Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Why I Blog

This is the title of an article I read on the Hunt Smart Think Safety blog. Kristine pointed out that she enjoys writing and uses the blog to bring a human face to the company. She said: “I blog to help people get to know, and hopefully like, Gun Safety Innovations. Companies are often sterile entities, and I didn’t want this company to join that group.” This is a very noble attitude and one I wish more companies would subscribe too.

Among other reasons, Kristine also blogs to establish credibility in the outdoor community as a person that has yet to pick up a gun and shoot it. Although grown up in a hunter family she herself has never hunted but is slowly getting into it. In that sense the blog is for Kristine also a vehicle to communicate with hunters.

About half way through the superbly written article I heard a tiny voice inside me asking; “and why are you blogging?” So here it is.

I am not complaining but blogging is hard work. After a long days work I often find that I really do not want to sit on the computer and rack my brain to come up with something interesting to write. Yet here I am every day or every other day blogging away. So what is it?

Kristine gave one part of the answer on her blog when she wrote: “It’s fun, and exciting and frustrating and sometimes exasperating, but I keep doing it because it satisfies something in me.” But that is not the only reason for me to sit here in front of my computer pounding the keyboard. When I started blogging I saw it as a good tool to improve my English grammar and spelling. As my seasoned readers know English is not my native language, German is and the two couldn’t be more different. Over the past year my grammar has improved partly because I blog and partly because my wife is a very patient teacher.

Another reason why I blog is to get my name in front of people and a blog is a good way to achieve this. You may ask why is it important for me to get my name in front of people and my answer is that I have a business interest in hunting through my seminars, promotion and hunting strategy consulting. The blog is a good promotion tool for a business. But the main reason why I blog is because a blog can and often will reach more people then a normal website or hunting magazine ever can.

It is the efficiency and far reaching capacity of the blog that gives me the opportunity to reach many people with a message that is very dear to me. I am dedicated to the promotion of our hunting heritage and the recruitment of more hunters to our ranks. It is important to me that I do my bit to secure the future of hunting for future generations. My blog gives me the possibility to do that and that alone to me is worth spending the time to write and research topics. As a nice side benefit my blogging has given me many new friends that I have never personally met but they come here every day and read what I have to say, many leave a comment or even send me an email telling me how much they like what I have to say and that is very gratifying in itself.

Such friendships can go very far and achieve great things. Let me give just one example of such far-reaching prospects. A few blogger friends and I got together and laid the cornerstone of, what very well could become the first outdoor blogging organization in history, the Outdoor Bloggers Summit.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Othmar,
I'm glad you liked the post. Writing it really made me think about why I continue to blog every day. As you said, sometimes it takes effort to make yourself write. The blog I write just turned a year old yesterday, so I guess I now know that I have the staying power to keep blogging day after day.

I would have to agree with you that one of the best benefits I've received from blogging is the contacts I've made. And, of course, the Summit. I'm very proud to be taking part in that.

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how much that question can weigh on one's mind "Why I blog?". It's almost liberating to put it down in writing! It can be a lot of work, like you mention, but the 'benefits' more than compensate. The thought of inspiring others is very rewarding and the contacts and relationships are priceless!

Othmar Vohringer said...

Thanks for your comments Kristine and Darrell. You’re both right blogging is very gratifying. I know it sounds a bit like a cliché but it’s true. Each time I get a comment or someone sends me an email saying thank you for a tip or for sharing an opinion, it touches me deeply. One aspect of blogging I have not addressed in the article is that writing in such a public forum is also a responsibility toward the readers to provide them with valuable information, facts and well balanced opinions.

-Othmar Vohringer-

Anonymous said...

You're definitely right about that. If you blog and others look to your blog for advice or opinions, you have a responsibility to be sure about what you write.

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