I started writing a blog in 2007 and continued writing fairly regularly until 2013. The subject of my blog: the design of high density housing. I am not an architect, but I developed a passion for the subject and wrote blog posts based on the books, papers and news I consumed.

Why did I stop? Simply because hardly anyone was reading the blog!

At first, I convinced myself I was writing for myself and an audience was not important. But over time, I came to realise that, although the size of the audience was not important to me, the interest and engagement of readers did matter (especially for a blog with a very niche topic). Hardly any readers commented on my blog posts (which was important to me).

Today, there are lots of corporate blogs writing about their products, and there are single author bloggers trying to establish their "personal brand" - whatever that means! The writing style is often inflated, formal, corporate-sounding: in short, simply bland. What rarely comes across is the unique voice of the writer. And that's a shame.