Category Archives: Blogging

15 Advantages of Blogging

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After blogging for almost a year and a half, I’ve come to realize that I’m not the same person I was when I started blogging.

It took a while, kind of like the way a blacksmith in a past times would hammer away at a sword blade, continuing to harden the metal, while also shaping the edge of the blade.  Blogging has had that type of effect on me!  I can tell that blogging has sharpened both my communications skills and my writing abilities!

Back when I started, word were difficult to write down, and I guess you could say that I was a writing weakling.  While writing still isn’t my strong point, I have strengthened this ability, much like a weight lifter would improve their muscle tone by lifting weight day in and day out.

Advantages of Blogging

  1. I can now write better than I have ever before,
  2. My sense of organization have improved vastly!
  3. My patience for the tedious tasks done has also improved vastly.
  4. I’m not afraid to seem pretentious by using words that are not typically used day in and day out.
  5. I’m no longer intimidated by others that have similar but much larger blogs.
  6. I learn something new almost daily (and sometimes it seems like hourly).
  7. I’ve met some great people online, and learned to respect other intelligent opinions too.
  8. I make enough money to support my blogging hobby.
  9. I’ve become a more trusting and friendlier person.
  10. I’ve learned to have more patience with my family and especially my son and daughter.
  11. I’ve learned to work for fun
  12. I’ve learned to get along with less sleep (as I type this at 1:00am)
  13. I’m able to explore the hidden, creative side of my being, especially with experiments!
  14. I’ve learned not to be so defensive, and let attacks on me roll off of my shoulders.
  15. I’ve learned to create pillar posts (like my recent Disney World post).

As long as you don’t let blogging run your life, the above advantage of blogging are great!

-MR

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Pros and Cons of Blogging

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My Pros and Cons of Blogging

After a full year of blogging, I’m going to discuss the Pros and Cons of Blogging!

Let me start out by saying that blogging isn’t as easy as some bloggers make it sound (at least not for me).  I figure I spend at least 3 to 4 hours a day, everyday, blogging and doing blog supporting activities.

Blogging Pros…

  • The major reason I blog is for the freedom of expression of thought!  It’s a liberating experience!
  • Blogging allows a tighter focus and re-enforcement of the learning about your blogging topic.  For me, this is personal finance.  It allows me to hone in on the topics and obtain a mastery that would be difficult to accomplish without blogging about it.
  • Free books on your blogging focus.  I get to re-enforce me learning by authors asking for a review of their book.  So far, all the books I’ve read have been pretty good!
  • A great unrealized side benefit was the continual improvement in my writing and communication skills.  I’ve improved both my writing and speaking skills via blogging.
  • I continually learn things everyday by researching topic, and by reading other great blog sites.
  • There is a little bit of money to be made.

Blogging Cons…

  • There is a little bit of money to be made.  (no, this isn’t a misprint of the last Pros sentence above).  While there is a little bit of money to be made, for the amount of hours worked, its way below minimum wage rates (at least so far).  For my first 5 months I only made $5.00.  That said, I really didn’t know what I was going for at least 3 of those months!
  • Without support from other bloggers, the first few months can be lean and discouraging.  I almost gave up a few times.  If it wasn’t for another beginning blogger that would visit and comment daily at my site, I would have quit a long time ago.  Unfortunately, her non-blogging world got busy and she had to quit blogging herself.
  • There is also a never-ending amount to learn!
  • The stress from outages!  I continually check my site to make sure it is up and working.  This is a necessity because various networking parts external to my site can and do go down!
  • The addicting “statistics monitoring” activities.  This may drive you crazy if you are a constant stats checker!!!
  • Writer’s block!  Quite a few times I would be blogging at 2:00, 3:00 and sometimes 4:00am…  Augghhh!
  • Reading other blogs and commenting.  This is a mixed blessing!  I was an avid reader of blog sites before blogging for many years.  But after you jump in the blogging world, you discover that there are a ton of quality blogs that should be read and commented on daily.  This is a huge chuck of my blog supporting activities, even if I do love it!
  • Prioritizing blogging and family.  I’ve seen some great blog sites have to be shut down because of family turmoil!

So there you have it, for me the Pros (while less in number) outweight the Cons

If you are a blogger, how has your experience been?  Do you have any additional details on the activities of blogging?

-MR