I have a confession.

I don’t enjoy blogging anymore. Sometimes I hate it!

This may be hard to believe considering #bloglikecrazy is just around the corner and I’ll be publishing a new blog post every day for 30 days and encouraging other bloggers to do the same. (Read more about #bloglikecrazy here.)

Let me explain.

I’ve been blogging — in some form or another —  for over a decade. When I started, we bloggers blogged for the sake of blogging. We blogged for the sake of storytelling and for the love of the written word. Then when people actually started reading our words we blogged to build community, to show others and ourselves that we were not alone.

Then blogging became a business.

Blogging became a business not just for companies that started paying bloggers to promote their brands. Blogging became a business for everybody!

Bloggers who once created content just for fun became “influencers.”

Small business owners who once blogged just to share their journeys as entrepreneurs were told to turn those posts into “content marketing.”

Writers who once blogged for the joy of weaving words into a story were told to blog so they could “build a platform” because publishing companies started to turn them away if they didn’t.

Even freelance writers like myself were given the side-eye if they didn’t have a blog of their own. But that didn’t bother me because, obviously, I have a blog. (Actually, I technically have two and used to have three!)

I had fallen in love with blogging in 2007 and once blogging became a business everyone wanted to learn more about it. I was eager to share my love of blogging with others. I even built an entire community around my love of blogging and then turned that community into a business.

Blogging became a business and I went from lady blogger to boss lady and I loved it.

Until I didn’t.

To say I don’t enjoy blogging anymore isn’t exactly true. I guess it’s more accurate to say I no longer enjoy blogging the way you’re “supposed” to blog. Almost every post I write these days is strategic. Each post is a part of a process, a process that’s meant to lead the reader to sign up for my email list or register for an event or buy an e-course or become a See Jane Write Collective member or schedule a strategy session for my coaching program. That’s the smart way to blog. Otherwise, according to the marketing gurus, you’re wasting your time.

But frankly, I’m over it.

I’m so over it that I wasn’t planning to even host the #bloglikecrazy challenge this year. Plus, everyone keeps saying blogging is dead because no one reads and video is king and blah, blah, blah. 

But then I remembered why I started the #bloglikecrazy challenge years ago on my personal blog. It wasn’t to grow a business. It was simply because I thought it’d be fun. And guess what — it was!

And even when I started doing the #bloglikecrazy challenge on the See Jane Write blog it was still fun. It’s fun because #bloglikecrazy is the one time of year I blog for the sake of blogging and just so happen to build community along the way.

Look, there are plenty of other reasons to #bloglikecrazy. See Jane Write Collective member Jessica Furniss landed her first magazine spread because of #bloglikecrazy. And #bloglikecrazy inspired Audrey Atkins, another Collective member, to write her first book!

And if you’re an entrepreneur, of course, you can use #bloglikecrazy as a time to write strategic posts that will attract your ideal customer and get her into your email funnel.

These are all great reasons to #bloglikecrazy.

But this year I’m not thinking about any of that. This year I’m going to blog like crazy because I am crazy — about the written word. And I hope I always will be.

If you plan to participate in #bloglikecrazy this year let me know in the comments. Be sure to leave a link to your site and tell me why you’re going to blog like crazy.