I recently read a "blog" where a person (Anna Macko) writes 45 great reasons to start (or continue with) blogging...what are your thoughts?
Anna Mack writes: -------- There’s a reason why I included Blogging as one of the 3 Big Guns in my Loving Not Working course. Its money making potential is simply huge! Plus, it’s really easy to start a blog. My course teaches the step by step procedures and you can also find free tutorials on the Internet. So really, if you want to make money by blogging, there’s no reason why you couldn’t do it and succeed (earn money) doing it. It’s so easy that you can do it yourself or hire people to do the work for you. There are other benefits to blogging too. Below, I have listed 45 reasons to start a blog today – and I advise you not to delay.
Reason #1 Full Time Income Potential
Blogging has long been one of my main sources of income. In fact, it was one of the first things I tried as an Internet Marketer. For more than 10 years now, it is still one of my highest earning methods on my online business. So believe me when I say that this method of making money online can literally support you just like your regular job. In fact, you can even quit your job when you get the hang of it because you, yourself, can dictate the amount of money you can make with it. Yep, you’ll be in total control of how much money you can make – and there’s really no limit too.
Reason #2 Help People Through Your Blog
As a blogger, you need to be an authority or expert at something. Maybe at first you’re not, but you’ll eventually become one as you do more research and write about your niche. At this point, you will have a regular audience or readers who will wait eagerly for your posts because they are learning something from you. In this way, you’ll be helping them through your blog posts. So if you are a great cook, you can put up a blog on food or recipes. Sharing your knowledge on food and your very own recipes with your followers can really help them. It’s the same thing with other niches because your main goal is to share your knowledge with your readers.
Reason #3 It’s Really Fun Fun Fun!
Yes, you can have fun while making money too. To do this, start a blog on something you really really like – like a passion or a hobby. Are you an exercise fanatic? You can start a fitness site and share exercising tips. You can even use videos to show your audience how you exercise. Blogging about something you love is actually therapeutic too. Yeah, it’s way different from working at a regular job doing something you don’t even like.
Reason #4 Free Stuff
One of the perks of having a blog is that you can get free stuff out of it. There are lots of ways to make money when you have your own blog, and one of that is through sponsored posts. Depending on your niche or market, your clients or customers can send you their products so that you can review them on your blog. It helps with their marketing and advertising propaganda. You can get free services too, and write your reviews about certain Companies.
Reason #5 Another Marketing Strategy for Your Business
You can use a blog for marketing your existing products. If you have a published book or ebook, for example, you can advertise it on your own blog and make it even more accessible for purchase to your fans and followers. Therefore, a blog on your particular project can be an avenue for selling it or a way to advertise it. Yeah, it’s effective both ways.
Reason #6 It’s Good for Your Image
Being a blogger and having your own website is considered cool these days. When you have your own blog, your friends will look up to you and get impressed with your expertise. And as your audience grows bigger and bigger in time, you’ll be more popular as well.
Reason #7 For Your Personal Growth
Blogs were originally intended as a form of journal on the Internet – and it still is. You can use this platform to tackle personal issues and share your thoughts on matters that are important to you. This practice of writing down your thoughts has always been an effective way to get to know yourself better and to improve yourself. In this particular case, you will be helping yourself as you help others who can relate to your issues too.
Reason #8 Very Easy to Set Up
Blogs are really easy to put up, so you really have no excuse not to have one. There are even free platforms that you can use for the sole purpose of blogging. However, if you want to maximize your profit on your blog, I suggest setting up your own so that you will be in total control. It’s still easy anyway, as there are lots of free tutorials online. Setting up a blog is also included in my Loving Not Working course – it covers everything from start to finish to making it earn money.
Reason #9 It Will Build Your Confidence
You will find that having your own blog will help build and increase your self confidence. This is especially true if you have a huge following because you will constantly be engaging with your audience. And as the owner of your blog, you will be looked at as an expert in your niche.
