Why start a blog? There are actually many reasons to start a blog. How do you know if you are blogging for the right ones? Purpose and motivation drive success in life.
There are many reasons to start a blog. How do you know if you are blogging for the right ones? Purpose and motivation drive success in life. The same applies to blogging.
So Why Do People Start Blogs?
“Why start a blog?”, I have heard this question many times before. I’ve also asked myself the question, “should I start a blog?” many times over the years.
There are of course many answers to the above questions. However, some reasons to blog stand out more than others.
In this article, I am going to share with you twelve of the most popular reasons for starting a blog.
I am also going to discuss how your reasons to blog could be aligned with your purposes in life and how this can make you a more effective blogger.
Lastly, I will share my own personal views on what I feel is the most powerful blogging purpose to have. It also happens to be the reason I want to help you and as many people as possible learn how to start a blog.
Right, so let’s get started. Here are twelve of the most popular reasons to start a blog…
1. Blogging to Promote a Business
Promoting a business is a very popular reason to start a blog. In fact, business blogging includes many of the below reasons for starting a blog.
Businesses who blog can increase brand awareness and authority, build bigger markets, share knowledge with customers and prospective customers and, increase leads and sales and so much more.
Here are a few business blogging statistics:
- 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search, 10% from paid search, 5% for social, and 34% from all other sources. – source
- B2B marketers who use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not. – source
- Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. – source
2. To Make Money Online
When asked, “why start a blog?”, many bloggers will state, “to make money online.”.
Indeed there are over 200 000 monthly searches on average for that phrase.
For many people who are trying to learn how to start a blog, their reason is to create either a side income or a full-time income.
Whether due to lack of employment, working in a dead-end job or wanting to be free to choose how you manage your work time, blogging for money may very well be your top reason.
3. Using a Blog to Build a Network
Another popular reason to blog is to use it to build a large following or network.
If you want to reach out to lots of people for whatever reason, then the powerful blog should be your tool of choice.
The larger your network the more potential you have to influence people.
Whether you wish to promote a product or merely to disseminate information to like-minded people a blog can help you do it.
4. To Make a Difference in the World
There are many blogs online whose purpose is to make a difference in some way. For some bloggers, blogging for a cause is what drives them.
By sharing information about your cause you have an opportunity to educate people and create agreement and promote action.
5. Improve Writing Skills
Are you a budding author? Do you dream of writing professionally but are unsure of your skills?
Well, blogging is an excellent way to hone your writing skills and build a future audience.
Blogging to improve your writing not only gives you an opportunity to practice your literary skills but also to collect feedback from your audience.
6. Become a Thought Leader or Celebrity
Another reason many people start blogs is to position themselves as Thought Leaders within their industries.
By sharing your expertise in a particular field you are able to demonstrate that you are knowledgable and so build an audience that sees you as an opinion leader.
Likewise, some choose to blog in order to achieve a degree of fame.
Either way, blogging is an effective way to become better known, whether you rise to stardom or simply become known to a wider circle of people.
7. Blogging to Gain/Share Knowledge
Another very popular reason given to the question, “Why start a blog?” is to both share and gain knowledge.
Indeed, by sharing your knowledge you are required to continue learning in order to remain relevant and knowledgable. In my days as a martial arts instructor, I found that by teaching I learned so much more.
Sharing knowledge often leads to the creation of information products such as online courses or books. This can become a good source of income if you are also looking to make money online.
This happens to be one of my main reasons to blog.
8. Blogging to Build an Online Portfolio
For artists, designers, photographers, and others, a blog represents an opportunity to build up an online portfolio.
If you are someone whose work is of a visual nature, a blog could be a very effective means of increasing your exposure to new working and collaborative opportunities.
By presenting regular updates on your projects you can show the quality of your work. You can also show off your skills and even demonstrate that you are sought after by the posting frequently.
9. Blogging about a Passion or Hobby
Many bloggers simply blog out of a desire to share their passion for a hobby of some sort.
Perhaps you collect and paint miniatures, perhaps you love to share your culinary experiments, maybe you are a wonder with a pair of knitting needles.
