In the last few years blogging has changed the media landscape, allowing individuals to distribute their own news and opinions to potentially massive audiences.
Maybe you’ve asked yourself if you should start a blog to share your specific knowledge and expertise?
Here are 7 reasons how you could benefit from starting a blog based on my own experiences.
#1. Fine-tune your interests
Blogging is a great way to hone our interests. When I started blogging I thought there were specific subjects I wanted to write about. But, just by creating a weekly blog post, I quickly discovered certain topics I enjoyed writing about more than others. By blogging we can learn more about what really interests and inspires us.
#2. Improve your writing skills
Effective writing skills are one of the most sought after skills today. So much of modern life is about writing – sending emails to friends or customers, writing reports, creating executive summaries. The practice of writing regular blog posts is an opportunity to refine these skills.
#3. Reflect on your most important learnings
Have you ever had a moment when you learnt something incredible? You probably wanted to write it down and make sure you remembered it. So often though we forget to record these learnings.
I keep a notepad of my big learnings (whether it’s a seminar I attended, or something a friend taught me). When I start a blog post, I look at these notes and select a big learning to write about. Through the process of creating the blog post, I reflect on the learning, which then helps me remember it.
#4. Connect with others
So many people have immense knowledge and expertise to share, yet so often this information is only shared with a select few (work colleagues or family). Starting a blog is an opportunity to share this knowledge with many others. And you never know, this could become hundreds of thousands instead of a handful of people. Better still, if you run a business, setting up a business blog is a great way to stay connected with your customers.
#5. Build your profile
If you do work in a specific niche and wish to build a profile for yourself, blogging is a great way to do this.
As an example, Daniel W. Drezner teaches international politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His blog was voted one of Time Magazine’s best blogs of 2012.
#6. Be surprised
By writing a blog, you may find yourself surprised by the feedback you receive. At a get together recently, someone I had never met before then told me they read one of my posts and it had given them a sense of calm and encouragement to tackle new challenges. The feedback surprised me and made me happy. It’s a great feeling to receive a nice surprise now and then, isn’t it?
#7. Learn online skills
In just 20 years, 40% of the world’s entire population is now online. WordPress, one of the world’s best-known blogging tools, powers 17% of all internet websites. Just as you’re reading this you can be sure online will remain one of the fastest growing areas of all world economies in the near future.
By starting a blog, you’ll develop online skills which are useful for any career (whether you’re working for an organisation or running your own business).
Question: Have you ever thought about starting a blog or do you already run your own blog? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