Reason #10 It’s a Good Form of Socialization
Blogging is a form of socialization. You can make new friends through your blog and communicate with them via comments and also connect through other social media. The world is your audience when you are on the Internet.
Reason #11 For Long Term Passive Income
If you have been working as a freelancer and writing blogs for other people, don’t you think it’s time to have your own website? This can be your piece of real estate on the World Wide Web and become a great source of passive income in the future. Note that your blog posts are only written once, but they can earn again and again.
Reason #12 It Encourages Creativity
You don’t want a boring job, right? Of course you want to do something that enhances your skills, talents and creativeness – something that makes you grow! Well, blogging will push you to be creative because you constantly need to come up with things to blog about. This can be a challenge sometimes, but nevertheless, exciting. Coming up with new ideas is fun!
Reason #13 You Become a Better Person
You are already a market leader when you become a blogger. Remember, people look at you as an expert in the field that you are blogging about. You can also decide to hire people to blog for you and you can simply supervise them and check their work. I teach that too in my Loving Not Working course because outsourcing the work on your blog is an effective way to make money without you doing all the work. Nevertheless, as you are the one in charge of your blog, you will become a better person through its regular maintenance.
Reason #14 You Don’t Have to Dress Up for Work
Dressing up in corporate attire can be tiring and expensive. It’s one of the reasons why people are looking for ways to work from their homes. There’s just something about working in your pajamas that’s so appealing (LOL). That’s exactly the lifestyle you’ll get when you have your own blog. You can work on your PJs (or go naked if that’s your thing) and even choose your own working hours – yeah, whatever is convenient for you!
Reason #15 Expand Your Existing Business Through Blogging
Having a blog can help your new business or existing business to grow. These days, online presence is really important because everyone is on the Internet. Yes, your blog makes your business accessible to your target market 24/7.
Reason #16 You Can Make it a Job
You can blog for multi billion dollar companies and earn a lot of money this way. It sure beats going to work every day since you are working from home or anywhere with Internet for that matter.
Reason #17 You Will Learn From Other People
As a blogger who is constantly engaging with your readers, you get to learn from other people too. By discussing things and finding out about other people’s problems, you will be able to come up with solutions to help them. Of course, this will be a good learning experience for you too, and you’ll become better and better at your niche as time goes by.
Reason #18 Make New Friends
You can’t have too many friends, right? And the blogosphere is the perfect place to find new ones who share the same interests as you. Since you will be sharing the same interest and passion with these people, engaging with them would be very fulfilling.
Reason #19 It’s a Good Way to Harness Your Photography Skills
A really good blog contains photos. This gives you more reasons to use that camera on your smart phone to take shots of related images for your website. Needless to say, this will harness your photo-taking skills and even improve your techniques on photography. Oh, and I’m sure you’ll have fun taking pictures wherever and whenever! Yeah, it’s one of my favorite things to do when I’m out – and then I review the images later on and post them on my blog.
Reason #20 You Get to Learn Internet Marketing Skills
To make money with blogging, you have to take it seriously too. In Internet Marketing, you need to learn a lot of things to make your online business successful. So aside from learning about your particular niche, you also need to know about networking, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), traffic, etc. But don’t worry because you can learn all of those things by simply researching on the Internet. You can also enroll in courses like Loving Not Working to formally train for different lessons on Internet Marketing and Blogging.
Reason #21 You Can Be a Creator
A blog gives you the power to be a creator (yeah, I know, just the word creator sounds sooo cool). You can write a book and establish yourself as an author through your blog and then sell this to your audience. Another thing that you can do is to create a course and then sell this through your blog too. It’s exactly what I’m doing with Loving Not Working. I created this course and then I made a website for it so that I can sell it to people who are interested in making passive income on the Internet.
Reason #22 Connect with Celebrities
Before Internet boomed, connecting with celebrities is next to impossible. But now, you can connect with your favorite International artists from anywhere in the world. You can blog about your favorite celebrity and if your post gets noticed – bam! – you might get a mention or two from that celebrity. I know, I know, that’s already a high in itself – but it has other benefits for a blogger like you. Your credibility will increase and you’ll attract an even wider audience.
