13 Brilliant Reasons To Start Blogging

Blogging, unlike other social media platforms, offers you the freedom to express your thoughts the way you want to. It’s not bound by character limits or types of content. In fact, the more the variety, the better. From sharing your personal thoughts as an online diary to making it a marketing and business tool, there are tons of reasons how a blog can help achieve your goals. A few: 

AS AN INDIVIDUAL

1. Write better: Practice makes a man - or a woman - perfect! And there is nothing better than writing regularly to master the craft. When I took up the blogging challenge last year and wrote 27 posts in 27 days, it made a discernible difference to my writing skills and the speed with which I could put together a blog post.

2. Instills discipline and commitment: Putting out a post every week/fortnight takes passion and dedication to achieve. The desire to keep your blog alive with fresh content gets you to commit to it and churn out content with regular frequency. 

3. Meet new people: Networking and making new friends are a few perks of being a blogger. Online blogging communities not just support your writing endeavours but meeting fellow bloggers offline also gets you new friends. Reading their posts also keeps your own creative juices flowing.  

4. Create your personal brand: A blog is your own virtual real estate where you can put content that represents you. Content that helps you create the image you want to. Your personal brand can not just get you fame but also open a lot of other windows of opportunity, as I shall reveal in a bit.

5. Develops confidence: It is an uphill task when you start a new blog. Not many people read it. And this is when the majority of the people lose steam and give up blogging. But with every view of your post and every comment that starts trickling in, it boosts confidence and builds self esteem as a blogger. You start looking forward to little milestones that you can celebrate. Blogging begins to become a part of your identity.

6. Share expertise: This is what I have done with my training blog on sumankher.com which now doubles as the company website. Your blog can be about sharing your expertise and knowledge with the world. Others can gain through your insights and apply them in their journeys.

7. Make money: Plenty of bloggers have turned into authors and come up with best sellers. Even if you don’t become an author right away, a blog with great content can fetch you writing opportunities. The brand you create for yourself through your blog can get you freelance gigs and a little pocket money!

AS A START UP

A new venture is relatively unknown and a blog is a great way to tell the world all about yourself - one post at a time. Here are a few things a blog can do for you:

1. Become your resume: Build all aspects of your work, services, mission, vision etc into your blog. Videos, photos, posts - choose a variety to bring out the image of your new venture. Tell the world all about what you do.

2. Build credibility: The right content can help you establish authority even as a start up. Talk about your expertise so that the clients understand your work better. With the use of the right keywords, a blog is also a great way to drive traffic to your website too. 

3. Generate leads: People who come to your blog and learn more about your work may also want to work with you. Blogs are emerging as hiring tools too. Make sure that you create an authentic image on the blog so that you can live up to it when you meet clients.

AS A BRAND 

Social media presence is important for a brand to stay in the public eye. But a blog can create a platform for the company to interact with the internal or external customers, as the need be.

1. Talk to your customers: A blog is a great place to talk to your customers about your brand values, your customer service policies and any other useful piece of information that your customers/stakeholders should know. Twitter is too short for that kind of info and Facebook page may not take your message to all your followers. But the company blog is your own space. And you can use it to your advantage.

2. Share industry news: Every blog post doesn’t have to be your own. You can also share news from your industry. This helps your readers keep track of industry events easily through your blog. Additional resources like this are always a bonus for blogs. You can also use this to inform the stakeholders how you live up to the industry standards. 

3. Celebrate milestones: Showcase your achievements proudly to the world on your virtual space. Post that on your social media to further propagate the message. Maybe announcing new employee friendly policies or reporting the highest profit in a quarter. A blog could be the center of your online presence that builds around the kind of work you do.

You can imagine the benefits of blogging from this select list of advantages - as a hobby blogger or as a brand. And starting a blog might seem like a pretty great idea to you at the moment. But Google throws up 7,83,00,000 results in 0.41 seconds for the search – How to start blogging. That’s an overwhelming chunk of information. And I can understand if you toyed with the idea of starting a blog and then that overwhelming feeling took over! A few quick tips to motivate you to stay on track:

1. Passion for writing: It goes without saying that something like blogging that requires you to come up with content regularly needs you to really believe in it. It just cannot be a half hearted attempt. It could be hard initially but then then the habit sets in.

2. Jot down ideas: You will find bloggers complain about writer’s block. But as someone who’s been writing for years, I don't believe that there is any such thing. The trick is to keep a notepad or an app on your phone handy where you can jot down your ideas - and trust me, they pop up in our minds at the most unlikely of times! Dip into this list and you’ll always have something that appeals to you to write about.

3. Set a blogging routine: Planning is always helpful. Decide a frequency of posting and plan your writing around it. If possible, figure out the topics you’d like to deal with in the next few weeks. This will prepare you to think over ideas you want to talk about before you actually start writing.

Can you guess the top tip to start a blog and keep writing? Hint: it has nothing to do with writing. To get the answer and to discover your blogging goals and the path ahead, register for Blog Like Suman - unique workshop on blogging for beginners. This is a great opportunity to learn how to:

• Define your blogging goals 
• Envision your blog plan
• Create a personal brand
• Drive traffic to your blog
• Understand mistakes newbie bloggers make

And after this workshop, you will be able to:

• Confidently start a blog
• Find your blogging niche
• Plan your blog content/posts
• Write SEO friendly posts
• Promote your blog on Social Media

For more details, read this blog post and comment on it or drop me a line at [email protected] and I will help you register. 

You can read more such content on building skills on our training blog, Soft Skills Studio. Soft Skills Studio was put together as a resource of information for people who want to improve their skills. And now it is  also a training and coaching outfit passionate about skills training to make more employees more effective. We think that when work becomes play, success is not by the way and our programs reflect this philosophy.