I’ve been tagged by El Jefe to write about why I blog. And I blog all over the place. So I’ll try to answer a more specific question: “why do I blog at WineLog.net”?

Why does WineLog.net even have a blog?
We are asked this a lot. And it’s true, we don’t really NEED a blog. WineLog’s core offering is the wine log itself. We want you to keep track of the wines you’re drinking so you’ll never forget that perfect (or sub-par) bottle. We want to recommend wines to you based on what we know about you, because we don’t want you to waste your money, time, or constitution on a bad wine.

But the WineLog blog also helps us and our users in a number of ways. In no particular order, we use this blog to…

1. Notify users of new features and expand on how to best use the site.
2. Market ourselves. We like it when websites to link to us. Many websites are blogs, and blogs like to link to other blogs.
3. Show our users how they can embed WineLog information and links in their blog posts to enhance their articles. Do like we do.
4. Motivate us to meet deadlines and release features and fixes faster. If I tell you all that I’ll have something ready by x date, I work extra hard to not let you down. This worked really well for WineLog Mobile, where we challenged ourselves to have it live by Valentines day.
5. Meet new and interesting people in the industry. Through this blog we’ve met folks like… well everyone on our about page. On top of that, this blog was a big part in communicating with other wine bloggers and folks running wine-related websites and companies.

What about me? Why do I blog personally?
I blog because I’m a creative person. Usually when someone says “I’m creative” it sounds like bragging, but I don’t mean to say that I’m smarter than the average person. What I mean is that I love to CREATE things. I need to create things. Whether it’s websites, paintings, poetry, tower defenses, or blog posts, I feel this need to produce and put things out there. (just realized that I need to get some of my paintings digitzed and online)

I guess part of it is some kind of selfish attempt to gain recognition or immortality. That’s a goal of many artists and “creative types”. Part of it is also a general desire to help people. I’ll write about something I feel people might find useful. But more than all that, I’m just scratching an itch. It’s very satisfying looking back at something you CREATED with your own skill and imagination. And the only way to get that feeling (or the best way I know) is to actually create things.

Blogging is conversations. Blogging is cool.
One thing we’re creating through this blog is conversations. It’s the beauty of the Internet and this thing we call the blogosphere.

With the risk of preaching to the quire, I just have to say… People who spend a lot of time online are often misunderstood. “Why if he only had friends, he’d had something else to do besides sit at that computer.” What you and I understand that some don’t is that the internet is all about friends.

And not only do I have friends online, but my online friends are usually “better” than friends I meet in person because I’m more likely to have befriended them because of their personality, beliefs, and interests. Whereas we befriend people in ‘the real world” because they live near us or work at the same place. Now, I’m not saying that it’s impossible to meet friends in everyday life or that the friends I’ve met outside the internet aren’t supremely cool. It’s just a lot easier to find people you strike a chord with when you’re fishing in a pool of millions that spans the entire globe than when you limit yourself to just the people who have a physical proximity to you.

So what does this seemingly off-topic discussion have to do about why I blog. Well, you’re all friends. I blog to be friendly. So when a friend “tags” me, I’ll take a little time to write something up and add another thread to this never-ending conversation.