Should I start a blog? 10 reasons to start a blog

Plus 6 reasons why you shouldn’t!

Have you been thinking about starting your own blog for a while now, but you’re not completely sure if you’re the real blogging type of girl (or guy)? Would you like to know what it is like to be a blogger and to find out what bloggers do all day?

In this blog post, I will help you find an answer to the question “Should I start a blog, or not?”

I blog for 1.5 years now and I think I have a good impression by now of what it means to live a blogger’s life: the fun parts, and the less glamorous parts!

In this post, I’ll give you a better understanding of what blogging is all about, what it is like to be a blogger, and what bloggers do. I listed 10 reasons to start a blog and 6 reasons you shouldn’t. Hopefully, you’ll be able to make the right decision at the end of this post!

Because honestly, blogging seems super cool on the outside (and for me it really is a super cool job to do), but it can be quite overwhelming in the beginning as well, and it takes A LOT of time.

Besides, there are more aspects to a blog that you have to work on as a blogger that aren’t visible to the visitor’s eye. A visitor just sees your blog and content but has no clue of all the daunting, boring tasks you had to work really hard on behind the scenes.

Let’s go back to my ‘should I start a blog’-moment?

Fact:I never dreamed of becoming a blogger

As a matter of fact, I never had any intention to start a blog at all. Things just kinda turned out this way! I did have a lifelong dream back then, which was to become a business owner. So, I registered myself at the Chamber of Commerce as a freelancer, which is one of the best steps I ever took in my life!

I was free and independent, awesome! :))

The plan was to create and sell digital products, do some translation jobs, and write content for others. I signed up for freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr and started to work on my first assignments as a business owner! Woohoo!

I quickly noticed that there was a great demand for freelancers with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) skills. I had no idea what that really meant, but it was in demand, so I decided to take an online course on Udemy for just $ 15!

For me, it always works best to put what I’m learning directly into practice, and that’s how I ended up with my very own blog!

I came up with a niche, brainstormed for the perfect domain name, picked a good hosting provider, and tadaa, my 1st blog Inhale The Good Shit was born!

Blogging became my passion!

I mainly blog(ged) about topics like positive thinking and yoga. Topics I’ve been studying for years, but I soon discovered it’s not necessarily the topic that I enjoy writing about as well. It didn’t feel like my mission to blog about these topics, but the part of helping others and blogging itself does feel like my mission. I decided to start blogging about… guess what… blogging, and I really found my mission when I started this website, She Can Blog.

Blogging about blogging is what suits me and what I genuinely love. :))

She Can Blog is my passion, my digital baby! Something I love to work on so hard every day! Blogging has changed my life tremendously, for the better. And that feeling of being able to follow your passion and to feel freedom, I want you to feel too!

Are you a true blogger?

I can’t answer the question if blogging is your soul’s purpose, too, but I hope this post will help you to figure it out. In the end, the best way to figure it out is to actually try it out yourself! But for now, please read this post first to get a good first impression about the blogging business, and if you’re still excited after reading this, go for it!

Ready to start blogging? Check out my beginner’s guide on how to start a blog!

Don’t forget to send me the link to your new blog when it’s online! I’m dying to see it!

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for the latest blog tips. You can find the registration form in the sidebar (desktop) or below this post (smartphone/tablet).

Should I start a blog? 10 Reasons to start a blog

1. Inspire and help

By sharing your own experiences and tips, you can help and inspire others. Don’t underestimate the value of your own voice. There really are people out there waiting for what you have to say and share. Especially if you are planning to set up a personal blog: you never know who you may reach and who needs to hear your words at that exact moment in time! Share your story! People feel connected to bloggers who are open, honest, and authentic.

Sometimes I look at my statistics and then I see visits coming from almost every country in the world. From Russia to Kenya, Nigeria, Australia, and Mexico! People I would never have reached without my blog and who I’m able to help now!

How cool is that?

Have a positive impact on the lives of others! That’s the reason why I’m doing this every day, for you, my reader! And you can do the same for others with your blog.

Even if you choose to not share your personal stories, but rather keep it informative, like me, you can still give your blog a personal touch and make your blog YOU and inspire others.

2. Be creative

A blog is a great way to express your creativity and share your thoughts and ideas with others. You’re working on something positive, you’re creating something and it can help to take your mind off things.

For me, working on my blog is very therapeutic, even though I don’t share real personal stories. It allows you to get in touch with like-minded people or to help others who are experiencing the same problems as you or who are sharing the same hobby.

3. Make money

It’s really not a myth, you can really make money with your blog! You can even earn passive income with it! In other words, make money while you’re sleeping!

That sounds too good to be true, Angie! How does that even work?

Well, for example by placing advertisements or by promoting products and services through affiliate marketing. You can also create and sell your own digital products and/or services on your blog and you can add an online store to your site to sell products; your own, or made by other brands/businesses.

