Why I Blog

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: May 7,2008

Over at HackCollege the guys are doing a Student Blogging series in attempt to convince more students to start blogging, not only because it is fun but because it can improve your resume. I’d figured I join in on the conversation with my own post explaining the benefits of blogging that I have discovered.

Why Did I Start Blogging? My Blogging Story

I had been working for a company, which was owned by my best friend’s parents, for about three years. It was a fun job, but this past December I decided it was time for me to quit and try something new. But what was I going to try? I had done some internet browsing and came across a few sites such as Associated Content where they paid you to write for their website. Since I had plenty of money in the bank I decided I can take the risk for a couple of months.

I tried writing a few articles for Associated Content, made a few bucks, but I just wasn’t into it. Then I began looking at how to build my own website, which I did. I taught myself web designing and published a site by the end of December. It failed!

This whole time I had no clue what a blog was. I knew they existed, but I really didn’t know how they worked. Then I discovered Google’s Blogger, and I started this blog. I was having fun, I wrote a few posts, but something wasn’t right. Then I figured it out. The Blogger platform is awful. So I switched to wordpress.com, which was a painstaking experience, but well worth it as wordpress is amazing! I suggest you start out with wordpress.

In the end, my blog has only been up for about month (I’m not counting the time that I was using Google’s Blogger), and I still am not making money with the blog. The good thing is that I have discovered many more benefits of blogging than just making money.

Blog=Resume

Kelly Sutton at HackCollege was just featured in an article in the The Chronicle of Higher Education. Kelly said, “We personally believe that blogs are kind of replacing résumés as far as indicators of talent and past experiences.” All I am going to say is I agree, and leave it at that.

Become Someone

Kelly is living proof. He was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education because of his blog. Your blog has the power to make you important. In the real world it doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how good you are at your job, what matters is marketing. A student who is mediocre and has marketed himself well will get a better job than a genius who has done absolutely no self marketing. In the age of the internet there is no better way to market yourself than becoming Googleble, and a blog is the best way to become Googleble.

Opportunity

The internet is where things are happening. It’s where millionaires are made, where people sell their books, share their ideas, revolutionize society, and where you need to be. Blogging is an excellent way to get in on the newest things. Countless people have joined forces over the internet to write books or start companies.

Motivation

The most beneficial thing I have discovered is that blogging gives me motivation. Because my blog is about college and studying, I always find myself thinking about ways to improve my performance. The better I perform, the more I can write about on my blog. In the next month I intend to start another blog that is focused on my majors. My hope is that by studying more, acquiring more knowledge of my major, I can write a better blog.

Discover Your Passions

“You are what you eat.” In the blogging world this changes. “You are what you write.” Since blogs are relatively cheap to start, if you do not like the first topic you are writing about, quit, and start a different blog. Or you can start a general blog for a couple months, find out what you enjoy writing about the most, then start a new blog on that topic. You may discover you enjoy writing about topics not relevant to your major.

There are a lot of benefits to blogging. Some people will discover benefits that others will not. But no matter what, blogging is fun!

If you are interested in blogging, you should head over to HackCollege and join in on their student blogging series.