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Top 7 Reasons to Start a New Blog (and When You Shouldn’t)

We will look at reasons to start a new blog and why you shouldn’t in a way that will help you consider all the pros and cons. We will also talk about how to decide what to blog about and how to start a blog,

Reasons to Start a Blog

The following reasons can be powerful motivators as you start a new blog.

1. Educate

Do you love to share information you care about? Helping others understand things that may sound complicated or unattainable at first? Do you enjoy processing information you learn by writing it down? Then, you will love blogging!

How to Educate With Your Blog

As you learn through experience and research, you will share your perspective and the key takeaway points that you learn. Make sure to provide references when applicable. Don’t just state your beliefs and opinions as if they were facts. Research and deepen your knowledge of the topics you want to blog about. You don’t need to be a trained professional in most niches, but in some cases, you may want to get some kind of certification to gain more authority (like in finances, fitness, or health coaching, for example).

2. Generate Another Income Stream

Blogging is one of the most reliable ways to make money online in my opinion. I started in the world of online businesses through network marketing. In network marketing, you are often told: “The only way to fail, is to give up.” Although, I did give up, obviously, building a passive income through network marketing is complex. You rely on customers ordering consistently and business builders building their businesses. On top of that, you need to be constantly reaching out to people and growing your network. It’s like you are starting from scratch every day. Your blog, on the other hand, is 100% built on YOUR content and your efforts. You don’t have to rely on anyone else and your efforts compound over time.

After burning through my immediate network in network marketing, I was never able to grow beyond $100 a month in income. My blogs, on the other hand, are growing my income consistently. I am not different than you. If I can do it, so can you.

How to Make Money With a Blog

To make money with a blog, you need to pick one or two main products to promote. It could be physical or digital products that offer affiliate commissions. Then, think about the problems these products solve and the types of questions that people who have these problems ask. Do some keyword research on Google around those questions and write blog posts about them. Read How to Find Affiliate Programs In Your Niche in 3 Simple Steps and How to Come Up With Blogging Ideas for 2022 for further help with monetization and your content strategy.

Furthermore, don’t forget to watch my 30-minute Niche Site Workshop.

3. Increase Brand Awareness

If you have some sort of online business (YouTube, a podcast, or Instagram for example), blogging will increase your brand awareness as you expand your online presence. Moreover, you can use my keyword research strategy to bring more traffic to your brand on top of increasing your authority. There is something about having a website that gives you more credibility.

4. Inspire

I love to inspire people. As you educate, you can also inspire. You can inspire people to keep growing, learning, and researching for themselves. Helping others become the best version of themselves can be extremely rewarding.

How to Inspire

You can write posts about consistency and how to work towards your goals in whatever your niche is. Other types of posts that do well are collections of quotes or memes.

5. As a Hobby

I teach how to make money blogging. That’s my purpose and I think that’s what most of you are trying to accomplish. However, there are some of you who would like to blog as a hobby. Blogging brings a sense of community when you start getting read and meeting other bloggers in your niche. So yeah, if one of your reasons to start a blog is that you would enjoy it as a hobby, that’s fine. Just keep in mind that it may take a while for your blog to take off. You need to enjoy the process as a hobby itself.

6. For Your Personal Growth

One of my personal favorite reasons to start a blog is personal growth. Starting a blog is one of those things that will push you outside of your comfort zone constantly. You will be learning new technical skills, furthering your own education in your niche, putting yourself out there in the online world. You will learn about marketing, you will have to experiment, and fail many times over. It’s a constant exercise in personal development.

7. To Retire From Your Day Job

I mentioned blogging as a secondary stream of income. What if you want to make it your full-time income? Yes! That’s an excellent motivator! In fact, it is one of the more powerful ones, in my opinion. It will give you an edge as you thrive to live life on your own terms and stop depending on outside employment.

When You Shouldn’t Start a Blog

Basically, your reasons to start a blog can be whatever you would like, of course. However, there are some red flags that I would like to mention to caution you in case that’s you. Do some soul search if you identify with some of those points.

