Is the blogging phenomenon a well disguised pyramid scheme? It seems that everyone who reads blogs, also feels compelled to write some.

It certainly happened to me.

I have been thoroughly exploring the South African blog scene for about two weeks now (ever since this month’s inspiring First Tuesday meeting, actually) and have now decided to dive in myself. So hello, world.

Suddenly I realized that there is a lot I want to say. So in a moment of insanity, I set up three blogs (although only this one actually has any posts for now!).

But whilst reading the blogs I was struck by their general high quality, frequency and depth of information presented. There has been much talk lately about the ridicoulous low fees that freelance writers are paid for their work in South Africa, and here it seems that writers are scrambling over themselves to offer this service for free.

I can only explain that by using Mike Stopforth’s quote from the First Tuesday meeting: that all bloggers have egos. And apparently, knowing that people are reading and responding to your thoughts is a great ego boost. And it might well be. But it is also a boost for the audience. As readers, we now have the opportunity to choose exactly what (whom) we read, at what frequency and we can even comment, if moved to do so. And then, of course, the loop closes, when the audience also begins to blog.

Is it a pyramid scheme, where the number of blogs will outgrow the available audience? Not if I am a common example. Although I aspire to write (only) three blogs, I already subscribe to over fifty.

So keep on writing!