Are wondering why apparently everyone and their moms are starting a blog lately? Are there any secret benefits of blogging that you are missing? As a blogger of almost 4 years, with 3 blogs now, have some reliable facts to share with you.
But I wasn’t always a ‘blogger’, in fact, I remember sitting in my old corporate job and seeing an ad that said something like ‘Write to Live” showing a picture of a guy somewhere tropical…I am almost certain there was a boat as well.
At that point I had been a copywriter for almost 10 years working in ad agencies and companies so I thought “wait, I write for a living but how come I am in an office and not on a tropical beach“.
I checked the ad’s page and it was (shockingly) about blogging. That was the first seed. Unfortunately (for my past self) the whole thing seemed too complicated so I closed the tab and forgot about it.
A couple of years later I still wasn’t feeling the corporate life so I decided to start a side business with the hopes of achieving the almost mythological “geographic independence”.
Long story short, I tried a couple businesses like dropshipping and Amazon FBA but it always felt like I was trying to put out one or three fires and didn’t have a sustainable business.
Until I realized what all the people I was learning from —and that seem to be doing quite well— had in common: they had an audience.
So it hit me, if I wanted to build a long term business/hustle/online career I needed to do the same. Lots of Youtube videos and a couple of courses later, I started my first blog and never looked back.
Types of bloggers
Before exploring the benefits of blogging, it is important to mention that not everyone who blogs does it in the same way or with the same purpose. Here are the main type of bloggers:
- Professional bloggers: This is the person whose main job is blogging or even those who are building their blogs with this purpose. Logically, since blogging is such an important part of their lives, the benefits are also more significant.
- Recreational bloggers: are the ones who use blogging as a way to express their hobbies and passions. They care more about being part of a community and sharing a message than about the financial or professional benefits.
- Guest Bloggers: are those who are recognized as experts in their industry and because of that can be invited to write articles occasionally. For them, blogging is just a small part of their professional career and a way to continue to establish their authority.
What are the benefits of blogging?
For those unfamiliar with the world of digital marketing, the benefits of blogging can be hard to imagine
1. Share Your Hobbies And Passions
Blogging can be a great way to invest your time and energy around the thing you like whether you want to do it for as a hobby or with the goal of creating a revenue source in mind.
Creating a blog around something you are passionate about is a great opportunity to share what you already know, learn more about it, and express yourself.
The best part is that you don’t need to be an expert or have all the answers. Great bloggers are open about their experience and are happy to share with their reading what they are learning about and bring them along the ride.
If you have ever read a blog about something you are passionate about and have feel identified with the writer, you know how cool it is to find someone to relate to, even if that person is a blogger you just discovered who lives miles away.
Which leads me to the next benefit…
2. Create Community
Blogging can help you connect with people who are interested in the same topics as you and who you can create a community of like-minded people with. You can collaborate on projects, help each other out or simply enjoy being able to share your passions.
Additionally, you will belong to the worldwide community of bloggers of all existing niches. In the same way, professionals of other industries recognize each other, next time you meet another blogger you’ll know you both share similar experiences, wins, and challenges.
3. Help your audience
Helping your audience is not only a benefit but it is essential if you want to become a successful blogger.
If you create valuable content with that goal in mind, your reader will trust you and want to come back to read your new articles automatically.
Moreover, they’ll be happy to check any products you recommend since they know you have their best interest at heart.
In one level or another, we all want to create a positive impact and influence and blogging is an easy and accessible way to do.
4. Support a cause
Not everyone blogs as a hobby or a carreer, many people start blogs as a way to share their political or ethical opinions and hopefully, inspire a change.
Information is power and sharing your point of view as well as valuable resources can help other people get on board or at least learn more about the topic you believe in.
5. Improve your writing and marketing skills
Much of the success of a professional blog lies in your ability to write articles that sell, whether that is an idea you are presenting, your own authority as a blogger, or a product you are promoting.
This is a highly valued skill that can be useful if you are a marketer, copywriter, entrepreneur or if you want to continue making more money with your blog.
While it might not come naturally for you at first, the best way to improve it is to continue to write, publish and study what is working and what is not.
6. Make money
I am not going to lie, when done properly, blogging can be a great way to make money online with almost zero investment and risk.
It sure take some time and effort but, in my honest (and biased) opinion, it is one of the most sustainable online business you can start.
It is more common, especially for people unfamiliar with the online makreitng, to see blogging as a hobbie and not as a business. However, when it comes to digital era, platforms and audiences are the equivalent of real state and with a blog you get to have both.
You do not need to know much about selling online to start your own money-making blog if you create good content that brings people in, there are many ways in which you can choose to monetize it.
Recommended:
7. Geographical Freedom
If you are someone who doesn’t like the office life, becoming a blogger gives you the freedom to decide where you want to work and how to organize your time.
I am not going to say you’ll be working 4 hours a week, at least not at first, but blogging does give you the freedom to work on your own schedule and from wherever you want. Whether that is your home office, a coffee shop, your bed, or a coworking space in Bali.
