5 Biggest Benefits to Blogging for Pleasure

I recently read an article on Social Media Examiner about a girl that decided to dance funnily at the baggage claims area in LAX. She was sporting red pants, a gray shirt, and ear buds pumping a jam.  She danced like no one was watching. That’s where she was wrong…with so many people passing through the baggage claims, how could she have not been watched? Some people simply ignored her, while others showed their aghast and shock. However, she was not dancing for these people… she was dancing for 4.6 million YouTube subscribers to her channel.

What lesson can we learn from this girl? This girl has real confidence. The video was a promotion for the lady-friendly site, HelloGiggles and it went viral instantly. More importantly, it taught us something about the need to create good content and blogging:  write like nobody’s reading and create content like nobody’s watching.

Within the blogging community there’s a substantial number of bloggers that are independent business people and even more that run a personal blog. For example, in the digital marketing community there are: Jay Baer, Peg Fitzpatrick, Rebekah Radice, Guy Vaynerchuk, and Jeff Bullas. All 5 have created personal blogs that are independent of their businesses.

How to Be Successful at Content Marketing

I’m not advising you to completely stop developing content for business and sales purposes. What I am suggesting is that you take a step back.  Put your content marketing efforts on hold in favour of developing pure and much juicier ideas.  Set the list of key words aside and face an empty page without its crutch.  Write something we are afraid to publish. And in the process, we’ll become:

1. Better Writers

Writing is about recording thoughts on paper and compelling others to agree with our arguments. Just like every other hobby in this world, writing improves with practice. Blogging will not force you to become a better writer, it will just happen as you do it more and more.  You will slowly but surely learn how to write different types of content for different types of viewers.

2. Better Thinker

Because it involves recording thoughts on paper, the blogging process encourages deeper and critical thinking. Blogging allows you to delve deeper into the matters of your life and the worldviews that are most deer to you. Unfortunately, at this point, many will choose not to blog based on their erroneous believe that they have nothing to say. To this I always respond, “Maybe you just haven’t discovered what you have to say.” With time everyone will develop something to say… all they need to do is develop better critical thinking skills.

3. Better Influencer

What’s the best way to change the world? You could become a politician, activist, volunteer, or blogger. A successful blogger gains a wide audience of people who trust and respect them….an influencer. Who doesn’t want to see prestige beside their name?

4. Better Educators

Every good blog helps its readers. Some blogs offer tips on how to make money from home. Other blogs help people lose weight, raise their kids, and come to terms with life-changing events. The power of a blog is to educate, inspire, and bring like-minded people together makes blogging all the more exciting.

5. Better Income Earners

Without a doubt there are people in the world who make their income entirely from blogging using programs, such as Google Adsense.  What’s great about this is that it gives you the opportunity to become independent and better income earners.  While setting up a blog in the hopes of building an income is an okay goal, you should really focus on writing on topics that are really important to you; this will bring out your passion which can be contagious and a contributing factor to something going viral. Very often I find people are too focused on the money that their blogging and deeper thinking take a hit.

After listing the 5 biggest benefits of starting and maintaining a personal blog, I still feel like I’ve left a lot unsaid. A blog can be more than just a way of advancing your online presence; it can be a way of advancing your life… a platform you create that can propel you forward in the direction of your choice. Take the Kardashian brand as an example. This family is a conglomerate. From fashion to cosmetics to life style they are speaking out and the public’s listening. What started out as a reality show, even they couldn’t have projected KUWTK Season 13: Fall 2016, DASH stores, their apps, fashion lines, cosmetic lines, and the numerous guest appearances. They are sharing their views and experiences about struggles, love, family and if you’re interested in fashion they have some of that plus more. All happen to be relevant to what people are interested in, and that’s why it’s trending. Success; is knowing your audience and giving them what they want. That’s why blogging on social media platforms is so popular and the perfect fit.

This article is part II of a series of articles we’re going to write about social media and blogging. Click here to read Blogging as a Social Media Marketing Campaign.