Seven reasons why you (yes, you!) should have a blog

Used with permission, Creative Commons: Annie Mole

Unless you've been living under the permafrost in the martian tropics for the past few years, you might have noticed that everybody but you has a blog.

There are a whole lot of good reasons why you should start one, too. Here are some of them:

• Enhance your reputation
  
  On the one hand, unless you're Seth Godin or Michael Hyatt, there are probably things you can do to increase the number of people who think of you when they're in a conversation about your area of expertise.
  
  On the other hand, Seth Godin and Michael Hyatt have blogs. Hmmm. I wonder why.



• Meet likeminded people
  
  If you're writing about a particular topic, social media is the easiest way to develop a network.



• Get help. Give help.
  
  Reciprocity drives the world. Since most of the content on blogs is free, what's the incentive for posting? Mutual learning and collaborative problem solving! Post a story of how you overcame a challenge, and read someone else's narrative so you can avoid a mistake.



• Improve your writing
  
  You can only go as far as your communication skills will carry you. Want to go farther? Get better at articulating why. The more you write in public, the more constructive feedback you'll receive about how you should write in public.



• Legacy: Pass on what you're doing
  
  Pardon me in advance for lecturing in ethics, but if you have any capability whatsoever--a skill, knowledge, or a talent--and you are not actively passing it on, then you are actively contributing to its demise. The responsible and altruist course of action would be to freely share your knowledge with others using the most effective and resource-efficient means possible.
  
  Guess what. Yeah, blog.



• Create new relationships
  
  The new Web world (see What's the big deal about Web 2.0?) is interactive. It's active. It's dynamic. It facilitates conversation.
  
  If you get involved in it, you will make friends. Real friends. There are human beings at the other end of these wires. They're ready to hear from you.



• Sanity
  
  If you can't get out much, you're going to go batty without an outlet. Take an opportunity to investigate some of the great, free tools that let you start calling the shots an interacting with others.

Figuring out what to post and how to post it are technicalities. Dig in and go for it! You'll be thrilled with the benefits.

Question:
Have you started a blog?
Post the link here so we all can read it.