I know some people enjoy the structure and company of working in an office, but for most of us entrepreneurs, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
So, if you are looking for a bit more freedom to be at home, travel, or invest in other passions, blogging can be a great way to achieve it.
8. Be Your Own Boss
Another benefit of blogging professionally is becoming financially independent and being able to decide if you want to keep your 9-to-5 of you want to devote full time to your blogging business.
If you are reading this, it is very likely that you have an entreprenurial mind and would rather be your own boss than working for somebody else.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, there’s a lot of people who prefer the security of working for someone else; but if you have been wanting to leave the corporate life for a while, starting a blog can help create your own online revenue and work on your own terms.
9. Many ways to monetize it
Continuing with the benefits of blogging to create an income, a great one is that there is not one or two, but many ways you can make money with it.
You can place ads and get paid by views, you use it to promote affiliate products, create your own products or services, promote other business, get sponsorship deals, make paid promotional posts, get a writing gig, or even sell the whole blog for more than 10X its monthly income.
As you can see, the options are abundant and are limited only to your creativity.
10. Scalability
There is no limit to how much your blog can grow. Ok, perhaps there is one but unless you are in a very tiny niche, the limit is on the millions of visitors per month. This means there is also no limit to how much your revenue can grow.
The more articles you publish, the more traffic you’ll get. And the more traffic you get, the more money you can make.
At the same time, not everyone wants a blog with 10 million visits/month. If you want a more passive income, you can grow your blog to a certain size and once you are happy with that, you will be able to spend less time on it.
If you keep it updated and do not stop publishing completely, it will continue to generate revenue.
11. Low Investment and Risk
Creating a blog is practically free which, in comparison to other online business models, makes it the one with the lowest investment and risk possible.
On the other hand though, you do need to put some time and effort into it. But that is how most business work, you either need to have some money or some time to invest.
So, if you want to dedicate a few months to build a long term business with zero capital, that is one of the great benefits of blogging.
Additionally, there is almost no risk involved if you follow the right steps. In, the worst-case scenario, you fail at bringing enough traffic in, but in even in that case, you can fix it by improving your research and creating more content so nothing is lost.
12. Becoming an Authority In Your Niche
Whether you want to grow and online business or want to build your reputation in your field of work, creating a blog or writing as a guest blogger, are great ways to show your knowledge and position yourself as an expert.
Publishing well-researched articles that offer great value to the industry, will eventually get you noticed by those in the same niche and earn you recognition as an authoritative source
13. Earn More Exposure
In a similar way as the previous point, once you start blogging frequently whether it is on your own blog or as a guest in established sites, will help you get more eyes on yourself and your work.
All blogs must have an ‘About Me’ page or section where you can share about yourself, your experience and also the services you can provide.
Depending on your niche, you can provide coaching or consulting and it can become a big part of your income but having a blog to back you up is the first step for it.
14. You can sell a product or service
Creating your own product or service is one of the best ways to make money online. Especially digital products since you only need to create them once and then you can sell them forever with almost zero costs.
A lot of bloggers (myslef included when I first started) are skeptic about creating their own products and wonder if anyone would even buy from them. But the answer is yes! If you focus on creating good content for your readers and understand exactly what they need, there is no one better than you to create a solution to their problems.
You can start with something small like a short ebook, a pdf guide, an online consultation, it’ll depend a lot on your niche. But once you get more confident with the results you won’t want to wait to create your next offer!
15. Build Your Portfolio
If you are a copywriter or an aspiring one, you know you need a portfolio of samples to just be able to apply for most jobs.
On the other hand, getting your work published can also be challenging if you have no previous experience.
In this scenario, creating your own blog is a great way to not only build your online portfolio but to also improve your skills as you continue to practice.
Next time you want to apply for a job whether it’s your first one or a better opportunity, you will have lots of samples to show. Plus, having your own blog shows a bigger vision and commitment than simply sharing your samples in a pdf.
16. Become a Published Author
In today’s day and age, you don’t need to wait for anyone’s approval or financing to become a published author. In fact, you technically become one since the day you publish your first blog post.
So, If writing a book is in your plans, becoming a blogger is like a fast pass for it. You are building an audience, growing your authority, and getting credibility in your niche.
When you are ready to bring your book to life, you will already have people interested in buying or even publishers willing to offer you a deal.
17. Passive Income
The term passive income has been used so poorly that people associated with a very probable scam.
But the thruth is, passive income is not a get-rich-quick 4-hour-week scheme. It only means you put in most of the work first and the business can run with less involvement needed in the future.
This can be the case for blogging. If you wish to create a passive income from it, you can spend the first year building up some solid content with good SEO and monetization methods, and then you can sit back and let Google do its magic.
Once your traffic starts growing, so will your revenue and boom… you can enjoy some passive income!
