Hey there,
Blogging is one of the best online business ideas and one of the effective ways to grow online.
Through blogging, you can build a brand and maintain a loyal audience on online community.
In this blog, I will explain exactly why start a blog in 2020.
I will emphasize on 13 specific reasons to start a blog in 2020.
Not only that, but we will also dig deep into learning some other details like what to know when starting a blog both before and after, and how to wire a blog that actually ranks in top positions of google.
There are 7 interesting facts and Faqs there to convince you that blogging is awesome, more of such information is coming up.
This is quite a long blog, so make sure to read the blog till the end and I guarantee you all your questions regarding blogging is answered.
Without further ado lets get started.
What is a blog? How does it work?
A blog is something more of an informational website that is organized in different forms but in a correct manner.
The content which gets published on these websites is typically represented in reverse chronological order all that means is that the latest content published on the site appears first which obviously means the older one is left behind.
Unlike a website, A blog is a frequently updated website where some of the information is static like some pages like about and contact, which barely gets updated, content in blogs is quite frequently get updated by the author.
Blogging works as a better way to and organizes content for the user.
You will learn about these terms as
- Posts.
- Categories.
- Tags.
- Menus.
These are different sections of a blog.
Posts refer to the separate pages of content that are published on the blog.
Categories, as we all know, are the section where the relevant content to a specific topic is organized and arranged than randomizing it which gets easier for the reader to separate posts on topic wise.
Tags basically refer to what the content is all about on the page.
Coming to menus, it is that you see in the header part of the website like in our case it is
home, ideas, improvement, inspiration, about us, contact us.
These menus are paths that lead to different areas of content published on the blog.
Essentially, people blog for several reasons, the reasons to start a blog are discussed in detail as you read most people blog in order to rank in search engines and acquire traffic.
Here the search engines are Google, bing, and yahoo.
You might think, why do we need traffic on our site in the first place?
Well, without traffic you can do nothing, let me tell you briefly what I mean by nothing.
No traffic means,
- No revenue.
- No authority in the niche.
- No online brand.
- No popularity.
- No growth.
In that case, we all need traffic as bad as anything.
Because we all are fighting each other to rank on Google, you must know what are the signals and factors Google uses in order to rank your site on the search results page and help you get traffic.
13 Reasons to start a blog in 2020.
Reasons are taken into perspective as a business in blogging.
Here is an overview of 13 specific reasons to start a blog in 2020, which you will learn in detail down the line.
- Financial gain.
- Improve communication skills.
- Build an Online brand and authority in a niche.
- Increase and expand your brand and business internationally
- Increase and expand networking of people.
- Share knowledge, expertise, and build a loyal audience.
- Live a life free of the boss.
- Learn other skills.
- Gain fame, name, and confidence.
- Every day is self-improvement.
- A more purposeful and meaningful life.
- A form of online diary and journal both safe and secure.
- It is free, you do not need to invest a penny to get started.
As you got a birds-eye view of what you will learn in this part, let’s dig right in with this 15 reason to start a blog in detail in this part.
Without further ado, come with me, let’s dive in.
1. Financial gain.
Hey, look.
In order to understand the potential of financial gain in blogging, let’s see how much the top bloggers are making a month.
The top bloggers I am referring to are bloggers whose revenue is higher than most other bloggers in the industry.
Every business growth and success is determined on their revenue right.
In that case, HuffPost is the top most blog in the industry.
Arianna Huffington founded HuffPost in 2005 on the niches of life and politics.
Check out the blog, here.
Monthly traffic to the blog is around 131 million people.
The earning of the blog is around 41,660,000 USD per month.
Her major source of earning is through sponsored advertising of brands and banners.
Not satisfied with this, let’s look at another example.
Another blogger called, Peter Rojas started Engadget in 2004 and in the name itself sounds like gadgets and reviews of electronic devices and appliances, etc.
Check out the blog, here.
Monthly traffic to the blog is around 51 million.
The earning of the blog is around 3950000 USD per month.
