6 Reasons You Should Have a Blog

I started blogging a few years ago and started this one about 2 years ago. I started because people kept asking me how we got out of debt. So, I figured that I would mass mentor my friends, family and whoever else wanted to know about our journey via a blog. It turned out to be something I enjoy. I like the challenge of figuring out personal finance and describing the ins and outs to people who have questions. It also turns out there are other benefits of blogging, too. Lately, more people have been asking me about the blogging business, too. It turns out that pretty much everyone has an opinion, special gift, business or good news they need to spread via blog or website.

If you are one of the those people that wants to start something….anything- a blog might be a great place to start. Whether you are a dog walker, personal trainer, exotic plant specialist or champion knitter- an internet presence is a great way to get the news out about you!

Inspiring Others

Some people blog from a very personal standpoint and others, not so much. I’m in the middle with some personal stories sprinkled in especially for the inspiration component. It’s nice to tell people what to do and how, but it really becomes valuable when you walk it out yourself. By telling your own story, you become someone people can trust. When you are trusted you are both inspiring and motivational.

Brain Stretching

My blog is focused mainly personal finance and entrepreneurship. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know everything about these topics. I really enjoy the challenge of searching out information and synthesizing it into more palatable formats (short articles, YouTube videos and podcasts) for my audience. There are tons of people in this space (personal finance media), saying and teaching the same information. But my job is to find out what my audience wants and needs and iterate it in a way that is both informative and engaging. Every article, video and podcast is different for different subjects. I know the kind of person I am and these kind of challenges excite me. I feel like this is something I could do for a while and hopefully will keep my brain active for years to come.

Making Money

Ok, then there’s the money aspect. There are people who make part-time income from blogs and there are the, not so rare, bunch who make a boat-load of money as bloggers. Some of them are all out internet entrepreneurs with multiple sites and streams of income. There are plenty of ways to make money online including advertising, affiliate income and product sales. Whatever your goal, just know that having a blog can start as a hobby but end up being a good source of income if you choose to go that path.

Also note: this strategy really only works if you have a self-hosted blog and can capture emails for further marketing. (I use ConvertKit). This is where the money happens. If you need to start a blog, you can do so for as little as $3.95 per month with BlueHost.com. Use this link to get that price on web-hosting.

Staying Accountable

This is right up there with inspiration. But it occurred to me that someone reading this might think that they don’t have a story that is inspirational enough because they haven’t accomplished “enough.” The good news is that it’s never too late to embark on your journey and start something new. One thing I wish I had done was start blogging before we got out of debt. There are hundreds, if not thousands of personal finance bloggers who write about the journey they are still on and guess what? They are just as inspiring as people who’ve “accomplished” things. In fact, it seems like their blog gives them even more motivation to keep going because people are counting on them to see them win. I also think about all the  people who have weight loss blogs and keep going to inspire their readers and stay accountable. Your goal may be finances, starting a business, losing weight, starting a new traveling lifestyle or kicking the nicotine habit. What ever your are reaching for, consider a keeping a blog to keep you on track.

Meeting People

Having an internet presence can make you more vulnerable but also more accessible. You’ll want to be safe, obviously, but networking is a great benefit of blogging. I recently attended the FinCon meet-up for people like me (personal finance bloggers) and ended up meeting all sorts of wonderful people who helped me up my game and increased my exposure in the world of personal finance blogging. It seems like every week, I am still gaining new insights and connections just from meeting new people through my blog. It’s been a blast so far.

Memories

If you share personal stories on your blog, it can be fun to go back and look at things you’ve accomplished and photos you’ve posted. If you are anything like me, you have thousands of photos all on your phone, google drive, hard drives, icloud, dropboxes , Facebooks, Instagrams and everywhere else. But how often do you go back and look at these photos? Much less with any context on the day or why the photo was taken. Blogs can serve as a well- organized way to hold memories and milestones you hold dear.

The World Needs You

As I always say, there is no one here on earth that can do what you are supposed to do. There’s a story that only you can tell and people whose ears are tuned only to the timbre of your voice. You have an audience- a tribe, a following. There are people waiting on you- to hear the message that only you can deliver.

Are you ready to get started? I’ve started publishing my free tutorial on how to started a blog. Check out the video series here to get you started. You can get going  in 10 minutes! Click below to access on YouTube:

Ready to Start Blogging?

• Elite Blogging Academy
• Pro-blogging secrets

Aja McClanahan

Aja “A.J.” McClanahan is a writer, speaker and entrepreneur.