Sunday, October 8, 2017

The Ultimate List Of Reasons Why You Should Be Blogging

The Ultimate List of Reasons Why You Should be Blogging

Oh boy, there are so many reasons why you should be blogging. Just type in 'blogging reasons' in a search machine and you will find thousands of articles telling you why you should be blogging. Rather than being original this week, I want to create an ultimate list for you, so you do not have to read all those articles. If you are an entrepreneur and you have not started blogging for your business yet, this ultimate list should persuade you, even if you are a bit afraid of starting.

For this ultimate list, I have found help in recent articles by Websites for Good, Recruiterbox, Nialogique, Ryan Clements, and Jared Atchison.

19 Reasons Why You Should be Blogging

Here are nineteen reasons why you should start blogging right now:

1. Blogging is challenging, and challenges are good

Anyone who thinks that blogging is not challenging has not really done it. It is a challenge to sit down and write and to do that consistently. It is a challenge to put your ideas out there, but you should not be scared of it. You should embrace it because it makes you grow. By growing, you become more complex as an individual. Blogging is a challenge that you can handle and simply put, handling challenges can make you happy.

2. You do not have to write War and Peace

One of the hardest barriers to overcome is thinking you should have a Big Idea that no living human had ever shared before. Although some long postings can be great, a mix of long and short keeps you and your readers interested. Think about it, do you have time to read five thousand words every time?

3. Blogging is easy

Once you have gotten over the idea that you need to write about Something Big, starting a blog is really easy. You can create a blog and start posting on it within minutes as blogging tools require no training. You can kickstart blogging on simple platforms like Blogger or WordPress.

4. Starting a blog is affordable

As time goes on and your blog grows, you probably need to invest in different tools and software to help you sustain your business. However, in the first stages, it costs you next to nothing to run a blog. And the best part is, is that once your website does outgrow those free tools, you are probably able to cover the expenses with your blogging income anyways.

5. Blogging is helpful for optimizing for search engines

Search engines always like fresh content. Having a blog gives you an easy opportunity to update content and your website frequently.

6. Blogging allows you to learn something new every time

This was actually one of the biggest reasons for me to start blogging. I have two master's degrees, so that is quite the indication that I love learning. I actually miss taking those classes. For me, blogging is a way to stay up to date when it comes to entrepreneurship and all of its aspects. I have learned so many things in the four years that I have been blogging! In addition, I love sharing what I have learned, so my readers can learn with me 😊

7. Blogging allows you to show you are easy to approach, so people are more comfortable connecting with you

Making regular additions to your website by writing and sharing is a way your clients, prospects, customers, and donors can get to know you as a human being: what you know, what is important to you, and what you notice. This is one way that new people can determine that you are worth the risk of contacting you or giving your product/service/cause a second look.

8. Blogging helps you share your expertise

In addition to making you seem easy to approach, sharing your experience, thoughts, tips, and strategies in a blog can position you as a thought leader or expert. As mentioned, you will learn even more about your favorite topic and network with others in that field. All this learning can build a unique expertise, which can lead to new business and career opportunities. Your expertise is another reason for people to contact you or give your product or service second look.

9. Blogging gives you a space to have a conversation with your audience

When you look at your website, does it have any place where people can converse with you? Posting new writings on your website gives you the ability to accept comments. These comments can form a conversation, something that everyone can learn from. Suddenly your website is a gathering place for people you are hoping to get to know and work with.

10. Blogging allows you to share interesting things you come across

A space for writing on your website becomes a repository for all of those helpful, meaningful things that you come across every day, which you can quickly share with the world.

11. Blogging helps you to continue to craft your product or service

Blogging helps you discover what matters most to you and the people you are trying to help. You write, think, gather information, receive feedback, leap to different possibilities, and find new ideas sprouting. As a result, you keep crafting your product and service with those new ideas.

