In answer to 'am I glad I started a blog' ...
Mine serve me usefully to seed our web sites as well as for regular readers, so I'm a bit of an odd one to advise you. You need to have a clear purpose that's going to carry on into the future / through the life of the blog - otherwise it can get stale and fade.
On the TRAIN blog, I sometimes wonder, simply because it dilutes forum posts. However - it is very useful in putting up a page easily and headlining it, which is what I've done with the 5.3 meeting.
On the wellho.net blog (the more personal one) it was utterly the right thing to do and here I am nearly 1100 articles later putting up, perhaps, only a half of the material that I want to. There's a lot of personal stuff and stuff about customers I don't put up - many a grumble and ripping yarn that would show someone easily identified in a poor light, and who might read it. But I've learnt to have the confidence to reveal my own thoughts, things and personallity sometimes; on a blog people read you for what you say and how you say it, and not because you admit to something you did in the past. But I do keep the "ex" and the kids off it, and largely the staff team too - not a lack of caring in and way, but to respect their privacy.
This evening, I'm meeting another MP - Ann Snelgrove. That will make - let me see - 4 .... Hey - THIS would make a good blog even if it's a bit name-droppy ... but before then I have the dentist. Must run.
(written 2007-02-12)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G905 - Well House Consultants - Blogging and Blog Administration [1] First Jottings - (2004-08-05)
[6] Blog v Forum - (2004-08-07)
[18] Wanted: More hours in the day - (2004-08-18)
[141] Too technical? - (2004-12-05)
[145] A comment on comments - (2004-12-09)
[177] Blogs come of age - (2005-01-14)
[185] Who am I? - (2005-01-21)
[204] The confidence to allow public comments - (2005-02-06)
[231] Feedback as lifeblood - (2005-02-28)
[245] I'm not blogging it - (2005-03-14)
[359] Chicken soup without the religion - (2005-06-26)
[390] Moderating wiki, blog, and forum contributions - (2005-07-26)
[405] Horse's Mouth is a year old - (2005-08-07)
[410] Reading a news or blog feed (RSS) in your PHP page - (2005-08-12)
[425] Caching an XML feed - (2005-08-26)
[508] Comment, please! - (2005-11-28)
[671] Both ends of the animal - (2006-04-05)
[876] Making pages clearer - easy Disability Discrimination Act Compliance - (2006-09-23)
[1000] One Thousand Posts and still going strong - (2006-12-18)
[1203] A Fresh horse - (2007-05-24)
[1978] From spam to mod_alias - finding resources - (2009-01-05)
[2000] 2000th article - Remember the background and basics - (2009-01-18)
[2192] Copy writing - allowing for the cut - (2009-05-21)
[2449] Four aspects - Chamber, Transport, Courses and Hotel - (2009-10-11)
[2517] Blogging accuracy - open invitation for any corrections - (2009-11-29)
[2564] Microblogging services - Plurk, Twitter, Jaiku and more - (2010-01-05)
[2751] Going off at a tangent, for a ramble - (2010-05-04)
[2823] Where have all the bloggers gone? - (2010-06-24)
[3016] The legal considerations of your web presence - revisited - (2010-10-26)
[3163] Twitter - the special use of @ # and http: in tweets - (2011-02-09)
[3186] How to add a customised twitter feed to your site - (2011-02-27)
[3208] Links for social media, microblogs and business networking - (2011-03-20)
[3514] Microblogging - what I should have tweeted in the last 48 hours - (2011-11-10)
[3759] The five oldest blogs and the horses mouth - (2012-06-09)
[4000] 9 years, and 4000 articles on - (2013-02-09)
[4121] Has your Twitter feed stopped working? Switching to their new API - (2013-06-23)
[4292] The Horse is back! - (2014-09-15)
[4568] Moderation - and the tendency to over-moderate - (2015-11-02)
[4714] The technical article feed continues - personal updates more proactive on Facebook now! - (2016-10-30)
Some other Articles
Customer takes over class, and I am delightedhttpd.conf or .htaccess?Wilts and Berks - two conference / training rooms in MelkshamWiltshire - multicultural communityIn answer to 'am I glad I started a blog' ...Save the Train - an updateI'm not the fatherJava beans and classes, .war and .jar filesHeartbeat script in PerlWell House Manor in the Snow