Facibus On Blogging

This is the first in a series of get a real blog posts, designed to help you make the jump to self-hosted blogging (if that’s what you want to do).

So… what do you want from your blog? Sounds like an easy question. Have a look through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for bloggers and you’ll see it isn’t quite so simple (and it requires a lot of self-honesty):

• Physiological needs are those required for minimal physical subsistence - the stuff that we need to live, and while I believe that all the layers of the pyramid are important, we can go without the others for short periods. Is it relevant as a motivator for bloggers? Unless you are being tortured into blogging, or use blogging itself for sexual gratification, then it probably doesn’t apply. I’d rate this as a fairly rare motivator.
• Safety is important - and I believe that this covers physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual safety. I can only think of a couple of cases where safety is a motivator for bloggers: (a) when the blogger’s personal beliefs rely on a view that needs to be promulgated through blogging (as in a spiritual mission), or (b) there is a fear of a loss of safety through not blogging (and granted, this could be the same thing). I’m guessing that both of these cases are extreme.
• Love/Belonging is where it starts to get interesting - there is a fine line between blogging because all of your friends do (acceptance of peer pressure is usually placed in the Love/Belonging category), and blogging for the recognition of your friends (which is probably placed in the Esteem category - can anyone confirm?). Regardless, I believe that Love and Belonging are noticeable motivators for bloggers. Will they be sustainable when things become impossibly successful? Love may conquer all, but could the lack of it motivate us to blog?
• Esteem is probably the easiest category of need to identify with blogging. If we look deep inside ourselves, chances are that most of us blog because we like the recognition that it brings. Sure, the recognition may be shared with a business or a partner. Low self esteem increases the need for recognition, but I wouldn’t draw the conclusion that successful bloggers have low self esteem. The esteem might come from blog income, an increase in services sales, or increased product awareness. It may be that the esteem payoff, if not forthcoming, is a prime source of the blog monster.
• Self-Actualisation is the first of Maslow’s growth needs, and is where a lot of us see ourselves as bloggers - we’re on a mission to improve ourselves and others. Sometimes we succeed While I jest, I believe that there is an important thing at work here - creativity. In blogging, we generally think, solving problems in a way that reinforces and extends this aspect of our life experience (in plain language, we use what we have to get what we want and what we have gets better as a result). I’d argue that while self-actualisation is essential to a well-rounded life, it is not a sustainable motivator for bloggers - exercising our creativity is usually a by-product rather than a key motive to keep blogging.

At the time I picked Esteem as the likely need being met by blogging for most people - but a lot of people had differing opinions.

In more practical terms, for the purposes of this exercise, it might be worth picking one or more of the following statements:

• “I have stuff that I want to get off my chest and I don’t care if anyone else ever sees it”,
• “I want to blog to promote my business/book/charity/patient support group/cause”,
• “I want to be better known in my profession”, and/or
• “I want to make money from blogging”.

It can be the hardest thing in the world to be honest with yourself. A little self-honesty now will help you a great deal further down the track. The thing is, if you picked anything but the first option, you would be better off with a self-hosted blog complete with your own domain name. In every case, it is easier to get exposure that way (all other things being equal).

Some of the other factors (such as platform and making money) are linked to a certain extent, so it is important to know which of the above statements fits - and not just now, but where you see yourself in 12 months time. Pick one for now (and it is OK to change your mind later, trust me)

Next: we’ll look at picking the right domain name.