Benefits of Blogging in Business and as a Hobby

Blogging is so popular right now, along with vlogging. Most of the time, when someone searches for something on Google, they'll end up reading an article, either short or long. Thus can you name some benefits of blogging?

If not, don't worry. This is exactly why you are here: to find out how does blogging help you or your business.

I think we can quickly come up with a first and general benefit of blogging: finding information. As a reader, not as a blogger, this is mainly the only way you can get answers to your questions (besides forums like Quora and Reddit).

Blog articles are an important source of content because they contain a lot of information. Whether you're looking for tips for programming, or how to start a travel blog, or which is the best way to cope with stress, every information is out there, written in all kinds of blog posts.

Now let's look on the other side, from the content writer's point of view. This is what this article will focus on because finding information isn't possible if marketers or simply blog writers aren't convinced about blogging.

Right in this article, you'll find three types of blogging:

1. As a Hobby;
2. In the B2B domain;
3. In the B2C domain.

Even if the root-benefit of all the blogging types is that you basically help people find information, each one has its own benefits.

I'm sure that you've all crossed that period in your life (when you were a teenager – thus I think I'm referring more to millennials born in the '90s) when all of your friends had a blog. They were writing poems, various artistic creations, or simply their feelings transposed into mini-novels. I'm definitely sure many of my friends (mostly girls) did this back in around 2008.

I recall that they weren't using their real names, as they were trying to keep low. Social media was definitely not so popular, which didn't help at promoting themselves. Still, I don't think they wanted to let everyone know that they have a blog where they write stuff. They only shared it with trustworthy people.

Thus it was definitely a pure hobby. A hobby that carries on even today, after many years. But why do people blog? What's in it for them and for you? What benefits of blogging as a hobby are there? Oh, and yes, some of the following also work as benefits of blogging as a student.

First of all, you can express yourself exactly the way you want to. If you have the need to create a story, you can simply do that. Some days will make you want to talk about a certain subject you dealt with during the day.

Everybody wants to read some opinions about something, at some point. Maybe you'll be the one that will entertain somebody with your short stories (that can either be real, from your own personal life or fictive).

Still, you don't have to share your blog with the world if you don't want to. Publish your articles and let them be discovered organically, or keep them in drafts and publish them when you'll feel like it. It's definitely up to you.

As I've said above in the first part of the article, blog articles can really give a hand to people who are looking for information, entertainment or advice.

Maybe someone will stumble upon your article where you've described an awkward but funny day. You may have just improved that person's mood.

Also, if you've experienced something (such as a good/bad restaurant, a situation in life, some actions that you took etc.), and if you've written about this in an article, then maybe is someone's lucky day.

Even simpler, if you're promoting your blog among your acquaintances with whom you don't speak that often, maybe they'll find something useful such as an advice.

Whatever you write about, remember that you'll always be helpful for others.

If your goal in life is to become a writer (of books or novels) or a content writer, then starting to blog as a hobby can be really helpful.

Along with reading every day, writing constantly can help your mind get used to creating. Besides, your vocabulary will improve and you'll be able to find your own writing style.

You'll never know when some opportunity of helping a friend with a blog article will come. Or when you'll find a job that requires some writing skills.

If you think that you'll enjoy blogging, then start right away and test yourself. Find the subjects you can write about the easiest and find those that don't appeal to you. Give yourself (or ask someone) a challenge: write about a totally new subject and see how well/bad you do it.

Discovering your creativity in writing is definitely something that can be done with constant exercise. Just like when you were a kid and you were supposed to do homework, in order to continuously exercise what you were learning in school.

And the more “homework” you'll do, the better it'll be for yourself and your mind.

Blogging requires some kind of knowledge about various things. Therefore, if you will want to start a blog, you'll have to search for example How to Start a Blog?

Keeping a blog implies that you'll have to know a bit about blogging platforms, a bit about how to edit and use images in your blog, and how to promote your blog on social media (only if you want to).

