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10 Reasons to Start Blogging

Every now and then you read a gloom and doom post about blogging like “Is blogging dead?” or “Where are all the bloggers?” Blogging is far from dead. Some people who were blogging five days a week four years ago may have slowed down or quit because they got burned out, and there’s no question that there are more bloggers than ever before, making it more difficult to get your message heard, but blogging is thriving like never before. Whether you’re a writer, doctor, interior designer or homemaker, there are many great reasons to blog. Here are just a few:

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Photo by Reto Fetz courtesy of Creative Commons

1. To Express Your Ideas

Sometimes a Tweet or a Facebook post isn’t enough to say everything you want to say about last week’s school shooting, the upcoming election, the latest parenting trend, or the World Cup. Blogging is a great way to share your thoughts with others—whether they are friends and family or strangers.

 

2. To Make Friends

When people are going through difficult times, sometimes they find it’s easier to talk to strangers than to friends. Many people use blogging as a way to connect with others when they are feeling down.

 

3. To Build an Audience

Authors use blogging to build readerships for their books. They start long before their books are published by writing posts, sharing them, and commenting on other blogs. Musicians do the same with YouTube videos, then post them to their Facebook pages and blogs.

 

4. To Sell a Product

Whether you’re selling your dog-walking services or a new cat toy you invented, blogging is a great way to improve the SEO (search engine optimization) of your website. By blogging regularly, you’ll attract more customers to your site and increase the sales of your products and services.

 

5. To Practice Writing

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron suggests writing three “morning pages” every day before you sit down to work on your novel. Many people begin personal blogs in order to write their morning pages. Others write (and sometimes publish) scenes and chapters on their blogs in order to practice writing and get feedback from others.

 

6. To Feel Better

Writing is cathartic. It’s a form of therapy. By venting about your frustrations with your spouse, your job, your medical bills, you can shrug some of those burdens off your shoulders and get on with your life. You can make your blog private, or anonymous, or share it with your friends. It’s up to you.

 

7. To Inform

Blogging is a great way to share photos and stories with your friends and family about what’s going on in your life. Maybe you’re traveling around the world. Maybe you just had a baby. Maybe you want to document your grandfather’s life. Blogging allows you to gather all that information in one place and make those posts public or private depending on your preference.

 

8. To Share Information
Share your favorite recipes. If you’re a photographer, post a photo you took and explain what equipment and settings you used to get that amazing shot. List your 10 favorite places to go camping. Make DIY YouTube videos and post them to your blog. The possibilities are endless.

 

9. To Learn From Others
Not only will you learn from the comments people leave on your blog, if you’re a good blogger, you’ll read and comment on other blogs, too. And you’ll learn a lot from those other blogs. You’ll learn facts, you’ll discover new ideas, and you’ll come to better understand other people’s perspectives.

 

10. To Have Fun
Blogging is fun! It’s fun to write, to read, to connect with others, and to discover more about yourself by sharing your ideas. You don’t have to post on a schedule. You don’t have to build a huge audience. You can blog for yourself, because you enjoy it, because it’s fun.

What about you? Why do you blog?

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