The Benefits of Having a Blog

First of all, let me just start off by wishing my baby Budding Regardless a happy happy happy 2nd birthday and thanking each and everyone of you who have been loyal readers and visitors to this blog, if you have subscribed already thank you for allowing me to share links with you via email every time I publish an article. You keep inspiring me to keep going and I shall keep budding regardless of all the minor obstacles and turbulences I go through which help me grow. Thank you and Happy 2nd Birthday Budding Regardless.

Blogs, just like journals, have been around for as long as I can remember but they were mainly created by people who merely used their blogs to share their personal day-to-day shenanigans. This is probably why some people either have this uninterested look on their face when you tell them that you have a blog or assume that you are bored with your life and you have too much time in your hands. However, nowadays having a blog/website can pretty much bless your life.

Now, you are probably wondering what exactly the difference between a blog and a website is. Simply put, a website is more professional with formal content and typically used for business (but not restricted to just business) and a blog, on the other hand, is less professional and so is the content. Also, you could have a blog and a website all under one domain by separating business and pleasure into different pages and here are the benefits of having your own blog:

1. We are living in the digital era, everything is online these days – shops, study courses, restaurant menus… the list is honestly endless. With that said, companies are constantly trying to better themselves and stay at the top of the food chain, so if they can see that you have knowledge on how to create and run a blog, you could just bag yourself a job because not so many people know how to.

2. It makes you want to do more and be more. Since blogging introduces you to all sorts of people in the blogging community, you become inspired to do new things and experiment to figure out what you like and what you don’t like. This also helps you ‘find’ yourself if you have been struggling to discover who you are and what you are all about.

3. It boosts your confidence and you become a better communicator. Given that having a blog requires you to have a voice, state your opinions and be helpful, you ultimately gain confidence when you see your blog stats and realize that people out there are reading what you are saying and giving you feedback. You also become better at communicating because you will find yourself constantly having to respond to people’s feedback on your blog and in person so in a sense, you are forced to communicate and the more you do it, the better at it you become.

4. You become more open-minded, outspoken and understanding. Your blog is literally just like your own home, you can paint it black, you can reshuffle the furniture and you can cook dinner at 1am if you want to – you can say and do whatever you want to do on your blog and whenever and however. Having a blog encourages you to speak about things you are afraid to talk about because you know that it is a space that you own and reading other blogs makes you understand other people’s standpoints on certain topics and furthermore motivates you to be a critical thinker.  

5. You could promote yourself and/or your brand. No matter how ‘small’ you think you are, you will probably need a blog to help you grow. Whether you are an artist (painter, illustrator, poet, photographer…), fitness coach, selling clothing or beauty products – having a professional blog will help build yourself loyal customers and readers and you are easily recommendable to others if your content, services or products are of good quality (having a natural welcoming aura is a bonus).

6. The joys of being your own boss! In as much as blogging can be seen as just a hobby, it’s more of a business than anything else – we all intend to gain a lot of traffic and subscribers and stay relevant and none of that is any easy. You have to schedule your posts, engage with people, monitor your statistics to see what works and what doesn’t and understand the internet including social media… Only the fittest survive. However, the mere fact that you are managing yourself ultimately helps you become a better person in terms of self-discipline, time management and communicating.

If this does not convince you to grab your notepad and start jotting down ideas on what kind of blog or website you want to have then I don’t know what will. Also, I am here for you, if you ever need help with starting a blog, go to my Services page or contact me at umbalenhlek@gmail.com and I will do my best to help you get started.

That’s it for now.