Most dictionaries define the verb drive as “to guide, to control, or to direct.” Whether you are driving a car, a nail, or a golf ball, you are guiding, controlling, and directing it at that moment.
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Everyone’s blog is driven by something. 
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What is the driving force in your blog? *
What is the purpose of your blog?
What motivates you to blog?  

These are the responses from our respondents:  (sorted by date submitted)

1. pilinapinopa by pilipino (kalookan, philippines)
Description: kalokohan ng mga piling pili at pinong pinong pilipino sa buong mundo
Start date: December 16, 2007  Niche: entertainment

entertainment lang… mga kolesyon ng mga bago at lumang pinoy jokes, mga balitang kalakohan na umiikot sa net, kung ano ano lang.. hehehe..

2. Sonnie’s Porch by Sonnie (Manila, Philippines)
Description: Value Adding
Start date: June 2006 (my own domain);  2005 (on free domain)
Niche: Self Help, Career, Entrepreneurship, Spiritual Intelligence, Modern Worker, People Management, Personal Social Responsibility, Leadership and Management
Tags: add value, value adding, sex in the office, salt and light, modern HR, Supermalls, personal social responsibility

The mission of this site is to add value by posting “personal” learnings on career and corporate life, work life balance, leadership and management, geek matters, the interesting life in the Philippines, and my experiences as a customer. The contents of this blog is primarily intended for my children, who may need my counsel and thoughts in the future.

»» a continuation of Sonnie’s response can be seen at the mission/vision page of his blog.

3. Careerclub Philippines by Rodel (Bohol - Cebu, Philippines)
Description: online community for students, job seekers, employees and employers
Start date: October 15, 2007  Niche: Collaborative Job Portal
Tags: career, jobs, vacancy, workplace, employee, employment

“job searching will never be the same again”… i just wanted to be different and wanted to help other hr professionals. i think it’s the passion for a change, to be different that push me to do such things without anything in return. my site may not be earning but still i’m happy with what my site has become.

4. Makoy’s Memoirs Of A Certified Blogger by Makoy (Pasig, Philippines)
Description: Makoy’s compilation of thoughts and ideas, comments and reactions to current events, major and minor happenings in his life, photo collection, and whatever things that can be classified as BLOG.
Start date: June 2006  Niche: Personal
Tags: independent life, Ortigas blogger, literary writing, music, current events, business, money

My main purpose in blogging is to express my thoughts, rants and raves .  It’s also one way to release my stress.  At the same time people get to know me by reading my blog.

5. Codamon.com - Babes and Gaming by Kiven (Manila)
Description: Babes and Gaming
Start date: Dec 2004  Niche: Entertainment/Hobbies/Gaming
Tags: babes, gaming, games,problogging

The main motivation of Codamon.com is part experimentation and part sharing. Experimentation comes in the form of asking yourself questions such as: What does this <insert blog related issue here> do? How does this feature affect another variable? Can i rank in the serps using this seo technique or blogging style? Can i build something online in this particular niche?

The sharing part comes in the idea of disseminating information that some people may find useful. it may be a simple image, it may be a insightful article or maybe even a funny video. I’d like to be able to give people, who share my interests, what they are looking for via search engines or via cultivating a reputation for being a source of that kind of specific information.

6. Political Jaywalker by Jaywalking Cyber Pedestrian Observer 
Location: On top of man made Mt. Payatas exclusive village of Mangangalahig (bottom dwellers) rummaging for society’s refuse and thrash in Quezon City, Philippines.
Description: Socio-Political Blog of a JAYWALKING CYBER PEDESTRIAN OBSERVER on top of man-made Mt. Payatas the Exclusive Village of social rejects and marginalized bottom dwellers in the Philippines. Once the pride of Asia dubbed as the Pearl of the Orient now drowning in the muck of corruption and bad governance.
Start date: March 2007
Niche: Philippine Politics, Advocate for Good Governance, Migrant Rights, OFW Empowerment, Comprehensive Electoral Reforms, and Socio-political issues affecting Filipinos in and out of the country.
Tags: Philippine politics, Human Rights, Migrant Rights, OFW Empowerment, Patronage Politics, Personality Politics, Corruption, Political Abductions, Vote Shaving, Personal

The driving force or motivation to blog was an accident when I tried to respond to a blog requiring me to open a blogger account and finding how easy it is to set up a free personal blog. Pedestrian Observer was the first name that came and since it was available it became the title and 166 post to date since March of 2007 has not slowed me down in expressing my point of view.

Seeing the potential of the format as a venue to make a difference in our own small ways thus the Socio-Political Blog of a JAYWALKING CYBER PEDESTRIAN OBSERVER came into being a satirical but at times serious observation and insights on the malady facing our nation.

