Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024 - Reasons To Start

If you are contemplating starting a blog in 2024, then I really encourage you to stop thinking about it and Start Doing It. It will almost certainly be one of the best decisions of your life. Why You Should Start a Blog and Reasons To Start Blogging.

Blogging is fast becoming the quickest way to express yourself online. With it being both free and potentially valuable to start a blog, more people are joining the blogging community than ever; so why should you join too? What is so good about blogging that means everyone should have a go?

Reasons on Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Based on my personal experience, blogging has the potential to open so many doors. Some might come as a surprise, while others need no explanation.

1. To Generate an Income

This is probably the one point you’re most interested in. Yes, it is perfectly possible to earn a living through your blog, lots of people are doing it.

You can absolutely earn good money from blogging. Bloggers monetise their blogs in a multitude of different ways – typically a combination of advertising, affiliate links, sponsored posts, products and services.

Bloggers who work hard and focus on monetising their blogs often earn much more money from blogging than they could earn in traditional jobs.

But while it’s possible, it’s not easy.

Those people you see making a success and a living as bloggers have been honing their craft for years. Through that time they’ve been experimenting and testing things to see what works.

And those years of hustle, go hand-in-hand with long hours of work.

Choosing a profitable niche for your blog is a good place to start. Some are easier to earn money from than others. But, selling your services via your blog requires you to build an audience targeting the people most likely to hire you.

Whichever route you go down, be prepared to work long and hard for it.

2. To Inspire Your Audience: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Being able to inspire an audience through writing is a satisfying feeling. It makes you want to do it all the more. And when people respond to you in positive ways, you generate a portion of influence over them.

As a blogger, you can inspire people in an infinite number of ways. Imagine using your words to inspire people to:

Help other people
Create something beautiful
Change their lives for the better
Make their days more productive

All this is achievable through the power of your blog, so use it wisely.

3. There is Potential Financial Gain: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

With blogging becoming more and more prolific, there is no doubt that its becoming a profession to be taken very seriously.

Blogging is easily a full-time job, if a blog is expected to reach its full potential, and money can be made with hard work and perseverance.

Advertising on your blog can help you financially, as can accepting sponsors if you’re reviewing products, but ultimately your blog can lead you to a career in blogging, which may seem far off for someone starting a blog, but it’s becoming far more acceptable in this day and age.

4. Teaches You New Things: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

As a blogger you are a jack of all trades – you are the writer, the editor, the photographer, the designer, the publicist, the marketing department, the finance department, the sales team and the tech support all rolled into one.

This can seem daunting when you are starting out, but actually it’s great fun as it gives you huge scope to learn new skills.

I have learned and developed so many new skills as a blogger – for example, I’ve learned photography, food styling, SEO and basic accounting. I’ve learned how to build a website from scratch, how to promote my blog on social media, how to create and launch a digital product, how to put on a blogging conference and much, much more!

5. To Improve Your Writing Ability: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

One thing that’s self-explanatory is that starting a blog has a huge impact on your ability to write.

Starting out might feel awkward and even slightly alien. But as you get into the swing of writing, you’ll notice it getting easier. The words will flow with greater efficiency and you’ll develop a style that’s uniquely you.

Through writing often, you’ll also get a good idea of what people respond to. This stretches your creativity, helping you write more about what people love to read. And in turn, that translates into a larger audience.

6. Blogging is The Current Way to Market a Business

These days, companies are crazy not to have embraced the blogging world.

It’s all very well having a professional website, but if you use a blog that is regularly updated to show current offers and promotions, clients will see you as more approachable, current, and most importantly more involved in your business.

7. To Grow

Without my blog, I don’t think I would care as much about personal finance. Yes, I care, but I most likely wouldn’t be so focused on extra income like I am now.

I also wouldn’t make so much extra income as well. I didn’t start my blog to make money, and I do think that’s one of the reasons for why I’m doing so well with making extra income from my blog.

8. To Learn New Skills: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

When I started blogging I did it for the fun of it. I never in a million years imagined I’d learn enough to turn writing into my full-time career.

Blogging can help you learn so many new skills and abilities. Here are some I’ve picked up along the way:

Website hosting
Email marketing
SEO best practices
Content management
Creating web graphics
Social media marketing
Designing for WordPress
Writing for different audiences

It’s not just through the act of building and managing a blog that you can learn. The content you write about also builds your knowledge.

To give you an example, I spent a few years writing about personal finance for a small business blog. It’s now a subject I know inside-out that I can use in other areas of my work and personal life.

9. You’ll Gain Confidence

Blogging is the shy person’s stage. You can be center of attention, meeting new people by gaining follows and likes, all within the safety of your own limits.

