I'm a big fan of blogging and am very bullish on the prospects of this form of communication, content and flow of information. Blogging isn't for everyone, however. I'll highlight the pros and cons of blogging to help you determine if it is the right fit for you.
8 Biggest Pros and Cons of Blogging: Is It Right For You?
I've been blogging for nearly 10 years now in a variety of capacities. I've done it for evergreen content sites in a number of different niches and passion projects.
In addition, I've used a blog to generate interest in a brand and product for e-commerce sites. Blogging is a tough (but fun) exercise for both individuals and businesses.
Table of Contents
What is Blogging? Why Should You Consider It?
A blog is a medium to help people interact and learn based on real-life experiences, data to either make a better buying decision or simply learn.
As a result, blogging clearly doesn't come in a single form. You can do it for fun, for a website to generate leads/sales or do it solely as a way to make money online.
It could end being a hybrid of all three… That is for you to decide.
In my opinion, everyone in the world should have a blog in some form. We already document much of our lives through social media. We are becoming more and more reliant on digital communication.
Not personal, in-person communication. A blog can be a medium for you to learn, grow and develop relationships with people around the world.
Also, as I've said before, blogging is a play on the Information Age.
Everyone is hungry for information at any given time and a blog can serve to fill that void. No matter the changing times.
By creating a blog, you can create an audience or fill the need of an audience that is seeking some form of information to be smarter or make a better decision.
These audiences that are seeking information are called niches. Here's a list of untapped niches that will help you brainstorm your next blogging move.
I believe everyone should have a blog.
Blogging Pros and Cons Analysis
Our blogging pros and cons analysis will look at the varying perspectives to help you decide if it right for you.
We will look at blogging from these following points of view:
- Income Potential
- Time Management
- Communication
- Flow of Information
- And Other Perspectives that I've Observed During My Blogging Journeys
Alright, you ready? Let's break it down.
See Related: Do You Need to Register Your Blog as a Business?
Pros of Blogging
Blogging can be a very attractive way to make money online. In fact, it's one of my personal favorites.
Let's get into some of my favorite pros and advantages of starting a blog.
Straightforward Income Opportunity
Blogging is pretty straightforward. We are not reinventing the wheel here. Nor are we creating the next Facebook or disruptive technology.
On the flip side, you must realize with straightforward income comes with some trust and character building.
To make money with blogging, you can simply start creating content and learn on the fly. Given the low startup costs, you can tinker with a lot of marketing tests to see what works and what doesn't work.
With blogging, your income is solely driven off your ability to promote your content and grow your brand audience.
See Related: Best Blogging Courses to Boost Your Brand
Low Startup Costs
One of my favorite components about starting a blog is that there are no barriers to entry. Anyone can start based on whatever idea they want.
You can create a brand image overnight that might be a little playful rather than serious.
Creating a blog called TheBlogGuru or something dry like that won't always win brand awards. Here are some tips on how to name your blog.
For the price to start a blog, I'm willing to take the risk. It's not going to break the bank to start a blog the right way. There are other businesses out there that take significant capital and significant risk.
With blogging, you can take a chance on yourself and run with it. The cost to start a blog is as low as $3.95/month with Bluehost if you want to do it right.
You can start a blog for free through various platforms. However, I suggest going the paid route. This will allow you to start a reputable brand image and trust right out the gate.
From there, you can migrate to larger hosting providers like Siteground.
Worldwide Audience
A blog can serve as a megaphone for your voice. It can bring you closer to people that you've never met before but love learning from your perspectives and stories.
Regardless of your views on the world, blogging has no borders. That's something to be incredibly proud of.
No matter what, blogging has no borders. Share on X
There's only a handful of businesses that I can think of that with a click of a button you can start selling to customers across the world. Only online businesses can really get it done in that short of an amount of time.
That's something I want to be a part of. We should never live within closed quarters between each other.
I used Leadpages to accelerate my audience building. They offer you a free trial to get started.
During that timeframe, I doubled my audience and I was off to the races. I never looked back as it helped take my blog to the next level.
Check out this chart of my growth over a 7-month timeframe.
That growth doesn't come easy though. You'll likely need to promote your product and do a few things to create your audience with success.
I wanted to show you exactly what I did in to grow my audience and increase my interaction with them.
So, I created a free audience building email course.
Free Audience Building Email Course
If you are considering launching a blog, you should join my free email course to help you build an audience and start making money with your website.
See Related: List of 35+ Niche Blog Topics
‘Stackable' Revenue Opportunity
I highlight in my guide on how to make money online, the various ways to make money with a blog or content site.
This is one of the most attractive components of blogging in my opinion.
By creating a loyal fanbase and audience, you can be pretty nimble in how you make money. Blogging has changed over the years. Dramatically.
There's been a number of different long-term vets in the blogosphere that have continued to innovate and adapt with the times.
Most of the common ways to make money with blogging are the following:
- Display advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
- Course or digital products
- eBooks
- Sponsored posts
- Advertorials
7 different ways to make money from one website?
