If you are here, that means you’re probably interested in blogging. If that is the case, allow me to use this post to tell you why you should start a blog in 2022 and how you could benefit from having one.
Then, at the end if you think blogging is a go for you, I will show you where you can learn how to set up a blog by yourself (or do it for others for chump change). Shall we?
What is a Blog?
A blog is basically a website that you can use to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal, sometimes letting readers comment on your posts.
Now you notice the word “journal” in the definition and might be wondering if it means you have to become a journalist to be a blogger? Well, the answer is No. In this case, journal can mean a platform or space where you will be writing.
Infact, blogging has evolved in recent years that you can do that via writing (old fashioned blogging), talking (podcasts), and even videos (vlogging). So you just need to pick what suits your style best.
Once you’ve published your blog, it’s out on the Internet for all to see, read, and adore. After that, your blog grows as you add new blog posts, with the older posts descending below in reverse chronological order, and as you get more readers reading, commenting, and subscribing to your blog.
Should you start a blog in 2022?
You might be wondering if blogging is for you. To answer that, let’s see why people start their own blogs—and why you should too.
In this digital age, there are probably a million reasons to start a blog! Many persons start a blog for all kinds of reasons.
A blog could serve as:
- a memoir or an open diary.
- an invitation to an event, e.g. your wedding.
- a means to share your ideas and opinions, contents or podcasts, etc.
- a means to unleash your potential and passion.
- a means for self-development.
- a means to try out new things.
- a way to sustain your alter ego.
- a means to build your brand.
- a means to promote your business and sell your products or offer services.
- a counseling unit.
- an educational platform.
- a hobby.
- It could serve as a source of living.
- or even a place where you post photos of your every morning bowel movements (please don’t!), etc.
Can you still start a blog in 2022?
The world of blogging has evolved with the internet. Today, the blogging community has grown with billions of people spending their time on the internet every day reading blogs; looking for information or entertainment.
There are practically millions of blogs out there; you might think you are too late to have one. But that is not the case.
There are billions of people, especially celebrities, on social media, did that stop you from joining?
Basically the main reason behind writing a book, blogging, or sharing your ideas is to entertain or inform, or both—which “drum roll” is the same reason why you talk to anybody.
There are billions of people in the world as well, should start stop you from talking?
No. Rather, look at it this way—there are more than enough people to go round and therefore always room for another new blog, and that also means yours!
And your potential audience is pretty big—remember the billions of people in the world currently using the Internet that we just talked about?
What does that mean for you? It means this is the best time for you to own a blog if you don’t already!
“If there is any right time to start a blog, it’s now!”
With a blog, you get a personal space to share your ideas, your beliefs, your stories and experiences, your knowledge and expertise, give advice, etc, as well as showcase your works, your books, your products or services, etc.
If you are wondering why they will people care enough to read your blog? Well, because what you have to say, what your point of view or thought is, what you want to share, how you want to share it, what is cooking up in your mind, regarding any topic or area of interests, ONLY YOU can say it just the way it is conceived or structured in your mind; unless you feel what you have to say doesn’t matter?
Nobody is going to simplify Pythagoreans’ theorem, talk about the kind of mistakes that most newbie graphic designers make, the best way to manage finances, how to take care of babies and kids, the kind of pitfalls in a budding relationship, what could go wrong when you fart loudly in front of your boss, etc, with the same manner, intensity, passion, mindset, or drive that you will do it.
Just as the TEDx tagline puts it, you have ideas worth sharing.
And there are so many people out there waiting and counting on you to start a blog, just so you can touch their lives—even in the littlest way imaginable. Hey! Some will even be willing to pay you or donate some money to you for this. No pressure.
Let people know what you are good at doing or teach them how to do it too by starting a blog!
So if you are Black or White, Introvert or Extrovert, Male or Female, Young or Old, Smart or Dumbass Not Smart, Professional or Unskilled, Entrepreneur, Employed or Unemployed, Stay at home Dad or Mom, etc; well, it doesn’t matter who you are—if you love to share information and ideas in the form of writing, illustrations, images, videos or audios, etc—congratulations, you can start a blog in 2022!
