How to Blog and the Benefits You’re Losing now with NOT having One.
At this moment, you are missing out on numerous opportunities because you haven’t put your ideas to paper (er…digital paper). Now, to clarify, sadly I am not talking about a blog that discusses what you had for lunch or about your recent vacation. These blogs are fine for fun and keeping a “diary” so others can see your adventures.
But here, we are going to discuss a different blog, a blog that shares ideas and develops new ideas.
How to Blog
First, you need to decide the path you will choose, namely a FREE Blog or a PAID Blog.
FREE Blog
You can set up a free blog easily at Blogger or WordPress . There’s other platforms like Tumblr, but these are the best.
Benefits
- Free: Well, that’s always a plus, right?
- Easy to set up: It takes 5 minutes for either one to get up and running and writing.
Disadvantages
- Not as Professional: It adds .blogspot or .wordpress to your URL which adds to the length, which is not good, and also doesn’t look as clean.
- Harder to get found, SEO/plugins lacking: Search engines give preference to paid blogs, so it’s more difficult to get found by search i.e. You need to market more! Also, you don’t get the nice plug-ins most popular blogs have at their disposal.
PAID Blog
I definitely recommend a PAID Blog as the way to go. The 7Minute Entrepreneur is a paid blog and it reaches far beyond what a free blog offers. What do you need besides a Blogging platform? You need
a Hosting Platform.
You need to Rent your space on the internet. If you look in My ToolBox, you will see I use Web Hosting Hub . I definitely recommend their services as they have a terrific firewall, great bandwidth, and excellent customer service! (I’m partial to ’em, get it?)
Benefits
- Professional: You have a legit name, URL etc. You own that piece of the internet (it feels good!).
- Faster, Smarter: Your site runs faster (usually unlimited bandwidth). You can customize it any which way you want (with plug-ins, designers touch etc.)
- Easier to Make Money: It’s all about the greens! There’s more opportunities with paid blogs to make money (even if it’s just a side income).
- Get Found!: Search engines crawl over Paid blogs much more than free blogs. Crawling is just little “bugs” they send out to scan sites to seek relevant content for search results.
Disadvantages
- Cost: Yep, it ain’t free, who knew? A good hosting platform will cost around $4 a month to hold your site.
- Details, Details!: With all the added plug-ins and such, it can be overwhelming to know what is perfect just for your site.
From here, you have an empty canvas that you get to paint with your ideas, thoughts, jokes, creative imagery?…whatever you want, you have now for others to see. Being a public platform, it’s imperative you present yourself as you want to be perceived. No, don’t be fake! But make sure you come across the way you hope. Many times you write something that others will take a different way and they immediately tune you out! (It’s already happened to me and it’s only been a couple weeks since the release date…whoops.)
Now, you have your own soapbox to find new ideas, share old ideas, and practice your writing skills. It’s like your in school! but for yourself now. You will be learning many new things from others, from your readers, and that’s always a plus!
Benefits of Having a Blog
Alright, by now, you should have a blog up and running and begin the process of sharing your ideas. But you may wonder, what’s the point? I don’t want to become an author and write books and travel the world speaking to high school kids. Well, you don’t have to, that’s not the point (unless that’s what you want to do of course!).
There are many other Benefits to starting a Blog besides becoming an author/speaker etc.
Build an Online Presence: Nowadays, you can pretty much find what you want by just typing it in Google. So, for a networking or job-seeking purpose, being found always works in your favor. You’re always building your brand, you’re always marketing yourself. Get your name out there!
Connect your Network: You’ve heard it all the time: “It’s not the grades you make, it’s the hands you shake.” With a blog, you are opening the door for others to discover who you are and find your similarities. Why do you think the Top Bloggers all know each other? They share something in common, and it all stemmed from their journeys as bloggers.
Generate a Side Income/Business: Alright, to get rich from Blogging is very rare, but if it’s just a side project, you could, with great marketing, pull in some extra change each month for your work whether from Ads, affiliate marketing, lead generation etc., especially if you love doing it, it’s nice to see the fruits of your labor manifested in cash.
Entrepreneurial Adventures: Who doesn’t want to be called an entrepreneur? Now, are you building Google here, of course not, but, like Google, you’re building a platform for information. You are sticking your next out with what you have to offer, and risking getting shot down or promoted up the blogger ladder. Many have built businesses from blogs, and when you dedicate your time, sweat and more with business prospects and risk (which is the definition of Entrepreneur!). Check out some of my favorite!:
- Ramit Sethi: I Will Teach You to Be Rich
- Pat Flynn: The Smart Passive Income Blog
- Derek Halpern: Social Triggers
- David Siteman Garland: The Rise to the Top (his is more like a Podcast, but I’m counting it)
All of them made careers and 6-figures (plus) due to the success of their blog. But again, they took the ‘full-time blogger’ path, which is a risky, but rewarding and fun path.
Opportunity to Go Viral: Many dream of being famous, or even getting that 15-minute fame spot. Well, some posts from unknown authors found their way into the mainstream. Who can forget the famous “Breast-feeding Mom”, Jamie Lynne Grumet, on the cover of Time Magazine. (I’m not going to post the picture…but Google it!). She shot to fame for her controversial posts, and the same can happen to you.
Quick Tip: Shock value is the quickest way to get viral content, so get that crazy idea out of your head and onto to paper.
You never know what doors could open. It could lead right back to “Building an Online Presence” as well as Marketing yourself. Everyone loves the famous people.
Develop Writing and Thinking Skills: The more you write, the better you write. The more you think, the better you think. It’s really that simple. Organizing your ideas into posts builds an organization habit in your mind. It can help your speaking skills as well as you know how to keep your thoughts and ideas in a row and present them in a fashion which others can understand. You learn what structures influence and which do not. This comes about my Writing More and More and More.
Have You Started a Blog? Show it to Us Below! We’d Love to See it!
So stop putting it off anymore! Get a blog up and going and continue marketing yourself. Build your connections and interact with others. Bounce ideas off other bloggers, the possibilities are limitless. The better you present yourself, the better others will think of you and perceive you. What a great tool for job-seekers! Recruiters get an inside look at the candidate because that candidate built a blog, and, heck, it shows initiative. Everyone loves some initiative! Cheers!
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