On my blog, people can get a free link if they comment giving the url of an article about blogging motivation. I also ask people what is their number 1 motivation for blogging.

Conversion is the word for when a website visitor does what we most want them to do, so if you’re selling something, that would mean that conversion is a purchase. If you’re an activist, conversion might mean getting someone to sign up for a newsletter, sign a petition, or donate money to a cause. For an activist blogger, conversion could also mean that you’ve helped someone change the way they think about an issue. If you get comments that say things like “I will never throw trash into the sea again, now that I know what happens to sea life” or something like that, then you know your activist blog is converting people.

Using ecommerce and marketing terms to describe an activist blog is somewhat helpful in understanding how they really work on and affect the people who read them. I would think that what you’re really after with an activist blog is to change people’s lives.

I had brain diarrhea the other day, so I don’t really understand what you were trying to tell me, LOL.

I don’t blog for fun, love, for a cause, but I blog to make a little money. And also I like the challange of how far I can push this. But more than anything – I blog to release my frustration.

Money lured me into the blogosphere, community keeps me there.

So I blog for fun.

Cheers,

Mitch

@Tomaz: I don’t think most people would define fun like in your comment (#8). Nearly every blogger wants comments and links. But your point about people wanting to be loved and being unaware of their own motivations is spot on. Sharp observation, man.

@Ashely and Christine: We must remember just how many blogs there are! The numbers are dizzying. It’s really a minority that are doing it for money or business.

@Pelf: I realize the poll can’t take into account if you have multiple blogs and write them for differing reasons. Here’s a thought for you: if a cause is truly the reason, then you want to be doing the same things as many business bloggers. Instead of conversion being about buying something, it’s about acknowledging a change in thinking or attitude, or about doing something for the cause.

But I do have 2 other blogs that I blog for a cause. And the cause is to create and spread awareness on issues that we should all be concerned with.

1. We need to define “blogging for fun” more precisely.

If fun includes getting comments from other visitors, seeing traffic grow and being mentioned somewhere else in the blogosphere, then yes, people blog for fun.

At least that’s their definition.

2. They may be not be aware of their true desires which on the surface seem to be “fun”.

In reality, they blog to be appreciated, to get attention, to be loved.

It’s what’s missing in their lives now or it was missing in their childhood.

And most of them really hope to get get some money out of it but this can be of course secondary. Your poll is only about “the most important” reason why people blog.

And in fact, most people want to be loved more than they want money. They are just not aware of this.