More than 40,000 new blogs are created each day. This is huge. Times that by a week even, and you’ve got a vast number. A phenomenon. Blogs give people their own space to write what they want, when they want. They are also reasonably derestricted in what they say, and how they say it. Blogs though are only the tip of the iceberg.
The web is added to (and to a much lesser degree taken away) every day. People add content just about everywhere. Text is more dominant than images or interactive components, but they’re all growing. The 90/10/1 rule still applies (whereby 90 might read, 10 may comment and 1 may go off and create similar of their own) but even with that in the equation the web is growing at what seems like lightspeed.
So, looking at the title question, just who do you write for? Do you own an affiliate site so write for advertisers and consumers – followed by yourself? Do you write a non-profit support site? Do you troll the boards of an obscure yet brilliant Podcast?
Some of us are prolific writers across a number of mediums (of which I am not really one though I do try!), parleying in digital conversations across cyberspace. Others of us pretend to be someone else, or write online to have a space to which only we have access. Either way, our online discourse says a lot about us.
Of course, the digital communication platform of the web makes things so much easier and quicker that life seems to be about the quantity rather than the quality at times. Overall though, this is another sign of the web growing up. Soon, everyone will have a (my)space to express themselves. As this happens, the digital and the physical draw another step closer together as our digital and ‘real’ identities merge.
Returning to the eponymous question and answering it, I write for myself. Well, not only myself. But I tend to write about things that interest me. Computer games, cars and maybe other things – but you’ll see that last bit didn’t have a link. It’s my personal creative space! Of course, I enjoy writing for you all too. Every comment is of course a person showing a genuine interest in what I have to say and I in turn respect and enjoy that.
I am also an occasional board or forum member. I tend to use these though as a platform for discussion and always avoid anything that looks to be getting out of hand. Where I have more knowledge on a subject I’m more than happy to share it. One day though, I hope to move my writing focus. Maybe I’ll cover that in another article when I’m writing more about writing!