What is Blogging: Advantages and Disadvantages

Blogs have been existing for a while now and it has stayed that way because of the relevant and valuable information it shares with inquisitive readers. In today’s article, we will explain what a blog is, look at the key features of a blog, and finally the advantages and disadvantages of blogging.

Read this article to the end especially if you have been thinking of starting a blog either as a student or stay-at-home or anybody you are and you are wondering if starting a blog is still valuable today.

What is Blogging?

Blogging is the act of sharing information online through writing (text format) and images. This information is mostly evergreen. However, there are blogs that share non-evergreen content. There are many platforms one can create at which one can create a blog online. However, most blogs are on websites.

Key Features of a Blog

There are many features a blog must have. If you are thinking of blogging today, it is a must you add all these features to your blog. 

1. Posting Format

2. Dynamic Presentation 

3. Easy navigation 

4. Email Subscription 

5. Structural design

6. Social media involvement

7. Typography 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Blogging

Below are the advantages and disadvantages of blogging today.

The Advantages of Blogging

The benefits of blogging are:

1. Make Money Online

This is a major advantage of blogging. If you are a student you can make money from blogging as long as you are able to balance schooling and blogging. If you are a business you can also use the revenue you make from blogging to manage your business.

There are many success stories online about businesses and individuals that have made a fortune from blogging. But the journey to achieving does not come easy. We will explain more about this in the disadvantages of blogging. As a blogger, there are many ways you can make money from blogging.

You can make money through sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, joining an ad network, and more. Making money from blogging is a major benefit for you as a blogger because you do not need to do much.

You just need to post articles and you make money when traffic visits your site to read your articles. Besides the earnings go a long way in taking care of your everyday expenses.

2. Develop your Writing Skills

One of the major advantages of blogging is the fact that it develops your writing skills. As a blogger, the more you write articles the more you become a guru in writing. As time goes by you begin to sustain reader retention (reader engagement) in your writing.

You begin to know how to apply punctuation marks in your sentence and you begin to make less or unnoticeable mistakes in your writing. As a blogger/writer, my writing has developed as compared to 8 years ago before I started my blogging journey.

Being a blogger has also helped me to pass my examinations and scale through any job interviews. So if you are looking forward to having a writing career, blogging is one of the best ways you can do that. It might not be obvious now but your writing prowess will increase as time goes by.

3. Increase your Knowledge

As a blogger who has been blogging on so many topics, my knowledge has increased. There is hardly any information I do not know about except it is not online. This is another advantage of blogging especially if you are a student. 

Blogging can help you sit and pass exams you did not study for just because you have met these topics one way or the other online and you have written about them on your blog. Blogging has made bloggers intelligent because they have to learn and keep learning before they can share valuable information.

4. Job Opportunities 

One of the easiest ways to get jobs online or offline in Nigeria is to become a blogger. Being a blogger makes you know about many things an average individual does not know. For example, you are able to edit pictures, edit posts, understand analytics, and more.

This gives you a fair advantage over others when you go for job interviews. Also, with the fact that your job is online and visible to everyone you might not need to search for jobs. Instead, jobs will come to look for you. This is why writers always get jobs online no matter where they reside or how often they write.

As a blogger you are always engaged – learning new things. This is one major advantage that will always put you out there – never making you lack money.

5. Flexible Working Time

Blogging does not require all the time you have. Just devoting 1 – 2 hours daily can go a long way in increasing your traffic and revenue. Asides from this, it does not require a specific time like your regular 9 – 5 work. The fact that you can work at any time that you are available is an advantage.

You can work at night when you get home and you can work from anywhere whether you are at the beach, restaurant, hotel, at an occasion, in Nigeria or outside Nigeria. All these make blogging interesting especially if you are not into it full time yet.

The Disadvantages of Blogging

Below are the major disadvantages of blogging.

1. Time Consuming 

The fact that blogging consumes time as time goes by is a negative effect of blogging. In the beginning when your traffic is not much, you do not need to spend much time working on the blog but the moment your traffic is increasing you will need to dedicate more time to maintain that traffic and scale higher.

At this time of your blog growth, the time you spend on your blog is not really counted because you cannot keep track. One minute you can be watching a movie on Netflix, the next minute you can put off the movie to update some post on the blog.

If you are a husband and father you will need to work at night so that you can have a work-life balance. This means that you have to deprive yourself of sleep most days to make sure the blog keeps growing.

2. Involves Lots of Research

As bloggers, we need to always carry out lots of research before we can write articles. This is to make sure our articles are rich and educational for our readers. When this is done well the effects are positive in the long run because blog traffic will increase.

However, this is a major disadvantage of blogging because the time spent on the research often takes a lot of time and energy, sometimes making us have writer’s block. 

3. Social Withdrawal 

Because you do not necessarily need other individuals to create and grow a blog and you do not need to work in an office, many bloggers are withdrawn socially. Since blogging allows them to work alone, this can sometimes make them comfortable with being alone.

As time goes by you will begin to enjoy being alone and this can make you withdraw socially from your family and friends. Extroverts as time goes by become introverts and introverts continue to be introverts 

4. Demands a lot of Money 

Another disadvantage of blogging is that it demands a lot of money. Blogging takes a huge sum of money especially if you run it as a business. There are many things you spend money on as a blogger.

You pay writers to write for you, you pay web developers for managing your blog, and you pay graphic artists for the pictures they supply your blog. All these and more require lots of money.

5. Constant Content Update

Blogging requires constant updates. This is because if you do not update your posts regularly your articles will not do well on search engines. This is another disadvantage of blogging. As a blogger who has above 1000 posts on your blog, updating your blog post regularly can be time-consuming.

This is because you have to open each article, edit them and update them from time to time. This is a huge task. And if you are not patient enough this can make you quit early in your blogging journey.

Conclusion

Blogging has advantages and disadvantages just like any carrier or online job. You just need to weigh the pros and cons to be sure you are really ready to go into it as an individual or business. Among the disadvantages and advantages of blogging mentioned above, which point really connects with you?

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