However, most bloggers prefer to keep growing and working on it since the hardest part is over and they are seeing the fruits of their work which motivates them to do more.
18. Free traffic
If there is something every one business needs is traffic, which basically means people coming to your website or blog.
Traffic methods can be split in two main one: free and paid.
When it comes to a blog, we created content based on the searches people are making on google so then we can appear on the search results and get —yes— free traffic.
The better the content (and the resarch) the most likely we are to get some of that precios free organic traffic.
We know have a consistent flow of highly targeted people looking to solve their problems and willing to read our recommendations.
19. Collect Emails
“The money is on the list”
Every marketer ever
An email list is a highly valuable asset for every entrpeneur, blogger or business. So much that companies are willing to lose money first in order to get an email because they knwo they will make much more than what it cost them to get it.
On average businesses earn $1-$2/month per email subscriber and it goes up to $5 in some niches, which is why brands can spend up to $20 on ads for just an email.
But as a blogger you won’t need to do so, you can capture your visitors’ emails through an opt-in form or by offering something free in exchange.
Once you have their emails you can use them to bring them back when you publish a new article helping you get extra free traffic and you can also email them to promote your own products or affiliate offers.
Additionally, there are also lead generation companies who will buy your list if you decide to do so.
20. Get Immediate Feedback
Writers and companies need to wait for months or even years to launch their products into the market and see how the consumers react.
A blogger on the other side has an immediate source of valuable criticism at its disposal with every published post.
Once you have an established audience, you can use your blog to get your reader’s opinion on a new product you are thinking of launching, your future book, or even about the blog itself.
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions on the blog comments or to conduct a small survey. There is no better way of knowing what your audience wants than to actually ask them.
21. Learn In-Demand Skills
Blogging requires more skills other than writing. As a new blogger, you are basically an entrepreneur and will discover along the way all the different pieces that need to work together in order for your blog to be successful.
Some of those include keyword research, search engine optimization, a little bit of graphic design, another bit of WordPress, Social Media and email marketing among others.
You don’t need to be an expert in any of those before starting but you will definitely learn them along the way and not only will they serve for your blogging purposes but those skills are highly in demand and will open many doors for in-demand jobs or gigs that you couldn’t do before.
22. Stay Up To Date With Your Niche
When you are publishing content constantly, you will be researching and learning about the latest developments in your industry as well as what your competitors are doing.
This is why blogginh is a great way to stay updated on your niche or profession since your readers expect nothing but well researched and timely information.
Additionally, some time-sensitive articles will need to be updated periodically so you will not only learn about new topics, but you will know if there’s been an important development in most aspects of your niche.
23. Network with the Experts
Having your own blog can help you get access to famous people in your niche you’d never get to meet otherwise.
If you are preparing an article where it is relevant than you mention them, you can contact them and see if they’d be willing to answer a quick question or even if they don’t you can still quote them on something the have taught and share the article with them.
In most cases, they’ll be happy to share the article on their social media and you”ll gain some exposure at the same time.
24. Market Your Business
If you have a business and it doesn’t have a blog yet, you are missing out on a lot of traffic and opportunities.
A blog can reach a lot more people than a regular website and you have a better chance of building a relationship with your readers and gaining their trust.
When it comes to the buying process, customers go through several stages before being ready to buy. This is why a blog —along with a sales funnel— can help you move them forward on their purchase journey by providing the information that eliminates their doubts.
25. Build Your Professional Network
Whether you want to blog professionally or use it as a way to grow in your career, doing it can allow you to connect with other people in your industry and expand your professional network.
Having the right connections is essential in most markets and it can help you propel your career forward, get better opportunities, or be a part of cool projects you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
Blogging Benefits | FAQ
What are the disadvantages of blogging?
The disadvantages of blogging will depend on what type of blogger you are and what are your goals but here are some of the main ones related mostly to professsional blogging.
- It takes time and effort
- It takes some time for your articles to rank
- You need to create a lot of content if you want to be successful which can be a disadvantage if you don’t like writing.
- You need to have self-motivation and self-disciplines since there won’t be anyone cheering you up at the beginning
- People will think it is not a real career (half-joke/ half true)
- No instant gratification (bye dopamine)
How do I start blogging?
Check out this article on Blogging For Beginners and you’ll have a step-by-step guide.
What should I blog about?
If you are wanting to blog as a hobby then definitely do it about something you are interested in.
If you are wanting to do it in order to make money you should choose a topic that you have knowledge in but that also has the potential to generate revenue.
In that is your case make sure to check out this guide on How To Start A Blog To Make Money to learn how to choose a profitable niche
Benefits of Blogging | Takeaway
The secret is out, blogging has many amazing benefits IF you are willing to put in the work.
For better or worse, blogging is not for everyone, or otherwise, the competition would be too fierce. But for those of us who think that the benefits outweigh the challenges, blogging can definitely change your career, life, and mindset.
If there is something I wish you would take from this article is that if blogging is something you want to do, start now (and thank me later).