1. You are looking for a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of get-rich-quick schemes floating around on the Internet. Maybe some of these online marketing ideas have actually worked for some people? All I know is that I prefer looking for a long-term sustainable online business. Kind of like weight loss, building a sustainable business takes time. If you are not in for a crash diet, you are going to be moving slowly and steadily towards your goal. It will take consistency and perseverance.

2. You don’t stick to projects long term

I guess this ties in with the previous point. I do want to say this: I have given up on a lot of projects myself. Having given up before doesn’t make you a person that never sticks to projects long-term. You need to find that why that will drive when it gets tough. You also need to work on yourself. Set objectives and don’t let anything get in the way of accomplishing the little tasks that will get you there.

3- You hate learning new technologies

Alright, let’s be honest: learning about setting up a blog, hosting your site, creating images, marketing funnels, page builders, and more can be pretty brutal. And frustrating at times! if you hate learning about technologies, maybe blogging isn’t for you. That is unless you want to blog on a hosted platform as a hobby blogger. Read my post Blogging for Beginners: How to Start Your Blog in 5 Days to have an idea of what you will need to do and decide if you are willing to learn these new technical skills.

4- You don’t want to invest in your online business

The problem with new bloggers is that they often try to do everything for free: free blogging platform, free theme, free tutorials, etc. Not that you cannot do it for free, but if you are serious about your online business, it should be a given that you will need to invest in it just like any other type of business. And you know what? All things considered, it’s not that much money! What other business can you start for under $1000?

What Should I Blog About

Let’s say after reading these reasons to start a blog, you decide that yes, blogging is for you. What should you blog about? You most likely have a general idea already. You know what you love learning and talking about. My recommendation would be to do some digging on the Internet. Find other blogs that talk about these topics. The information you will learn will be invaluable. You will learn what their most popular posts are, what they are selling, how they are growing their mailing list, etc.

Sometimes, this might be a bit tricking because you want to make sure you find sites that don’t have too much traffic. I usually try to find sites that have between 10,000 and 60,000 monthly organic visitors. To find those sites, you most likely have to dig deep using keyword tools that provide related and long-tail keywords. Once you find them, you know what to blog about. You are going to blog about keywords that relate to the problems you want to solve through your monetization strategy.

Check out my 30-minute Niche Site Workshop to learn more.

When You Already Have a Blog and Want to Start a New Blog

Before we conclude this post about my top 7 reasons to start a blog, let’s talk a bit about starting a new blog when you already have one. Maybe you have been a blogger for a while and are considering starting a new one. That was me a few times! Starting new blogs continually will not work in your favor if your goal is to earn an income. Setting up a site, building domain authority, and writing enough content to start ranking on Google is hugely time-consuming. Consequenlty, the decision to start a new blog should not be made lightly.

However, I am happy I started new blogs until I settled on my definitive one. I learned a lot in the process.

Shoud I Scratch My Old Blog?

If you are considering scratching your blog and starting a new one, here are some points to think about:

  • How much traffic is your current blog getting? The least traffic you are getting, the easier the decision will be as it takes time an effort to build traffic.
  • Is the new niche you are thinking about completly different or somewhat related? If it is completely different, it makes sense to start from scratch. If it is somewhat related, you may be able to include your new topics on your exisiting blog. In fact, that’s why even though I recommend finding a niche for your online business, I also recommend you don’t limit your growth with a blog name that is too niche-specific (read Top 9 Most Practical Tips for Naming a Blog).
  • How old is your current blog? Blogs that are more than 2 year old have an extra edge over younger blogs. It seems like it’s just the way the online world works for some reason. One of my blogs had no posts that ranked anywhere (including Pinterest). After about 2 years, quite a few posts started getting traffic.

As yourself these questions and give yourself some time to think about it. A few times, I wanted to start a new blog in a new niche but after a few weeks, the initial drive left me. Maybe you will notice that too.

In Summary

This post about the top reasons to start a blog was just to give you some food for thought. Obviously, in the end, it’s your life, you make the decisions you see fit! All the best in your endeavors!