs on page strength, right?) and routinely read what Randfish and others have to say. No surprise there, but SEOmoz reports that technology sites receive the lion’s share of Google search traffic. If only I could convert this blog into a full blown, techno site. Nah, I think I’ll stay the course for 2008!

Seeing that I’m having some difficulty getting this blog article done, I’ll reserve my next batch of helpful links for early 2008. In the meantime, I want to thank each of my readers for stopping by and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!