Five Reasons Why I Blog

I was semi-tagged with this meme about three weeks ago by Paul Raven of the rather superb Velcro City Tourist Board. Three weeks? I know, I know. My excuse is that I've been gathering my thoughts ever since... <cough>

I realise this is now an Old Meme and there's a lot of it around, so I've made a point of not reading anyone else's answers on the topic so as to avoid picking up any of their threads. Paul's own answers can be found here and I'm sure a Technorati search (or two) on the subject will turn up dozens more (okay, about 471 in total...)

Right then, short version first, if you just want to read 'em and move on:

1) To Win Friends and Influence People - Make contact with like minded people and have conversations with them about the things we find mutually fascinating.

2) To Get Rich Quick - Well, no, but certainly to help sustain and develop my career as a freelance webguy by helping me to provide the best service I can to my existing client roster and hopefully put me in touch with potential new clients.

3) To Practice What I Preach - If I can set a decent blogging example for my author clients then more of them might be inspired to take up the blogging habit, which can only be good for them in the long run...

4) To Learn, and Go On Learning - Life's too short to ever stop learning new things, and the best way to find out about all the relevant interesting new things on offer is to let folks know what I'm interested in, then see what other people have to say about what's out there, and then help to spread the word.

5) I Just Can't Get Enough - I'm a frustrated (read: undisciplined, poorly motivated, lazy) wannabe novelist, but although I probably don't have the stones for the long haul it seems that I really, really have to be writing something and blogging gives me an outlet for the random pulses of creativity that wrack my system from time to time.

Long version, y'say? Well, I'm going to use the 'more' link on this one, because otherwise my entire homepage is going to be one huge wall of text until I find the energy to write and post something else...

So, if you're at all interested in the thought processes behind the answers, then please do read on.

Oh, wait! First I have to tag some other folks, right? Seems that 5 is the most popular number, so here goes... take it away: