Yesterday I numerated 6 ways to make money blogging. But I also don’t think that making money is necissarily the best reason to blog.

So why do I blog? There are a few reasons. And making money is among them, but it’s not at the top of my list.

Well, the most obvious reason I blog is that I want to help people. I’m on a mission to stop wasting developer talent with broken processes. Blogging about ways to improve processes is one way I’m trying to achieve that mission.

Beyond that, if we can talk about the “selfish” reasons I blog… or what’s in it for me, I have two primary purposes:

1. It helps me build authority in the areas where I work (improving software delivery processes).
2. It helps me think. As the saying goes, “Write to think, don’t think to write.” Writing helps me think, and flesh out my ideas.

Authority building is closely related to the idea of selling my own products, so #4 on my list. And while I do often mention my own products and services in my blog posts, direct sales this way isn’t my main goal.

I also do a teensy bit of Amazon affiliate sales. This usually earns me enough to buy one or two ebooks per year.

In the past, I’ve also used my blog to help me get hired at a number of companies.

And I also dabbled with Google AdSense. But after a half dozen years or so, I still hadn’t even reached the halfway mark toward their $100 minimum pay-out. So I eventually removed all ads from my blog, because it just made it look spammy.

These days, I have no intention of ever putting ads on my current blogs, either. That would undermine the purpose of building authority. I think it would make me look like a sell-out.

Do you blog? If so, what are your reasons?