All of these require some skills, some searching, and reading. Maybe you don't know at first how to modify your WordPress theme. Or maybe you didn't even know what is WordPress. Promoting a blog article on social media can be (at times) a bit confusing, especially for someone who didn't have anything to do with this kind of situation.

Also, you may need to know a bit of HTML and/or CSS, in order to modify a bit your blog or your blog articles. Being at the beginning of the blogging journey, doing stuff on your own can be demanding and frustrating. But it can also turn out to be very useful – it saves you a bit of a time and money, AND you'll be able to add things to your resume.

In these days, there is a high demand for people with various online technology skills. So why not improve yours by having something on your own, and modifying it the way you want.

The sooner you start learning g things by doing them, the better it will be for you.

And do not forget that if you at some point will want to actually blog more than a hobby, to basically start to walk on the path of making money through blogging, you have to know some online marketing skills. If you didn't go to a college where they marketing and online marketing, you'll most likely have to learn it by yourself.

There are tons of online courses that teach you about digital marketing (SEO, emailing, social media engagement and ads etc.), so like it or not, new things will come your way.

Most of the bloggers these days are writing in English. It's a universal language that everybody should know, at least a bit, in order to be able to communicate, of course.

Trying to write a blog in a language that you don't know that well can be hard in the beginning. But for the long term, it's a great idea. It's also about constantly exercising in order to master a thing.

If you want to become a content writer at some point, you'll have to be aware that you may have to know another language. So blogging as a hobby in a different language than your native one, writing at least 1/3 of your articles in that language, will be extremely helpful.

And you'll know better a language not only by writing your articles but also by responding to comments and by engaging on social media.

These are the main benefits of blogging as a hobby. Remember that especially because you are basically a beginner at blogging you'll not only teach your readers about what you know, about your feelings and opinions; you'll also have to learn things like what to include in a blog article, how to find the best title, where to share it online and many others.

Working in the B2B field means that if you want to make your clients trust you and to rank well in Google, too, you'll have to write some interesting content.

Think of Cisco: they offer services like wireless components, firewalls, security – all that Internet stuff  How can they “entertain” their clients? Certainly not by simply presenting their portfolio: “look, we have this and we to that”.

They have to offer their audience some interesting content, in order to make it follow them on a constant basis.

How do they do this? One of the main content areas is their blog where they offer information, advice, explanations and other similar things.

This kind of content is one of the reasons why people follow brands on social media they want to know what a particular brand has to say, what advice they give and how do they help them.

So let's see what are the benefits of blogging for a business.

Let's take some of the information above and detail it a bit more. Why do people love all this content? It is simply because this is the current generation.

We love to read information, love to find things on our own, we love to read reviews. Basically, we are some kind of detectives. Of course, there are exceptions and other generations among us, but let's not focus on that now.

Before we buy a product, we like to be informed. And if a company has to offer some content aka some blogs articles that are interesting enough for us to read, that's great. We will for sure consider that company when it'll come to buy a specific product.

Thus “B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads.”

Regarding traffic, it is obvious that if you are offering a single service, for example, you won't have the possibility to have a full website with content. You will be limited in terms of writing, because how much can you talk and present a single service? That is why the best solution is to have a blog, where you can write various content that can relate to your service and your field.

“Websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages”

Smaller businesses will definitely benefit from blogging, as this could and should be their only way to create valuable content for their clients. This is how they convert visitors into leads.

“Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads”

B2B clients are persons themselves, after all. If your company offers services for other companies, that doesn't mean the companies are brought to life and they do their own research. No, there is a purchasing specialist that does this, therefore he has the power. He is the one that starts the buying process by searching on Google for reviews, opinions, information and other details. Most of the time, by the time he actually calls a sales representative, he has a decision in his mind.

He has the power to identify the solutions and come up with a short list of B2B vendors. That is when he's calling, basically at the end of the decision process. He needs the offer from you and from other 1 or 2 other vendors. This is the moment when your sales representative should bring his/her best to make the client buy from you.

