Lifestyle: The Ten Benefits of Blogging. Part 2: Benefits 6-10

Hi everyone, welcome back to the second part of The Ten Benefits of Blogging. I hope you've enjoyed the first part. Please find benefits 6-10 in today's post and how your hobby can help you to develop valuable skills and abilities.

|6. Programming|

Some blogs use self-hosting services, which means you'll need some Html knowledge as well as CSS (layout and web design). This special knowledge is advanced in comparison to an average IT literate person and is very time consuming. I've been a bit reserved about it, because it really needs discipline and patience to learn programming language. Give it a try and decide for yourself what works best for your blog. Advantages are that you can customise your webdesign and are independent in how to use your web space.

|7. Creativity|

Bloggers are confronted daily with the question what to write. Fashion blogs do not only cover OOTDs nor do beauty blogs review products all the time. A mixture of reviews, features, opinion pieces and life experience give a blog its character and make it fascinating. Feel free to cover campaigns, post a picture story, try a new category or write a blog related poem – there are no limits in playing around with different text forms and showing off your imagination. Your creative content reflects that you can think out of the box, be independent and try to be unusual which makes you stand out from the crowd.

|8. Consistency & Determination|

Blogging is time consuming, but the more you invest, the more it reflects your passion and hard work. Posting regularly shows consistency and your commitment to your hobby. You have a passion for it. People, blogging for years, have developed the skill to work consistently on long term projects and have therefore a long attention span. This ability is very precious. It is the key to gain special knowledge about a certain topic which makes the fine difference between a professional and an amateur.

|9. Networking|

As mentioned in point 5, Publishing & PR, blogging lives from sharing content with others and the interaction with the audience with your post. You can’t expect others to read your blog, if you’re not willing to invest some time to engage with your audience, meaning other bloggers. It is a two way system of give and take.

The best way to get active with other bloggers are blogger chats on social media. Ask each other questions to get the conversation started and soon you’ll see that others can give some valuable feedback on your blog. Take part in blogger meetings to make friends and new followers. Follow each other, make compliments, interact as much as possible. People are more likely to acknowledge your blog when you put yourself out there as much as possible and show interest in their blogs, too. Also reply to comments on your blog and leave comments on other blogs, which keeps the blogger-sphere alive. Networking is not only all about promoting your blog, you will learn how to speak to others easily and develop relationships, which can turn into friendships.

|10. Statistics & SEO|

Let’s be honest: everyone looks at their stats and analysis the key words that directed visitors from google to your blog. Everyone does it and it is very, very important that you do it, too. I know search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google Analytics are very dry and analytical, but this data analysis will help you to understand, which key words where listed in google and showed up when people searched online and generated traffic to your blog.

You should do a monthly analysis of your data, including key words listed in google that increased your blog's visibility, as well as other websites that lead visitors to your blog. My first blog Lunch Break Adventures was hosted by wordpress which had a very clear overview of the mentioned sections to look at. It provided detailed information on daily/weekly/monthly uniques and views. This data needs to be analysed regularly to gain insights into your audience. You will understand which key words were researched and lead to your blog, so you can use this knowledge and adjust key words and tags in up-coming posts. Tip: always tag your images with key words as google lists them as well. I also found Social Bro a helpful tool to understand my social media follower and the best times to tweet.

I hope you find blogging as inspiring and beneficial as me. Let me know if you have anything to add and leave me a comment. I'm looking forward hearing from you.

Till next time,

xx CAZ xx

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