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12. Blogging can create a buzz

Blogs act like free PR for your business. You can easily promote any idea, event, video or product update through your blog. Do keep in mind that you should offer your audience high-quality content that makes them want to come back and read your blogs every time. Endless self-promotion will not help your audience; your solutions to their problems will help them.

13. Blogging can help grow your network

If you are posting informative content with value (so no endless self-promotion), a relevant group of readers is bound to follow your blog. When you include social sharing options in your blog posts, you have the opportunity to expand your sphere of influence to an even larger network. High-quality content and social sharing options are the simplest way to earn subscribers, followers on social media, and readership. These people may remember you the next time they need a product or service you offer!

14. Blogging can help attract visitors to your main site

Blogs with good content and a growing base is a good source of visits to your site homepage. That is precisely the spot where you can explain endlessly how your product or service helps your reader, leading to more sales.

15. Blogging for your business can mean additional income

Bloggers can monetize their website in several different ways, such as affiliate marketing, sponsorships, product sales (digital and/or physical), and pay per click ads. You could also offer consulting services and create different plans for the various services that you offer, which you can promote by providing fifteen minutes of free consulting. Also, add a "contact me" page where you market your skills as a speaker, videos of you speaking, and the topics that you cover.

You do have to see whether these things match with your company. If you have a company that you would like to highlight with your blog, you might not want to publish positively about competitors. If you start a blog as the foundation of your company, you have more possibilities. For instance, I have noticed a big difference in freedom blogging for my translation company BudgetVertalingOnline (which is where I posted this blog post) and for Meemoeder.com, which is a Dutch blog about lesbian parenting that I founded.

16. Blogging can create new business opportunities you had not thought about yourself

When you become known for a certain topic, you could get picked up by the search engines. People who are looking for expertise in your area will eventually reach out to you. This will result in new and interesting career and business opportunities that would not have been possible otherwise.

17. Blogging can lead to new and interesting experiences

New experiences are fun; they help to break the routine and make life more interesting. Blogging is a great way to have new and interesting experiences. It may be something like doing a guest post on someone else's blog or writing on a topic that requires a little "field work" or research.

For instance, for my Meemoeder.com blog, I am going to Las Vegas in April to cover an LGTB media convention, which is right up my blog's alley. Can't wait!

18. Blogging may require you to confront your fears

For some people, taking a side, having an opinion, and voicing that opinion online is simple. For others, that might be a terrifying prospect. If you fall into the latter category, it can be empowering to overcome this fear. The worst thing that could happen by blogging is that someone disagrees with your opinion. Well, you can handle that. In fact, it is a good thing to have your opinion challenged from time to time. It ensures you analyze your opinions to make sure they are sound.

19. Blogging can help you grow your email list

Emails are more effective at generating sales than blog posts, websites, and even social media. According to McKinsey, email remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media — nearly forty times that of Facebook and Twitter combined. Use your blog as a platform to promote your email list by converting your blog visitors into leads. Once you have a big enough email list, you can use it to promote your own products, sell affiliate products, and do much more.

Ready to start blogging?

Well, if you feel confident enough after reading my blog post, you should start today! Feel like nothing is happening after you clicked the publish button? My blog Why No One Is Reading Your First Blog Post [And How to Fix That] might help you attract more readers. In fact, it may be a good idea to read that post before you hit the publish button, so you can avoid some common mistakes.

If you have written a post, but you are not sure how to call it, you should read my blog How to Write Killer Blog Headlines – The Ultimate Guide. If you are not sure your headline is good enough, you should definitely read it. After all, there is an art to writing post headlines and bloggers have to master this art in order to attract more visitors.

If you need your blogs in more than one language, we should talk. I am a translator, so I can help you. Thanks for reading my blog and please do not forget to share it!

Author: Greetje den Holder

Greetje den Holder lives in The Hague (The Netherlands) and holds a Master of Arts in American Studies and a Master of Science in International Business & Management from the University of Groningen.She has been an entrepreneur since 2011. That is the year she founded her translation agency … View full profile ›

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Source: The Ultimate List Of Reasons Why You Should Be Blogging

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