On top of man-made Mt. Payatas the Exclusive Village of social rejects and marginalized bottom dwellers in the Philippines became a logical online residence of this Political jaywalker to highlight the plight of the poorest of the poor. A sign of protest to open up our eyes on a nation that was once the pride of Asia dubbed as the Pearl of the Orient now drowning in the muck of corruption and bad governance. It is not the intention of the UROT errrr author (ok, wanna be author) to contribute to the growing apathy of a frustrated people but by pointing out the aberration may trigger a collective response to demand meaningful change in the spirit of participatory democracy.

7. langgam.org by Renee (Makati City)
Start date: October 21, 2006  Niche: Personal

I love blogging!

8. Atma Xplorer by Stephen Ian Advincula AKA syl, sylv3rblade (Kawit Cavite, Philippines)
Description: Debunking Computers, Gaming and The World Wide Web.
Start date: July-ish 2007  Niche: Technology, Programming, Gaming
Tags: programming, java, asus eee, rf online episode 2, software development

Karlo of Pinoyblogero and I once had a discussion on this.  Whether to blog for fame or for money.  We choose the former over the latter.  In a sense, I want to make a name for myself on the net rather just IRL.

I’m a frustrated director.  I’ve always wanted to go to cinematography school but due to financial (and moral?) reasons I didn’t.  Atma Xplorer serves as a vent to help me pour out my creativity or at least help out in sate my hunger to create/make something for an audience.

The experience I guess.  Blogging helps me (aside from being an outlet) share my knowledge (thru posts like my Guide to Programming Sereis) and experiences and I get to learn from others in return.

9. Misterhubs by Misterhubs (Makati)
Start date: February 2007 Niche: Popular culture, Humor, Personal, Gay

To amuse myself.

10. I’m Rocky Sunico and everyone generally knows me as rOckY on the web or in LJ circles I’m grimlock88.
I’m based out of Pasay City, Metro Manila although I work in Makati.
I work on two main blogs with one Multiply mirror, so I guess it makes sense to talk about the two main ones:

First there’s Beyond Dinobot Island (http://grimlock88.livejournal.com/), which is my personal blog that I started back on October 27, 2003. This started as a way to keep my writing skills up and venture back into web publishing after several failed website attempts back in the late 90’s. Writing has always been therapeutic for me, a way to put all the thoughts in my head down on paper, so to speak, in order to examine my ideas as an outsider looking in. It’s my primary means of dealing with stress and trying to better understand the circumstances around me. In time I found myself writing about news, reviews and other items so much that I had to spin off those portions into a separate blog in order to keep my LiveJournal blog focused on my day-to-day activities. As much as possible I try to have an entry posted daily in order to keep in the habit of writing and to generally help me deal with life better. I will always say that I blog for myself and my writing reflects that. I’m not trying to cater to an audience but simply express my thoughts on life and my various experiences and if people don’t see things the way I do, it’s not an issue.
 
The spin-off blog is The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything (http://geekyguide.blogspot.com/), which started on September 1, 2006 as a experiment with the then recently integrated Google-Blogger platform. It soon became a place for me to discuss non-personal items that I used to post on LiveJournal in a different forum and experiment with SEO techniques and ad-driven revenue, although this is not the primary reason for the blog. The Geeky Guide continues to be a sort of extension of my writing activities, an avenue for me to highlight things I find interesting but not necessarily catering to the wishes and whims of my readers. I enjoy writing for the act in itself and my goal is not to become the most popular blog or to generate revenue. I blog simply because I want to write and if there are other people out there who appreciate what I have to say, then well and good. I’m toying with the idea of removing ads entirely since it seems to distract people from what the Guide is really about and how it sometimes gets lumped together with other blogs centered around ad revenue. There’s nothing wrong with that - it’s just not what the Guide is about.

11. Life is Colourful by Celeni (Quezon City, Philippines)
Description: Random exploits of Celeni Guinto
Start date: 2001 July Niche: Personal Blog
Tags: celeni, upds, up diliman, economics, photoblog

Curiosity. Events in my life that I find curious and worthwhile to recount. To tell you the truth, I just like writing for kicks, and since I don’t do fiction well, I decided to write in journals. And since I discovered LiveJournal during my MTV Asia Graffiti Wall tambay days, I’ve been blogging since. So yes, aside from curiosity, I guess it’s keeping a reader base that keeps me writing. I love getting feedback.

