16 Remarkable Reasons To Start A Blog Today
The following list of benefits of starting a blog will surely warrant the time, money and effort that you’ll gain from investing into this endeavor:
1. Discover Your Writing Voice
Many of the established bloggers did not start out as prolific writers. It was through their persistence that they were able to hone their craft.
Blogging will help expose the deepest recesses of your heart. It will put your innermost thoughts on the surface. Even if you’re just at the start of your blogging journey, blogging will help you to write how you truly feel.
2. Improve Writing Skills
Just like any other skill that you devote yourself into, blogging considerable written content on a regular basis will eventually make you a better writer. You just have to start somewhere and you have to start now.
For my part, I’ve always been fond of writing. I’ve written short poems and personal experiences in journals/planners as well as composed letters to long distance friends when I was in my early teens. I don’t know why and when exactly I stopped writing regularly but I’m pursuing it again through journaling and blogging.
3. Improve Analytical Skills
Choosing a blog niche, name, host, platform, theme, plugins, etc. will force you to exercise your analytical abilities. Though bloggers and countless support groups will be more than willing to help you out, you’ll have to ultimately try to figure out when something in your blog goes awry.
As an example, I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to successfully create a Google Analytics account when I was following the exact steps that were shared by other bloggers. I’ve labored on it for almost a week before I was able to solve it.
4. Learn New Technical Skills
From installing your chosen blog theme and plugins to configuring your site’s various pages, there will be plenty of opportunities to improve your technical skills. Even if you decide later on to outsource the administration of your blog, you’ll have to learn the basics of blog maintenance.
My experience in creating a Google Analytics account is a good example of pushing yourself to learn the “technical” ropes of blogging. I’m also trying to figure out the different functionalities of my blog theme and e-mail marketing tool so that I won’t feel helpless when something goes wrong.
5. Become Organized
Organization, specially in blogging, entails putting some form of content structure in place. As an example, successful bloggers recommend maintaining an editorial calendar if you want to establish a consistent system for your blogging business. This strategy will help you to prevent wasted time and energy in coming up with blog post ideas every week or so.
Being organized or having a system is something that I’ll have to learn more of. Whether it’s blogging or any business venture, those practices will put the different aspects of your life in order.
6. Increase Productivity
When you’re focused and you’re able to finish what you have set out to do in any given day, you’ll obviously accomplish more tasks than the next person.
In blogging, it is imperative that you stick to your goals as much as possible whether they be responding to e-mail messages, writing posts or creating products. Otherwise, you can easily go offtrack which you’ll regret later on. To lessen, if not totally eliminate, the probability of it from happening, I highly recommend learning productivity hacks shared by countless bloggers and other influencers.
7. Develop Focus
Distractions abound on a daily basis in our lives and it’s up to us to condition ourselves to focus on the task at hand. With blogging, you’ll learn to block off things which will not contribute to your goals. You’ll be forced to choose only those which will contribute to your ultimate aspirations and those which will veer you away from your goals.
At the office, I’ll put on my wireless noise-cancelling headphones when I want to concentrate on my work to send a signal to the people around me that I’m unavailable for unnecessary chatter. If the noise is not drowned out by the music in my ears, I’d go to a vacant area in the office and work from there for the rest of the day.
8. Become A Go-To Source
Exhibiting reliable knowledge on a certain topic will establish you as an authority. Needless to say, it’s not an easy feat. Blogging will push you to learn relentlessly if you want to succeed and reap the financial, professional and personal rewards.
9. Get In The Groove
To increase your chances of success in blogging, it is important to get in the groove or establish an efficient writing routine.
My routine is by no means ideal and I’m continually working on it. It’s not easy to try to build and grow a blog while having a full-time job but I’m slowly trying to eliminate the distractions and grow the essentials only.
10. Improve Self-Expression
Learning how to blog is liberating. Oftentimes, conveying your thoughts specially to a group of strangers and even to people who know you very well is not easy. It becomes more difficult if you try to put it in writing. Blogging will allow you to communicate freely yet respectfully.
11. Gain Confidence
Even if you know what you want to say, it isn’t easy to publish your thoughts for the whole world to see and scrutinize. Blogging will enable you to muster the courage to say what you want to say without feeling constrained for as long as it’s in a respectful manner.
12. Develop Patience
Blogging will truly test your patience and only those that will persist will reap the rewards later on. If you don’t believe me, you can read the stories of established bloggers which demonstrate, time and time again, that only those who endure through the challenges will come out on top.
As for me, patience is not one of my strongest suits. I would get agitated when something doesn’t go as planned or hoped. With blogging, I’ve been trying to learn to accept the situation I’m in specially on things that are beyond my control.
13. Become Compassionate
Just like inspiring others, blogging will enable you to sympathize and, more importantly, empathize with your readers who may share their own stories or pose questions related to their situations. The effect of which is gaining their trust and support for your blog and other endeavors including your recommendations. Based on my own experience, I tend to subscribe to products or services endorsed by bloggers whom I’ve learned to trust.
14. Gain Friends
Blogging can feel lonesome when you do your primary correspondences through blog comments and e-mail responses only. I bet that it takes on a different level when you personally converse with them through meetups, seminars or conventions. Though I’m not yet at that stage of my blogging journey, I feel the support that I receive from those bloggers/online entrepreneurs that I interact with through e-mail correspondences, webinars and Facebook groups.
15. Inspire Others
Blogging has a way of inspiring others when you share your struggles whether it be pertaining to your day job, business or life in general. People who have also experienced what you’ve gone through or who desire to do a similar endeavor will be motivated to overcome their challenges or pursue their dreams knowing that there are those who were able to conquer/fulfill theirs.
I’ve been motivated by stories of wives/mothers who kept on pursuing blogging or any similar undertaking despite their hectic schedules. I know I struggle almost every day to fulfill my obligations to myself, at home and at work.
16. Gain Another Source Of Income
Truth be told, the profitable possibilities of blogging is an ultimate goal. It is a means to earn or supplement and eventually replace (if you so desire), your own or your family’s income. At least, that is the case for me.
When I read all those potential monetization methods through blogging, I feel excited but I try to put my feet back on the ground because I know that it’ll take a lot of work before I’ll get there. As they say, no pain, no gain.
Takeaway
I’m fairly new to blogging but I feel that I’ve already seen improvements in certain areas of my life. I must admit that it isn’t easy specially when you only have time for blogging in the margins of your life and I know that I have a long way to go but I can’t wait for all the benefits of this endeavor to come into fruition. I’m urging you to seriously consider starting a blog today as well if you haven’t done so.
Do you already have a blog and, if so, how has it changed your life? And if you haven’t started your own blog, what are you waiting for? You can check my post here on how to create a blog from scratch.
