In the previous post of this “How To Start A Blog” series, I shared with you why I started blogging. It was a way for me to stay connected with others, to share knowledge as well as my struggles, and to inquire advice from my new community.
1. DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO TELL?
2. DO YOU HAVE SKILLS THAT YOU THINK OTHERS COULD BENEFIT FROM?
3. IS THERE A CHALLENGE THAT YOU’D LIKE TO DOCUMENT?
4. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A COMMUNITY?
If you have an interest – be it of personal nature, a hobby, etc, and you don’t know that many people who have the same interest — starting a blog will help you find those people. For example, I have a friend who’s daughter has Achondroplasia – the most common type of dwarfism. Here’s how she desribes her blog, AisforAdelaide.com :
5. WANT TO PRACTICE WRITING?
Plus, your blog posts can sometimes be turned into an eBook, submitted to newspapers, magazines, editorials, or blogs. Sometimes your work, which you’ve already written, can be re purposed into many different forms like videos, podcasts, or whatever suits you best. But, first, and most importantly, you just need to start writing.
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In the previous post, I said I started blogging in 2012. That was a lie. I actually started blogging in a personal journal online in 2002, and shared that journal with friends near and far. I was raw, with them, and myself. I wrote about college, boys, love, lust, and dealing with my parents divorce. It was small, allowed me to vent, and also share with the few who actually read it. It was theraputic, and I loved it. I still love it, and read it from time to time, enjoying it’s little secret world of the internet with my twenty something’s secrets and feelings.
6. WANT TO MAKE SOME MONEY?
No. They can’t. You can get a framework on how to do certain things from these great bloggers. But there are no, “get rich quick” methods in blogging. It takes time, effort, trust from your readers, and most of the time, luck.
But, if you already have a reason like one of the ones listed above, to blog, then you can possibly make a little extra money on the side. There are several ways to monetize, and I’ll get into that in a future post. But know this – it might be pennies, dollars, or maybe enough to buy you a dinner once a month.
Maybe you’ll be lucky and make amazing amounts of money.
Or it might be nothing at all.
I suggest not going into blogging for this reason alone. It’s just kinda like an extra possible bonus to blogging.
So there you have it, in my opinion, some great reasons to start blogging. Head on over to the next post in this series to read Why You SHOULDN’T Start Blogging.
Talk soon, friends!
Mary