If you have a hobby, why not share it with the world.
You could make new friends from around the world or you might even end up being able to turn your hobby into a full-time profession.
Imagine being able to earn a living from something you love doing.
10. Blogging to Socialize/Keep in Touch
Some bloggers just like to share their lives online. Rather than relying on social networks, these bloggers have taken ownership of their content and gathered it on their own blog.
Blogging can be a great way of staying in touch with family and friends and showing them what you’ve been up to.
11. Blogging to Be Your Own Boss
When asked, “Why start a blog?”, there are those bloggers who will tell you, “I wanted to be my own boss and choose my own working hours.”.
Blogging professionally can give you an enormous amount of freedom. Of course, you will need to practice a great deal fo self-discipline too.
Becoming a professional blogger can be a rewarding career. If you are able to stick to a regular blogging production schedule and you know a bit about blog monetization then you could go on to build something great.
If this is your top reasons to blog then I’m going to be sharing a lot of content with you on how to become a full-time blogger.
12. Blogging to Cope with Stress
Right, we’ve reached the last of the popular reasons to blog that I will be covering in this article.
For some bloggers, life has become unrewarding, overwhelming or even downright miserable.
By writing down and sharing their thoughts, feelings, and emotions, some bloggers are able to cope better with the stresses of life.
Sometimes these bloggers are able to turn their lives around and become an inspiration for other people going through tough times.
Indeed, sometimes by doing something different you can create a new path for yourself in life or even discover a more positive purpose.
Blogs are incredibly powerful communication tools and I like to think that by communicating your thoughts you are confronting your problems.
So how would you answer the question, “Why start a blog?”. Do any of the above reasons to blog align with your own?
Blogging and Your Purpose in Life
Why start a blog? Well, it can help you progress towards and achieve your purpose in life.
You may think the above is a bold statement and that blogging cannot possibly help you achieve your purpose in life.
Perhaps, blogging cannot help everyone achieve every purpose.
Nonetheless, starting a blog and growing it to have a sizable following can help achieve many fine purposes in life.
Now I cannot possibly give you every which way a blog can be aligned to a purpose. There are perhaps as many purposes in life as there are people.
What I will say is this…
A blog is a potent mass communication tool, perhaps one of the most powerful one’s available today.
Now you will find that in order to achieve your purpose in life you will need to communicate with other people.
Nothing is built or achieved without the help, input, acceptance, finances or support of others.
Whether your purpose is to teach art, to design amazing architecture, to help millions of people learn to read, to travel the world, to cure cancer, or any of billions of possible purposes, the one thing you will need to do is to communicate.
Thus, in answer to the question, “Why start a blog?” I say to you, “To help you achieve your purpose in life.”
You will need to reach out to others for many different reasons as you pursuit your purposes and goals.
Your blog can empower you by extending the reach of your communications around the world.
How to Fuel Your Drive to Grow Your Blog
Finally, I wish to share my thoughts on why some blogs grow, while others stagnate and disappear.
Blogging requires a consistent commitment. That commitment may be to write something once a month or twice a day. The key phrase here is consistency.
What powers consistency is having a drive, a purpose and maintaining your motivation.
Making money seems to be a common purpose. However, I feel the pursuit of money as a purpose is not a great motivator. If it were I think there would be a lot more wealthy people around.
Now I am not saying making money is a bad thing, far from it. If your purpose is to help other people in some way, then making lots of money will certainly help you to help more people.
If you are looking for a powerful reason to do something, then I think you will find ‘duty’ is the most powerful motivator there is.
The lengths people will go to for duty are endless. What wouldn’t you do for your family, your friends, your nation, if you were motivated by duty?
And if it was your duty to help others, to make the world a better place, to solve some pressing problem within society, is there anything you wouldn’t do?
So if you are thinking, “Why start a blog?” or “Should I start a blog?”, or “What reasons do I have to start a blog?” then look at what you feel are your duties. What kind of difference could you make in the world?
I can assure you if you can discover a reason, a purpose to blog and make it your duty to achieve, then your blog will go far.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
