I am at the middle point of the Indie Business Blog Your Brand Challenge. I will admit, there were nights when I thought I was too tired or too busy to stick with the blog ballgame. I am determined to cross the finish line.

Officially, this my 954’st blog post. I am an oldie blogger, not a newbie. I have un-officially, counting a couple of blogs that I’ve scrapped when I’ve reinvented myself, published over 1,000 blog posts.

I needed a big b-l-o-g-g-e-r-sized nudge, however, and here’s the transparent truth in the values that this blog challenge brought to surface for me:

1. I had drifted away from frequent blogging. I have re-discovered that I have plenty to write about. Life itself blooms with topic upon topic.
2. Deliberate writing is a mindset that becomes habit.
3. I have met new friends through blogs, and I’ve discovered things that I didn’t know about old friends.
4. In the business of social media, my followers have increased through blogging.
5. Small businesses support small business, and bloggers support bloggers. Need I say more?
6. I have been uplifted, and I have learned through reading my comrade’s blogs.
7. I enjoy blogging. What would the world be like without the freedom to write?
8. Blogging is a part of our online voice. Unique, and self-owned.

In reality, blogging is an integral part of social media that I, or any small business owner, should not ignore. Blogging can be free, or inexpensive, and it only takes minutes to accomplish. Three hundred words, an average-sized blog post, is fairly simple and quick to write.

What have you learned from this blog challenge (if you are part of it), or from blogging in general? I have heard “experts” say that blogging is a dying form of social media, do you agree? What do you like or dislike about blogging?