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The Benefits of Having a Personal Blog
Today’s question comes from Dorothy K from DorothyK.com.au and she asks: “I'd love you to talk about the "usefulness" or "value" of personal blogging. There has been a bit of a discussion about this lately on a few blogs.”

I think this question is relevant to a lot of people. I frequently get this question when I am doing Q & A sessions at conferences.



People want to know if they should have a personal blog as well as a niche focused blog. I actually think having a personal blog is a good thing.

Just about everyone at one point or another should have a personal blog, and I’m going to give you 15 reasons why.
In Today’s Episode 15 Reasons Why You Should Consider Having a Personal Blog

to express yourself
to record your life
to see if you like blogging
to get used to the idea of putting yourself ‘out there’
to learn the technology of blogging
to experiment with different topics and test different ideas/niches
to try different writing styles/voices
to improve your writing
to improve your thinking
to help you connect with others
to help you develop habits/structure
to see life differently - when you’re writing regularly about your life you become more intentional and are more on the look out for the things that happen to you that you could write about. Small precious moments don’t pass you by as much.
to find what is meaningful to you… and to do something meaningful to others
to serve, inspire, give hope, teach, give hope, encourage others - a blog need not stick to a topic to do this. Your personal blogging can be useful without it necessary solving a problem, teaching something, staying on topic.
to let off steam, talk about passions, record what you’re learning on topics that don’t relate to your ‘professional blog’

So why do people say personal blogs are not recommended? Why is the common advice to go for a niche.

The main reason many people recommend niche blogs over personal blogs is because personal blogs are more difficult to monetise. Still, it is possible to blog about a range of topics relevant to a group of people and monetise around that.

Most bloggers, I know, who make a living from a personal blog do a couple of things:

they either write for a demographic - a range of topics appealing to a certain group
they tend to end up specialising in or becoming known for a certain topic - and morph into a niche blog

Lastly - there are no rules of blogging. Your blog might evolve. You might start out for self expression and end up doing something else (or vice versa).

Blog On!
Further Resources on 15 Reasons Why You Should Consider Having a Personal Blog

I Went for a Drive and I Thought About Stuff
Say Something Completely Useless
Blogging for Bloggings Sake
A Useless Blog Post
Thomas v Chuggington: being a very useful engine isn’t enough
My Blog’s Purpose
Heather Armstrong Dooce





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Hi there, it's Darren from ProBlogger and I'd like to welcome you to episode 109, where today I'm going to talk to you about personal blogging. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/109.

This week I had a great question come in from Dorothy K from dorothyk.com.au who wrote, "I love you to talk about the usefulness or value of personal blogging. There has been a bit of a discussion about this lately on a few blogs and I'd love your thoughts."

It is a great question. If you were in Australia, you may have seen some of the discussion. I think most of the discussion that Dorothy is talking about relates to some of the Australian bloggers who are writing about this particular topic.  I think it may even be started by Stacey Roberts ...