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Blogging and vlogging are good ways to engage with your audience and grow your brand’s credibility. We are often asked by readers which they should start first blog vs YouTube?

In this article, we’ll explain our pick on blog vs YouTube and which you should start first with detailed explanation of our take.

TLDR: we recommend you start with a blog and add a YouTube channel later if needed

This is a comprehensive guide, so we’ve included a table of contents for easier navigation:

What Is a Blog?

A blog is a type of website where articles, called ‘blog posts’, are presented in reverse chronological order with newer content appearing first. Blog posts are a great way to share your expert knowledge with your audience, build credibility, and attract visitors to your site.

If you want to start an online business, or communicate better with your existing customers or audience, then you should think about starting a blog.

Blogs typically present information in a conversational style and are run by individuals or a small group of people. However, there are now tons of corporate blogs that produce a great deal of useful informational and thought-leadership content.

Typical blog posts also have a comments section where users can respond to the article by making comments or asking questions.

Blogging has been around since 1993 and has become an essential marketing tool for many businesses. But is it still relevant in the age of YouTube and social media?

Why Starting a Blog Is so Important Today

There are currently 1.9 billion websites in the world, and over 600 million are blogs. That means that blogs make up a third of the web.

Blogging has become an important marketing strategy for businesses due to its benefits. You or your business can use a blog to promote ideas, brands, stories, products, and more.

Here are some of the more important benefits of blogging and why you should consider starting a blog.

1. A Blog Will Bring More Traffic to Your Website

A typical business website consists of a few important pages. For example, you may have a homepage, landing pages for your products and services, and a contact page.

Unfortunately, search engines may often decide that your website is less important than thousands of other websites in the same industry, especially if they have been around longer.

Adding a blog allows you to publish additional content which over time will help you bring more traffic to your website.

That’s a major reason to start with a blog rather than a YouTube channel because YouTube videos will attract traffic to the YouTube platform instead of your own website. You own and control your blog, while the YouTube platform is owned by Google and will benefit them.

2. A Blog Will Help Strengthen Brand Recognition and Build Authority

A blog helps you strengthen your brand identity. It gives you more opportunities to use your custom logo across your website, your social profiles, search results, and more.

This brand recognition when combined with customer trust and authority adds enormous value to your digital assets.

Adding a blog allows you to establish authority by regularly publishing content on topics related to your industry.

If you are consistently publishing new content, you’ll become the go-to place for your users and other businesses interested in those topics.

3. A Blog Will Help You Generate More Leads and Conversions

More than 70% of people visiting your website today, will never find it again. That’s because there is so much content and information on the internet.

Starting a blog will help you convert website traffic into potential leads, subscribers, and social media followers.

For example, you can use tools like OptinMonster to build an email list and grow a social media following. And with push notifications, you can send targeted messages to your blog visitors and bring them back to your website.

4. A Blog Will Help You Build an Engaging Audience

A static website doesn’t leave much room for a conversation. Why not add a blog to your site where users can engage by leaving a comment and sharing your posts on social media?

This helps you build a community around your business which is extremely useful.

It will help your visitors develop an affinity with your brand which pays off when they are looking to make a purchase or recommend your products and services to friends and family.

5. A Blog Will Let You Educate Customers and Share News

Blog posts allow you to educate customers about different ways they can use your products. This will allow you to compare your product with competitors, showcase product features, inform users about benefits, and more.

They’re also the best place to share your business news, announcements, and sales events.

For instance, if you are launching a Black Friday sale, you can promote it with a blog post. And then promote that blog post across your website with a floating header or footer banner.

6. A Blog Will Let You Build Additional Revenue Streams for Your Business

Blogs provide many opportunities to generate additional revenue and make money online. For instance, you can display ads in your blog posts using Google AdSense.

You can also promote affiliate products and make money with affiliate marketing or use your blog to sell premium content using MemberPress or Easy Digital Downloads.

7. A Blog Helps You Repurpose Content for Other Marketing Channels

Adding a blog to your website allows you to actively use blog content across your other marketing channels, such as making YouTube videos based on blog post content.

For example, we use our written WPBeginner tutorials as a helpful starting point for creating YouTube videos. This makes our video producers’ jobs easier and saves time. Then we embed the YouTube videos into the tutorial so our visitors can choose to read or watch the content.

Still not convinced? You can learn even more reasons to start a blog by taking a look at our article on the benefits of blogging.

Starting a Blog vs Starting a YouTube Channel

Now that you know about some of the benefits of blogging, you can see why we recommend that you start a blog first, and then add a YouTube channel in the future if you need.

Let’s summarize the most important points. When you build a blog, you are creating a platform that you own and control. The content you create will attract visitors to your website where they can learn more about your products and services.

On the other hand, the YouTube platform will always be owned by Google. The search traffic generated by your content will take people to the YouTube website, not your own.

Creating blog posts first also makes it easier to create other types of content, such as YouTube videos. Usually, the first step in creating a video is to write a script. Because you have already created written content on your blog, a lot of the work is already done.

Besides that, creating YouTube videos requires expensive equipment such as a camera and lighting, and you’ll also need to purchase video editing software and learn how to use it.

Finally, your blog is the perfect place for your visitors to watch your YouTube videos. You can easily embed YouTube videos in a blog post, giving your visitors the choice of watching or reading your content. That’s a great user experience.

What You Need to Start a Blog

We know that starting a blog can be a terrifying thought specially when you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone.

If you want to start a blog, then WordPress is the most popular blogging platform recommended by experts.

Although WordPress is free, there are some costs involved in creating a self-hosted blog. You will need to choose and register a domain name and decide on a web hosting provider.

You may also want to pay someone to design your website and purchase premium plugins to add features. The total cost will depend on your needs and goals.

The good news is that you can build a fully functional WordPress website for yourself and keep your costs under $100. Bluehost, an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

You can learn the details and options in our guide on how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.

Even better, when you signup with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you, so you can start building your blog right away.

All you need to do is log in to your Bluehost account, and then click the ’Log in to WordPress’ button to get started.

After that, you will need to set up your WordPress install, choose a theme and some plugins, then get started on your first blog post.

We take you through the entire process step by step in our beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog. We’ll summarize the main steps below.

The end result will be an attractive and functional blog that you own.

Selecting a Theme to Customize Your Blog’s Appearance

Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of the journey of creating your WordPress blog.

WordPress comes with a powerful templating engine that allows you to change the appearance of your website by installing themes.

There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes available. You can choose one that looks closer to what you have in mind for your website.

You can look for themes under the Appearance » Themes page. It will show you a bunch of default themes that come with your WordPress install.

For more themes, click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top to find more free themes.

For premium or paid WordPress themes, you can try trusted WordPress theme shops like SeedProd, Thrive Themes, Astra, Elegant Themes, and more.

However, there is such an abundance of WordPress themes that it may become difficult for beginners to decide which theme they want to use.

We recommend choosing a minimalist design with plenty of white space. This provides you plenty of room to customize the theme and make it your own.

For more details, see our guide on how to choose the perfect theme for your website as well as our list of the best free WordPress blog themes.

Creating Your First Blog Post

Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post. You just need to click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.

WordPress uses a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.

To familiarize yourself with the editor, see our WordPress block editor tutorial.

Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly available.

On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections. We have a great write-up on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.

To utilize all the features on the posts screen, you should read our article on how to add a new post in WordPress (video included).

We also offer some helpful resources to help you brainstorm new post ideas to write about:

• 103 blog post ideas that your readers will love
• 73 types of blog topics that are proven to work
• How to write a good blog post (12 expert tips)

A lot of pro bloggers choose their specific topics strategically by doing keyword research. This helps their content rank higher in Google searches and get more traffic.

We have a step-by-step guide on how to do keyword research for beginners using the exact same method that we use on WPBeginner.

