Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Purpose of Blogging and Vlogging

A friend started a discussion on Facebook a few months ago by stating this in her status:
"I hate blogs!"
That was it!  That was her entire status.  People were commenting, and one guy even said something to the effect of, "I take offense to that!"
The friend that made the original post finally stated, "It seems that these people are trying to promote themselves in some way!  I don't like that!"  
In this day and age, blogs and vlogs are every where.  They are used to talk about, discuss, and explain anything and everything.  Some are funny. Some are political.  Some are very personal, like a journal or a diary.
Some people are obsessed with reading blogs.  They can have a voyeuristic feel to them. The reader gets this insight into a person's very deepest and sometimes darkest secrets.  The reader feels privy to that person's life.  Maybe the reader shares a thing or two in common with the blogger that creates a bond for them.  A bond that may be one sided, but it's there.  Maybe it's not even a deep dark secret that the reader has in common with the blogger, but things that happen in every day life.  The stay at home mommy blogger that is just trying to survive.  The blogger that has a day job, but masquerades at night as someone completely different.
I personally love reading blogs about people who have struggled and survived!  I live vicariously through that blogger's personal triumph.  And what's awesome about that is, they so wholeheartedly shared their triumph with me.  They may not even know I personally stock their blogs, are as most people call it, follow their blog.
Some people read blogs to find out what's happening with their friends and relatives.  People don't pick up the telephone or send letters as much as they used to.  Remember the old family Christmas Letter every one used to send around the Holidays?  Now, families don't do that as often, because they can just post it to their blog and anyone can read it!  They don't have to spend the money on stamps, pictures, pretty Christmas paper, because most blogs are free.  That saves a lot of families quite a some of money. 
A lot of my family members that live across the country have blogs that I follow.  A lot of them have not been updating very often, or at all lately.  I can't afford to fly across the county to visit them, but I can see pictures of my great nieces and great nephews or other family members just by reading their blogs. Not that I wouldn't love to see my family members and friends that live across the country in person, but this definitely saves me some money.  Plus, I can still feel connected to them.
There are a ton of blogs out there right now that are informative.  There are blogs for crafting, food and recipes, personal finances, to fixing objects, cleaning the house, and all sorts of other things people just want to know.  If a reader needs to fix their refrigerator, they can Google "fix refrigerator" and 100 Youtube videos and blogs will come up of how to do it.  If a person wants to crochet a sweater, again, they can Google "crochet sweater" and it will bring up numerous blogs and vlogs of how to accomplish that!  It's so handy!
I have used craft blogs a few times in my life to get things accomplished.  My biggest problem with knitting for a while was "casting off."  Well, I Googled it, found a blog that showed pictures in how to do it, and finished the blanket I was knitting.  It saved my project from being stuck on my knitting needles forever!  I use a lot of blogs for finding new recipes.  I love to cook!  If I have an idea for a recipe, but don't know how to execute it, I search for a blog on line. I could have had quite a few catastrophic dinners without some of the awesome food and recipe blogs that are out there!
Then, there are humor blogs.  If you don't know what a humor blog is, than, let me enlighten you!  I follow so many of them!  A lot of my favorites are captioned pictures, like Cakewrecks and Award Family Photos.  There are so many others!  The point of these blogs are just to make you laugh.  I can spend hours looking at Ihascheeseburger's lol cats and dogs.  Sometimes, I just need to lighten my mood, and I'll go look at a humor blog for a little bit and walk away smiling.
People or bloggers/vloggers can make money off of their writings and videos.  They include ads on the blogs and vlogs, like I do, in hopes that maybe someone will click on them and make a little money.  Some people live completely off of their blogs and vlogs.  Look at the Shaytards. They are a family that is completely out of doubt due to their vlogs on Youtube. 
There are a lot of Stay at Home Moms that write blogs and do vlogs in hopes they will make money too.  This isn't a bad thing.  It's just one way the world is changing.  People may not read as many books these days, sad as it may be, but they sure are reading things on the internet! Writing blogs and recording vlogs are ways of self publishing.  It's a huge market.  It seems right now, everyone is searching for their little corner of that market.
So, don't blame me if I want just a little piece of that corner.  If my blogs ever take off and start making a profit, it would be awesome to pay off some more debt, or even maybe someday make enough off of them to be a Stay at Home mom. 
I love supporting other bloggers and vloggers that are trying to get started.  It's a community of people that love what they are doing and keep doing what they're doing for that reason. I have friends that write blogs that are book reviews, about countries, and about music and other things.  They all are great writers, and their blog content is worth reading. Go and check them out! 

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