What should you blog about?
It goes without saying that if you want to start a blog in 2022, you should blog about something you can write (or talk) about in an interesting way—in other words, something you are vast or passionate about.
It can be politics, sports, travelling, stories, poetry, relationship, food, lifestyle, exercise, diseases, parenting, business, music, chemistry, physics, even guns, etc.
Don’t choose a topic you can’t sustain, or because you think it will do better or reach more people.
The topic needs to be something that interests you and you can easily dish out fresh new ideas or contents around it for a very long time.
And you get to write or say what you want in an informal tone, as you may have already noticed me doing all through this post.
You don’t need to be well-informed or an authority in the topic from start—in the long run, it will grow on you. (Infact, you can even hire a content writer to write for you).
This also means that you don’t have to wait to write a book! A lot of us want to write a book about something. I am actually an advocate for writing books.
But if you never seem to get started on writing your book, believe me; you really need to consider blogging! Starting a blog can help you prepare for writing your book.
2 out of 3 bloggers out there have published books through blogging!
Note: While you may be free to blog about whatever you want, try not to trample on someone’s reputation, use someone else’s identity, trademarks, or copyrighted materials without permission, share illicit contents or do anything illegal, etc. You don’t want to get into trouble with your blog.
Can you make money from blogging in 2022?
This is a very important question. If you decided to start a blog in 2022, what’s in it for you? Why would you spend money on something if you have nothing to gain, no ROI, right?
Did you know that you could build a sustainable and full-time business out of your blog?
There are a handful of people who make a full-time living blogging, and they work really hard to get there.
As of 2020, Jon Morrow makes at least $10,000 for each public speaking gig and makes up to $100,000 monthly thanks to the recognition and sales accrued over time from his blog smartblogger.com.
Pat Flynn, Harsh Agrawal, etc built businesses raking hundreds of thousands of dollars off their blogs.
Blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Moz, and Lifehacker power businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The likes of BellaNaija, Lindaikeji, Mankide of Naijaloaded, etc are full-time popular Nigerian bloggers running blogs making them 7-figure income on a monthly basis.
But they didn’t get there overnight. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes time and patience to build it to that level.
According to Jon, it might take 3-6 years to make enough money from blogging to quit your job.
Note that he said, “make enough money to quit your job”, not to make money.
That’s because you can start making money from your blog that very week of your launch! Just that it will take a while to make so much money to afford your dream lifestyle.
The secret to start making money from blogging from the onset is to utilize guest posting and email list building.
When you “guest post” on popular blogs, you gain some of their readers and “customers”—some of which will become your readers and customers almost immediately as well as subscribe to your email list.
You can then quickly build a sustainable and full-time business out of your blog by selling your own or other people’s (Affiliate Marketing) products such as books, courses, clothing line, soaps, swags, etc; and/or your services such as freelancing, events management, delivery services, maintenance, consultation, coaching, digital marketing, virtual assistant, etc to these newly found (or borrowed) audience and email subscribers.
What this means is that; apart from the recognition as somewhat of an authority on your niche (the topic you are blogging about), you can actually make money blogging in 2022 without having to wait for years!
But if you go into blogging for that reason alone, readers can sense that you are in it for the stats or the money and you might not make it that far.
You have to be subtle and patient about it. Focus on building credibility and trust with your blog content, and the money will flow.
SUMMARY
There are numerous reasons to own a blog in 2022. If you want to start blogging, blog about what you are most interested in. You get to do what you love and help people at the same time; you gain recognition, enough to offer paid goods and services through your blog, and also reap some cash benefits out of it. What could be better than that?
If you were to start a blog in 2022, it most likely won’t end up being a bad decision. In fact! It might even rank number one on your list of best decisions made in 2022.
Are you ready to start a blog? You can take our blogging course on LifeEarners.
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