Web Content AdviceWeb, Content, Advice
ServiceScape Incorporated
ServiceScape Incorporated
2013

So You Want to Start a Blog?

If you are interested in creating a blog, there are many different types of blogs from which to choose. In general, a blog allows non-profit organizations, businesses, individuals, and groups of individuals such as a band or a roller derby team, to engage in a connection of some kind with the public. There are many purposes for creating and maintaining a blog for both personal and professional reasons. Here are some popular and exciting things to consider when creating a blog of your own about something you love.

Business blogging and consumer trust

A company blog with interesting and reliable information relevant to the business encourages customer loyalty and return visits to the company site. For example, large and small businesses are now maintaining blogs. The blog has become so common that it is expected of almost any business. Businesses utilize blogging to provide a space to share information about the products the companies sell and to demonstrate the company's reliable judgment in all aspects of the business.

A friendly, concise, interesting and useful blog can be a powerful tool with which to attract consumers. A blog allows a business to develop a voice and personality to enhance the brand by sharing useful information about the things in which patrons of the particular business would be interested. A sleek and polished graphic layout of a business blog will give the company presenting it a modern, connected and hip image.

If an online art supply store has a blog reviewing and rating the quality of new products artists can use, then artists will want to visit that site for information. Once at the site, the artists are very likely to purchase supplies from the same site on which they find valuable information about the products they use because there has been a level of trust and familiarity built through the voice of the blog.

Personal blogs and social media-based relationships

Blogs are also a social media platform that allows people anywhere in the world with a computer and an internet connection to get to know each other and form deep and lasting friendships. Sometimes, blogging for the purpose of socializing leads to love and marriage.

Employers are likely to search for a potential new hire online in order to gain an idea of who the person is and if their personality will fit in with the company culture. It is not a bad idea to set up a personal blog and profile on a social media site that would look appealing to a potential employer.

Depending on what industry you are in, you could use your blog to show off skills that are listed on your résumé. You could also use your personal blog to demonstrate that you are a pleasant person to have around. Employers often hire the applicant they liked the most rather than the one who has the highest qualifications. When people are confined in an office or a place of business together, it is important that they get along.

If you would like to keep an online diary or journal about your daily life as a student, a parent, a professional or an astrology buff, the beautiful thing about blogging is that you can do this. Somewhere else in the world, you will find other people who love to share funny, sad, joyful or unusual stories about what happened to them that day. All you have to do in order to begin an online journal is find a blog hosting site, sign up and begin developing your online personality. This kind of blog would likely list the blogger's favorite books, movies, music, artists and sports teams, as well as more personal information like gender, occupation, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation, educational background and favorite quotations.

A well-done blog about a city or neighborhood can become an impetus through which tourism, industry, and the general self-esteem of the residents of the city or neighborhood can be lifted to a place of great pride. A true lover of local music, art, food and theater could blog about all of the different events that he or she attends and review or rate the experiences and the events. This will give people living in the area, as well as people visiting the area, a place to look for fun things to do, and that can help boost the local economy.

If you love to do something creative and artistic as a hobby, a blog will give you a great place to showcase your work when you are done with a painting or a sculpture. In a fast-paced world of multi-tasking and a highly competitive job markets, coming home after a long day of dealing with stressful things at your place of employment can even be bad for your health. Keeping a blog of all of the photographs or drawings that you do will be a wonderful way to release the tensions of a fast-paced, modern life. Updating the blog has an exciting element to it that will be a motivation to continue working in your chosen medium, whether it is watercolor, chalk pastel, charcoal, enhanced photography, painting or sculpting.

If you feel passionately about a social issue such as improving the public education system in your city, state or nationwide, a blog is going to allow you to express thoughts and concerns in the community. Through blogging and reading the comments and posts of other bloggers, you will find a significant amount of information and support for the cause you are supporting.

Whatever it is that you are interested in sharing with the world of the interweb, begin your blogging adventures today, and the only requirement is that you enjoy it.