why you need to blog

I recently gave a speech about the benefits of blogging. To reap these rewards, there’s a pre-requisite, which is a willful determination to write 5 times a week. If you meet that one criterion, all these other benefits will emerge organically.

First, you’ll improve your writing, and develop the ability to quickly organize a jumbled set of thoughts into a brief, coherent point. More importantly, since you’ll constantly be thinking about what to write next, you’ll be far more likely to hold on to the ideas you have every day. Whereas before a great idea might quickly be forgotten, now you’ll take more care to write things down and flesh them out fully.

You’ll eventually develop pride in what you’re writing, which will make you want people to read it, and you’ll begin to wonder how to make that happen. You’ll discover blog directories & communities, cross-posting & commenting on other blogs, social media marketing & search engine optimization. In this process, you’ll teach yourself web marketing.

Though you may begin with a standard blog template, you’ll quickly notice that other bloggers have better looking blogs, and you’ll wish to develop your own style and template. You’ll teach yourself the basic elements of design, HTML, typeography and most importantly you’ll develop visual taste that will guide you in every aspect of your life.

Finally, aside from developing all these useful, modern skills, and having hundreds of snippets of what could be called ‘the best of yourself’, you’ll have established a powerful personal web identity and brand – you’ll be ‘Googleable’ and when people find you, they’ll like what they find.

What are you waiting for? You could start a blog in 5 minutes. If not now, then when?