Reason #23 Increase Your Money Making Opportunities
The older your blog gets, the more popular and bigger it becomes. When this happens, it will present you with even more opportunities for making money. Advertisers are always looking for good and credible blogs to advertise for them and you can make extra money through this. You can be asked to write a sponsored blog post or big Companies might want to rent a space on your blog.
Reason #24 It Encourages Family Bonding
Your blog can be an avenue for bonding with your loved ones. Yes, there are niches that are ideal as family projects such as arts and crafts, cooking and DIY. You can ask for the participation of family members and friends for writing blog posts on recipes, how to’s and so much more. See, adding content on your website has never been this fun!
Reason #25 You’ll Get to Know Yourself Better
Sometimes we think we already know ourselves 100%, but there are actually hidden aspects in our being that are not revealed even to us. By working on your blog on something that interests you, you will discover hidden talents and skills that you never even thought you have. This happened to me when I was making instructions in videos so that I can use them again and again for my employees. I didn’t realize back then that I was already practicing the method of creating a video course until I formally launched my first course (Loving Not Working).
Reason #26 It Opens the Door for Travel Opportunities
Do you love traveling? I do, and having blogs presents me with a lot of traveling opportunities. Sometimes I attend blogging conferences or Internet Marketing seminars. Sometimes I get sponsored trips too. And hey, I am making enough money (more than enough, actually) from my online business to afford traveling from place to place while my business is running in the background. Passive income, remember? I get to work anywhere with just my laptop and wifi and I can choose not to work too.
Reason #27 It’s a Constant Challenge
Blogging is definitely not boring! A boring and uninteresting work is what makes a job stressful and devoid of any meaning – and who wants that? It’s exactly why I have blogs (not a lot, but more than one). These websites keep me challenged because my main aim is to grow my audience and be of service to my readers and followers the best I can. That should be your goal too.
Reason #28 It Can be a Source of Inspiration
It’s inspiring to have your own blog. When you think of topics to write about, you will have to look within yourself and find relevant matters that are worth sharing to the world. This gives you a new perspective in your own life because you will have to find a deeper meaning to what’s supposed to be ordinary. Think of it as looking through different filters so that you can come up with blog posts that will appeal to your audience.
Reason #29 Establish Your Own Community
When you build a blog on a specific niche, you will also be building a tribe comprised of like-minded individuals. Such an environment is ideal for sharing and learning from each other, which is a win-win situation for both you (the blog owner) and your audience (your readers and followers).
Reason #30 It’s a Credibility Booster
Your website or blog stands as proof to everyone that you are an expert on a particular niche. This will earn you respect and admiration from peers, family members, and of course – your followers.
Reason #31 You Can Provide Employment to Others
In Loving Not Working, I teach outsourcing as a way to lighten up your load in maintaining a website or blog. Since you are earning money from this method, you can afford to hire freelancers to do some aspects of blogging for you, thus giving them opportunities for earning money too. You can also get the services of family members and friends who want to make some extra cash while helping you.
Reason #32 Get Worldwide Connection
Since the world is your audience when you blog, you get exposed to people of different nationalities too. This is always interesting because learning about different cultures will contribute to your growth and knowledge.
Reason #33 It’s Flexible
Running a blog gives you all the flexibility you can hope for as a business owner. Since your blog is based on the Internet, you can literally access it from anywhere in the world. You can opt to check in from a hotel, mall, park, or even a beach. No other business can be more flexible than that! Me, sometimes I’m in the US, Australia, Canada, etc. etc, etc…
Reason #34 It Saves Time
As an expert in your field, I’m sure you get asked a lot of questions repeatedly. Since I started making money through my blogs, friends and relatives (and new acquaintances) always ask me things like “how do I get started?” “how can make money online?” etc. Well, since I have my very own Anna Macko blog, I just give them the url so that they can find the answers to their questions. These online references are there as guide and to help with the frequently asked questions too.