Over time, you can turn this into your full-time business and work anywhere and anytime you want. Professional bloggers earn a pretty good income from it. And that is an understatement.

4. Be your own boss / Freedom

For me, this is one of the main reasons why I started blogging. After 10 years of working in offices for different employers, it was very clear to me that this is not the life I want to live until I retire.

I want freedom!

I want to be able to go on a holiday when I want, instead of first needing to beg my boss and colleagues to get permission to take some days off for Christmas.

I’m done with those colleagues who check their watches when you arrive 3 minutes too late, and I want to be able to visit the family of my husband (my daughter’s grandparents) in his home country Serbia when we want, too! Plus, I want to be able to work there as well.

I enjoy this feeling of being free so much, and I know that many people are looking for this feeling of freedom, too. And let me tell you something, it is possible, you just have to go for it. Start today, and do it!

5. Your blog is your portfolio

There’s another reason to start a blog, and this reason can come in very handy in your future. Remember that I told you at the start of this post that I started blogging because I took a course in SEO (search engine optimization).

Suppose I want to help other companies to improve their SEO, then by showing my own blog and statistics, I can show them what I am capable of. If you blog about beauty or fashion, you can use your blog as your portfolio, too, because you can use your blogs to present your products, styles, and vlogs.

Awesome, right?

6. Your own brand = your own customer base

Let’s say you’re an Instagram blogger. This is great in a way, but it also means you always need to sit and wait to find out, if and how often your posts are shown to your target audience. And then, if your posts are shown, your posts are probably not even looked at for more than a second before the Insta-users scroll to the next inspiring post of another great Insta-blogger.

With a blog and email marketing, you can build a private audience! An audience that you can reach by sending an email directly to the inbox of all your subscribers. For this reason, email marketing is a real – and often forgotten – goldmine for bloggers.

But how? I thought email was dead?!

Wrong! Email is very much alive! Because the people who subscribe do so intentionally and are genuinely interested in what you have to say, email marketing is the best way to reach them.

7. Improve your writing skills

As a blogger, you’re improving your writing skills every day! If you want to work as a copy- or content writer, for example as a freelancer on freelancing platforms, this is the ideal way to work on your writing skills and your blog can instantly serve as the perfect portfolio for your clients!

If you blog in a second language as well, like I do in English, then blogging will also help you tremendously to improve your knowledge of your 2nd language. If your knowledge of this second language is sufficient enough, you may also consider offering online translation services on Fiverr too!

8. Learn new skills

I blog for almost 1.5 years now and I have learned so many new skills.

Skills you learn as a blogger:

• WordPress
• Social media marketing: Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. You learn how to present and promote yourself online
• Do research
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization
• Basic coding: HTML & CSS
• Knowledge of design tools, such as Canva
• The ins & outs of email marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Branding
• Improve English writing skills

That’s quite an impressive list, right?

Yes, you can add all those skills to your resume, and who knows where it will take you!

And the best part is that you learn new skills while you are putting them into practice. Plus: you can already earn some money from it.

As I write each post, I learn something new about my niche and grow in my profession.

9.Do something new! Step out of your comfort zone!

If you’re naturally introverted like me, you might think blogging might be something you love because you don’t have to show yourself to the world.

Let me disappoint you here: it probably won’t get you very far.

As a blogger it is very important to put yourself out there, so readers recognize you as the face of your brand and start to see you as an authority within your niche. If you want your readers to trust you, it is very important to link a clear profile picture to your brand and also to show your readers who you are.

For a long time, I was so anxious to show my blogs to others, to share them on social media, but the more I do it, the easier it becomes.

Besides, your readers love to know who you are. Your face builds trust.

Nowadays, I don’t mind promoting myself anymore… well, ok, let’s be honest… I almost don’t mind it anymore. Still got some small fears to conquer here. 😉

It became normal to promote myself on social media and it’s just something you need to get used to.

If you’re introverted too, this is not the moment to bail on your blogging dreams, on the contrary, it might be the biggest reason why you should start! You will grow as a person and you will learn to overcome your own fears.

10. Blogging gives you a purpose

There isn’t a day when I get up with an empty to-do list. NEVER. There’s always a new post to write, there’s always something to change about my blog design, more to promote on social media, and the list is endless. Your blog is never finished and when it’s your passion, you always want to work on it.

Since I started blogging I have had this constant creative flow of thoughts going through my mind with topics I want to write about, content I want to share, ideas for printables, and courses. And I love this feeling of creativity inside of me.

I believe that finding your purpose in life is of so much value to every human being. A purpose brings change and growth. You have something that belongs to you, something you can grow, something you can work on daily, something you can share with the world, something you want to get up for early in the morning.

