Helping others

Whether you are helping others by doing product reviews, how to articles, or just a generally good read it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are helping others. Many times in ways you never even considered.

Possible secondary stream of income

Plenty of bloggers use their blogs to make money. I’m not too proud to admit I make a few dollars here with a combination of referals like Adsense (
), Text Link Ads, Host Gator and others. I also make a few cents here and there via Google Adsense.

My income is pathetic however when compared to some of the big names out there. Take a look at sites like Shoemoney, or Problogger to get an idea of the kind of income that is possible via blogging. Those are a couple of the “superstars” of blogging so their results aren’t the norm, but plenty of people are making a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each month via their blogs alone.

Increased recognition for your brand or name

The more people see your name (or your businesses name) out there the more your product will be recognized. Beyond that, and perhaps more importantly is the fact that you are able to become an expert at your field or product. Are you a literally an expert? Maybe, maybe not. The point is that by having a blog, and writing halfway intelligent articles about whatever subject you choose you are marketing yourself as a professional. People respect professionals. People do business with professionals. People buy from professionals. Whether your selling affiliate products or your own home made peanut butter it doesn’t matter. It only matters that by increasing your name recognition via a blog you are going to increase sales. If you work hard

Skill development

We’d all like to believe we have all the necessary skills naturally, but in reality we don’t. I doubt that most of us have any of the skills naturally. Blogging helps us to develop various skills.

• We have to market our blogs to the proper audience depending on its purpose
• We have to promote our blogs on a continual basis to our existing audience or they’ll quickly move on
• We have to continually improve our writing skills both in general and specifically for blog audiences
• We have to learn how to take criticism both good intentioned and bad
• We have to learn time management
• We have to learn quality control and self-analysis

I could go on and on recalling to mind what skills blogging develops, but is there really any need? The point is that it does develop them.

Being a part of a growing community

I’ve heard all kinds of crazy numbers regarding the number of blogs started each day. I’m sure you’ve heard them too. I won’t quote any because I don’t know how true they are, but what I do know is that there are a lot. From the largest to the smallest blog each one is part of a community known as the blogosphere. It’s a community that is always growing, always learning, always willing to lend a hand to other members. It is a community with global appeal. Everything from American popular culture to Myanmar to the environment to book reviews to… well basically anything and everything is blogged about. As you might suspect there are plenty of people to read those blogs as well.

Certainly there are more, but I want you guys to tell us what you feel they are and how they benefit bloggers. Write a comment or if you’re feeling brave (or bored) write an article on your own blog about one or two of them.