If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, but aren’t quite sure if it’s worth it, let me tell you right now- it is so worth it!
It can seem overwhelming at first, and you may be hesitant to dive into a new hobby. Is it worth the money? Will I have the time? What will I blog about?
I can tell you from my personal experience that having your own blog is both fun and rewarding. Blogging helped me grow my own freelance writing business and make extra money! It started out as a hobby but quickly became a passion.
Everyone needs a hobby, and if it helps you to earn cash, that’s even better!
If you’re on the fence about starting your own blog and haven’t been sure how you to take the leap, here are my 5 best reasons to start a blog today:
Accountability
A blog helps you stay accountable, especially when it comes to your financial and other personal goals. It provides an easy way to track your progress over weeks, months, and even years.
Start a blog today, and this time next year, you’ll find yourself reading back over old posts and seeing just how far you have come! When you want to achieve certain goals, like paying down debt, earning more from side hustles, or just improving your finances on the whole, blogging makes it easy to hold yourself publicly accountable.
Focus
Do you have a specific goal that you want to meet? Maybe you have several. A blog is an ideal tool for focus that can help you achieve those goals. I’m sure many debt bloggers will tell you that by writing about their journey and sharing it online, it has helped them to stay on track.
I know that for me personally, I spend a lot of time thinking about our finances anyway, and this blog has helped me to stay focused on my freelance writing goals so that I can meet my financial goals.
Related: How I Started Freelance Writing, (and how you can, too!)
Self Improvement
A blog is an excellent place to hone and improve your writing skills! If you have ambitions of becoming a freelance blogger or a writer, even just as a side hustle, your own personal blog is the perfect place to improve your writing. Over time, you’ll get a better feel for how a good blog post should flow.
Not only that, but your blog can become your portfolio. Building up a body of work that you can show to potential clients is so important, especially if you’re just starting out. Your own blog offers you an easy way to showcase your skills as you begin taking on paid writing work. It’ll boost your professional image, no matter what stage you’re at in your freelancing journey.
Networking
No matter what you choose to blog about, chances are that there’s already an extremely active community of like-minded people online. This is a good thing!
However, when you start a blog and begin sharing your thoughts and ideas with the world, you can’t expect people to just find you. You have to start networking by connecting with others. You may be nervous at first, but other bloggers won’t bite promise. Commenting on other blogs and contributing to forums are much easier to do when you’re a blogger.
Networking is also an excellent way to find new clients, more opportunities, and form lasting relationships with other people.
Taking Control
Start a blog that’s self-hosted and take control of your future. That may sound dramatic, but blogging is an activity that has changed people’s lives.
Just thinking about the personal finance community alone, I can think of several fellow bloggers who have taken the leap to self-employment, and are killing it! Without a blog, I doubt that many of them would have had the motivation or the courage to take that leap.
I can’t say that I would have had the courage to pursue freelance writing if I hadn’t already been blogging for a few years. My only regret is that I didn’t start sooner! If you’re ready to change directions and start achieving your goals, blogging is a great tool to help you get started.
I absolutely agree about accountability. I knew starting a blog and putting it out there was the only way I would actually implement all the cool ideas I had of how I could remake my habits to improve my life. My blog’s still a baby (just a week old!), but I feel like even the planning process jump-started my life.
All excellent points – and why I have decided to FINALLY get into the blogging game. The networking, learning, and development opportunities that come from blogging are all too great to pass up. Besides, who doesn’t want to say that they have a side gig as a blogger?
Great posts and I look forward to reading more!
Thank you, Rob! There’s so much good stuff that comes along with blogging.
Love this post! My blog changed my life in some many ways. I still cannot believe it!
It’s crazy what can come of a blog!
My blog is only a couple of months old but it has already been a great motivator for me. It is encouraging me to be better with my money and push myself (and my husband) to pay off our debt. I have also begun to learn some simple HTML and social networking.
Thank you very much Lauren. I already have a blog but I didn’t use it as a resume ever. I think my clients could have a perfect knowledge about my writing skills. The reasons you wrote, that were interesting and informative. I think anyone can understand now why they should start blogging.
I love being able to meet so many other people that have the same general interests as me. I also learn so much from reading other peoples blogs!
My blog changed my life, no joke. Best thing ever.
And you’ve only listed the softer skills related to blogging! There’s all sorts of improved writing, learning about SEO, graphic design and on and on!
I’m amazed that I’m still doing this, years later. I think the $$ helps, haha, even when it isn’t much, as most hobbies cost a lot, this one at least brings in some revenue.
I agree with Will. Although sometimes it’s frustrating if you are in a rush, it is interesting and challenging to learn more about the blogging software (WordPress) and html code. I like troubleshooting, I guess, though it’s not for everyone!
I’m pretty new at blogging, but in this short time I have been blogging I feel much better about my life. It’s not like I didn’t have a purpose or goals before, but now I feel more accountable for those goals and I’m working harder to achieve them.
Having my blog has definitely opened up some new doors for me professionally and I enjoy interacting with the readers and other bloggers!
These are great reasons Lauren!! I would also add that a blog is an awesome resume if you are ever trying to get into freelance writing. I have had a number of people reach out to me to ask if I could write for them, and I just send them links to some of my blog posts and they are as good as writing a resume. I also love blogging for networking and making friends. It has been one of the surprises for me since I started blogging.
So true- I use my blog as a resume, too. It’s the perfect way to show off your writing skills.
And getting a blog up and running will teach you lots about the internets. And the more a person knows, the better! Especially for when we all live exclusively online… kidding. 🙂
Hah, sometimes it feels that way!