In a recent post: Finding Balance in Retirement, I indicated the need to explore the answer to: “Why do I blog”. Answering this question will help ground my thinking, my motivation, and my style for future posts.
Motivations for blogging
What are my motivations?
Having Fun
Without overthinking it I will state the obvious: it’s fun!
It’s fun because it gives me a creative outlet. I love deciding which visuals to include and preparing those visuals.
I also enjoy the creative writing challenge, doing my best to keep it entertaining and readable.
Making Myself Findable
If anyone out there actually wants to find me, I would like my blog to help them do so.
My recent Google search for “mark pastor” did not go very well, which highlights the need to work on findability.
My strategy is to have straight forward URLs like “markpastor.com” and “markpastor.blog” and a link to those from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. The good news is I have done all of that; now let’s see if anyone actually looks.
Journaling
I have over 100,000 photos stored in the cloud. I do not expect anyone to take the time to parse through those pictures. Even now that Google, Apple and Adobe have come a long way with search tools, the effort it takes to peruse the pics is still detracting. And, without a narrative to accompany the photo’s, their value is further diminished. With that said, perhaps a journal (i.e. blog) that is searchable, focused on the highlights, and provides a narrative for the visuals, has a chance of finding a reader. Who might that be?
Who is the Audience?
Ahhh… the always present questions when I pursue any creative project: “Who cares?”
Me
I love the occasional look-back.
Where have I been?
What was I doing at the time?
What was I thinking 🙂 ?
The Possibility of Someone Else
Over 6 billion people on earth have active access to the global internet1. It’s possible that one or more of those people might find some of my blog interesting. At the moment I have no idea who they are or why they might be interested, but here are some possibilities.
- Someone who knows me: a friend, family member or acquaintance: perhaps they’re curious about “what has become of Mark?”, or “what has he been up to?”. I believe in the possibility that there is someone like that.
- A stranger from the blogging world. Often after publishing a post, someone from out there will comment on or like my blog. Sometimes they may just be looking to gain their own visibility. Might there be others looking for interesting content from strangers? I hope that’s a possibility.
- Someone who finds my content interesting. Do they like the artistic approach to photos or other art? Did I write about a topic or say something that actually took flight? I dream of the possibility.
The truth is out there.
Summary
I blog because it’s a fun and creative outlet where I can produce a searchable repository of images and thoughts for anyone out there that might be interested or that might want to find me.