What is the purpose of a blog

[Greenleaves]

I have read a few of the blogs on here and around the web but still dont understand the purpose of them

Are they meant to be online diaries or info pages or a combination of both?

My all time favourite is written by Noosner but I always enjoy Sparrows and MartinH blogs...

I tire very quickly of self proclaiming blogs and those with deliberately placed adverts but still dont understand what they are for ...... anyone care to enlighten me?

[craftymarie]

Some blogs are written like diaries - what I did today type info. I always think they are more for the benefit of the writer than the reader since readers generally find it easier to read blog posts based on a single topic than wading through posts filled with random information in date order.

Some are written to inform and educate other people on topics. One of my favourite ones is called Vertical Gardening and is about growing in limited spaces.

There's no doubt that some blogs are written specifically to make money. Some people earn vast amounts from blogging. A minority I suspect but there is certainly money to be made from careful advertising and promotion of products.

And there are people who blog just because they like to write.

I blog because I love to write and have been doing it on a variety of different sites (my own and 3rd party) since around 1998. I make a small amount of money from it which isn't much but it pays for extras like my daughter's school dinners and trips. It also gives me a sense of pride that I have been able to earn something while also being a stay at home mum.

I get that there are people who don't like ads - I have a loathing of the pop up ones and will click off sites that have those popping up in my face. My biggest audience by far though has always been American visitors who tend to use ad blockers if they hate ads that much. So I don't feel guilty for making use of them. If people don't like it, they don't need to stick around

[Bigmallly]

I think like you say GL, they are a diary.............I must say, they have never appealed to me.

[Thelma Sanders]

I think some are written in 'hey look at me aren't I clever' mode - which makes me click off very quickly tbh.
Others are more informative and I prefer the more down to earth ones.

The ones I follow are those which are more along the lines of diaries - It's time to do this and here's how I do it, and then later in the year, this is what happened/my harvest.

I keep a diary, but I'm sure it isn't interesting/important enough to turn it into a blog - some people seem to think their really boring stuff should be read by everyone, I never look at those again

[Baldy]

I'm contemplating starting one

[burnie]

Trouble is gardening is not an exact science(despite what some scientists might have you think) way too many variables involved, so like books, I think blogs are a seed that you need to deal with as you see fit, some I germinate for a look see, some I compost straight away lol.

[burnie]

I had intended doing one on the first year with my new greenhouse, but the upgrade on here lost my pictures and I lost interest after that.

[veggiechicken]

I started a blog once and got bored reading it! Imagine what (most) other's people's blogs do to me!

[Jay-ell]

It gives me somewhere to organise my thoughts (OK, pile them up in a corner), put photos, warble on about alliums and keep notes on what I done so I can find them - at least that's the plan anyway, I'll see if it makes Amy sense to me next year.

[Guest]

As Marie said some are a diary, some are done to help others (unusual veg and pea breeding come to mind), some are advertising but there are some that is just an outlet to help you get the person and what they are about (I can't imagine many people get artisan/ farmer florists - blogs really help with this). The areas can cross over.

[katkatkat]

I decided to start keeping one when I got my plot. I partly started it because my family (that live far away) keep asking me how it's going. Now they can just see each time I've been and what I've done which tells them more than "yeah, we're getting there" which is my go to answer because it feels like it still looks a mess. If I learnt to use tags I'm sure it would also be a useful method of looking back next year at when I did things.

In the past I have kept them to track our training for (walking) marathon events so that people who have just handed over a large sum of money to a charity because of what we're doing can see that I was suffering in the process

[Snadger]

I started a blog once and got bored reading it! Imagine what (most) other's people's blogs do to me!

I've started quite a few but I am not an organised individual (scatterbrained........who me?) and didn't persevere with them.

If you are a diarist a blog would be for you. ( Samual Peeps or Anna Frank would have been Blogs worth perusing.)

[Jay22]

Marie, just had a look at some of your pages...where the heck do you get the time?!

[Nicos]

I think I'd be too shy and private to make my humble life public!

* Oi you lot at the back stop giggling and falling of your chairs!

I don't follow any specific ones, but enjoy wandering through them at sillyo'clock.fr in the early hours!

I have picked up lots of interesting info about self sufficiency over the years....there one one blogger living with her young family offgrid in Alaska with livestock, so veg growing and preserving , and caring for livestock was a really interesting read.
Nice to experience for a short time but it made me grateful for the luxuries I have access to here!

I agree with you Thelma.....show-offs are a right turn off

[veggiechicken]

May as well say this too-

Any Links to blogs that host paid advertising will be deleted - but you already know that don't ya