Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

1) It attracts interesting people to contact me and offer work/projects/partnerships.

2) I like having a written history of the evolution of my business.

3) There are people interested in checking in on what I'm up to every once in a while that don't use social networks.

1) I'm interested in the field of Computer Science (CS) and I like to write articles about various things I encounter and learn in this field. I'm also interested in other fields, but since I studied CS and work in this field, it's the one in which I'm "up to the mark". Well, that doesn't mean that I won't be writing articles about topics from other fields.

2) I love it when interesting discussions start around the subject an article of mine is addressing. For me, this point is one of the most rewarding things I get from blogging, since you can learn quite a lot of new things thanks to it.

3) I love to write tutorials, with the hope that somebody can benefit from them (hopefully in a good way :) I'm always happy when I read a comment from a user, whom a tutorial has helped in some way.

4) Since I read quite a lot of articles online, I use my blog also to post linkings to such interesting articles. I think the one or the other linking is appreciated by the few readers I have :)

5) It helps me to improve my language skills, since I decided to write the articles in English rather than in German. IMHO it's a good exercise.

In my opinion, having a blog is as much about learning as it is about sharing information with other people. There's just something about putting your thoughts into words that helps you crystalize certain ideas that float around in your head.

For instance, if you read most of Paul Graham's essays, you'll notice that they probably serve more to teach him than to actually share things.

Plus, having people read your thoughts serves as a good way to gauge whether you're on the right track or not. If there's something wrong with your idea, believe me someone will let you know. This is why I sometimes submit articles to HN: to get an idea if what I'm writing is of any interest to hackers.

I've been running it since 2002, and every job I've had since then has come about as a result of connections made through blog related activity. It's an incredibly powerful professional tool.

1) To practice writing; 2) To develop stray ideas that keep floating around in my head inconclusively; 3) To reminisce about 8 bit hardware and software.