Why You Should Consider Blogging

Why do people start a blog?

People start to write a blog for many reasons, sometimes it is a personal account of their life, rather like a diary. It is a lovely way of preserving precious moments, so that you can look back at them in years to come. Often new parents start to write a blog for this very reason – it’s a fantastic way to record milestones and can be done in text, images or video form.

Personal challenges

Writing a blog can be quite cathartic, especially when life has presented you with challenges to overcome such as illness, disability and financial hardship. Sometimes it may feel that you are the only one experiencing such challenges and writing a blog can allow you to connect with others in the same position. It can be a supportive tool, in that you’re receiving help as well as you are helping others.

Business purposes

A blog can be used in business too. When a blog is featured on your business website it allows you to connect with your audience. By writing informative posts on the products and services available people gain trust in your abilities to provide a first rate service. Blogging enables you to be up to date and current in the marketplace, which can often change on a daily basis. Most blogs (if you wish) will allow your customers to leave comments and reviews, again this allows trust in what you have to offer.

Blogging can also be monetized and become a business in its own right. Often people who initially wrote their blog for reasons previously listed, realize that there is the potential to promote their blog for monetary gain. As your blog starts to feature higher in search engines, brands and businesses will pay you to write a blog post on their product or service for you to promote their brand to your followers. Increasingly brands not only look at your domain authority, but at the number of followers you have on social media platforms. The higher your social media following the more attractive you become, as your blog post could potentially reach an audience of thousands, which is great advertising for the brand! Other ways to earn money via your blog is through advertising and affiliate links. Product reviews are also commonplace, where you receive an item in exchange for a review.

There are more reasons why people consider blogging and sometimes it’s simply because the person has a love of writing.

So how easy is it to start blogging?

It is very easy to start writing a blog. Your first step is to choose your blogging platform. This is where you need to consider the future of your blog, do you want to write one for personal use or do you hope to monetize your blog in the future? If the latter point is your choice you should consider blogging on a self hosted WordPress site. WordPress allows you to fully customize your site and there are many plugins available that will add extra functions to your site. Your landing page for your site is very important as it is the shop window to your business, it is worth considering paying for a landing page that is responsive to all viewing platforms, some companies allow you to try Unbounce for free, before purchasing the full package.

Following making the decision as to which platform to use you then need to look at self hosting options. There are many available at varying price ranges, so be sure to research the best package for your usage.

Your blog name is another major consideration and you will need to choose a name that is free to register ie it is not used by anyone else. You will then need to register your domain name so that you will have your own url. Try to make sure your name reflects what you are writing about, obviously if you are writing a blog for business purposes your domain name will be your brand.

If you have no interest in monetizing your blog at any point you can choose free blogging platforms such as WordPress.com and Blogger. These platforms offer some flexibility but not as much as if you went self hosted on WordPress.

Finally you can start the enjoyable task of filling your blog pages with words! You can also take time on your blog design, by playing with different fonts and colours. To give your blog individuality and really make it your own, consider designing a logo on Canva or hire someone to do it for you.