Extending and Growing Your Blog With Plugins

Once you publish your first blog post, you’ll probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact page, galleries, sliders, and an email list. To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins.

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. They allow you to add new features and extend the functionality of WordPress without writing any code.

There are more than 60,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org plugin directory alone. Plus, there are premium WordPress plugins sold by third-party developers with priority support and guaranteed updates.

However, you also need to consider which plugins you need to use to keep your WordPress website secure, private, and anonymous.

Here are our top picks of the best plugins to grow your blog.

• All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps your anonymous website get more traffic from search engines.
• SeedProd is a powerful WordPress page builder that allows you to use a drag-and-drop interface to create any type of page for your website.
• MonsterInsights is the best WordPress Google Analytics plugin which helps you see where your visitors and coming from and what they see on your website.
• OptinMonster is a conversion optimization software, which helps you convert website visitors into email subscribers and customers.
• WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin and allows you to easily create forms for your website.

That’s just a start. You can learn how to add plenty of other features to your blog by checking out our list of useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog.

Monetizing Your WordPress Blog

WordPress is the largest publishing platform on the planet, and it powers over 43% of all websites. Many bloggers have successfully monetized their blogs, and you can too.

That’s why we put together a detailed list of proven ways you can make money online blogging with WordPress.

Unlike other articles on how to make money online, this is a comprehensive guide on how to make money at home legitimately, using blogging and WordPress.

Many of these methods require some investment of time and money to get started. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll reap the reward.

Here are some of the main strategies we cover:

• Displaying Google Adsense ads
• Selling ads
• Affiliate marketing
• Offering members-only content
• Selling digital products
• Selling physical products in an online store

We hope this tutorial helped you learn why you should start with a blog instead of a YouTube channel. You may also want to learn how to create an email newsletter the right way, or check out our list of the best YouTube video gallery plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Should You Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel? (Beginner’s Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

In today’s creator economy, there are many opportunities to make money online. You can sell items like music files, videos, blog posts, eBooks, software, apps, podcasts, premium content, and more.

In this article, we will share the most popular digital products that you can sell online.

What are Digital Products?

A digital product is essentially anything that you can buy, download, and use on a device such as a computer or mobile phone. For example, ebooks, software, videos, music, online courses, and more can be digital products that you can purchase at an online store.

They are delivered to you electronically, usually through a direct download in your user dashboard or in an email with a download link inside. In general, you can easily access them anytime or anywhere.

Why Sell Digital Products Online?

Digital products have a lot of advantages compared to selling physical products.

First, you don’t have to worry about keeping inventory and meeting supply or demand requirements. Once you create a digital product, you can sell it again and again.

This also relieves you of any storage issues. Some physical products need to be kept at a warehouse and may require special storage conditions like refrigeration, which can be costly. On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about storing your digital products.

Besides that, you get to generate a passive income stream with digital goods and easily grow your sales. They also help reach a wider audience across the globe, as people from around the world can buy your digital products.

That said, let’s look at some of the most popular digital products you can sell online today.

1. eBooks

eBooks are a great digital product to have, and you can write about any topic you like. The best part, once you’ve created an ebook, you can simply market it and earn passive income.

Now, if you have a WordPress blog or write articles regularly on any other platform, then you can repurpose the content for your ebook.

For instance, your most popular guides would already have enough content to be converted into an ebook. Or you can combine several blog posts into an ebook about a particular topic.

Once you’re done with the writing part, you can then add the ebook to your WordPress site so people can download it.

You can follow our guide on how to create and sell ebooks in WordPress from start to finish.

2. Online Courses

The next most popular digital product you can sell is online courses. People are always looking to improve their skillset and learn new things.

You can use this opportunity to share your expertise and teach other people through a virtual classroom. For example, if you’re a fitness instructor, then you can create an online course and teach people different exercises.

The best part, you need very little investment and no technical knowledge to create online courses.