Reason #35 You Get to Learn About Different Companies, Products and Services
Writing reviews and giving your opinions are all part of blogging. Because of the nature of the work, you will get to learn more about different companies and their products and services. Through research and personal testing, you will know the pros and cons of certain products and services and learn about the manufacturers behind them. Aside from being able to provide your readers with useful information about these things, you will also become a better shopper yourself.
Reason #36 You Can Be a Good Influence to Others
Your blog is your avenue to spread your thoughts and beliefs so as to influence others. You have this power as a blogger and you should only use it for good. Just look at existing blogs and you will find bloggers with different mission statements. Christian blogs, for instance, are spreading the good news of Jesus Christ so as to encourage everyone to love one another. Health fanatics are posting about healthy food and exercises to promote healthy living. Product review sites are reviewing items to provide their readers with unbiased opinions and recommendations when purchasing goods and services. Your good intention shows in your blog, and this will influence your audience to become just as loving, honest and thoughtful as you are.
Reason #37 It Can Be an Avenue for Coaching
A blog can be an avenue for coaching – and this can be a very lucrative opportunity in making money online. Yes, when you have already established yourself as an expert in your niche, your audience will start to trust you. People can hire you to coach them one on one or through a series of video lessons. So you can offer this service on your blog and make money from it.
Reason #38 You Will Improve as a Writer
As blogging involves writing, expect to write a lot of articles on different topics. Needless to say, your writing skills will greatly improve as you do it constantly. It is for this reason why you should not be afraid to start a blog even if you are not an expert writer. Believe me, you will improve over time and write masterpieces that your audience will love.
Reason # 39 Having a Blog Can Cure Shyness
Are you an introvert? Do you want to cure your shyness while also contributing to the world and making money? Then I suggest starting a blog. This platform will put you out there with people from all walks of life without having to meet them face to face. It’s a good way to jumpstart your socializing skills. Soon, you will feel more at ease in speaking your mind, and this will show in your own personal life as you go out there in the real world too.
Reason #40 You Will Have a Sense of Purpose
Having a sense of purpose will definitely make you feel happy and fulfilled. It’s one of the benefits of having a blog because you are responsible for your posts and accountable to your audience. You need to post responsibly and stand behind all your words too. That’s a huge responsibility, I know, but it’s all worth it.
Reason #41 It’s Another Accomplishment to Add to Your Resume
As I’ve said, having your own blog or website is quite impressive. You can add your blog to your resume and increase your worth this way. And if your blog is really popular, adding this to your resume can even present you with more opportunities like TV interviews or features from other authority blogs.
Reason #42 You Get to Shine Bright
If you have your own blog, you have your own personal platform for expressing yourself in whatever style you want. Just by your website’s design, you can already tell people what your blog is about – what you are about. You can also express yourself clearly through words by the articles you write. And of course, your audience will also see your innermost thoughts through the images you share, especially if you took the photos yourself.
Reason #43 It’s Satisfying
It’s really satisfying to have your own tribe as a market leader. You get to speak your mind and get respect from your audience because you share the same interest and passion. If your blog gets really popular, big Companies might even contact you to get featured on your blog. Now, that’s very flattering, and you can get offered a lot of money for the task too.
Reason #44 You Get to Spend More Time with Your Family
As having a blog can make you enough money to not get a regular job, you can spend more time with your family. This is especially good if you have kids because you can work from home and run your blog while looking after your children. As opposed to having a job, you can also take vacations with your family anytime you want.
Reason #45 You Have Complete Control of Your Time
Being a blog owner gives you total control of your time. Do you want to work on your blog full time? You can do so and manage it for 8 hours or more per day. If you want to work on your blog on a part time basis only, you can do that too. I know people who only work an hour per day on their blog and are still making a lot of money. So it’s really up to you – whatever suits you and whatever makes you happy and fulfilled with your work.