When good blogs go bad...

Why people blog is interesting - for some it's a way to share their thoughts and wisdom (hmm, not so the case with mine huh!), for others they like an audience to listen to their stories, for others it may be looking for a way to write and hope that maybe it can help earn a bit of income from doing something they love, and for others it may be a little bit of all of these.
So what about me, what's my reason - there's a few....I love to write, I don't know or care if I'm any good at it, I just feel like I have a "voice" and I have some yarns (or not as is mostly the case) and blogging is a good way of practising and getting confidence in writing. Also I feel that I have a better way of expressing myself when writing than I do when I'm talking. I'm a hopeless speaker, I get a bit all twisted with my words and don't really get my message across that cleverly. This was painfully clear in my former corporate life, when I'd write these (what I thought were fabulous) documents and then need to present them, my audience would generally be a mix of blank faces or worse, furrowed brows. Hit and sunk.
I like reading other people's blogs too, I like looking at writing styles and I often like their thoughts and ramblings. I have just started following a new blog from a TV personality and columnist Sarah Wilson http://www.sarahwilson.com/ - she seems to strike a chord with me in her columns and now in her blog writing. She's honest and earnest. I'll follow with interest for a bit to see how and where she goes. Another I have watched for ages http://www.petiteanglaise.com/. Hmm, now I've had a love/hate relationship with this one - basically it's a english woman living in Paris who had has relationship issues but who famously got fired for writing about her employers in her blog, writing her blog during work time and for writing about a painful relationship breakup minute by minute as it was happening with her partner not only a subject but one of her readers. She then went on to share her busy love life for a while, all until she was conveniently snapped up by a publisher and has written a couple of books. Now with book deal secured, new marriage and baby on her way, she awkwardly blogged for another year, especially to promote book releases or book promotion activity, until in her last blog, she admitted defeat and closed up shop. It had served it's purpose. Her life was no longer scandalous but settled and loads more financially comfortable than what it was before. Over and out for the blog. The cynics amongst us were left with a kind of yicky taste in our mouths. It seemed that the spirit of her blog was kind of self serving. But maybe they all are? Whatever the driver a blog still gets a message out. My blog often has no message, I guess I see it as a way of umm....just chatting. I expect nothing but I get a lot of pleasure when I see I've had visitors to my blog (don't worry - I just see a daily number - no other details) and I get a huge kick when someone responds and comments on my blog (although sometimes The Sister's comments can be a bit...ahem...tart if I have crossed the line, and fair enough, I need a quality control person to tell me to pull my head in and she's perfect for the job as she's had so many years practice with me).
So this is really going nowhere, just thinking and rambling. And chatting.
Thanks for stopping by.