The Benefits of Blogging for Business

If you have a business, a hobby, a craft, an art, or anything you are passionate about, you might wonder what the benefits of blogging for business or for pleasure are. I mean, if you are like most people, you work hard and you probably find it difficult to make time to write. Plus, you might not be a writer!

You do not have to be a literary genius to have a blog for your business.

On the contrary: blogs are more casual; readers want to feel like you are talking with them, kind of like having a personal conversation, and not at them. So leave out all the jargon and relax.

And relaxing is what I’m talking about. Writing is a natural therapy, a form of meditation, and a medium by which anyone – business owner, worker, student, teacher, CEO, mother, father, child, artist, etc. – can hone a craft and get jumbled thoughts in order.

As a mom, wife, writer, blogger, editor, college professor, and a tutor of Chinese students (online), I have many jobs. My schedule can be crazy, but I try to carve out time each day to write. It helps me because when I feel inspired to write something, I realize that THAT is what is important – at least to me. Isn’t that what life is all about, after all? How are we supposed to know what we find important if we don’t stop for a minute and think about it? That’s what blogs are all about!

Today, I was up at 4:30 AM and taught my online lessons all morning. I teach for a company called 51 Talk, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to get to know another culture. If you’re a teacher and want to work from home, you might check out this link.  It is my personal referral link, so if you are truly interested in a part or full-time job with them, you can also email me and I can help you in the process.

Anyway, after I teach in my mornings, I start thinking about my writing and editing. If I don’t have an editing deadline for the day, I immediately start brainstorming for more blog ideas. But it’s hard sometimes at the house. You know—it’s nice to just GET OUT of the house for a while.

Today, I chose to search for a peaceful place to write and to have lunch. I had the craving to be by water, so I Googled “Lake Restaurants” and came across a place that was about ten minutes from my home. I am so lucky to live by a lake!

 

As I sat gazing out at the boats and feeling the breeze in my hair, the thoughts started to flow. I am always so grateful for that sense of “flow” because once it starts, the ideas just keep coming, like a snowball getting bigger and bigger and bigger as it careens down the mountain. But that image elicits a kind of sense of chaos, doesn’t it? Well, when you are in a peaceful place (and it can be anywhere you decide you want it that day–just listen to your intuition) it is much easier to focus on the key concepts you want to get across and put the other ideas aside for later. Today, as I wrote by the lake, I was able to focus on one idea for quite a while, and that felt good. (Incidentally, this blog post is not the one that I was working on today; rather, the one today was a more difficult piece for a publication. I needed to concentrate, focus, and give it my full attention.)

And that is why blogging can be good for your business. Even if you don’t want to make money from a blog, writing about your business experiences can be therapeutic in that through the written word, you become more cognizant of your inner motivations. When this internal metacognition starts to happen, you can better reflect on your business and use past failures or setbacks as a bridge to success and growth. The same premise stands for any hobby, craft, passion, or activity.

If you want to learn more about something, write about it and inform others. Teaching is the best way to learn.

We all know that websites can make your business money. We all understand that powerful content attracts more traffic to your site. But what many people don’t realize is that the process of writing itself can do just as much for your business as marketing and meetings and planning and hard work. So why not give it a try?

And as long as we’re talking about making time for yourself, if all you do is enjoy the flowers in your front yard for a few seconds, that’s great! Take ten seconds to stop and look and appreciate what you’ve got. 🙂

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about your job, your writing process, and your blogging journey. Please comment and I promise to respond. 🙂