Have you ever contemplated starting a blog, and then thought, eh, why blog, what’s the point? Then read on, because there are definitely reasons why blogging can be great for your career!
Blogging can support your career because it can let you help others, it can help you establish yourself professionally (online), it can create new career opportunities for you, it can improve your communication skills, and it can even make you money. So why blog? Because all of these are good things, and all of these things can be beneficial to your professional life long-term. Read on for the 5 reasons you should be blogging.
Why blog?
On my own blog, I share content about my work with my outreach organization (you can learn more at ISAASE.org), or my research around South Asian American experiences, or even my experiences during my doctorate program. This has had a lot of benefits for me professionally.
First, I’ve gotten to share a lot of my knowledge and expertise, and therefore help others interested in obtaining that knowledge. Second, my blog (and website in general) have kind of become like my business card. Because of that, I’ve been able to position myself as a person who others (like people interested in my area of research) can connect with. This has had the added bonus of helping me in my own efforts to contribute to said area of research. Third, because I’ve been able to connect with others, I’ve stumbled onto unexpected opportunities to work on a lot of exciting projects (that I might not otherwise have been exposed to). Similarly, because of expanding my network of connections, I’ve also been able to connect with people both in my field of research and in fields adjacent to it, — which has been immensely helpful in my conducting further research for my book. Fourth, blogging has also helped me hone my skills in communicating about my research in a non-academic way (and has certainly helped me sharpen my overall writing skills further). And finally, blogging has been able to serve as a (modest) stream of income. Below, I’m listing these advantages blogging has provided me as 5 reasons you should be blogging to support your own career (and to answer the question: Why Blog?).
5 reasons you should be blogging to support your career
So why blog? How can blogging help your career? As I’ve outlined in the infographic above, here are 5 good reasons:
- Blogging can help you help others.
- Blogging can help you establish who you are professionally.
- Blogging can create new career opportunities for you.
- Blogging can improve your communication skills
- Blogging can let you make money.
Why blog? To help others.
First and foremost, establishing a blog where you share your knowledge and expertise — particularly if you’re just “giving it away for free,” is a means of helping others who might benefit from what you know. Blogging lets you share your knowledge and expertise with an incredibly wide audience — which means you can help countless others who might benefit from what you know.
Why blog? To establish your professional self.
Establishing an internet presence (especially through an ongoing blog) helps you cultivate and present a professional persona, and share your story. In so doing, you can also establish your authority and credibility, and present yourself in a way that showcases the professional self you want to share with others. Plus, because you’re creating original content, you might even stand out from others within your field. Blogging lets you establish and share who you are: Your narrative, and your authority within your field. Regardless of what field you’re in, you can probably help others within your field, grow your network, and at the very least, build your own personal professional bona fides as a content expert by starting a blog.
Why blog? To create career opportunities (and connections).
Building a presence online through blogging can widen your reach and can create opportunities for your career. Through blogging, you might connect with new people, expand your professional (and maybe even social) network. Almost ten years ago for The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan wrote about why he blogs; as Sullivan discovered when he started blogging, having a blog lets you connect with others around your topics of interest, which means a lot of new connections. For instance, readers of your blog might reach out and share links, stories, and facts that might add context, nuance, and complexity to the blogger’s understanding of the world (and might even contest it). Therefore, having a blog can give you the opportunity to expand your horizons, connect with others around your interests, put your own input, knowledge, and/or expertise into the ongoing discussions around the things that most interest or concern you, and essentially, take part in a global conversation. And as I mentioned earlier, through my own blogging, I’ve also been able to connect with others either within my field of research or in fields adjacent to it, which has been great on a personal level, and also immensely helpful in my work (and also in my conducting further research for my book!).
But even if you’re not driven to build your professional (and social) connections for its own sake, it can also be fantastic for the growth of your career. Widening your network and reach means, by default, more possible opportunities for potential collaborations, exciting projects, and possibly even new jobs.
Why blog? To improve your communication skills.
Blogging and writing for an internet audience can help improve your ability to communicate through your writing. And, it can help you organize your thinking better (I wrote about this previously here).
Why blog? To make money.
Blogging can be a way to make extra money. Though it’s not super common, it is entirely possible to generate a good stream of income through blogging (or at the hopefully, generate enough money to cover the costs of running the blog itself!). It can also, through leading to new career opportunities and connections, result in an entirely new career path, or new chapter in your current career path.
So… if you’re still asking yourself, “Why blog?” It should now be clear: Blogging can be great for your career! Again, here are those 5 reasons you should be blogging to support your career: (1) to help others, (2) to establish yourself professionally, (3) to create career opportunities, (4) to improve your communication skills, and (5) to make money. And for your pinning pleasure, here’s another pinterest friendly version of the 5 reasons listed on this post, in another color scheme.
A Note about Bluehost Webhosting
By the way — if you are looking to establish your own professional website, and if you want to do everything yourself, I can’t think of a better route to go than to set yourself up with Bluehost Webhosting.
(This isn’t a sponsored post, but if you decide to click through and end up actually making a purchase / becoming a Bluehost customer, they will give me a referral fee for sending you their way, which means you’ll be supporting this website.) My experience with web hosting is limited to some stressful interactions with GoDaddy and mostly excellent interactions with Bluehost. They have excellent customer support and competitive pricing (I’ve had almost entirely great experiences with their customer service, minus the extremely rare occasions where someone on the phone hasn’t been able to walk me through complex questions — but that’s not the norm — which is saying something), and that’s why I love them, and why I’m a Bluehost affiliate.
And by the way, if you don’t want to build out your site yourself, hiring out is an option. There are a lot of web developers and designers who will create a clean, custom looking, professional website for you, with a built-in blog that you can easily update (built on a blogging platform like WordPress.org — not WordPress.com). Also, if you’re in the tech industry and you’re looking for work, my sister-in-law’s company, Knak Digital will help place highly qualified folks in tech, digital, or marketing industries into amazing new careers.