Your blog is your own, whatever you want it to be, and it’s a great way of gaining confidence whether it’s in the field you’re writing in or personal expression.

Blogging will undoubtedly increase your confidence. I remember back when I started blogging how nervous I was to put my words ‘out there’ – it was a super scary prospect.

But little by little blogging has increased my confidence to the point where, not only am I confident writing and sharing my knowledge, ideas and opinions on my own blog, but I am confident enough to charge for my knowledge via courses and events and even stand up in front of a roomful of people to share my ideas at a conference.

And, of course, there is nothing quite as confidence boosting as being able to say you built your own highly profitable business from scratch!

10. To Confront Your Fears: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

For me, blogging was an effective way for me to break out of my shell. As an anxious introvert, I found it hard to put myself out there and allow my thoughts and ideas to be heard.

Blogging gave me a platform to shout from – a way to confront my fear of being noticed. And in doing so I realized there are people out there just like me.

There are many other ways to use blogging to confront your fears. It can be used to overcome impostor syndrome and feelings of not being good enough.

Writing about a topic you’re fearful of can be cathartic and help you work through those emotions.

In fact, many people use blogging as a way to aid in their struggles with mental health. This shows that a blog doesn’t always have to be a meticulously planned venture.

Sometimes, it can just be a place to collect your thoughts.

11. Develops Your Expertise

The beautiful thing about blogging is that you don’t have to start off being an expert – many very popular blogs were started by people who did not have any expertise, but went on to develop their expertise in the course of their blogging journey – for example weight loss bloggers who started their blogs to document the steps they were taking to lose weight and who now use their blogs to teach others how to lose weight.

Or finance bloggers who started their blogs to share how they were trying to pay off their mortgage early and now teach others how to manage their finances.

12. To Build Your Online Brand: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Along with learning new skills, the more you write about a subject, the more of an authority you become about it. Becoming an authority in your niche helps build your online brand.

By providing value to readers, you’ll soon become recognizable in the community. You’ll be that blogger everyone goes to. They’ll know your knowledge and advice is worth the effort of seeking out.

Building your brand is a springboard for transforming your blog into something more.

13. To Document Your Life

Let’s go back to the early days of blogging. A blog was where you would write about the happenings of your every-day life. I think I may even have an old LiveJournal dedicated to just that, hidden away somewhere.

But just because it’s become unfashionable in recent years, doesn’t mean you can’t start a blog for that reason. Blogging to document your life, is a wonderful way to reflect. Past joys and past mistakes, can all be learned from to some extent.

So having somewhere to store those memories, can help you see how far you’ve come and how much you’ve learned.

14. To Meet New People: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

One thing that can’t be denied, is that starting a blog, exposes you to a huge community of new people. For each blogging niche, there is a lively community to go with it.

What’s wonderful about this is it provides a great way for you to meet new, like minded people. It will be easier to make friends since you share common interests. And, you’ll find blogging communities are not only welcoming but helpful to new bloggers too.

Then there’s the events and meetups held in various communities:

Craft blog communities hold regular craft retreats
Parent bloggers can enjoy meetups and conferences
Unsplash hold local photography walks and meetups
WordPress enthusiasts can enjoy the many WordCamps held around the world

Whatever your niche, you can guarantee there’ll be a vibrant community waiting to embrace you.

15. To Have Fun

Before I started blogging, I never gave it a single thought. Now that I’ve been blogging for almost 2 years, I couldn’t imagine not blogging.

I like reading posts on other blogs, finding new people to talk to, giveaways, and especially writing. Blogging is a fun hobby to have, regardless of the subject that you talk about. Blog about what you enjoy to talk about! Pursue your passion.

16. To Blog For Others

Not everyone blogs for others, but I like to talk about personal finance so that maybe I can help others as well.

For me, I have learned a lot (and I’m still learning) about Blogging, Extra Income, Personal Finance and everything else – all from other bloggers.

If other bloggers never talked about extra income, I probably would have never pushed myself to create side hustles.

Hopefully my blog posts help others and motivate others to be awesome with their finances as well. For example, I hope that all of my extra income posts help motivate others to create multiple streams of income.

I hope that others will want to pay off their high interest student loans. I hope that others want to become more in control when it comes to their finances.

17. Improves Your Writing Skills

Writing a blog post or two each week has an amazing effect on your writing skills. It’s like with all skills – the more you do it the better you get at it.

When go back now and look at some of the blog posts I wrote back when I started in 2015, I cringe – yet at the time I thought they were fine! This rather stark comparison makes it very clear to me just how much I’ve grown as a writer.

