Happy New Year! For 2013, I’ve vowed to recommit to this blog – for a number of reasons.
If you work in marketing or sales, you probably already know that blogging helps bring traffic to your website. But I was recently reminded of the intangible reasons.
Earlier this month, I started teaching newswriting to a great group of young journalism students at Arizona State University. One of our earliest class discussions focused on where people get their news. Answers included evening television, online news outlets, newspapers (yes, some people still want to hold a paper!), magazines, Twitter and blogs.
I asked the 20 students in my class who among them writes a blog. Only a handful do. And I was forced to admit that I’m a terrible (read: infrequent) blogger, but when we discussed the benefits of blogging, it made me remember there is more to it than generating website traffic. Here are a few of the benefits you might reap from blogging (whether you choose to share your site with the world or not):
1. Better writing. As I tell students all the time, there are two surefire ways to become a better writer. One is to read a lot. The other is to write a lot. If you’re writing regularly, you’ll improve.
2. Faster writing. In the early days of a blog, writing might feel like a chore. But the more you do it, the faster you’ll become. You’ll also start to realize that this format lends itself to less formal writing – so you can relax and just focus on getting the words out.
3. Story idea generation. Whether you’re a journalist, a PR practitioner or a corporate marketer, your job includes storytelling. Blogging forces you to come up with ideas constantly, and with time, you’ll become better (and faster!) at story idea generation.
So, if you’re like me and wanting to focus more on blogging this year, keep these benefits in mind to motivate you. And feel free to share other benefits you experience in the comments below!