His major source of earning is through direct advertising.
Read for the list of top 10 bloggers and their earnings in detail, here.
According to glassdoor report, it says that average bloggers earn about 32,800 USD a month
It says average.
If you work hard, be in the right niche, and publish quality content consistently, you will be among the top bloggers for sure.
Here are 7 primary sources of income for bloggers in 2020.
- Google Adsense.
- Affiliate marketing.
- Sponsored posts.
- Consulting.
- Direct advertisement of brands.
- Selling courses and ebooks.
- Conference speaking.
I have explained this part in-depth because it is one of the primary reasons for me and for most of the people who start blogging.
Let’s move on to the second reason.
2. Improve Communication skills.
For every language that you have to master you need to follow these 4 steps.
- Reading.
- Writing.
- Listening.
- Speaking.
In blogging, whichever language you choose, say English, you have to write content that is obvious, and in order to write content you need to research for the topic and information, and reading and listening aspect is covered.
Rest is speaking, here blogging is essentially a conversation between you as a publisher speaking to your friend online.
Speaking aspect will also be covered as you write blogs and your communication skills in whichever language you choose to blog will get improved.
You will become a better communicator with publishing every other blog.
3. Build an online brand and authority in a niche.
The first and most important step in blogging is not content to revenue but a niche.
Niche is the topic on which you are writing articles.
For example, our blog’s niche is on Entrepreneurship which is about articles on business, how you can start it, some important details about every business, and how can you be a better person after every passing day in life/self-improvement, etc.
Our goal is to let encourage people to be entrepreneurs or for better solopreneurs and take charge of their life and be their own masters of life.
Similarly, if you blog with an intention and goal like that, you will definitely succeed today or tomorrow.
What I mean by succeeding here?
I mean, you will with time build an authority in your niche, as you grow with your audience, you will be the first person for others to approach you when they get doubts and queries regarding your industry.
When you become the authority in your niche, you will transform your blog into more of a brand than a blog.
You might ask.
What are the benefits of having an online brand?
Well, here are 5 specific benefits of having an online brand.
- Having an online brand clearly gives other brands and companies when they want to promote their product, they will prefer you/ more money simply.
- You will have a loyal audience who believe in you and your knowledge
- Increase your credibility.
- People will start knowing you, you will get recognition and fame.
- You will be an inspiration for many, your words carry more weight than others.
In that case, as you got to know, like your blog, you will become a brand in your industry and build authority in the field.
Here is an example of a brand in a niche like blogging and digital marketing.
4. Expand your business internationally.
If you have an existing business then you should definitely blog because blogging will help you expand your business.
When you write blogs that usually rank on google, you can get traffic from across the globe, not just your locality or your area.
With the traffic you get, it will get converted into leads and sales for your business.
As per facts, when a customer wants to buy the product online, they will first search for it online to see its reviews and know about the product in detail before making a purchase.
Hence, it is no brainer to understand why 57% of marketers have been saying that they have gained customers through blogging.
Another fact is that people prefer in knowing more about the brands through reading blog posts rather through the promotion of brands through ads.
Hence, having a blog and online presence is no harm but a full gain for your business.
For more information, read why having an online presence is important for brands.
5. Help in better networking of people.
Yes, you heard it right, blogging will indirectly help you build a network of professional and likeminded individuals.
How, let me explain.
Blogging is about wiring content which ranks on search engines and in order to rank in search engines you will have to create backlinks which is one of the top 3 most important ranking factors,
You can create backlinks from various methods, such as.
- Guest posting.
- Broken link building.
- Haro.
- Link roundups.
- In-depth content and infographics.
Among these guest posting is the most popular method of acquiring links to your site, in that case, it is about approaching individual bloggers who are having authority in your niche and make relations with them and posting content on their site.
The other way you can and will build a network of people is through seminars and conferences of bloggers and community.
You can meet with your competitions or your industry in these seminars and conferences and build a professional network around which will help you out in your life.