12. In My Pocket by Noelle De Guzman (Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines)
Description: Noelle De Guzman’s online journal; the journal of a twentysomething in the Philippines
Start date: April 20, 2001  Niche: personal / hobbyist
Tags: travel, dance, group exercise, music, movies, consumer technology

I started blogging because it looked like so much fun for one of my friends. Now I blog because I just can’t keep quiet about things that I’ve experienced or seen, particularly my passions in life. I also love the feedback from my readers; it makes me feel more connected to the world outside my own small circle.

13. Brown Thoughts by Brown Baron (Quezon City, Philippines)
Description: The latest Tech News, Gadgets, Games. All with a twist.
Start date: Feb. 7, 2007  Niche: Technology
Tags: Internet, Computers, Tech News, Software, Gadgets, Games, Videos

Brown Thoughts’ main goal is to showcase the best parts of Technology and the Internet. This means that the blog is not a mirror of bigger news sites around the web.

The main driving force behind Brown Thoughts is to provide technology that you can actually use. The blog is dedicated to giving you great free software and addicting time wasters, tech news worth reading and reviews of cool sites, computer resources and funny gadgets.

What do I get out of it? Blogging is free therapy for me. Forming bonds with other bloggers around the globe is another bonus.

Brown Thoughts’ motto is: Analog Ideas In A Digital World

14. Picture Clusters by maiylah (Quezon City, Phils.)
Description: a place where I can post my shots, using my digital camera.
Start date: February 20, 2007  Niche: general
Tags: picture clusters, pictures

initally just to post my pictures and join some activities around the blogosphere that entails blog owners to post their shots, but after some time, I gave in to the idea of monetizing it.

15. maiylah’s snippets by maiylah (Quezon City, Phils.)
Description: personal blog on my own domain where I can post anything, everything, and occasionally, nothing.
Start date: actual blog on my own domain created on 08 July 2007, but added some posts from a previous blog which I started last april 20, 2006
Niche: personal/general
Tags: snippets, lifesnippets

really just a personal blog, which I also decided to monetize. Having fun, learning, and earning is a good way to spend time.

16. My Wanderings by maiylah (Quezon City, Phils.)
Description: personal blog where I can post my pictures, mostly.
Start date: 21 august 2007  Niche: (mostly) photography/personal
Tags: my wanderings, pictures

personal blog on my own domain, which I have decided not to monetize … mostly a place on my own domain where I can post my pictures, really.

17. Pour Out Boy! and Kalokohang Pamamahayag Lamang!!! by June aka dayunyor (Metro Manila)
Start date: December 2007 and February 2007 respectively.  
Niche: Personal, Events, Entertainment, Music

My whole blogging experience will be senseless without the intention of inspiring / touching the lives of readers, reaching out to my co-bloggers and of course, earning extra income.

An elaborate post regarding your question can be read here.

18. JuiceLog by Darwin (Quezon City)
Description: JuiceLog is a personal blog talking mostly about the lifestyle of the unauthor which is myself
Start date: November 22, 2005  Niche: Personal
Tags: internet, events, lifestyle, entertainment, social, personal

One of the driving forces that makes me blog are the various experiences I have in my life that I think would be worth sharing for the rest of the world to know. I also enjoy divulging several nice and (sometimes) naughty details every once in a while for the fun of promulgation. I still see to it though that the blog maintains it’s composure amidst everything that I talk about.

19. Vignettes by  Dennis Rito/ dsrito (Quezon City, Philippines)
Description: A Photographer’s blog on photography and everything in between
Start date: March 2006  Niche: Photography
Tags: Photography, Photojournalism, Photo documentary, Philippines

Well, aside from the periodic ad posts and personal views expressed in it, my blog aims to inform, to educate, to facilitate learning in the field of (but not limited to) photography and photographer’s rights. I also see my blog as a medium to express various social concerns through photography. I wish to use photography to provoke and in the process bring change, as little as it may seem.

20. Yes you’ve reached Jana by janajee (The College, Valenzuela, Philippines)
Description: Chronicling the continual dying of my brain
Start date: March 21 2006  Niche: Everyday Life
Tags: janajee

I want a place where I can talk to myself, without having people looking down on their noses at me because dude, this is like the third time I saw you talking to yourself out loud are you like crazy and therefore to avoid those things from happening again, I started a blog. The purpose/motivation? I want a place where people can meet me and realize that the girl sitting their studying her heart out, yeah the one with scars who look so studious and not so crazy and who looks like she insecure and immature and childish, yeah that one, she ain’t so bad after all. She’s alright. And her fire accident that left her with scars both physically and emotionally, see, she handled it pretty well. janajee[dot]blogspot[dot]com place chronicles my life.

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We would like to thank all the respondents for sharing their blogs’ driving force.   

We will still be accepting additional responses to this interview. Just send it to interviews[AT]pinoyblogosphere.com

* (adapted from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren)