Being a blogger means almost all the time writing your opinions about stuff. What can be more personal than that? (if you don’t get the connection with the photo yet, read a little lower).
Well, if you make money from a blog about gadgets, it is highly unlikely that you will write there about your friends coming to visit or about a dreadful day you just had. Your gadget readers are genuinely not interested about your life, they just want to know everything about that new Apple gadget (iPhone, maybe? :P ).
So, which are the reasons you should have a personal blog, even if you write on it every other month?
0. You need to shout to the world. Yeah, you just have a crappy day and just want to tell someone about it. Why not choose a lot of someones? (this is not really a reason, but a nice introduction and a way to make the connection with the photo in the post :D ).
If you just start blogging:
1. Tame the “beast”. If you don’t know how you would get along with blogging, find out. See what blog platform is the best for you, see if you really like writing and so on.
2. Test the blogosphere. Bloggers can be a pain in the behind, but they can also be one of the best crowds you will ever meet. I have found some of the best people around me in the last 2 years I’ve blogged.
3. Test yourself. Do you have what it takes to take care of a blog? I mean, not only to write, but to WRITE. Do you have time to blog? Or will that be another task you have to finish before going to sleep?
4. Find a niche for your first pro-blog. Use the readership you create on your personal blog to help you define the niche for your next blog. I mean, if you see that you have a lot of comments on the posts where you write how you cooked meals for your partner, you might want to start your personal “chef blog”.
If you are already a blogger:
1. Get personal. Sometimes, people want to know the person behind the niche blog you are writing. People relate a lot more to other people, with dreams and problems, funny or sad.
2. You can write about politics and sports. No matter what you write about on your niche blogs, everybody you know will have opinions on politics and sports. Usually, different than yours, but nevertheless, you will find out how to react to bashing, trolling and the likes… And, let’s be honest, we know everything there is to know about politics and sport, don’t we?
3. Test plugins. No matter how much you test a plugin/hacks/addons on your test site, the best feedback you can have is from visitors of your blogs. Ask them what they think, how do they feel about using it and anything else you want to know.
4. Drive traffic to your niche blogs. Yes, the person that talks about sports might be interested in the new plasma tv from you gadget blog. What do you know, you just got yourself another reader.
5. Get laid. OK, I’m joking (partially), but I know some bloggers that told me they got laid more than once because of their personal blog… (caution: if you have a family already, ignore this. I don’t, thus I can take it into consideration).
Some of these reasons I’ve read sometime ago on Darren’s Problogger.
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