According to some sources there are more than 2 blogs sites created every second.  We went through the 100 million blog mark a year or two ago.  Many if not most of those blogs have stopped publishing.  Many bloggers wonder if it is worth carrying on.  Chris Blattman on the 2nd anniversary of his blog did just that and decided to carry on. Why?

I like blogging

We say at the end of the CivicSurf Guide to blogging that it can be addictive.  It can be an enjoyable activity.

I don’t have the time to advise all the students I’d like, or harangue policymakers one by one. The blog is a technology, one that makes me orders of magnitude more productive.

Bloggers worry that they haven’t got time to blog.  It is about prioritising.  Chris acknowledges that for him blogging costs him 15 to 30 minutes of research paper writing, but that is worth giving up in order to influence students and policymakers.  He knows that to wield that influence without a blog would take far more time.

Writing daily forces me to read things more carefully and critically, and distill ideas to their essential points.

Who doesn’t need to distil their ideas into more coherent and concise statements?

I learn because you send me interesting things to read

Blogging can expand the range of ideas you come into contact with.

my mother has stopped asking what I do for a living

If only my mother would start to use a computer!

Although Chris is an academic blogger much of what he says should make sense to a civic leader, particularly the part that blogging allows him a greater influence than he could otherwise have and that the time investment pays off.

(h/t Owen Abroad)