But what about the whole process BEFORE this? How do you end up to be in his short list? Blogging is one of the ways, because:

• as I've said, you'll have more pages indexed, thus you'll appear more often;
• you'll offer valuable content, that will help the client consider you. He will know that you are a professional, because you are putting hard work into offering him ideas, advice and information.

Therefore, another benefit of blogging in the B2B is that you'll be able to attract more visitors/prospects.

Do you have to invest money into this? No. Just some time. Thus you'll building brand awareness will be at a very low cost (I know, time is the most important resource, but your boss might think differently)

You know that on social media you have to share 80% content and 20% selling. How would you be able to do this? Blogging, of course. Hence another benefit of blogging. Yes, you'd have to share some other people's content, too; but having long articles that contain lots of information will help you in the “engaging on social media” part. And maybe other B2Bs will take your articles and share them, for their part of “sharing other content”. More traffic and brand awareness? For sure.

Let's not forget about the fact that a blog article is way easier to create than an ebook, videos or other forms of content. I'm not saying that you shouldn't create these kinds of content as well; I'm just saying that you won't be forced to invest a lot of time constantly, in creating ebooks for example. They should be the cherry on top.

One interesting benefit is that you'll be able to write different kinds of articles. Let me explain. Even though you are focusing on the main subject (that is what your company does), you can still write articles targeted to specific members of the decision-making team (of the company to which you want to sell).

Let's say you have a company that focuses on helping other companies buy everything they need from you (office supplies, cleaning products, work clothes etc.). Sometimes your clients will have different departments for each of your categories. Lucky you-you will reach each of the decision making persons through blog articles that are focused on products from each category.

B2C is kind of similar to B2B, but you are selling to the final client; even though in the B2B field you were directing your message to persons as well, creating personas and all, in B2C you still have to “talk” directly to people, but they are not conditioned by nothing than their own minds (and wallets). They are buying for themselves, not for the company. Hence you can reach them using emotions more than you could in B2B.

But they are still people, and you still have to offer them interesting content in order to follow your brand on all social media platforms.

One of the benefits of blogging in B2C is that you'll help your SEO strategies. It is similar to what I've said above in the B2B part: you'll have more indexed pages and your website can rank higher.

You shouldn't rely only on your e-commence site to do the job. Your products can be properly described and all, but why not also have some articles that help people decide to buy your products? Add another point to your SEO strategies and start writing well written blog articles.

Your clients are super important. You should definitely pay attention at all times: watch their acquisition behavior, see what they comment on, check out the things they like and constantly ask for their feedback.

Most of the times you'll be able to come up with some blog articles that will either:

• focus on things your customers like – these articles are great for reaching similar audiences to your existing ones. Just research the things your current customers search about you and focus on that. I'm sure there will be more people that will search for the same thing, hence your audience will increase;
• help them find the best solution to their problem – if your customers struggle with some of your products (they don't know how to use it properly, for example), then take a step forward and come up with articles that will make their life easier (and yours, too).
• give creative ideas on how to use common products in different ways – if your type of products permit you, then brainstorm some ideas to find out other ways in which they can be used. These articles are fun, getting to the emotional part of your customers; they will make them become loyal and maybe they'll recommend you to their friends and acquaintances.

Sometimes you can't rely on your employees to give more details to your customers than what it's already on the product's box. It would be perfect to be this way, and you should definitely encourage it, but what if you use the blog just to give your customers a bit more?

This is another benefit of blogging in B2C: to be better than your competitors by giving your customers more than they expect. For example, if you are selling laptops, you can simply write some blog articles about what games can be played on what laptops, which laptops are better for a specific thing, and so on.

This will make your customers know that you invest time in making their shopping experience (and life) better and easier. They'll know that they can trust you in offering them valuable advice and information, which will make them loyal, of course.

All in all, whatever you'll be using blogging for, you'll definitely won't run out of benefits. It's one of those things that will certainly bring you only good things. Because I've never heard anyone say that blogging is wrong or it brings you nothing. So don't sit around and start your blog right now.

If you are not sure on what to write about, we can help you with our list. And if you are willing to find more about blogging, we can help you with that, too.

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