Last semester, prior to the threat of Coronavirus, I began my semester abroad at the University of Limerick. At the start of 2020, I was excited for new beginnings—the biggest one being living in Ireland for the next four months. A few weeks into my new semester in Limerick, Ireland, I decided to do something else that I had had in the back of my mind for a while—I started a blog.
For about a year before attending the University of Limerick, I began keeping up with more bloggers, podcasters and content creators. I became fascinated with the idea of having my own platform and voice; a space where I could tune in with anyone who cared to read along on my journey. Being in Ireland, I found that the timing was nearly perfect. Starting a blog during my European adventures was a brilliant extra touch to making the semester abroad great. As you have probably guessed by now, though, the semester ended early in March and I returned back home to the United States as the threat of the Coronavirus grew larger.
However, once back at home, I decided to keep my blog up. It’s safe to say that there have been many newsworthy topics to cover and I have had no trouble creating content. If anything, I have struggled to narrow down what I should talk about each week. I got even more serious about blogging back home, as I had so much time at home to work on it. If you’re on the edge of blogging, I want to inspire you with the reasons why I really got serious.
1. A Personal Brand
For me, a blog was a way to develop a personal brand. I love telling pieces of my story and daily adventures. Along with this, I get to share my views on political and social issues, my travel adventures, and helpful personal development, productivity, and organization tips that I find. This blog gets to be fully me. Many experts suggest narrowing down to a specific niche when blogging and one day, I probably will. Right now, though, it feels good to explore all of the things which comprise who I am and put it out into the world in this lifestyle blog.
2. A Resume Booster
Although blogging is fun, it can also be pretty stressful at times. What if your website crashes? Or your article had a really bad typo in it? Falling behind but really need to get an article out by Tuesday to maintain your schedule? What if you slack on promoting one article and feel like it wasn’t worth writing? These are all things that stress out bloggers. There are multiple moving parts like social media promotion, website design, content creation, search engine optimization and more. However, having experience in handling all of these interactions on your own shows to any future employer that you’re a pretty awesome multitasker and very independent. Blogging is not for someone who only likes to do one thing at a time. There are a million things going on at all times. But if you like diversity in your daily routine, that could be a great thing!
3. Boosting My Skill Set
As previously stated, blogging takes a lot of learning and multitasking. There are a million new things that you will find yourself Google searching and taking online classes for. Yet, from this process you will emerge a significantly more educated and experienced person.
4. A Future Source of Income
Although I have technically begun the process of monetizing my blog, I quite honestly have not dedicated significant time to it since the start of the semester due to the hustle of everyday student life. However, many bloggers make as many as 7 figures per year off of their blogs using: sponsorships, affiliate products, digital products and physical products. I’m honestly not raking in any cash right now, but I do know that this is a potential future source of income for me when I get more serious about the content that I am putting forth on it. Some of the most financially successful bloggers you can learn about are Natalie Bacon and Alex & Lauren at Create & Go.
If this article excited you and you want to make your own blog as well, I highly suggest that you check out these 7 Awesome Resources for Beginner Bloggers. I used all of the things which I have mentioned here and took classes with Create & Go in order to kick off my blogging journey and I am so happy for the routes it has provided for me.