There are many tools in the market that can help you get started in no time. All you need is a domain name for your site, WordPress website hosting, and a learning management system (LMS) plugin.

LMS software like MemberPress or Thrive Apprentice makes it super easy to create interactive courses without editing code. Plus, you can manage students and course material, offer quizzes, and more.

You can learn more by following our guide on how to create and sell online courses in WordPress.

3. Premium Memberships

Just like ebooks and online courses, a membership website is another simple way of making money online. You can sell premium memberships with access to exclusive content and community features.

For example, you can lock specific guides, cheat sheets, interviews, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and other content behind premium memberships.

On the other hand, you can offer exclusive entry to different communities, like a forum, Slack channel, or Facebook group, through a membership site.

What’s great about memberships is that you don’t have to rely on advertising revenue. You can allow your website visitors to support your site and generate continuous income.

There are many membership plugins and tools you can use to get started. For instance, MemberPress lets you restrict access to content, integrate different payment services, create unlimited membership levels, allow drip content, and more.

To start selling memberships, you can see our step-by-step guide on creating a WordPress membership site.

4. Tutorials and Guides

You can also sell individual guides and tutorials as digital products. This is a great way to earn more money if you have long articles or multiple blog posts on a particular topic.

Simply turn your guides into a downloadable file like a PDF document. You can then charge a fee to visitors who are willing to purchase your content.

For example, let’s say you have a detailed guide on email marketing. You can turn that guide into a PDF file and sell it as a digital product.

There are many WordPress eCommerce platforms you can use to sell digital products. We recommend using Easy Digital Downloads because it is beginner friendly, offers a shopping cart, easily integrates with payment gateways, and more.

You can learn more by going through our guide on how to sell digital downloads on WordPress.

5. Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are another type of digital product you can sell on your website and generate revenue. You can create all types of useful spreadsheets for your audience.

For example, let’s say you have expertise in search engine optimization (SEO). You can create a technical SEO checklist for beginners and offer that as a paid spreadsheet. Similarly, you can create checklists, templates, calculators, lists, and other types of spreadsheets.

The best part is that you don’t need any investment to create a spreadsheet. Plus, it helps offer evergreen content that can you use to generate leads and a passive income stream.

You can check out our guide on how to sell spreadsheets online for more details.

6. WordPress Plugins

You can also create WordPress plugins and sell them as digital products.

WordPress is open-source software, and it powers over 43% of the website on the internet. There are over 60,000 WordPress plugins that include free and paid options. This shows that there is a huge potential to create a plugin that generates revenue.

Usually, you need basic coding knowledge like PHP, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to write a plugin. For more details, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to create a WordPress plugin.

You can also hire a developer to help you create a plugin. There are many WordPress developer job websites where you can post an opening and hire the right talent for a specific project.

If you’re willing to take on a DIY project, then you can also use a plugin called Pluginception. It lets you create a WordPress plugin from the WordPress dashboard. To learn more, please follow our guide on how to create a WordPress plugin using a plugin.

7. Software and Mobile Apps

Just like WordPress plugins, you can also create software and mobile apps. There are many SaaS (software as a service) products that you can create for any niche. It can be productivity software, workout apps, games, and more.

Usually, SaaS products have a recurring subscription. This means that you’ll need to generate income on a monthly or annual basis.

Since creating such software and apps requires specific skills, you might need to hire developers. This process can be expensive because you’ll need investment for creating software or purchasing an existing one ($15,000 and upwards).

As an alternative, you can convert your WordPress websites into mobile apps and monetize them. There are tools and plugins that can turn your site into an app. For example, let’s say you have a membership site. Converting it into an app will help you attract mobile users and sell it as a digital product.

On the other hand, you can also join affiliate programs and earn a commission on each sale. You can create a WordPress blog to review different software and apps and promote them as affiliates. Or you could create an online store using affiliates.

For more information, check out our ultimate guide to affiliate marketing for beginners.