Not just that, as your blog you can develop a strong network and good yet loyal audience through comments on your blog posts and email subscribers who essentially subscribe to your blog to get notified for every post published on your blog.
There are many ways that you can make good connections with people in the blogging community.
You see the most important part of any business or in life is not money but a network of people.
Money can be lost in few mistakes if not managed well and can be earned back which depends but if you have a network of people around with you even if your business is collapsed, you can lift it off from nothing with your connections and network of people.
6. Share knowledge and expertise.
If you have good knowledge in any particular field like blogging or digital marketing or which every field you like, you can start blogging about it.
In case if you do not know how to select the best topic for blogging, I strongly recommend you to read my blog on identifying the best topic for blogging.
Coming back to point, as I said you should definitely start a blog on that topic if you have good knowledge and expertise in that field or subject.
By practicing right SEO practices and techniques, you will rank on google and surely build the brand of yourself or your site as well as authority in that niche, it is about a matter of time and persistence.
7. Live a life free of the boss.
Blogging is essentially giving information that people are looking for on search engines.
In this process, you will earn money for helping others.
I have mentioned earlier what are the means of earning money in blogging.
Meanwhile, you are your own boss, you do not have to go to the office every morning and be part of the rat race.
There is no one above you, where you should be depending on him for money and he will be guiding you, nothing like that.
You do not work under someone.
You work independently on your website helping people giving them information which is what Google wants as well [customer satisfaction].
Because you are working online, you do not need to go anywhere else to work, you can work downline in a coffee shop or right from your home.
Because you are working on your website, not for others’ business as an employee, you have complete authority and flexibility as of when you want to work and when not to.
To summarise,
- You have complete control of your finances.
- You have complete control of your time.
- You have complete control of your life.
- You have complete control of your career.
If you are interested in knowing more about such business ideas where you can live a life free of the boss.
8. Learn other skills.
Yes, other than writing skills, you will also learn some other important skills through blogging.
Let me state the skills here.
- Marketing skills.
- Copywriting skills.
- Designing skills like infographics.
- Content writing skills.
- Seo.
- Technical skills.
- Networking skills.
- Communication skills.
- Photos and video editing skills.
These are a few skills you will eventually learn as you enter in the blogging arena.
If you are wondering how you will learn photo and video editing skills, then let me tell you, if you blog for a while, you should better know that video content speaks better and louder than text.
There is an increase in demand for video content, in that case, Making videos with the knowledge you have in the blogging field is not a bad idea.
In fact, video content actually drives 50 times more organic search traffic than plain texts.
That is why around 19% of the bloggers in the world are including videos in their typical blog posts.
Talking about images and designing, it is no wonder that infographics get more links and more traffic and engagement of audience than just stock images.
Let’s move forward.
9. Gain fame, popularity, and confidence.
Yes, it is no surprise that as you continue to blog on any topic lets say in this case marketing techniques.
When you blog on this niche for an extended period of time with quality content and practicing the right SEO techniques and practices, you will become the authority in that niche.
Some other benefits of having authority in the niche are gaining fame and popularity.
People will start approaching [ your site ] you regarding their issues relevant to your niche.
You see it is quite obvious that when you have authority and better audience engagement on your site, you will become brand and that helps you increase your fame and popularity.
Meanwhile, as you continue blogging, you will gain confidence as well.
If you have a problem with stating your opinion on the table, sharing your ideas and thoughts with others, blogging is one of the best ways to solve the issue.
Even I had a similar problem like I was quite afraid of talking freely and openly in public or in front of people but because I worked on it consistently, I resolved the issue.
You see, look at blogging something as more of a conversation happening between you and a stranger or a friend of yours where you are explaining to him how you can solve his issue.
I personally follow this principle and I excelled in improving my confidence skills and audience engagement.
You see, when your blog grows into transforming as a brand, you will be the center of attention in your industry and people will start recognizing you and you will gain confidence in you as well, at that time, your words will create more influence than being ignored.
10. Every day is self-improvement.
Look.
After every morning you wake up, when you start blogging, you will have to research topics, do thorough research about that topic in detail before you start writing even a single word about it.
