7 Benefits of Blogging

As a blogger, I’ve realized that there are numerous benefits to being a blogger that extend across many areas of life. While it may not be for everyone, I think the average person can gain some pretty significant benefits from a blog.  Many bloggers have even called blogs “The new resume.” While that might be a bit extreme, blogs definitely give you a great opportunity to showcase a broad array of skills and personal traits.

1. Personal Branding/Authenticity:

Dan Schwabel is without a doubt one of the foremost authorities on personal branding and I highly recommend you check out his blog. Let’s look at this in a bit more detail. This could be one of the primary reasons a blog is referred to as “the new resume.” A blog enables you to give an employer a true picture of who you really are.  Resumes are cookie cutter profiles that don’t do much to help you stand out. A blog gives you a chance to provide an employer with authentic personality profile. The upside for an employer is that they will get an idea of how well you’ll fit into their culture. The upside for you is that you’ll have more of  a shot of ending up in an organization that you’ll fit into and thrive in.

2. Networking

A blog gives you a tremendous amount of opportunities to build your professional network. In the time I’ve been writing on this blog, I’ve been able to connect with dozens of other bloggers.  Each of them has been able to provide me with feedback on articles and by reading their blogs I’ve been able to learn quite a bit about what makes a blog successful.  I also have connected with other people in my field thanks to my blogging efforts.

3. Professional Skills

Social media, blogs, and web 2.0 technologies are massively impacting the way business is being done.  As a result, a blog that is well built allows you to develop a set of professional skills that will be tremendously valuable.

4. Intangible Skills

Starting and maintaining a blog also enables you to develop a series of intangible skills. Maintaining a blog takes discipline and commitment, skills that a resume can’t really showcase. It also can provide you with a sense of personal satisfaction and growth to build something from scratch.

5.  Income

There’s no doubt that there are people in the world who make their income entirely from blogging.  What’s great about this is that it gives you the possibility of leaving the corporate world and really being independent.  While setting up a blog in the hopes of building an income is a perfectly reasonable goal, starting with a subject you are passionate about is really the key to blogging success.

6. Tangible Asset

One of the major reasons I started my blog after I graduated from business school was that I had a feeling that my job search might be a long haul. If any employer asked what I had been up to for the last few months, I didn’t want to be in a situation where I told them “absolutely nothing other than looking for a job.” Given that I want work in a social media/marketing role, a blog provides a tangible asset of my skill set for an employer to see.

7. Entrepreneurship

Another great thing a blog gives you is an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. You are essentially the editor in chief and co-founder of an online publication. You are building a business from the ground up. As the blog grows in terms of, guest writers, income sources, etc, you end developing skills in the areas of managing people, marketing, and even in the area of finance.

While starting a blog may not be for everybody, it definitely has its advantages. Your blog doesn’t have to start out as anything more than something you do to build your skills. Whatever your goal is, you can build your blog around that goal. Some of us aspire to be writers, others build businesses, and others just share our thoughts with the world. Figure out what makes you tick and blog about it.

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