The internet is a beautiful resource that you can use in a myriad of ways to make your life better. Apart from being a medium and platform where you can benefit yourself socially, the World Wide Web can change your life both professionally and financially. One of the ways to achieve that is through blogging. If you’re considering starting a blog, there are more than just a few possible reasons you want to do so. Plus starting a blog is never a huddle these days, considering the numerous resources and tools to help you do so. You can choose to create one by yourself or even hire someone to do it for you. Let’s look at how to start your own blog, some reasons you may want to do so, as well as the pros, and cons that come with creating your own blog versus hiring someone for the job.

Some Solid Reasons to Start a Blog

There are more than a few reasons one may want to start a blog. This ranges from making money to finding a new hobby, making new friends, telling your story and much more. Here are some 5 solid reasons you’d want to start blogging.

• To Share Your Story: Everyone likes to be heard and perhaps, especially when they think they have an important message they need to pass across or share. A blog can serve as a means or platform through which you share your thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and experiences to a particular audience. If you provide value through your blog content, you will attract an audience. This can strengthen your social, professional foundation while potentially inspiring others as you continue establishing authority.

• To Make New Friends and Acquaintances: A blog can also be a platform through which you meet new people and establish new professional ties. With this, new opportunities for self-growth and the growth of others can be created.

• To Boost Your Professional Image: A blog can also act as a resume or a professional profile. It can help create a good professional image, especially when you provide content that portrays you as an expert on certain subjects.

• Financial Gain: Despite being viewed by many as a hobby, blogging can also serve as a business platform. When your blog attracts a huge number of readers or reaches a large audience, opportunities to monetize arise. You can advertise and market stuff through your blog. You can even promote your business or professional skills.

• More Exposure to Learning: Blogging will also make you more intellectually organized. Especially if you write content for yourself, it creates opportunities for further learning in certain areas with time as you move forward.

How to Start Your Own Blog: Important Steps

Starting a blog is not as hard as it used to be in the past. You only need to find a niche of topics you are interested in or the ones you think a target audience will love/benefit from. From there, you need to choose a blogging platform such as WordPress, come up with a domain name that is relevant and easy to remember and then choose a hosting option. From there, you will want to choose an interesting theme, and modify your blog site to give it a desirable look and feel. Next, you will need to discover and install the necessary plugins required for smooth operation of your blog. This is when you start producing and uploading content for your audience and you’re all set.

• Step 1: – Platform, Domain Name, and Hosting

• Step 2: – Choose a theme

• Step 3: – Create a compelling look and feel

• Step 4: – Plugins

• Step 5: – Content

Creating Your Own Blog vs. Hiring Someone

As mentioned earlier, you can choose to create your own blog or hire a website designer for the job. Doing the former over the later comes with certain advantages as well as disadvantages. These include the following.

Advantages

• DIY is cheaper

• Your blog will have a personal touch

• Free or low-cost hosting is available

• Free ready-made themes are available

Disadvantages

• Takes more time than hiring someone for the project

• Custom functionality may be a problem

Conclusion

As you can see, starting your own blog isn’t as difficult as many perceive it to be. Plus the reasons you may want to do so are numerous. Even though your website may look more professional and perhaps have some additional features than a DIY website it will cost you more. So why not start your own blog today?