Blogs mean business. Your blog is a hub for all your online activity. It’s where you build your credibility and show prospective clients that you’re trustworthy.

But if your business doesn’t have a blog yet, don’t worry. It’s not too late to get going. And if you’re in need of a little more convincing, read on for 14 reasons to hit the keys and get blogging today!

1 – Your blog grows your network

When you have a blog, you’re inviting people from anywhere in the world to engage with and share your content.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a comment or a retweet. Any interaction is another connection in your network. 

Essentially, your blog is a PR platform. It’s a place to communicate with your audience in a non-intrusive, casual, no-strings attached manner.

2 – It attracts people to your website

Further to growing your network, a blog simply acts as a device for attracting people to your website. Often physical, service-based businesses can find it difficult to incentivise people to visit their sites due to lack of dynamic content. A blog is the perfect antidote to this problem.

A blog provides the opportunity to publish regular, relevant, and educational, content to your site. This gives people plenty of reasons to not only visit you online, but to stay on your website and engage. 

In a nutshell, the more relevant content you have on your site, and the more often that content is published, the more findable you are on search engines and the longer people will spend interacting with your website. 

3 – It establishes you as an authority

Blogging gives you a platform to really show off what you know. Which is one of its greatest benefits. Want to convince people that you’re an IT guru? Blog about it!

The secret is: when someone reads your blog, they want you to teach them something. This is the difference between blogging and most face-to-face interactions. At networking or social events, people want to tell you what they do, not the other way around. On your blog, all the attention is on you.

So utilise this spotlight to display a deep and grounded knowledge of your subject matter. And by solving prospective clients’ problems, you’re establishing yourself as a reliable and informed source of information. 

4 – Blogging can create further opportunities

Blogs are excellent tools for generating traffic and adding value to your website. But there’s a lesser-discussed benefit that can often be derived from blog writing, which is that it can lead to further educational opportunities.

Once your authority on a subject has been established, and once it’s become clear, through your content, that you can provide clear, engaging, and insightful information, then it’s more than possible that other educators may reach out to collaborate with you.

A classic example of this is guest blogging. If someone who runs a similar blog to your own is impressed with your content, then there’s a chance they may ask if you’d be interested in writing an article for them, which they’ll then share with their audience.

A more dramatic (but not uncommon) example would be getting asked to provide a public talk on a topic that you regularly blog about.

Through opportunities like these, your blog can open the doors to much wider exposure and greater networking.

5 – It builds trust and rapport with strangers

Once someone sees you as an authority, they’re already halfway to trusting you. But there are a few other things to consider when building this special type of online relationship:

  • Don’t hide your motives. When something is free people often ask, “What’s the catch?”. So the best approach when blogging is to simply not have a catch. If you write a post called “5 Steps to Becoming a Better Cook”, offer five steps to becoming a better cook. Don’t just provide three and then say “For the next two steps, buy my ebook”.
  • Deliver on your promises. It can be frustrating when a blog post promises to help you with a problem and then doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of clickbait in your titles. But always try to deliver on it.
  • Be genuine. Try to avoid too much technical jargon. If you’re in a creative profession, try to write in a casual, conversational tone. Essentially, write as you would talk. And approach your blog with an honest desire to help people.

With the right motivation behind it, your blog will become a vehicle for trust building.  And it will humanise your entire website, showing that there really is a living, breathing person behind the screen.   

6 – Running a blog turns you into an active creator

There are two ways to use the internet: actively and passively. For most of the day, the majority of us fall into the passive category. Because we spend a lot of time consuming content. And when we’re consuming, we’re in the passive mode.

By producing original content, we become creatively active. We’re pumping material back into the consumption machine. Which is a sustainable digital strategy, and Google will like you for it.

7 – It adds value to your website

In many ways blogging can be seen as something of a selfless pursuit. Ultimately you’re putting in a lot of time and effort for no immediate (or even guaranteed) return.

But that’s the beauty of it. With every new post you publish you’re providing valuable information, completely free, that you could otherwise charge for. This adds incredible value to your site because, in the end, you could be providing hundreds of pounds worth of content for absolutely nothing at all.

This may seem like a dull deal on your end, but that kind of generosity won’t go unnoticed. People will feel grateful, consciously or unconsciously, that you went to such lengths to give them useful information without asking for anything in return.

Remember, people really do believe there’s no such thing as a free lunch. So surprise them. Give them a free lunch and see what happens.

