Blogging can be incredibly valuable to a variety of people and for a variety of reasons.
Blogging is not just for businesses! I’ve benefited personally, professionally, and financially from blogging. Writing has actually become one of my favorite hobbies. I recommend blogging to almost everyone I meet. Here are the some of the biggest reasons why I think YOU should should start blogging immediately.
1. Attract an Audience
Blogging enables you to reach the billions of people that use the Internet. Blogging can help you promote yourself or your business. Blogging works as a method for attracting an audience because it provides something of value to them before asking for anything in return.
What would you rather click on, a page titled “How to Promote Your Blog“, or a page titled “Buy My Consulting Services”? By creating a blog that is of value, you can attract an audience and eventually convert them to customers, partners, friends, or otherwise.
2. Establish Authority
Having a blog and writing about important topics that are relevant to your audience establishes yourself as an authority in the space. It enhances your professional image. A blog is to professionals in the 2000s what a business card was in the 1990s. Blogs are the new business cards.
3. Build Rapport and Engagement
Blogging can convert traffic into leads and leads into customers. Blogging can “warm up” your cold calls and traffic from other sources. If someone receives your cold call, they may be more receptive if they’ve read your blog and received value from it.
4. Create Opportunities
Blogging can lead to other business/traffic generating opportunities. For example, speaking engagements or press. I’ve had people contact me to speak at conferences who found me through my blog. Blogging enables anyone with something interesting or valuable to say to be identified as an expert.
5. Organize Your Thoughts and Learn
Blogging forces you to teach yourself what you don’t know and to articulate what you do know. When you begin writing a blog post, you are forced to organize your thoughts. If there are any gaps in the topic that you are writing about, you will have to learn about it. Writing out and articulating your thoughts is a great way to internalize something you’ve learned or experienced. Writing helps you become more familiar with the topic you’re writing about.
6. Tell Your Story
Blogging enables you to be your own media company. You can tell your story the way you want to tell it without being dependent on journalists. When you are writing about a topic of your own interest, you can decide how to portray a story, what information to include, and what information to exclude. Blogging allows you to ensure that all information included in the blog is factual.
7. Meet New People
The audience you attract through blogging doesn’t have to just be your “audience.” They can become your friends, colleagues, partners, or lovers. I’ve had many people reach out to me directly after reading my blog. Some of those people have become friends or good business contacts.
8. Stand Out
According to “the 1 percent rule,” only 1 percent of Internet users actively create new content, while the other 99 percent of the participants simply view it. By blogging, you separate yourself from the 99 percent of people that don’t blog. Standing out is essential in an increasingly competitive economy.
9. Validate Expertise
Blogs are the new resumes. Blogging about a topic you would like to be viewed as an expert in, can illustrate to readers, employers, and your network, that you are are skilled and knowledgeable.
10. Make Money
If you have a blog with a lot of readers, there may be opportunities to monetize. In today’s economy, being diversified and having additional sources of income can be tremendously beneficial. If you are working a job that doesn’t pay as much as you’d like, or if you would simply like to earn more money (who doesn’t?), blogging can make for a great side income.