That sounds like a great advantage for something that only costs $3.95/month to maintain on an ongoing basis…
You can get started with Bluehost for only $3.95/month (compared to $7.99/month) using my link.
They will even give you a free domain name!
Very High Return on Investment
This is a bit of a play on the low startup costs. If it doesn't take much for you to start, your returns can be astounding.
Depending on your revenue model or how you want to make money blogging, your return on investment can vary. It is also somewhat niche dependent.
For example, if you start blogging for a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that has a lifetime value (LTV) of a customer of $1,500. A single blog post could net you 100% returns.
Alternatively, if you operate in a niche that has little affiliate monetization methods, you might end up dependant on display advertising revenue. This could yield lower returns.
These are the different types of blogs that make money.
Cons of Blogging
Blogging doesn't come easy. Let's get into some cons and disadvantages of starting a blog.
Time Consuming
Blogging is a tough business. No matter if you are doing it for an e-commerce store, a SaaS product or even just to make money online.
In order to find success with your blog, you need to put in the work.
The work consists of the following:
- Interacting with other influencers
- Contacting/responding media to help them write articles
- New blog topic idea generation
- Writing posts! Your product is content and you must deliver an outstanding product
- Creating new forms of content (video, images, etc.)
- Managing social media (like creating the own version of your blog on Instagram)
- Routine keyword research
- Other very mundane tasks
You are going to need to put in significant work to achieve success.
There will be times where you question everything, but that's the time you need to start leveling up.
If you think you will get rich overnight with blogging, you already have the wrong mindset. Share on X
Requires Significant Patience
Blogging is not the source of money that will help you achieve overnight riches. Not at all.
To find success, you'll likely need to have the patience to see your traffic compound over time. The moment you get too giddy about blogging and start over-sharing/spamming is the moment that you get put in the penalty box.
Stay quiet with your blog, but be fierce. Develop a method of repetition with each blog post. It will go a long way in achieving success. And profits.
See Related: Guide from 0 to 100,000 Monthly Pageviews
Requires Significant Persistence
Persistence and patience are somewhat similar to each other. With blogging, you will need to be persistent as can be. It takes significant effort to connect with media outlets and other influential bloggers.
You may not get your time to shine for months or even a year. You can't stop or quit. You'll need to continue to stay active no matter what.
Even if that requires late nights and early mornings. Like any other product, you are creating something from scratch. Therefore, you need to build it as no one has ever seen before.
Don't be afraid to have a different perspective.
In fact, that's good! You can reach someone that hasn't yet been motivated by your perspective.
See Related: Are Blogs Still Relevant?
Blogging Tools to Help You Succeed
The good news is that with many of the cons, people have created tools and software to help you succeed and mitigate those cons. Some of my favorite blogging tools include the following.
I'm always okay with paying money for a resource that will save me time and allow me to work smarter.
Not harder.
KeySearch – Affordable Keyword Research
Keyword research can become one of those dreaded tasks. For me, I love it. It offers me the opportunity to generate new ideas and topics while learning as well. It's like a new ocean of opportunity every time I get started.
KeySearch is a product that I've long been a big fan of. It's a very affordable alternative to Ahrefs, the leader in keyword research, backlink checking, rank monitoring, etc.
With KeySearch you can get started for only $17/month if you use my link. Compare to $129/month for Ahrefs!
The KeySearch interface is simple, sleek and modern to help you make better blogging decisions based on the strength of your website. You can use the site explorer to monitor your rankings and other site's rankings.
Leadpages – Affordable Lead Generation
Leadpages is a bit on the opposite end of KeySearch. It's a lead generation tool to help you create landing pages, lead magnets, opt-ins and more.
I view Leadpages and KeySearch as very complementary to each other. You can use KeySearch to find low competition keywords and paid Leadpages with it to provide a product, guide or service to help the reader.
Read more about the platform in our Leadpages review.
With Leadpages, they are currently offering a free trial to test out the platform. Like I said above when I used the free trial period, I doubled my email list.
Leadpages unlocked a new chapter of growth for my blog.
Try Leadpages for free now and get started building your audience. It's one my favorite blogging resources out there.
See Related: How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform
Conclusion on Pros and Cons of Blogging
I believe that blogging is for everyone. Will everyone do it? Probably not.
The pros significantly outweigh the cons. The combination of minimal downside risk and some pretty good upside potential is very appealing to me.
If you told me there was an industry that you had a high likelihood of succeeding in, but it just required hard work. I'd take that gig 10/10 times.
There are plenty of opportunities that are completely out of your control. Blogging is not one of those. You can start making more money with blogging from the getgo.
Ever since I started blogging, it's been a life changing experience.
Here are a few things that drive me to continue to produce content at my highest level:
- Relationships that I've built,
- The things I've learned,
- The new perspectives it's brought me in life,
- And most importantly you.
If you haven't tried creating a blog yet, I highly suggest that you give it a shot. Alternatively, you can take my free email course or read my ongoing posts about how to make money to see how this stacks up with your schedule.
We all live busy lives, but only get one of them. Try something new.
What are you going to decide? To blog or not to blog?
Check out these top blogging resources and tools to help you build your brand.
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