8 – Blogging provides a source of regular content

Further to adding value, blogging is one of the most effective ways to keep your website updated with new content. When you post once a week, or once every two weeks, your readers begin to know what to expect, and can actively start checking your site for the latest blog posts. 

Providing a steady stream of content helps to keep your website fresh and engaging, which keeps people coming back. This can be especially valuable for businesses whose websites are otherwise quite static. 

After all, not every enterprise is at home on the internet — gyms, dentists, swimming pools etc. Any company that normally operates on a more “bricks and mortar” level could really stand to benefit from starting a blog. It gives your business a digital home, and allows for even the most traditional and anti-technological businesses to carve out a presence on the web. 

9 – It sharpens your writing skills and gives you a new hobby

The thing about blogging that not many people seem to talk about is that it’s fun. If you write about something you’re truly interested in then blogging can be a very pleasant and rewarding experience.

You get to share your thoughts and opinions and show off your expertise, all whilst knowing that your words might actually be educating someone and helping them sort through a problem.

Not only that, but developing a regular writing routine will really sharpen your literary skills. This is a huge advantage considering that, for many people, their day-to-day engagement with writing usually doesn’t extend further than typing out emails. So becoming a better writer can really help you stand out and appear more professional.

10 – Blogging creates a flowing network inside (and outside) your website

Links are an important part of blogging. They connect your content to other parts of your website, to the wider blogosphere, and add value to your posts. 

Not only do links help with your SEO, but they also demonstrate your depth of research. Providing links to similar posts and helpful resources communicates a level of effort and enthusiasm that definitely won’t go unnoticed by your readers. 

Including internal links (ie links to other posts on your blog) also ensure that visitors stay engaged with your site for longer, and ultimately come away more satisfied. 

This is an excellent function of blogging, as it creates a sort of web that not only keeps people engaged for longer, but encourages them to navigate all the various nooks and crannies of your site, thus learning more about your business and what you do.

11 – It’s useful and valuable 

Actionable blog posts filled with practical tips and advice can be excellent learning resources. This gives you a chance to offer something tangible and useful, which can provide you with a sense of value.

By actively considering a reader’s point of view, you can sculpt your content to be as informative and useful as possible, which . 

A good tip is to look at the headline you’re working on and imagine what you’d hope to find in a blog post with that title. What would you want to learn, and what would you want to come away with? 

12 – It builds motivation and discipline

One of the many challenges of working freelance or running a business is maintaining discipline and motivation. Sometimes being your own boss is hard. Luckily, however, we have clients and project deadlines to keep us on track.

But the interesting thing about blogging is that it’s completely self-driven. There’s no client or external factor compelling you to do it. You’re doing it by yourself. Juggling this around other commitments, and finding the time to actually research and produce the content, often requires enormous amounts of motivation. It needs perseverance and discipline – often much more than is required for everyday paid work.

Not only is blogging good for discipline, but it will also enhance your time-management and organisational skills. Being in control means just that: creating publication schedules and sticking to them; making time for research and writing; sharing finished posts on social media; and everything else that goes with it.

13 – Writing a blog can make you more confident

There’s something undeniably daunting about writing. And, for whatever reason, many people feel that it’s something they’re simply no good at. So the very thought of actually publishing our words is a prospect that would fill most of us with sheer dread.

Blogging, as paradoxical as it may seem, can help us to overcome this fear. It gives us an excuse to create content and, a little bit at a time, put it out for people to see. By running a regular blog we can gradually, post by post, build up our confidence in our ability to write. It’s very gratifying to see your words on a screen, and to see people engaging with them in a positive way.

As with anything, it’s just a case of embracing the fear and diving in headfirst. Blogging is such a fantastic way to build overall confidence because it demands the use of a skill that most of us are unconfident in to begin with.

14 – Blogs can be monetised

This point might not be a priority for everyone, but it’s still good to know about.

There are many ways to monetise a blog – affiliate links, sponsored posts, advertisements, etc. And though the priority should always be to provide useful and engaging content first, a good blog always leaves the door open for a potential side income.

For anyone who runs a small business, the prospect of additional income streams can be very exciting. And the beauty of blogging is that it’s passive. In other words, once you’ve written the content you don’t need to do much more.

So, again, though not a huge priority in most cases, it’s nice to be aware that blogging could turn into a source of income.

Final thoughts on blogging

Blogging is an excellent way to keep in touch with your customer base and build a respectable online presence for your brand. And it can set you up as a thought leader in your particular field, which in turn builds your authority.

For more on content creation, why not take a look at our Design Fundamentals blog on how to write good headlines, or read our post on making content that sticks, compels and sells.