In blogging circles, I’ll never be known by the name of my blog (as in “Dooce says this” or “cjane says this” or “Design Mom says this…”).

You know what? In all likelihood, neither will you.

I had visions of grandeur when I started my blog back in 2005. Since I was too chicken to audition for plays in college, I’d never fulfilled my dreams of becoming a household name as an actress, so I’d do it as a blogger. Every afternoon, I put my toddler down for a nap, parked my preschoolers in front of the television, and wrote for at least an hour. When I wasn’t writing, I was thinking about what I was going to write. I wrote bad poetry, I wrote lists, I wrote about what I was reading and where I was running and what I was cooking. I ranted about how hard it was to have three little kids and a husband who was never home and live in a new city. I wrote about whatever would help me hold onto the thin thread of my sanity. I tried to be funny; I aped the casual, somewhat snarky language of the blogs I read. I posted polls, did all of the memes, courted blog awards, and religiously commented on my friends’ blogs (and their friends’ blogs) in an effort to get people coming back to mine. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and checked for comments. I took pictures of my adorable children and my adorable house, and the adorable things my adorable children did in my adorable house. I worked it.

Did it make me rich and famous?

Nope. Not a bit. None of the stalkers my husband feared ever materialized. (Is it strange that I’m a little bummed out about that?) And he still works his day job.

Other than comments and, by extension, fame, I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of blogging back then.

Over the years, I’ve tried to figure out if I was writing for myself, for my kids, for my extended family, for disseminating information, or for my all-important READERS. I’ve seen bloggers do all of the above successfully, but I think I was trying to do it all at first, and while it kept me busy, I’m not sure if it was very satisfying. Finally, I decided that I’d focus on a few things I love the best. In my case, that’s reading and running. So these days, I post mostly about books I’ve read, but also throw in a smattering of posts about races and my kids and my house and some random musings every once in a while. It works for me, and it doesn’t dominate my life and my thoughts the way it used to. It makes me happy in a way that it didn’t when it was all about the numbers and the comments.

Other bloggers have other motivations. A few years ago, I interviewed Marilyn Brown for the journal, and I was intrigued by what she said about how she wrote about her family when she wasn’t busy with other writing projects. She says, “One of my favorite things to do is to turn toward the family as my audience. For one ten-year period I did a monthly newsletter, writing wonderful rose-colored blurbs about positive events in the lives of each member of the family. When I put stories about their goodness on paper, they responded with more excellent behavior!” Although Brown doesn’t blog, I know many bloggers who write about their children and family in the way Brown does, drawing on their strengths to inspire future good actions.

Still others are working in the vein of Virginia Woolf, at killing the notion of ” the angel in the house,” disabusing audiences of the idea that mothers are self-sacrificing and genteel and pious and pure.  I used to think that straight talk and parental angst was my aim. Then my mom found my blog. Then my kids started to read. Suddenly writing about all the ways my kids and family drove me crazy didn’t seem like such a good idea any more.

Why do you blog? Does blogging satisfy the purposes you hoped it would when you started out as a blogger? Do you wish you had a little more blogging savvy?

If the answer to your last question is yes, today is the very last day to sign up for Segullah’s Writers Retreat on June 26th. We have a panel assembled of some of Segullah’s finest bloggers– and they’re eager to help you fulfill your blogging potential.

Related posts:

1. So, why are there pictures of your kid on the internet?
2. Segullah, My Mentor
3. The Internet is Killing Me