You see, every other day when you are there to publish a blog, you will have to learn a lot of things about that topic before writing which basically means you are actually learning new things and increasing your knowledge base on that topic and becoming a better individual than yesterday.
You are improving your self and continuously learning new things and gaining information all the time which is one of the most important aspects of self-improvement.
In my personal experience, I have gained more knowledge and information about the niche of business and online community and self-improvement than before starting blogging.
Look the famous line in 7 habits of highly effective people is sharpen the saw.
This basically means you need to continuously sharpen your mind and train it to function correctly and nothing is better than a continuous learning process.
It all adds up to the last thing which is in blogging, every other day is a new day and a fresh new opportunity to learn something new and increase your knowledge and improve your skills.
Other than gaining knowledge, you will develop more other important qualities such as.
- Discipline.
- Self-motivation.
- Time management and accountability.
- Improve and enhance your creativity.
- Confront and overcome your fears.
Lets move to next reason to start a blog.
11. More meaningful and purposeful life.
You will be motivated and inspired, can be proud of things you have created.
Building a blog in itself is a matter of big pride.
Whichever type of content you publish, be it of informative or entertaining or inspirational, you are actually fulfilling the needs and wants of others and helping them for their good one way or the other.
Every blog you are writing, it is not a piece of content you are publishing rather a conversation you have started between you and the reader and you should really take a lot of pride in when the content you published really helps others solve their problems.
Let me show you some situations, there are many ways that you can help the general audience, you can turn the mindset of a depressive guy who might want to commit suicide by sharing some inspirational stories and quotes with them, you can share your life experiential lessons with them, you can do many other things to help your audience.
When you start thinking in this way around, at some point in time, you will end up meeting with your customers who actually pay the gratitude towards you and your work and that is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.
You can only experience it in reality, it may sound small in reading or just knowing it.
Check out the article which I am about to share with you on how 2 girls aged 9 and 13 helped make big changes in school conditions.
12. A form of an online diary that is both more secure and safe.
You see though today, blogging for most people perceived as a business and even I too look at it that way around but it is an online diary for some people.
Those who find it easy to carry a laptop and blog about the things they experienced in the journey or in their daily life than a notebook, blogging is a secret place on the internet for many people where they can write stuff of their experiences of their daily life.
Generally speaking, people do not want strangers or other people to read their daily life things and experiences and secrets about them and the security become a major problem for them in that case blogging is going to be the solution than a notebook.
You can put a password to your blog account which only you can access which we do not have the comfort with a traditional notebook, you either have to carry it with yourself all the time or place it at a very secret place that no one can find.
Well in every aspect and area of life and work there are both positives and negatives and we don’t want you to just remember positive and play safe here.
13. It’s free to get started.
Here is I believe the most important reason you should definitely start a blog is IT IS FREE.
Yes, you heard me right.
If you want to give it a try like I did during the COVID pandemic in April month 2020, I learned about blogging and gave it a try on Blogger only.
You know among the freest blogging platforms which offer you a free blogging platform, Blogger is the best because it is an official google service made for bloggers.
Similar to Youtube, Gmail, etc services, Blogger is also a free service google introduced back on 23 August in 1999.
Because it is of official google product and it is totally free to get started in blogging, i think you should definitely give it a try.
It hardly take 10 minutes to signup and setup the blog.
All you need is a Google Gmail account to sign up in a blogger, nothing other than a Gmail account is asked.
If you do not like google or its products, there are other similar free blogging platforms with their own restrictions and limitations but really good for you to just get started as a total beginner in blogging.
Here is an overview of the list of free blogging platforms you can try.
- Blogger.
- Wix.
- Constant contact.
- WordPress.com.
- Tumblr.
- Joomla.
- Yola.
- Hub pages.
- Contentful
- Medium.
- Weebly.
- Read, Detailed guide on free blogging sites in 2020.
- Read, Ultimate guide on how to start a blog on blogger and WordPress in 2020,
7 interesting facts about blogging.
