Whilst being on the radio show last Saturday, there was a segment where we discussed blogging and why it was being discredited by some who believe it was mostly a rehash of other online publishers’ works or even blatant plagiarism in extreme cases. One speaker also questioned the need to go through so many blogs whilst not being able to write a single sentence in her own blog. I can tell you from my experience that ANYBODY can blog and it all depends on what you have a passion for. The bigger the passion the more you will get involved in your blog. Personally, I started blogging because I wanted my fiction and creative writing to be on a global platform. There are other reasons why people blog but I’ll share some inherent benefits of this increasingly popular art form:
Build | Learn | Own | Gain
Blogging will help you to:
- Build a network of new contacts with various expertise, insights, opinions and exposure. You may not be an expert yourself in certain areas of knowledge but blogging and following selected blogs could soon change all that. I’ve so far amassed a number of valuable contacts and benefited immensely from cooking tips, health tips, travel tips and Candy Crush Saga tips, just to mention a few.
- Learn from others and yourself. Whilst you learn from contacts in your growing network, you can also learn more about yourself. If you have nothing to write about then why not write about your opinion on some ongoing news headline? Or talk about your stance on pressing issues like Child trafficking, Legalization of Marijuana, Electric cars, E-cigarettes (an article I will be writing on soon). By the time you look back on your blog you’d be able to know more about who you are and whether or not your thoughts have changed over time.
- Own your space in the world-wide web. Hey, you already own an email account or two in cyberspace. You might as well have a blog that documents all your thoughts, pictures, experiences, etc. Make your blog public or private, two-columned or three-columned, political or personal, wordy or full of pics or both…it’s your blog YOUR RULES!
- Gain followers, fans and recognition. If your content is engaging enough, then without even trying, you end up with new fans or subscribers who get an email alert every time you publish a new post/article. I’ve been lucky enough to come in contact with book promoters and media personalities who stumbled upon my blog…even if it was 4 years later, lol. But then again, they say good things come to those who wait 😉
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Thanks for posting this. This was a really good post and I agree with what you have written. It made me go back to my blog just to make sure that I hadn’t used material from someone else.
Thanks for the comment. Even if you do use other writers’ articles at least be sure to make reference to it. It’s only unfair otherwise. Cheers
The good thing is that I am aware of referencing and have hardly used other people’s work. I’ve just referenced websites and news articles with links.
Excellent. That’s professional blogging 🙂
Build. Learn. Own. Gain.
Thanks for this.
You’re welcome, Dankaro. You’re already on the right track – you’re self-motivated when it comes to blogging 🙂
You forgot to add “you get awesome followers, like Strawberryquicksand”. hehe. xo
Lol. Yvette, you know it was you I was referring to when I mentioned experts on Candy Crush Saga tips. For the record, when you blog you get awesome followers like ‘Strawberryquicksand’ on WordPress…honest! 😀
Hehe. You know I was just stirring you up. And yeah, Candy Crush.. Hmmmmm
Right article for the right moment, i stumbled upon this blog and i find it so interesting! kindly check my blog at http://danielfalonipe.wordpress.com it’s a personal blog where i share my thoughts on issues and ideas. I’ll subcribe to this one!
Thanks Daniel. I’ll check it out.
Nice blog!! Can’t stop laughing after reading sm posts!! kudos!! I actually started a blog, u might wanna check it out 🙂 http://www.bookiemodastyle.com