Looking back at my pre-blogging life I really don’t understand how and why I watched that much TV when I could’ve done something more useful with my time. Sure, relaxing for an hour and watching your favorite show is completely fine, but that’s not where it stops for most of us.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? What do you want to look back on? Would you like to have achieved and built up something special? If so, blogging might be for you!

6 reasons to NOT start a blog

As is the case for all professions, blogging is not the right job for everyone. My advice is to try it out yourself. Only then you’ll know for sure if blogging is for you.

Now, I just gave you plenty of reasons to start a blog, but if you recognize yourself in one or more of the following points below, you might want to find another hobby. 😉 In that case, blogging is most likely not for you.

 1. Not enough free time

To set up and run a successful blog that attracts lots of visitors and ultimately generates a little extra income, or even a full-time income if you’re good, you need time… and a lot of it! You’re going to have to learn how to set up and manage a blog, you need to learn about search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, blog promotion via social media, and much more. And this didn’t even include the writing part of your blog posts itself!

Blogging is hard work and it takes a lot of your free time.

If you’re going to blog purely for fun and you don’t mind that your blog won’t attract too many visitors, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend on it. However, if you’re planning to start a serious blog, one that you can earn money from, you’re going to invest a lot of your free time in it.

2. You think a blog is a get-rich-quick scheme

This may be the case for a handful of bloggers, and there are many bloggers who present it as a quick-money maker to make more money themselves. But, the chance that you will make quick money with your blog is almost zero.

I know, this may sound disappointing, and maybe not what you wanted to hear, but let me be honest with you. You need to understand that the search engines, like Google and Bing, don’t take new websites seriously in the first months of their existence. It takes at least 3 months to a year before your blog is taken seriously by search engines and to appear in the search results.

Especially if you don’t know anything about search engine optimization yet, this won’t be a fast business for you. Making money with blogging is really possible, but it is a long-term goal.

3. You don’t enjoy writing or making long hours behind a desk

I know it sounds obvious, but I think that many new bloggers underestimate this. Your laptop is going to be your new best friend that you spend most of your free time with. To write, to learn, to do online research, to promote yourself on social media, to write some more, and then to rewrite the same text again. 😉

Google likes high-quality content. So if you want to rank high in the search results, this means that you will have to do research on the topics you write about and that you need to put your heart, mind, and soul into your content. It takes me at least 5 to 6 hours to write a 2,000 – 3,000-words post.

Of course, it also depends on the topic, how much you already know about the topic, and how fast you can write and work in WordPress.

4. All by myyyyseellllff…..

If you like to work with others or like to brainstorm with a colleague every now and then, then working on a blog may be a lonely undertaking for you. Especially in the beginning, when you don’t have a network yet, blogging can be quite lonely.

You do everything yourself, from the design to the writing, to the promotion. When you earn enough with it in the future, you can hire a co-worker, but take into account this won’t be an option at first.

Tip: One thing I suggest you do is connect with other bloggers through Facebook groups! I find these groups very useful. You can ask your questions there, support each other, and get to know other bloggers! 

5. It is difficult for you to master new software programs

If everything computer-related is Abracadabra for you and you have trouble understanding new programs quickly, blogging might be difficult for you as well.

You can then choose to start a blog on for example WordPress.com (don’t mix it up with WordPress.org) or another service that has everything ready-made for you, but keep in mind that you don’t own your own content on platforms like that, and that the design possibilities are very limited and that you’re not allowed to use affiliate links.

If you want to be a professional blogger, it’s really important to feel comfortable with everything computer-related and to be able to master new software easily. There’s also no need to be a nerd (maybe a little… 😉 ), but you should at least feel comfortable working with computers and with sitting behind a desk.

If you have the budget for it, or if you have a good friend that can work on your blog’s design for you, that’s also fine!

6. No discipline

For me, blogging means that I spend every free moment I have on my blog.

And no, I’m definitely not always in the mood for it. But when I’m not in the mood, I still manage – in 99% of these cases – to get myself to work anyway.

If you like to sleep late, watch TV, meet with friends, or just like to chill, blogging is not for you. If you aren’t consistent, the search engines won’t classify your website as valuable enough to suggest your posts in the search results. Blogging requires perseverance and discipline.

So, what is the answer to the question: “Should I start a blog, or not?”

I hope this post has offered you insight into what it is like to be a blogger, what bloggers do, and that your question “Should I start a blog, or not?” is finally answered.

Blogging is so much fun, and with a blog, you can turn your hobby into your profession. Who wouldn’t want that?

But, as I’ve explained here as well, it also comes with downsides, and it’s not the get-rich-quick-scheme some people think it is. Blogging takes a lot of time and discipline and you really need to be passionate about it to create a successful blog.

In case you want to start right now, here are some useful links for beginning bloggers:

>> How to start a blog in 9 simple steps <<

>> 14 Important WordPress settings for beginning bloggers <<

Good luck!

Angie