Here are 7 interesting facts related to blogging, check it out.
- Each and every month, close to 409 million people see more than 20 billion pages.
- More than 70 million blog posts are published by WordPress users in the world in a month.
- Companies that blog actually attract 97% of more links and double the email traffic to their websites.
- Blogs have been considered the most trusted source of information online.
- 77% of internet users read blogs regularly.
- 57% of marketers said that they actually have gained customers through blogging.
- Blogging is considered a top content marketing priority for 53% of marketers.
Source: Optimonster.
What to know when starting a blog.
Here are some important things you need to know before and after getting started in blogging.
Before starting a blog.
- It is not a piece of cake to run a blog, it takes a lot of time, patience, and effort to make it successful.
- You won’t make money instantly.
- You should choose a niche and blogging platform, you can work on blogger if you just want to try if blogging is your field but if you are serious in blogging you must shift to WordPress.
- Get familiar with stuff like SEO and networking techniques.
- Don’t copy the style of writing, be yourself not your favorite blogger.
- Plan at least 15 posts you want to blog on early.
- It is a competitive field but nothing can beat epic content, hence focus on epic and unique content.
After starting a blog.
- Search and follow your mentor in SEO, practice what they are recommending you to practice like in the SEO field, brain dean founder at backlinko, is one of the best marketing and SEO blogs and one of his SEO strategies is what I am also following like skyscraper technique.
- Focus on keyword competition and search volume, not CPC while doing keyword research initially because you need to focus on directing traffic on your site initially and earning later.
- Make sure your site loads fast.
- Make sure that your backups are there.
- The theme of your site must be captivating but simple and easy to navigate through to different parts of the blog.
- Don’t buy backlinks as Google might penalize you if you do so, To read more, click here.
- Make sure you published content on your blog consistently.
- Focus more on quality and less on quantity, do not publish blogs because you have to publish a blog, publish a blog if you think that blog adds value to your readers and is there anything unique that your readers can share with their family and friends.
- Start gathering email lists of your audience, learn more about why email lists are important.
How to write a blog?
If you have come so far, I think you already have a blog, in this part, I will explain you in short how you can write an excellent blog post every time along with some proven techniques.
Before writing a blog post you must first and foremost consider who is your audience.
That gets me to the first important point.
1. Understand your audience.
You might ask but why you need to understand your audience?
Well,
You need to understand your audience too because when you are focusing on a keyword, you should also keep in mind the intention of the user who is typing the keyword in the search engine.
Simply, Search intent is what I mean.
For example, you have a keyword called chicken curry recipe.
It is irrelevant to write a blog on tips on how to find the best chick for your chicken curry where the blog should be on creating a tasty chicken curry recipe.
You know what I mean here.
Now as you have learned the user intention behind searching for that keyword in google.
2. Analyze the existing top pages ranking for that keyword in google.
Here you should know your competition in order to outrank him/them.
You need to analyze the top 10 ranking pages in the google for that keyword and analyze the pages on the factors like.
- Word count of those blogs.
- How many visual elements are used like images, screenshots, and infographics?
- How deep the content is.
Take an average of the top 10 ranking pages.
You can use this tool to know how many words are there in the blog post.
Insert the URL of the top pages and add and take average of the word count.
As you get the average word count, for example, you got 3000 words.
3, Create something even better, in-depth, interesting, and attractive.
Here in this part as you got the average word count of the top 10 ranking pages for that keyword, you must write [ i believe ] at least 2000 words more to the average word count.
You see, the longer the content is, the better it is for both you and google and the user because.
When the content is long it clearly means that the blog is in-depth, you can cover everything that’s relevant to that keyword in a single blog and as a matter of fact, even google prefers ranking the post which covers everything that is RELEVANT to that keyword in a single blog to the user.
You should use LSI keywords, what are these by the way then?
Lsi keywords are the phrases google sees that are relevant to that topic.
The question arises here, how can I find them?
Search for your target keyword in google.
