Newbie Blogger Tips: Why You Should Blog #NBIMMO #MMONBI

Before I post any advice regarding writing and maintaing a blog, I thought it would be a good idea if I first discussed the reasons why you, dear reader, should blog.

Many people find reasons not to do something. A good number of people choose to do something because despite all those myriad reasons to not do a particular action, they find one redeeming reason to go ahead and try anyway.

Sometimes, you may feel scared that you’d get rejected by fellow bloggers or maybe even trolled by people. Other times, you may not like the lack of attention on your blog, or you may not be confident in your ability to write anything. Worse still, you might feel like your opinions shouldn’t matter, and so for any and all of the above reasons, you choose not to blog.

Well I’m here to tell you that there isn’t just one good reason to blog: there’s a couple of excellent reasons to go onto a blogging platform and write about your experiences playing games.

For one thing, there is scientific evidence that points to blogging being mentally healthy for people. It allows people to feel less isolated and more confident in the strength of their friendships when they’re able to blog.

Related to this, another good reason to blog is that it lets flex your mental (and possibly your emotional) muscles a bit. By writing things down, you’re learning to organize your thoughts, which in itself is an excellent exercise to keep your brain active. It also lets you improve your writing abilities. Best of all, you can also use blogging to destress from particular events, good or bad.

One of the other wonderful benefits behind blogging is the interactivity you get when blogging. If people read your work, they can comment on it and provide their own take on your writings, or offer advice and insight as needed. As mentioned earlier, blogging is as much as socializing force as it is an introspective output.

Perhaps my favorite reason for starting and continuing blogging is its worth in allowing for visible retrospection. Over a long period of blogging, I have amassed hundreds (probably more than a thousand) posts, be they personal, professional, or leisure-related. I sometimes keep copies of my favorite posts and look at them once in a while to see the way I used to think about things before, compared to how I think about them now. In a nutshell, blogging allows you to chart your growth as a person, and can even help you see warning signs if you’re starting to feel burnt out or depressed about certain things in your life.

All these being said, those are four pretty good reasons to blog. I encourage you to take up the mantle of a blogger (whether for games or personal blogging), join us at the Newbie Blogger Initiative forums, introduce yourself so we can help you along the path of writing.

Cheers!

Introducing the Newbie Blogger Initiative

 

I’ve been away from my regular computer for nearly a month now, so I haven’t had the chance to really write anything other than work posts as I’ve been spending time with family in San Francisco.

That said, I do have something important I’d like to share with the readers here.

Justin, otherwise known as Syp from Bio Break, contacted a lot of folks last month to prepare a concerted effort to get readers and interested parties to start and maintain a blog (about games, but heck, if you want to start a personal blog too, I think that’s excellent). It’s called the Newbie Blogger Initiative, and it aims to introduce folks to blogging by getting established bloggers to provide commentary, insights, and general help regarding the blogging process.

More than 70 bloggers have pledged their support to write posts for this month to help new or interested parties along in blogging. I will also be participating in this initiative, and I hope folks out there reading entries from myself or other participants will join the Newbie Blogger Initiative forums, sign up, and consider asking folks for help or advice in the appropriate places. đŸ™‚

Cheers to all, and I’ll have another post up in a few hours when I have the chance. đŸ™‚