Life in the Highlands

Many people have asked me why I blog. Okay. No one has asked me. But I ask myself all the time. And this is how I respond:

• I blog because I don’t understand statistics.

Writer’s Digest published an article titled, “Is Blogging Right For You?” In it, M.J. Rose points out that according to Technorati there are “more than 112.8 million active blogs…, 175,000 new blogs created every day…, and 1.6 million [new] posts per day.” The author then states:

Compared to blogs, there are only 500 books published a day. So you could actually have less competition getting attention for your book than your blog. (These figures don’t include self-published books. But if we did include them, there would be 1,000 books published a day—still far fewer than the number of blogs.)

In other words, people are more likely to hear about my book than my blog.

Unless, I don’t have a book.

Because I’ve never written one.

Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Mom. Sorry to all those other relatives who have told me I should write a book.

If I were to write a book it would be about how there were these kids and they never cleaned their rooms and their mom got angry and then they cleaned their rooms.

And the sequel would be about scrubbing bathrooms.

Not exactly best selling material.

So, let’s do a statistical analysis. Add the 0, carry the 1, multiply by 42 and you’ll get the question: Are people more likely to read my book, which I haven’t written, or my blog, which I have?

Hmm…

Another reason I blog:

• I don’t actually want people (especially complete strangers) to read it.

That would be creepy. (Except for you, the person reading this right now. You, I like.)

What better method of keeping a journal completely private than by publishing it on the internet for the whole world to read, but which no one will, because there are 1.6 million other blog posts competing for the readers’ attention?

But if my journal were hidden under a bed, and someone found it, he/she would read it for sure.

Here’s another reason I blog:

• Because my kids read it.

Some of my kids are my most faithful readers. In real life, they usually don’t listen to me. But on the blog, I can share with them valuable lessons, help them learn insights about life, and get them to do my bidding by including subliminal messages like “you will make chocolate chip cookies.”

So, you see, even though my blog is competing against 112.8 million other blogs, and no one reads it except my family and about 10 other really smart people, I AM NOT wasting my time.

Now go clean your room.

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