6 Reasons Why You Should Blog 

Last week I shared 7 tips for building a blog readership.

But I think I jumped the gun. I had quite a few people email me asking if blogging was really worth the time and effort.

So I figured this week I’d take a step back and talk about why you should even consider blogging in the first place.

I have been blogging for about 4 years now. Before that, I posted a BizWeb eGazette newsletter issue at this site regularly for about 16 years. So in total, I’ve been at this for about 20 years.

While there are lots of different Internet business models, and even more content marketing strategies, here’s why I think everyone should blog, even if it is in their spare time…

1. You build an audience

A blog is the ideal platform to chat with your customers and future customers, just as if they are friends.

By writing what’s on your mind, sharing your opinions and helping people with things you know how to do in your niche, your blog readers get to know you. Which leads me to number two…

2. You build trust

Think about some of the things you’ve purchased online over last few months. More than likely you bought them based on recommendations from someone you trust.

A friend or mentor? A fellow marketer? A blogger? A website you frequent? People tend to buy from people they trust, and as a blogger you have the perfect platform to start building that trust.

3. You can build a subscriber list

Getting traffic to a website or blog can be challenging. When you have a blog that people return to again and again, many of your readers will be happy to join your email list. (A bribe never hurts either.)

Some people will want to follow your blog, but won’t remember. You need to give them a way to allow you to send them reminders when you post. This will dramatically increase your number of repeat visitors over time.

When you grow your subscriber list you have another way to get people back to your blog. You also have another way to tell them about products and service you use and recommend.

4. You can build a customer list

The power of your customer list is incredible!

If you can convert 2% of strangers into customers with a sales page, you can convert 25% of your existing customers into customers of another product with that same sales page. That’s powerful!

5. You can make money lots of different ways

There are so many ways to earn money once you have a growing audience.

Over the years I’ve made money with membership sites, affiliate products and services, Adsense, selling banner ads, buying and selling domain names, packing my blog content and selling republishing rights, offering services such as web design, sales copyrighting and more.

The possibilities are endless when you have an audience that knows you’ll always do your best to help them.

6. It’s so darn simple!

When I started publishing my BizWeb eGazette 20 years ago it was like creating a new website every week. It took the good part of a day to publish a new issue.

But nowadays it is so simple to publish content online. Thanks to WordPress and other blogging platforms, I can publish fresh content in under an hour.

If you want to be a blogger, all you have to do is pick a niche, get a domain name and use the freely available WordPress platform. If you’re not up for setting up a blog, I can even do it for you so all you have to do is publish content whenever you want.

As you can clearly see from today’s BizWeb eGazette, blogging is not only fun and worthwhile, it is also easy and can be quite profitable. Sure, it will take some time to get established and grow a following, but it sure beats chasing all those here-today, gone-tomorrow get-rich-quick business opportunities.