The world needs YOU. Right now.
We find ourselves in a crazy time with COVID-19 – all that it means for us, the effect on our lives this coming year and the changes for years to come. With so many people impacted, the economy damaged and a completely new set of circumstances and challenges we all have to face.
For many, 2020 was filled with fear, uncertainty and a sense of overwhelm and paralysis.
Right now, the world needs hope, positivity and practical solutions to new and emerging problems.
We need places where we can come together, and where community and belonging can happen. Particularly in this time where physically people are physically isolated, the world needs virtual spaces and safe spaces where they can find that belonging.
The world needs YOU.
And you need a blog to provide you the platform and home-base for your content and your community – to make the world a better place.
Why Should You Start a Blog?
1. Improve Other People’s Lives
One of the big benefits of blogging is the potential to make the world we live in a better place. And while not all blogs do this, many do in their own small way.
My blogs are about business, accessibility, sustainability and blogging. They’re not topics that will make a major difference on a global scale. But I know that after publishing content every day for years that my blogs have made a difference to the lives of many.
A few years ago I shared a post about how a person came up to me recently at a conference and credited one of my posts with saving their marriage. And others shared how they’d build significant businesses through coming across things we’d published.
Blogging can change your life as a blogger in many ways. But the experience is even more meaningful and rewarding when you realise it can be also used to inspire, educate, and give others a sense of belonging.
Blogging also provides opportunities to lend your voice to other worthwhile causes.
Here we go deep on the topic of motivation and uncovering your ‘WHY’. Having a clear and compelling purpose for your blogging will sustain you and your audience through the hard times.
2. Build Community
Isolation has really brought home to me the fact that we humans are social creatures. We need community to sustain us, just as a blog needs a community to sustain it. By building a community around your blog you are not only creating something beneficial for others, but for yourself too.
As I look back over the almost 20 years I’ve been blogging, many of the highlights have been about the people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interact with. Years of creating useful content, growing your brand, building an audience and establishing trust with that audience opens the door for many friendships, collaborations and other opportunities.
You never quite know where these relationships might lead you. Some may lead to financially rewarding opportunities. But more often than not it leads to lasting friendships, and a real sense of belonging in dynamic and supportive communities.
3. Make Money
A blog is your special place on the internet that you own and which you can build into a business. One of the reasons I’m giving for starting a blog is it can be financially profitable.
I’m not saying every blog will be profitable. But many bloggers have grown income streams from their blogging, both directly and indirectly.
I’m amazed at how blogs have provided an income for my family over the years. Not every blogger who sets out to make money blogging reaches a full-time level. But it is possible to build significant income from blogging.
Further Reading: Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging?
As well as making money directly from your blog, you can also use the profile a blog can bring to promote your existing business or to sell your own services as a freelancer, coach, speaker, etc.
Blogs allow you to:
- grow your profile
- be found via search engines and social media
- (most importantly) build your brand, credibility, authority and trust with potential clients
And I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen bloggers use their blog’s profile to land more traditional employment. (In these cases, their blog became their resume.)
Note: I explore reasons why businesses should start blogging in this podcast.
The other aspect of growing profit from a blog is it can also become an asset you can potentially sell at some point.
4. Self-Improvement and Personal Development
While blogging unexpectedly became the basis for my business, and has opened up amazing opportunities for me to earn an income, one of the biggest benefits to getting into this space is the same reason I got into it.
Blogging has given me a place to express myself.
Something very powerful happens when you get into the habit of ordering and writing down your thoughts, ideas, stories and opinions. People have been doing this for centuries in private diaries and journals. But to put some of these things into a public forum for others to interact with has been a very positive experience for me.
Having a place to express myself has given me many personal benefits. In researching and writing thousands of articles over the years I have:
- Learned so much about the topics I write about
- Identified, sharpened and deepened my ideas and opinions
- Refined my voice
- Grown my writing and communication skills
- Built discipline
- Found a creative outlet
- Confronted fears and doubts and grown in confidence.
This list could go on. But the bottom line is I’m much better as a person for having a blog.
Should YOU start a blog in 2021?
Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question for you. But I can say that, on a personal level, starting a blog was one of the most amazing things I’ve even done.
Blogging changed the trajectory of my life in many ways.
- It helped me grow and develop on a personal level.
- It helped me start and grow a business that has given our family income we never expected to have.
- It opened opportunity for community, friendship and collaborations with wonderful people.
- It gave me ways to do something meaningful that in small ways allows me to make a difference for others.
I hope this inspires you to start a blog in 2021.
The post The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021 appeared first on ProBlogger.
