5 Reasons Why I blog

My good friend and Blog Best Friend (BBF) Toby Bloomberg tagged me with another meme going around about 5 reasons why I blog.

So, in good blogger fashion... here are my 5 Reasons Why I Blog;

1) Community- I blog because of the community of bloggers that I am now connected to. I get to share and grow and participate in a rich and vibrant world. The members of this community are some of the smartest and most generous people I have ever known. I've only ever met a few of them and yet I count them as friends- dear friends at that.

2) Learning- I blog because the blogosphere teaches me all kinds of things nearly every day. From marketing, to politics, to music, to cycling, to... you name it... the blogosphere is a great teacher.

3) Practice- I blog because, as a writer, I need the practice. I don't write poetry, essays or other literary endeavors nearly as often as I would like, but I keep my writing mind "sharp" by coming here and sharing thoughts and ideas. It's like training my mind, rather than my legs.

4) Communication- I blog because blogging allows me to communicate with a large audience very easily. I can let the world know a new product is on the way, a new color is being considered, a new idea is being hatched or simply that I am going to be in Washington DC for the National Bike Summit from March 13-16th trying to help further promote cycling related issues at our nation's capitol. Simply hitting the "publish" button means that millions of people will potentially receive a message from me. (That's really cool!)

5) You- I blog because of you, the readers of this blog. Sincerely, all of you who come here and read this blog and participate in the conversation and offer up ideas and thoughts spur me on to keep this project going. I openly admit that I started this blog just a few days short of two years ago because I wanted and needed to let people know that Masi Bicycles was alive and kicking. I needed to get the word out and do some guerrilla marketing... get viral. However, it didn't take long for this blog to attract a much bigger audience than I ever expected. This blog has gotten far greater attention than I ever dreamed or thought possible- believe me, I never, ever thought this would get me in the New York Times! The community of readers of this blog have given me so much in trade for my endless ramblings and pictures of my socks! (I never thought you guys would like the socks so damned much!) So really, thank you from the bottom of my blogging heart. You folks have made this far more rewarding to me than I ever dreamed- you have no idea just how much I mean that.

Now, in keeping with the true meaning of being a blogger... I am tagging a few folks to get them to share their reasons for blogging... and this will be fun!

1) Paul McEnany; Hee-Haw Marketing. Paul is my buddy in Texas with a marketing blog and who also knows a little about music. He's a great read and a funny damned guy (and I did a guest post on his site that just might shock a few of my regular readers... sorry. It was all in proper context... I swear.)
2) Gavin Heaton; Servant of Chaos. Gavin is my blogging friend in Sydney, Australia. I also mentioned Gavin a few months ago after his father-in-law was involved in an accident, where a car plowed into his riding group, severely injuring him. Gavin happens to be one of the brightest minds I know and regularly floors me with his intelligence, wit and writing.
3) Nick Navarro; Cornerstone Life. Nick is a fellow San Diego rider and blogger. His blog is routinely funny and often also very insightful and thoughtful. Nick doesn't exactly blog as often as a dork like me, but he blogs enough to have a good library of some really great reading. AND he's a super nice guy, so give him a read.
4) Fritz (aka Richard Masoner); Cycle-licious. Fritz has one of the best bike blogs around. He compiles tons of great information in one location, as well as writes some great stuff on his own. He's another one of the people I love to read everyday... and he's a true computer genius- he's a programming genius with Sun Microsystems. Basically, he knows how to find the "any" key on his keyboard.
5) Donna Tocci; Tidbits and More. Donna is the super-genius marketing/ PR/ media diva at Kryptonite and happens to be one of the best friends I have. I met Donna through blogging and we have become great friends. She's a true Boston girl, so she says "chowdah" and "pocks the caw"... and she's likely to kick my ass now in Vegas at Interbike.

So, tag! You guys are all IT. Thanks to Toby for calling me out.

Tim