Blogging is a very intesting topic in itself, to blog about! What do people blog about and how do they go about it? How did the people who blog actually start out? Did it start as a new year resolution? Were they inspired upon reading somebody else's blog post? An epiphaneous moment in which the decision was made? For every blog that thrives, one can find thousands which were abandoned or orphaned by their creators.  I myself started out on a whim on blogger and switched to lj upon a lecturer's advice.  My lj initiator has long since abandoned lj, but I hung around here and made many wonderful friends, some whom I now have the pleasure of knowing in real life too.  Over the years, I've tried to get people onto lj, realizing that more is indeed merrier, but of those that I did manage to bring over, some are active and many have dropped off the radar.

So, why do people get onto the blogosphere in the first place? Here are some of the reasons.

1) For some, it's a simple ego thing.  An extension of the ego surfing trip.  A Google search should bring up one's name. Ah! Posted a couple of posts and they have now been visited by Google's bots. Mission accomplished! These blogs usually get abandoned after the first couple of posts.
2) Curiousity: What's the whole deal all about? Is it social networking? Will it get me acceptance in some hallowed circle of geeks? Is it (God forbid!) the in-thing? Let's get a blog with an intelligent sounding name, just to be on the safe side.  These blogs usually die as soon as they are created.  They don't even get a 'hello world' first post as their creators are too concerned that what they post may not measure up to somebody or the other's benchmark.
3) Commenting on other blogs: I've seen many people create blog accounts only so that they can leave comments with their own names, instead of leaving anonymous posts.  They don't post anything, but occassionally post comments on others' posts.  Noble souls. May their tribe increase, but it would be more fun if they posted too!
4) New year resolutions/dares: Ouch! There are those who decide to 'challenge' themselves to start a blog. These are the same kind of people who need to go to a TV 'reality' show to 'realize their self-worth'.  They typically start with a post about what the blog is going to be about or how it came about being and ends on an optimistic note.  You may see another post or two, but that's it.  An orphaned blog! Sob!
Side-note: My own blog was started on a new year day, but the date was purely incidental!
5) True journals: The Dear Diary blogs.  Truly committed bloggers.  They are the zen monks of the blogosphere. They realize that nothing has to be 'blog-worthy' to blog about. Anything and everything will get blogged, and they make it seem wonderful, and not mundane.  It comes with practice, but needs a lot of commitment.  These bloggers often use photographs, videos, graphitti etc to garnish their posts.
6) Special occasion blogs: These are bloggers who decide that they'll only blog about 'special' and 'blog-worthy' topics.  They wait for divine inspiration to blog.  There are blogs which start with a lot of promise and dry up somewhere down the line.  Some of them get temporarily revived (revivals are most likely to occur around the first week of a new year) before going into hibernation again. My own blog has gone through extremely long periods of quiecence, much like these 'special occasion blogs' , but mine's not exactly a special occasion blog.
7) Special purpose blogs: These are blogs with a set focus, aimed at a specific audience.  Tech blogs, photo blogs, cookery blogs, sports blogs. The bloggers of these blogs rarely stray from the topics they specialize in.  Many of them have alternate generic blogs. Very useful if the author is going to make a lot of posts about the same subject/interest.  
Side-note: I've often thought about having an alternate blog for my Formula One posts, but they are so few and far between that I think it doesn't merit a whole blog. Same goes for my technical posts. 

I'm sure there are hundreds of other reasons people start blogging, and many of them may be simple variations of these seven.  I've spent a lot of time reading blogs and some, posting into my own, and is there something I've learned over the years? Anything that I can offer to a new entrant to the blogosphere?  Here are a couple of things.

1) There is no perfect blog. It's your space and only you decide what goes up on your blog, but it may be worthwhile to have separate blogs for separate topics, rather than have everything in one place.  For instance, you may want have an exclusive blog for programming related topics and one for everything else. For this, you could get started with a simple blog and then plan on new blogs as you post more. I think such a conservative approach is much better than starting five empty blogs and leaving four empty for ever!
2) There is no such thing called a 'blog-worthy' topic.  Way too many people don't share wonderful experiences only because they think it's too mundane.  When you make an attempt to put down your experience in words, you'll notice that you actually start getting better at narrating/story telling.  The more you narrate, the better you get at narrating.  I've seen many people who blog about perfectly everyday things, but do it in a delightful way.  Unless you are obsessed with being elitist, concentrate on quantity.  Quality will follow in due course.
3) Enjoy blogging and don't get flustered by lack of attention/appreciation/comments/feedback on your posts.  I know for a fact that far more people read posts than those who leave comments. Find your rhythm and before long, you'll have your very own fan following!