I’ve dreaded this day for much of the semester. Today is the last class session for my blogging class.
It was the first time for us to offer a course focused solely on blogging. I was giddy to teach the course, and my students seemed just as excited to take it.
Then, it happened—the recognition that blogging is a lot of work.
My students have one more required blog post after today’s class. After that, they’ll decide whether they want to continue blogging. They already survived a critical milestone, since most people quit their blogs within two or three months of starting them.
I still hope they see enough value in what they’ve learned this semester to continue their blogging endeavors. I’ll spend today’s class attempting to reinforce all of theses reasons they should keep blogging.
1. You’re developing a skill
Whether it’s been months or years, think about how much you know about blogging now that you didn’t know when you started. Blogging is a unique and sought-after skill to add to your professional toolbox.
2. You’re targeting an audience
Every function of business is based on some audience, target or customer you’re attempting to reach with a customized message. Blogging helps you practice these functions.
3. Your traffic is growing
Even though your traffic might not be growing at the rate in which you hoped, the fact that new people are visiting and reading shows that there is an interested audience.
4. You’re gaining subscribers
Again, you may not be gaining subscribers at the rate you hoped, but this shows that people are interested in your content and are becoming invested in your site.
5. Your writing is improving
Writing is a fundamental life skill that improves with practice. Every blog post you write makes you a better writer.
6. You’re meeting deadlines
My students were required to blog once a week, on a set day of their choice. Just meeting this weekly deadline helps them practice becoming motivated and working on a schedule, even when they didn’t want to.
7. You’re managing content
Most content management programs are similar. Learning the basics of blog and post decisions helps learn these programs, opening up future job opportunities and making students more valuable employees.
8. You’re building professional relationships
Blogging allows you to engage with professionals in the blogging industry, in your niche and in other areas, building your professional network and creating lasting relationships.
9. You’re promoting content
Part of running a successful blog is about strategically promoting content and engaging with your audience via social media. Learning how to strategically and effectively deliver content to an audience is a booming career industry.
10. You’re being creative
We need creative outlets, like writing and designing. Blogs are a fun, creative hobby.
11. You’re building your resume
Blogging is a great springboard for other writing and professional opportunities.
12. You’re reading more
Reading makes you more informed and helps you become a better writer. Blogging helps you read more because you want to read other blogs and learn more about your niche and blogging in general.
13. You’re thinking critically
Blogging means looking at the information available and thinking about how you can add your own perspectives and make it suitable to your audience. During this process, you are evaluating various ideas and either accepting or rejecting them, based on your knowledge of the content. Thinking critically is an important life skill.
14. You’re researching
No, you’re probably not using academic journals in your blogging, but you are using your informal research skills. You are, at the least, using what my colleague calls “the Google machine” to gather and evaluate information.
15. You’re entertaining
Your blog content entertains your readers, which is one of the purposes of providing information.
16. You’re teaching
You’re using your blog to inform your audience about something with which they are unfamiliar
17. You’re a community member
Of course you were a member of several communities before you were a blogger, but now you’re a member of the blogging community. The blogging community is a unique, online group whose interactions are based on reciprocity. It is much different from other professional media communities, which tend to have competitive undertones.
After seven years of blogging, I still find a lot of value in the practice. I hope my students will continue growing and developing as bloggers.
What a great list! As I read each point, I found myself thinking about how that related to my blog. Thanks so much!
mwedwards I’m glad you found the list useful and that it’s applicable to your blog. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Those are great reasons. I have now been blogging for four months and loving it, so I guess I’m doing quite well. All of your points apply to me and are the reasons I continue. I have set myself a goal of two posts a week, at least initially so that it looks like there is some content on my blog. It is hard work keeping up to it and some posts are easier to write than others. Soon I may slow down so I can spend more time on other writing I need (want – burning desire) to do, but for now I’ll just keep blogging away. Thanks for this great article.
NorahColvin If I’m being honest, I took a pretty long break after I first started my blog. I’m not really sure why. I think I just burned out. My readership wasn’t growing much and I didn’t really see the value. I’m not sure exactly when this happened or how long I stopped blogging. However, I used that time to learn about blogging best practices. When I came back, it was for good. I plan to keep blogging until my students (or those like them) no longer find value in what I’m providing. My audience is growing a ton, so I don’t expect that to be any time soon.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I appreciate it. Best of luck on your blog.
I failed at my first few attempts at a blog including an events blog when I was working in special events. After working an event all day, I did not have the energy to blog about it. At that time, I should have reframed my blog as a reflection outlet, not an additional burden. After consistently blogging for the past year, I’ve learned to use my blog to reflect, share the work I’m doing (portfolio-like) and share the amazing work of others in my field (case study-like).
Maintaining a blog can be extremely taxing depending on the type of blog you choose to publish. A Tumblr or photo blog might require less maintenance than a WordPress blog sharing best practices, advices, and reflections. I recommend people think about their schedules and the type of content they want to share before committing. But once they do, I encourage them to stick with it for many of the reasons you listed above.
Great list! I’ve printed it to share with others in my office.
Great article for inspiration on days when blogging can feel like a chore. Although I love my blog, sometimes it can be overwhelming and frustrating but this article reminds me why I keep doing it!
Sheri Lehman I’m glad you found the list helpful, Sheri. I agree that the type of blog and how well it fits into your lifestyle are key. I think people tend to over commit initially about how much they’re going to write or not focus in enough to actually have ideas. I’m glad you found something that works for you and that blogging has become more fulfilling.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. I really appreciate it.
This is great. I joined a 31 day blogging challenge for this month, to blog daily, because my blog went off the rails and became just a book review site. I am happy to include book reviews since I do a lot of reading but my blogs name defines it and it was lost. It IS hard work! That I’ve learned in the past nine days. Usually I blog when I’m inspired so consistently blogging daily makes me dig deep. I do think it’s worth it for all the reasons you list above! 🙂
LauriRottmayer I’ve been blogging five days a week for a couple of years. However, I’ve never “beat myself up” if I missed a day. I set a goal to blog five days a week without missing this year. We’ll see how it goes.
When you read a lot, it’s easy for your site to become reviews. I read 100 books last year and have challenged myself to read 150 this year. There’s no way I can review them all because that’s all I would get to write.
I’m sure you’re learning in your blogging challenge that one of the keys is writing certain types of blogs on certain days. This helps you keep content flowing and allows you to diversify topics a bit. For example, I post a list of media jobs on Mondays and a list of media internships on Fridays. If I have book reviews, I typically write them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. i try to write a longer, media-focused post on Wednesdays. Creating some time of content schedule like this helps you write in advance too. I strongly recommend it, even if it’s just setting certain days for site topics.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes. Keep up the good work, Lauri!
profkrg Thanks so much for taking the time to write this reply to me. It’s awesome! Wow, I don’t know how you’re going to read 150 but I wish you luck. I felt like I was reading all the time last year but it would be cool to top the 87 I read this year. I understand what you’re saying about a content schedule now that I’m blogging more. I will for sure be thinking of how I want to do that. Thank you again for your reply! 🙂