18. It’s a Form of Diary

Writing a diary is long outdated. However, blogging is essentially a collection of diary entries for the world to see.

Your blog can be your own secret place on the Internet; anonymous or not, there’s a comfort in the thoughts and helpful advice of Internet friends. There are no expectations with blogging, despite the majority of followers being strangers,

19. Blogging is Great Writing Experience: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Trying to get into freelance writing? Blogging is the best way to show your writing is current, and you’re writing regularly.

As soon as you’ve created your first post, you’re officially published on the Internet, and can promote yourself to companies far more easily by linking your blog than showing outdated articles.

20. Allows You To Say ‘No’ To What You Don’t Want To Do

In a traditional job, you pretty much have to do what you’re told to do. That includes doing aspects of your job you don’t particularly enjoy.

And it often means doing things you don’t consider to be in your job description! With blogging you get to pick and choose what you do, which opportunities you say yes to and which you turn down, which brands you work with and which you don’t, which blogging activities you do yourself and which you outsource or simply ignore.

It’s totally up to you and you can tailor make your blogging timetable to suit your personality, skills and preferences.

21. It Allows Development of Technological Skills

It is very difficult not to learn basic technological skills while blogging.

Whether it’s simply editing pictures and using templates, or changing the aesthetics of your blog by using basic coding, you’ll learn a lot of basic yet valuable information about the technological age in which we live.

Social media, SEO writing, picture formatting—these are all basic skills you can pick up within the first couple of weeks of starting your blog.

Back when I started my blog in 2015 I had ZERO tech skills – well OK I could send an email, write a Word document and buy stuff from the internet, but that was about the limit!

Contrary to popular belief you really don’t need to be a ‘techie’ to start a blog. Sure – there is a tech side to blogging, but it’s easy to learn the basics and little by little you pick up the rest… and there are always other bloggers out there who will help you out if you get stuck!

22. To Be a Part of an Awesome Community

I’ve made a lot of good friends through my blog. And I love receiving emails from readers and blog-friends that I’ve made.

Being able to connect and learn from others is one of the biggest positives of blogging.

23. Gives You A Creative Outlet

It’s a bit of a cliché, I’ll grant you – but it still holds true. Blogging gives you a creative outlet to share your thoughts, ideas and passions.

It’s rather like having your own magazine, where you are both the writer and the editor. You get to decide what goes into your online magazine AND you get to write all the articles too.

Your creativity and personality are not curbed by a boss or an editor – you have the creative freedom to write what you like.

24. Make A Difference With Your Blog

A blog can also give you an opportunity to truly make a difference. Whether that’s encouraging more people to be environmentally friendly, helping people lose weight or get out of debt, helping people learn a new skill or simply connect with like-minded people, blogging can be a tremendous force for good.

I am constantly bowled over by the emails I get from my readers who’ve taken time out of their day to tell me what a difference I’ve made to their life – whether that’s readers of my food blog telling me that I’ve helped them get out of a midweek meals rut and given them new-found confidence in the kitchen, or readers of Productive Blogging telling me that I’ve helped them start / grow / earn good money with their blogs – it makes it all worthwhile when you realise what a difference your blog is making to other people’s lives.

25. Teaches You To Be Self-Motivated: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Of course, the downside to not having a boss is that you have to be self-motivated in order to succeed.

But I can tell you there’s nothing quite so motivating as knowing that the hard work you put in will have a direct result on your bank balance!

Blogging teaches you valuable life lessons in self-motivation, goal setting, planning and managing your time well.

26. The Amazing Blogging Community

One of the HUGE advantages of starting a blog is the AMAZING blogging community. While technically, ‘other bloggers’ are your competition, in reality they are your colleagues, your friends, your support network and your cheerleaders.

Got a problem with your blog? The blogging community will help you out. Having a bad day? The blogging community will cheer you up.

Hit a blogging milestone that only other bloggers truly ‘get’? The blogging community will celebrate with you. Insomnia at 2am? There’s always some other blogger up at that time to chat to.

27. Attracts An Audience

Whether you have a business, a charity or a cause you feel passionate about, you need an audience.

By writing regular high-quality blog content and growing your search engine traffic and authority you will begin to attract the right people to your website – people who are interested in what you have to say, people who might be interested in buying your products or services, supporting your charity or joining you in your cause.

A blog gives you a forum to share your ideas, market your business and establish your credibility.

28. Incredible Personal Growth: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

I find it difficult to put into words the huge journey of self-development and personal growth you go on as a blogger.

It’s far more than learning new skills and the confidence you gain from launching and growing a successful business.

