8 Reasons to Start Blogging

Blogging is an excellent tool for getting noticed. It helps you connect with the reader to convey your message in its entirety. Everyone wants to know how to have the upper-hand in their industry and the answer is to utilise what you have around you. Without further ado here are 8 Reasons to Start Blogging!

1. You’ll think better

Who doesn’t want to think better? Having a blog focuses you. You know the message you want to convey but not always how to say it. It’s a skill that you have to learn on your own, through practice. Unfortunately we don’t get taught it in school. Blogging helps in more ways than you know!

Writing consistently for your blog will allow you to learn what works well so you improve upon that. You’ll become more confident and take more risks with ‘freedom of speech’ and thus you’ll learn to write your message for the type of visitors you want to attract.

No matter what your knowledge base is you will always find like-minded people, people who will read what you have to say and as you learn how to think better you’ll get lasting visitors – if you are a business, possibly more customers. When you blog you will immerse yourself into your world, your blog.

2. You’ll attract attention

Whether your blog is for a cause, a lifestyle, pastime or business, writing blog entries will help you attract attention. Your blog allows you to sell your services by connecting with people in a personal way and sharing your opinions. It encourages your visitors to seek out more from you.

I find blogs like veggiedesserts.co.uk fascinating. It is such a unique blog that helps people to get more vegetables into their diets. Kate Hackworthy created this blog through a desire to bake cakes with vegetables, in an attempt to create a healthier diet for her toddlers. She now writes reviews and advertises giveaways for cookware and related items. I found her website through traditional media as she has such wide coverage now and has attracted a lot of attention leading to her blog being her full time career.

Think about who you want to attract and write with purpose.

3. You’ll speak passionately, intentionally

The power of words is incredible.

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.“ – Albert Einstein

Speaking passionately is something people are remembered for and something that is used and carried out every day. Speaking intentionally out loud comes easier to some people than others. I personally like to write so I can make sure my points are laid out in front of me and that I fully explain my message. Also to back up my thoughts with evidence for a stronger message, which is where having a blog comes in handy. If you follow the blogs of many of our well known leaders and politicians you will find the art of speaking intentionally, much like a speech.

Speaking intentionally requires confidence and depth, something a blog will help you learn.

4. You’ll meet like minded people

Selling something, whether it’s yourself, a product, a lifestyle… hell! even if your mission in life is to get more people listening to Metallica! getting everything you need into your first sales pitch is sometimes an impossible feat. There are many layers to a subject and many ways you want to express it. Blogs can help you to express everything you want to in time. You can convey a message in a way that is new and exciting, to a wider audience.

You are guaranteed to meet people interested in the same subject as you are, or even educate new people. Blogs such as TechCrunch are amongst the most popular websites in the world, uniting tech-savvy people from across the globe. They take advantage of social media, allowing their blogs to be shared and discussed freely on websites such as Facebook. It’s a great way to get to know people and help each other. Meeting like-minded people who share the same goal can help spread your message further.

5. You’ll make money

The TechCrunch blog I mentioned above makes a whopping $800,000 a month according to incomediary.com and there are plenty of other fine examples of successful bloggers I’m sure you have heard of.

Blogs such as MoneySavingExpert.com, started in 2003 and sold in 2012 for £87m. Blogging IS a different environment now compared to when blogging was rare, however the opportunity it still there. Blogging could provide you with an income equivalent to a part-time job or just some extra pocket money.  If your goal is to have a hobby that makes you a little extra cash, then go for it. Be consistent and make a commitment to it, Google will thank you for it.

6. It’s easier than ever: WordPress, FOC

WordPress is a Content Management System, often thought of as a simple blogging platform but nowadays capable of so much more. WordPress makes it very simple to start your own blog with its easy, visual control panel along with giving you the freedom to create and own your website. It is free to install and there is plenty of help and support online for building your WordPress website. 34SP.com support WordPress so feel free to ask us about it. We provide the First Month Free Hosting for anyone choosing to setup with WordPress.

It IS easier than ever to set up a WordPress blog, no matter what technical background you are from. So take the plunge, you have nothing to lose!

7. It gives you a history

Our 34SP.com blog gives us a fantastic insight to our history and also helps us remember events we attended in more detail. Like a diary it’s good to reference thoughts, opinions and happenings. In our 34SP.com blog we have referenced happenings important to us and our customers in the past, such as our April 2014 blog on the Heartbleed Bug. It doesn’t seem that long ago to us but it has been over a year now. How fast time has gone!

8. Your writing structure will improve

Writing doesn’t always come easily to those who have an important message to convey. You can be the world’s best writer but have a writing style that does not match your audience. I am personally a reader that finds big walls of text over facing! Even if it’s a subject I like, if it’s hard to read then I usually lose interest in it. I like to read blogs like this one with specific headlines and numbered points.

There are many writing styles and not all of them apply to your audience.  Analytics will tell you which of your blogs is more attractive, so take the information and work with it on your next blog, the only way is up from there.

 

So there you have it, 8 Reasons to Start Blogging. Now stop reading and start writing 🙂

 

-Siobhan

@34SPSiobhan @34SP