Scroll down to the bottom of the result , you will see a list of 10 keywords under the section of RELATED SEARCHES.
Our keyword was the chicken curry recipe we have taken earlier.
these are the LSI keywords for that term.
Screenshot.
This entire process is called the skyscraper technique which is invented by brian dean founder of backlinko and I can say, my favorite SEO expert.
The technique basically means that find the product service which is popular in the market which you are fighting on, create something even better than that and promote that product, service.
Very simple right.
You can use APP formula which is A-Agree, P-Promise, P-Preview.
- Read more about the APP formula.
- Read more about how to write attractive titles.
Faqs.
1. What should I blog about?
Ans: You can blog about many things, if I want to list them, then here are few.
- Food.
- Travel in the budget.
- SEO.
- Self-improvement.
- Biographies.
- Motivational stories.
- Tips to earn money online.
- How to handle finances.
- Entrepreneurship.
- How to blog.
There are many niches you can work on.
2. Is it worth starting a blog in 2020?
Ans: It depends, you see, blogging is a profession not meant for everyone.
If it was for everyone then everyone would have done it, you know.
I would say, what is your hidden motive and intention behind starting a blog and how passionate are you on learning and improving yourself which determines whether you should start a blog in 2020 or not.
If you think blogging is a competitive field and not starting a blog for that reason, there is no doubt about it but it should not be an excuse that you did not start blogging, let me know which fields on earth now are not competitive, almost everything right.
As a matter of fact around 77% of people on the internet actually read blogs regularly and blog posts are considered the 5th most trusted source of information.
You can make a good amount of money but more than that your intention matters most.
If you are starting a blog to just earn money fast, you might have to suffer in the first year on the blog.
3. What has replaced blogging?
Ans: The question is slightly wrong and you are misinterpreting the thing.
Nothing has replaced blogging and nothing will.
Blogging has evolved slightly from its beginning.
You see, blogging initially was used as an online diary but now as a source of information.
Now due to the rise of social media and video trends.
Due to the increase in demand for videos, blogging is slightly evolved and videos are more on-trend other than blogs.
If you think blogs are totally replaced by something, then why are facts not speaking the same.
- Companies who are blogging are actually getting 97% more links to their site.
- 77% of internet users still read blogs online.
- 57% of marketers say that they have gained customers more by blogging.
- 53% of marketers say that in content marketing, blogging is their top priority.
Read more statistics related to blogging, here.
4. Why do most blogs fail?
Ans: Among the most reasons, some common reasons why most bloggers fail is because of these reasons.
- Not creating engaging and unique content.
- Not getting backlinks.
- Not converting traffic into subscribers and customers.
- Not taking blogging seriously or not taking blogging as a business.
- You are like everyone and lost in the sea.
5. How to start a blog for free?
Ans: I have given a list of free blogging platforms in the 13th reason to start a blog in 2020, check that out more clearly, I believe, google/s official service launched back in 1999 called Blogger is legit, I think so.
Some positives about google’s blogger blogging platform are.
- Better security, because the blogs are hosted on google so it is near to impossible to hack the site.
- Free SSL certificate.
- Fast site loading speed.
- Fine themes/ can install custom themes.
- Good and easy to understand interface.
These are some of the pros which give in my perspective a slightly better chance to go with blogger to start blogging for free.
Talking about how to start, search blogger in Google, sign up in blogger with your Gmail account, and complete the setup process which hardly takes 5 minutes.
6. Who is the highest paid blogger?
Ans: Arriana Huffington founder of huff post is the highest paid blogger in the world, in fact, she earns around 500 million USD per year.
To learn more in detail of the success secrets of the top paid bloggers, click here.
Ending remarks.
There you go, I have answered all the queries regarding reasons to start a blog,
Let me know which reason you like and whether you are going to start a blog or not.
If you are interested in reading our similar articles, you can read 13 interesting benefits of graphic design.
Please share the blog if you find it even 1% helpful, you know sharing is caring.
Do let me know your views of the blog in the comments section below.
Until next time, Peace out.