It fundamentally changes who you are as a person. It teaches you to be more patient, be more resilient, take risks, seize opportunities, say no to the wrong things and chase after the right things, spend money shrewdly, plan carefully, set goals, be resourceful, manage your time well, learn quickly and much more besides. I can say without a shadow of doubt that I am a better person because of blogging.

29. And finally, It Creates Opportunities.

The final and perhaps most important reason to start a blog: it creates endless opportunities for its owner, whether it be in the form of friendship, financial gain or self-growth, blogging certainly puts your personality out there to the world and gets you noticed in a very unique way.

So what are you waiting for? Go out there and create your own little space on the Internet—you won’t regret it.

Why did you start your blog? Why haven’t you started one?

Reasons To Not Start a Blog

As I mentioned earlier, there are also many pitfalls to starting and maintaining a blog. It’s not an instant road to success. And, if you’re not prepared, it can end up being more stressful than you anticipated.

Keep reading to learn more about the downsides of jumping into the blogging world.

1. There’s No Fixed Income

Even if you do manage to make a living from your blog, things will be hard.

Don’t go quitting your day job just yet, because your blog’s income will fluctuate wildly. Some months you might do well, while others you’ll be lucky to earn a small percentage.

I know many bloggers who have been doing really well over the years – well enough to work full time on their blogs. But even they hit months where their income is not what they expected.

It’s tough and it’s part of the blogging life. If you’re prepared for these fluctuations, it’s probably best you keep blogging as a Side Hustle.

2. It’s Really Hard Work

Running a blog isn’t a piece of cake. Successful bloggers may make it look easy, but we rarely see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Behind the great graphics and snappy writing, is a whole heap of stress, hustle and long working days.

For a blog to thrive, expect yourself to be working more hours than a standard day job. And those hours often extend into the evenings and weekends when you’d normally be relaxing.

Staying on the ball in blogging takes dedication, patience and commitment. It’s only through that, you can reap the rewards.

3. It’s Not a Solution To Make Money Fast

Despite many bloggers extolling the virtues of Blogging For Money, you won’t be making any fast. Blogging is not a route to making quick cash and if you’re starting a blog, for this reason, you’re doomed to fail.

As I mentioned earlier, it takes time, planning and hard work to even begin to consider making a living from your blog.

4. Overuse of Social Media Can Impact Mental Health

With blogging and the over-use of social media, come risks to your Mental Health. While the positive aspects of connecting with your audience via social platforms, can help with social anxiety, there are some downsides.

Many bloggers, including myself, have the habit of comparing ourselves to our blogging peers.

Often it’s something we can’t help but do. Yet, according to research, comparisons and negative interactions relate to higher levels of depression and anxiety.

That said, comparisons & negative interactions are not limited to blogging.

5. Blogging is a Lonely Pursuit

If you get into blogging as a way to enter the work-from-home marketplace, prepare yourself for a lonely ride.

Unless you rent a co-working space or spend your days in a coffee shop, working from home as a blogger can be incredibly lonely.

I’ve gone hours without saying a word to anyone (apart from myself) and if it becomes a regular thing, the effect of loneliness is real.

You start craving the human connection you had in your day job and even doubt your ability to keep going.

In times like this, reach out to your community and if you still struggle, it may not be the job for you.

6. The Blogging Landscape Constantly Changes

No amount of reading can prepare you for how quickly things change in the blogging world. Just as you learn one thing, you have to re-learn it all over again.

Google algorithms are a prime example. The gate posts are always moving, forcing you to change your approach over and over.

It’s not just Google either. Facebook and other social networks are always changing to reflect their business goals, which may not align with your own.

Then there’s GDPR which had everyone in a flurry.

If you’re serious about blogging, make sure you have the ability to keep up with the changes.

7. Long Hours Eat Into Family Time

Remember the hard work I said you have to put into your blog to make it successful? Well, those long hours in the early days can also eat into the time you’d normally spend resting and with your family.

Be prepared to take your work on vacation with you. During a family dinner, one eye will always be on your phone. At the park with your kids, the notifications will continue to disrupt.

It’s not until you develop systems to manage your workflow, that you’ll be able to enjoy some rest and family time.

The Truth About Starting a Blog: Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024

Starting a blog has its pros and pitfalls and no single size fits all.

When considering whether to start a blog or not, consider both sides of the argument and weigh them against your own personality, lifestyle and ambitions. See what fits you and be honest about what you really want out of the experience.

You’ll be the one doing the work and on the flip side, you’ll be the one reaping the rewards in the end.

Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog In 2024 Remember: Blogging is a marathon. Not a sprint.