Why A Blog?

In the most general terms, a blog is a letter to the open community of the world wide web, or a journal page left flopping open for passers-by to read. Really successful blogs aren't just thoughts and feelings, however: there's a recipe for drawing readers back to catch up with the blogger again and again.

First and foremost, the author of a blog must be interesting, or should at least endeavor to make themselves appear different from Joe or Jane Blogger. Whether the blogger in question is unusually well-spoken, artistic and offbeat, or morbidly fascinating, they appeal to an audience of more than one. Between thoughts and feelings, a successful blog typically adds a liberal measure of facts, a dash of truth, a tablespoon of theory.

Now, there's no saying that the facts or truth or theories are correct, but they are posited for the benefit of the reader in real words published to a real site somewhere on the internet. As a matter of fact (pardon the pun), I've just established my own theory about a successful blog and its author.

In any case, I'd love to author a successful blog, but it's not my primary aim. Why a blog, then? To make you laugh, or at least to make you smile, or at the very least to share a few words with people who aren't in my office, or on the speed dial keys of my cell phone. Maybe I'll find an old friend this way, or make a new friend. Maybe I'll just become a part of the landscape on the worldwide web. I will have been a part of the landscape, though, and that's something...