How is blogging beneficial?

Do you wake up every morning and hit the publish button on Facebook or Twitter? 

Do you find yourself constantly checking your analytics to make sure that people are actually seeing it and reading it, and not just scrolling through their feed? 

Are you sitting there at night, resisting the urge to post those witty thoughts that they might want to read in the morning, only for them never to happen?

If anything of those things sound familiar then this is for you. I am going to share with you my story about how blogging has changed my life as well as some stats on how much bloggers make versus regular day jobs. 

I hope this post will help all of us thinking about making a change.

My Story

I started blogging about 6 years ago when I was in my last semester of college. I had always had a love for photography and once I got my hands on a DSLR, it became even more of an obsession. 

I would take pictures with it everywhere, then bring them home and spend hours editing them until they were perfect. At the time, no one really needed huge photos for online use so they were all gathering dust on my computer. 

However, when Facebook came out with these space saving images, or “thumbs”, there was an opportunity to make some money off of my photos.

Here are some points discussed about is blogging worth it–

1. Blogging is a lot of fun!

I have always loved photography, but after working with it for so many years, it wasn’t all that fun anymore. 

Blogging has made my life more exciting and fulfilling. It is that feeling of accomplishment that drives me to do my day job well. 

I now have two blogs which are very successful- takahontas.com, which focuses on travel photography and takahontasblogger.com, where I post about food photography, recipes, craft ideas and everything else in between.

2. Blogging is not as time consuming as some people think

One of the main fears that I had about blogging was that it would consume my time. The amount of time that I spend on both blogs combined is not much more than how much I used to spend in my day job, which only consisted of two to three hobbies. 

Then there are days when I don’t post at all because I am too busy or too tired. It really does not take any more time to do something, but what you get out of it is amazing!

3. Blogging can make extra money!

If you are a business blogger, then blogging can make extra money because you can promote your site or services to potential customers. 

For a personal blogger, blogging can make extra money by selling ads on your blog, selling your own products on your blog, or setting up a pay per click fund on your website. In my case, I focus mainly on affiliate marketing to bring in some extra cash.

4. Blogging will help you network with others!

For me personally networking was one of the best things that came from blogging. I have been able to meet some amazing people from across the world due to my first blog and continue to do so with my second blog. 

I have been able to attend numerous conferences and meet some incredible people through my blogs as well as set up quite a few business deals.

5. Blogging will give you a creative outlet!

Not everyone is creative and not everyone has the opportunity to be creative. We all need an outlet, some place where we can go to express our thoughts and ideas whether they are good or bad. 

Blogging gives you that voice and keeps you from going crazy (unless of course if you don’t like to write)!

6. Blogging will give you new skills!

Even if you are not planning on starting a blog, it is important to be able to use some of the digital tools that are available. 

Blogging does make you better at some computer tasks like writing, editing, photography or graphic design (which I am doing more of). 

It also teaches you new skills like how to make your site look good, how to promote your site through social media etc.

I really think that gets overlooked too much by people who just want to start a blog and leave it at that. It’s 2017 and there are so many opportunities out there where blogging can help you!

7. Blogging will give you a new outlook on life!

This is not necessarily something that everyone wants to hear, but I think that blogging has had more of an effect on my life then anything else. It has made me more confident in myself and my abilities.