Blog Tipz

Now may be a better time than ever to start a blog. Even though it will probably cost you some money and time initially, in the long-term, there will be more benefits than you might be able to imagine.

Even though this post is geared towards those who haven’t yet started a blog, there are still good reasons to think about why you started a blog, which will be covered in additional posts in the future.

1. Sharing Thoughts – If it is your passion to talk with others and share your thoughts, there is no better place to do this than in a blog. Your blog is your blog, so you can essentially write and share anything you want on it.
2. Report Information – There is demand for a “new” form of media reporting, and that is through independent bloggers and people who want to be at the forefront of the news stories. Some say that there is less accuracy in this, but there will always be risk and chance of failure, no matter how large or small your “agency” is.
3. To Share Stuff – In addition to the number one reason, there are many people who want to share other forms of media, such as videos, photos, etc. that they find while browsing the web that they want to share with others.
4. Persuade Others – Blogs are a huge part of the web, now more than ever. They help to influence “old” media and persuade larger companies (if bloggers side together) to change their ways. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, as these companies want to side with what will make them the most money and keep their reputation and brand strong.
5. Make Money – Despite what many say, I don’t really believe that making money is the first reason that people think about when starting a blog. Unless you are conned into starting a blog, there is every reason in the world to think that blogging will bring you money, but at least not initially. The work put into a blog will outweigh the income, at least for a few months.
6. Help and Inform – With blogs on every imaginable subject, you can start a blog on how to do anything. For example, if you have a hobby that others might enjoy, you can inform them and teach them how to do something properly, without having to pay for anything outside of a computer, blog service (sometimes free), and possible a camera or camcorder. Usually, blogs consist of text, so the latter portion might not apply to everyone.
7. Express Creativity – Blogging can be fun for some, while others take a different approach, especially if they aren’t really as much of a fan to writing as other method s of sharing their ideas. Some are better artists, and will instead choose to illustrate their ideas in comics. Equally effective, being creative helps you branch out, grow your blog, and become known as the first to do something that no one else has.
8. Connect with Others – In many areas of the world, there is a 50% chance that someone you know has a social networking profile and at least a 10% chance that they have a blog (according to the number of people that read and interact with blogs daily). With these figures, you can pretty easily set up a small community with your friends, family, and other people you may be interested in sharing ideas with.
9. You Could Grow Your Business – Blogs have a tendency to help if you connect it to your business’s website. It’ll help you connect to your customers and influence their decision if you are able to answer questions before they arise.
10. Search Engine Ranking Will Grow – This topic isn’t often as thought of, but in terms of reputation control (which is a huge industry), it is important to realize that you can control what your visitors see by the keywords that you target. For example, rather than someone saying negative ideas about yourself, you can create a blog and dispel some of them (especially if you are more popular online or offline).
11. Blogs are Easy to Maintain – Before blogs and the software that helps run them, you had to manually create and format each “post.” Now, you can easily create posts, pages, and effortlessly make sure everything is working properly from within a main dashboard area.
12. Direct Input – Email worked, but seeing direct comments from concerned people is even more important, especially when your entire image could be ruined “within ten minutes” of negative publicity these days. You can directly contact the people (through comment replies) who may have questions.
13. You’ll Increase Sales – For those of you who have created a product, either digital or a regular product that you ship to someone or sell in a retail setting, you can promote them through blogs to increase sales. Traditional websites make it harder to display any updates to the products, especially if your lineup isn’t as large.
14. Change the Way You Think – When you read responses from other people on your blog, it can help change the way you think about your traditional ideas and think from other perspectives. For some, this might be positive. Your readers could provide support if you post a “daily blog” about your day.
15. Raise Awareness – If you strongly support a particular organization or cause, it literally takes ten seconds to launch a new site just to present your thoughts. It is easy to promote what you believe and what you think others should, too.
16. Express Freedom – Writing freely on a blog is a great way to express your freedom of speech.
17. Become Famous – There are some people who have moved from a blog to more “public” roles in television, politics, etc., that would never have had the chance if they didn’t start as a blogger. Even if you are only aiming to get your name out, you can do so with a YouTube/blog combination.
18. Job Opportunities – There are many companies that are looking for bloggers (and some even for people that manage Twitter accounts), who have had some experience in the field. You can’t really get an education outside of content publication classes for the job, so starting a blog is the best way, especially if you have a well-recognized blog.
19. Become More Diverse – Blogs are censored only in a few portions of the world, so your audience can come from anywhere that allows people to express their thoughts. It might not happen with every blogger, but there are certainly some that have met good friends through their blog through regular comments.
20. Publish Elsewhere – Many authors-to-bloggers and bloggers-to-authors (in terms of off-site publication) have turned to the Internet phenomenon to get themselves published and see their work in bookstores.
21. Become More Aware – Running a news-oriented website will certainly make you become more aware of what is out there, especially in the niche that you are writing in. The more interested in the topic you are, the more likely it will be that you continue writing on a daily basis.
22. It’s a Professional Portfolio – Blogs can serve as nearly anything. If blogging is your full-time job, running one on your own or for a company, you can use this in your portfolio (assuming you’ve made profit and have had a level of success with it) if you want to move elsewhere in the field.
23. You are a Part of a Community – Even if you think otherwise, you instantly become a part of a larger community when you start a blog, as other bloggers interested in the field, along as passerby visitors will find your blog attractive, especially if you have unique and interesting content.
24. Market Your Own Website – Adding or integrating a blog into one of your online services or other form of more traditional website can help increase the traffic and conversation leading to your main website, ideal if running a blog.website.com or website.com/blog/ type website.
25. Simplicity – Already stated in previous topics, I strongly advice you to look at all the options available when it comes to starting a new blog. The biggest blog platforms all allow you to easily customize and manage your own blog without any coding or programming skills required.
26. Tracking – You know where the conversation goes when you blog. With trackbacks and other forms of conversation tools, you can ensure that you are able to respond and track who is linking to your site, more so than search engines, who only update their indexes depending on how much content is being created with the search terms and an update interval that isn’t well-known.
27. Targeting – With titles, keywords, tags, keywords, and categories, it makes it easier to target specific people who may be searching for your content through search engines.
28. To Become Known as an Expert – This isn’t an easy feat and it will certainly take time. Although there are some that believe that “good rankings” make you an authority, there is more beyond it than that. Whenever someone thinks about you as a authority, they recognize you as being able to inform and communicate without any problems.
29. To Have Fun – It can be fun to create content, even if you don’t necessarily like writing. You have the ability to interact with other people, and this may be the biggest joy for many people.
30. It’s (usually) Free – One of the biggest reasons people start to blog is because it is usually free in the sense that you don’t have to fork over a ton of cash to begin publishing to the web. A Blogger or WordPress-hosted site is free, while having your own domain and hosting runs for as little as $50 to $100 per year, especially if you go for a more conservative hosting package.

Keeping the thirty plus reasons above in your mind, think about why you started blogging, or why you want to start blogging. I’d like to hear your reasons.