I know it’s a pretty hot topic in the DOC right now about why you blog or tweet or post or pin or plus or tumble or whatever your interaction of choice is. So I figured I would just chime in and give my 2 cents, or maybe only 1.
I first started blogging back in the 2007-ish area. I first started the blog because I had a lot of questions, I had a lot of things on my mind and being able to type them out and put them out there made me feel better about it, it was almost like I was accepting whatever questions or concerns that I had. I also wanted to put these things out there because once I realized I wasn’t the only person in the world with diabetes, I figured that if my blog could help just one person then it did it’s job.
I do not blog nearly as much as I once did, and of course I would love to blog more, but life happens. I have other responsibilities in my life that require a lot more time and effort. However, the amount of time that has went into this blog was a lot of long nights and early mornings. While working a 9-6 job then staying up till 2-3 am writing posts, answering emails, tweets, etc. was difficult to manage, but I did it because I would receive that occasional “thank you so much for this post, it really helped me”.
That to me is exactly why I blog.
Also, I do not consider myself by any means one of the “top bloggers” or “top influencer” or whatever phrase you want to call it, nor do I care, and I’m pretty much most of the ones that do have those titles don’t really care if they have that title or not.
Do I accept free product for review? Yes I do, and at times I receive too many items that I can’t do anything with or have time to review. But you know what else I do? I will send the PR person an email saying, “Hey, this product isn’t for me or I don’t have the time, but you might want to reach out to ‘so-and-so’ who would be a better fit”
Do I accept banners and ads on the blog? Yes, I do. However, I have turned down plenty of high dollar ads because it wasn’t a product that I would want to recommend to my friends. Also, my opinions don’t change based on whether or not someone paid to have a banner on the site.
Do I accept travel to events? Sure thing I do. Because I work hard doing what I do. And guess what, when I am there, you are going to learn pretty much everything I do because I tweet EVERYTHING. Also, just because you see that I am at an event, don’t assume I went there on the wallet of someone else because chances are I paid myself. For example, AADE 14…. yep, I paid for my hotel, the gas to and from Orlando (2.5 hour drive), all my meals. The conference was free because I was able to obtain a press pass, which you can to if you meet the requirements.
The day that conferences, advertisements, free product and the “perks” become more important to me than helping someone in time of need and interacting with others who share a disease with me, is the day that you will no longer see this blog published.
I encourage everyone to blog about their diabetes, but if it’s not for you, then there are plenty of other ways you can make a difference.