There’s lots of reasons why I believe just about everyone should start up a blog.
Before we begin, you should know that making money from a blog is not one of my reasons. Chances are, your blog won’t make you any income, at least, not for quite a while. I don’t say this to discourage anyone, but I do want people to have realistic expectations coming into this. So let’s get started!
1. You don’t have to be a good writer to create a successful blog. The top five blogs I keep up with, have a lot of errors in their posts. But, what they lack in grammar, they make up in their content. As a result, they all generate some income, and they all have a large quantity of visitors.
2. Blogging is beneficial to all parties involved. It’s therapeutic to write, and you can improve your communication, and writing skills in the meantime. It’s also helpful for your readers; You can blog to encourage your audience, teach them about your topic, or entertain them with your stories, and wit.
3. This is an extremely cheap, and flexible hobby. I would strongly suggest that you don’t pay for your blogging site until you’re ready to monetize it (more on this later). If you already have a smartphone, tablet or laptop with a wifi connection, this is a free hobby. Not only this, but you can blog from anywhere in the world.
4. Earlier I said that blogging can be beneficial to the writer, I want to elaborate on that now. Blogging isn’t like other types of writing. It leaves you very vulnerable. What you say goes out into the world, to be criticized by anyone. If you write a book, people have to pay to read it. Blogging is free, and therefore, anyone can get to it to criticize it (and you!). Also, if you post content on social media, it eventually gets buried and difficult to dig back up. Blogging is different. Everything is nicely categorized, and it takes less than 30 seconds to find posts from years ago. Sometimes people are polite and constructive, but many aren’t. You have to develop a thicker skin to deal with these special kinds of people. You also become more confident, because you’ve learned to accept the type of writer and person you are. Check out this awesome comment I got from this post. In this case I just had to understand my post was a bit of a train wreck, ignore her insult, and realize I need more sources cited to keep my readers happy. 
5. Blogging with a platform of many quality readers is great for your business. Having a crowd of people who respect, and appreciate what you write, are people who are likely to buy your products. Even if they don’t want to spend money, they will share your blog so that you can reach the people who will. My husband and I have a few business ideas that we’ll probably be launching within a year. If you’re interested in all the perks ‘reaches’ your blog can do for you, make sure you check out this really awesome post by Ardelia Lee.
6. If you ever do start making money by selling ad space, e-books, or online courses, that money is passive. That means that once you do the work, it will continue to make you money and sell your products, so long as you still have a blog. That is quite an asset to have! 
Have I convinced to you to launch your blog today? Awesome! Here are some quick tips I have for you.
– Use WordPress. I love WordPress because it has a reader (like a Facebook time line) so that it’s easy for others to locate and read your blog.
– Start out free. WordPress can be free, or paid. Don’t worry, if you start free, it’s easy to later switch your blog over to paid to become self hosted. Blogging is something that some people will lose interest in. Don’t invest money in something that won’t benefit you. Your self hosted WordPress will pay for its own hosting fees once you have about 250 visitors daily. I’m staying until I can get my traffic flow up. [UPDATE: I did it! You’re now reading on my Self Hosted Website! – To see my old free site, check out diamondsndenim.wordpress.com !!]
– Write excerpts for all your posts. You shouldn’t see the entire body of every posts’ text on your home page. That’s lengthy and irritating to scroll through.
– Share your posts to your social media. It’s not silly I promise. Your true friends and family won’t mind it one bit, and if anyone complains, you don’t need them in your life.
– Utilize your hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. It is absolutely amazing to me how many people actually look through hashtags to find new content. Not only will it boost your social media account traffic, it will boost the amount of traffic and followers your blog gets.
– Try to post at least once a week. If you can crank out good quality posts daily, then by all means, go for it! Weekly posts keeps you from abandoning your blog, and it keeps your readers from forgetting about it.
– Any research you do on blogs says to find a niche. Although I agree to an extent, I strongly feel that it is important to write about anything and everything you’re passionate about. You’ll develop a niche somewhere along the way, so don’t worry about finding one before you begin.
– Read other blogs similar to yours to see what they do to become successful. BUT if you’re looking for blog post ideas, don’t try reading other blogs. You’ll end up with no idea, or almost completely copying one their ideas. It’s a no win situation.
– Always add a cover picture to your posts. It breaks up the text and it grabs attention much more efficiently than just your title alone will. Humans are visual creatures!
– Have fun with the process, and don’t give up so soon, try to give it at least a year of your time and effort.
What reasons would (or did) you have for starting a blog? Any advice for a newbie? List the link to your blog below, and tell us when you started it! As always, thank you for reading!
