The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021

The world needs YOU. Right now.

We currently find ourselves in a crazy time with COVID-19 – all that is meaning for us in the world we’re living in, the effect on our lives this coming year and the unforeseeable changes for many years to come. With so many people impacted, the economy damaged and a completely new set of circumstances and challenges we all have to face.

For many, 2020 was filled with fear, uncertainty and a sense of overwhelm and paralysis.

Right now, the world needs hope, positivity and practical solutions to new and emerging problems.

We need places where we can come together, and where community and belonging can happen. Particularly in this time where physically people are physically isolated, the world needs virtual spaces and safe spaces where they can find that belonging.

The world needs YOU.

And you need a blog to provide you the platform and home-base for your content and your community – to make the world a better place.

Why Should You Start a Blog?

1. Improve Other People’s Lives

One of the big benefits of blogging is the potential to make the world we live in a better place. And while not all blogs do this, many do in their own small way.

My blogs are about photography and blogging. They’re not topics that will make a major difference on a global scale. But I know that after publishing content every day for 15 years my blogs have made a difference to the lives of many.

A few years ago I shared a post here on ProBlogger about how a person came up to me recently at a conference and credited ProBlogger with saving their marriage. And others shared how they’d build significant businesses through coming across things we’d published.

Blogging can change your life as a blogger in many ways. But the experience is even more meaningful and rewarding when you realise it can be also used to inspire, educate, and give others a sense of belonging.

It also provides lots of opportunities to shine the light and lend your voice to other worthwhile causes. One of my own highlights from blogging came when I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania and see the work of an amazing organisation working with people with disabilities in that country.

Being able to use my blogs to give a voice to this worthy cause was an amazing opportunity.

In ProBlogger’s Ultimate Guide to Start a Blog Course, we go deep on the topic of motivation and uncovering your ‘WHY’. Having a clear and compelling purpose for your blogging will sustain you and your audience through the hard times.

2. Build Community

Isolation has really brought home to me the fact that we humans are social creatures. We need community to sustain us, just as a blog needs a community to sustain it. By building a community around your blog you are not only creating something beneficial for others, but for yourself too.

As I look back over the almost 20 years I’ve been blogging, many of the highlights have been about the people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interact with. Years of creating useful content, growing your brand, building an audience and establishing trust with that audience opens the door for many friendships, collaborations and other opportunities.

You never quite know where these relationships might lead you. Some may lead to financially rewarding opportunities. But more often than not it leads to lasting friendships, and a real sense of belonging in dynamic and supportive communities.

3. Make Money

A blog is your special place on the internet that you own and which you can build into a business. One of the reasons I’m giving for starting a blog is it can be financially profitable.

I’m not saying every blog will be profitable. But many bloggers have grown income streams from their blogging, both directly and indirectly.

I’m amazed at how blogs have provided an income for my family over the years. Not every blogger who sets out to make money blogging reaches a full-time level. But it is possible to build significant income from blogging.

Further Reading: Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging? [7 Things I Know About Making Money from Blogging]

As well as making money directly from your blog, you can also use the profile a blog can bring to promote your existing business or to sell your own services as a freelancer, coach, speaker, etc.

Blogs allow you to:

grow your profile
be found via search engines and social media
(most importantly) build your brand, credibility, authority and trust with potential clients

And I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen bloggers use their blog’s profile to land more traditional employment. (In these cases, their blog became their resume.)

Note: I explore reasons why businesses should start blogging in this podcast.

The other aspect of growing profit from a blog is it can also become an asset you can potentially sell at some point.

4. Self-Improvement and Personal Development

While blogging unexpectedly became the basis for my business, and has opened up amazing opportunities for me to earn an income, one of the biggest benefits to getting into this space is the same reason I got into it.

Blogging has given me a place to express myself.

Something very powerful happens when you get into the habit of ordering and writing down your thoughts, ideas, stories and opinions. People have been doing this for centuries in private diaries and journals. But to put some of these things into a public forum for others to interact with has been a very positive experience for me.

Having a place to express myself has given me many personal benefits. In researching and writing thousands of articles over the years I have:

Learned so much about the topics I write about
Identified, sharpened and deepened my ideas and opinions
Refined my voice
Grown my writing and communication skills
Built discipline
Found a creative outlet
Confronted fears and doubts and grown in confidence.

This list could go on. But the bottom line is I’m much better as a person for having a blog.

Should YOU start a blog in 2021?

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question for you. But I can say that, on a personal level, starting a blog was one of the most amazing things I’ve even done.

Blogging changed the trajectory of my life in many ways.

It helped me grow and develop on a personal level.
It helped me start and grow a business that has given our family income we never expected to have.
It opened opportunity for community, friendship and collaborations with wonderful people.
It gave me ways to do something meaningful that in small ways allows me to make a difference for others.

I hope this inspires you to join us in starting a blog in 2021. Reserve your spot in our FREE Ultimate Guide Start a Blog course that kicks off Friday 15 January.

The course guides you through 7 steps to starting and launching your blog – from getting clear on your blogging purpose to defining your niche; choosing your domain name and setting up hosting; all the way through to launching your blog and thinking about your social media and email marketing.

Throughout January I will be hosting Live check-ins and Q&A sessions for students of the course who are working on starting their blogs.

Then on Sunday 7 February we will help you launch your blog to the world with International Start a Blog Day – where we celebrate all of our students new blogs, giving them exposure to the broader ProBlogger audience and their first page views.