8. Website Themes

Similarly, you can make WordPress themes and sell them online. Themes are necessary for every WordPress user, and often users look for themes that offer specific features and customization options.

There are many platforms where you can sell website themes. Some of these include Enavto, Themeforest, CodeCanyon, and Creative Market.

You can also list a free version of your theme on the WordPress.org theme directory. From here, you can encourage users to upgrade to a premium version to unlock more features.

We recommend selling the digital products on your own websites instead of a marketplace like Envato because they charge a large commission on every sale without much benefit.

You can use an eCommerce solution like Easy Digital Downloads to create your own digital store.

9. Digital Art and Graphics

If you’re a graphic designer or an artist, then you can create a variety of digital products and sell them online.

For example, you can create logos, design templates, original digital artwork, clip art, patterns, brushes, backgrounds, icons, fonts, shapes, and more.

Besides that, creating assets for different photo editing software like Adobe PhotoShop, Canva, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Photo can also help you make money online.

To get started, please follow our guide on how to sell digital art and graphics online.

10. Photographs

Another great digital product you can sell online is photography. Many people look for images that they can use for their WordPress websites and blogs.

There are different types of photos you can sell. Some of these include stock photos, event pictures, portraits, drone images, backgrounds, and more.

Now, you can sell your images to different stock photo sites, like Shutterstock, 500px, iStock Photo, Adobe Stock, and more. Each of these websites has a payment structure where they’ll share a percentage of direct sales or give you a royalty fee.

On the other hand, you can create your own photography website and sell your images there. This way, you don’t have to share the profits with another third party and have more control over your images.

To help you get started, check out some useful WordPress plugins for photographs.

11. Videos

Videos are the next digital products on our list that you can sell online.

For example, videos like drone footage, stock videos, online training, product reviews, video game reviews, and gameplay footage are some of the ideas you can use to create a video-based digital product.

One of the easiest ways of monetizing your videos is by creating a video membership site. This way, you don’t have to rely on ad revenue from other platforms and get recurring payments from users who pay to access your content.

12. Recipes

Are you a chef, a home cook, or a food blogger? If you do, then you can sell recipes as digital products.

The food industry is worth trillions of dollars and is very competitive. However, you can find a niche that your audience likes and share recipes to earn money.

For instance, you can start a food blog and offer premium recipes for subscribers. Or you could combine multiple recipes into an ebook and sell that as a digital product.

Plus, you can offer cooking courses and other premium content by creating a membership site. We recommend MemberPress for this sort of site, as it’s the best plugin for that on the market.

13. Podcasts

Podcasts are audio shows that users can subscribe to. They are generally made up of audio files that listeners can download or stream to listen to.

There are many topics you can create a podcast on. For example, if your topic is music, then you can narrow it down to a specific genre. Similarly, if you’re into sports, then you can create a podcast on football.

Another great way of selling podcasts is by inviting industry experts and serving it as a masterclass. You can charge a premium or only offer these podcasts to members to generate income.

Many podcasters rely on their communities supporting them, whether that’s through a service like Patreon or creating their own membership site.

For more details, you can follow our guide on how to start a podcast and make it successful.

14. Professional Services and Coaching

You can also sell your expertise as a digital product and help other businesses.

For example, if you’re a copywriter, graphic designer, social media expert, developer, fitness coach, legal professional, translator, SEO expert, offer technical support through live chat, or any type of consultant, then you can offer your services to others for a fee.

Now, you can sign up for different freelancing websites like Upwork, or create your own site. From here, simply market your expertise on social media platforms and build a following to get more projects and clients.

15. Research and Data

Do you conduct industry-wide surveys, polls, and research? If yes, then you can create digital products and sell the research data.

Many businesses are looking for insights into their industry. They want to better understand their audience and find out what they like or don’t like.

You can carry out research on popular topics, collaborate with companies, or simply run a survey to gather data. After that, you can create a report, add it to your website, and sell it to consumers.

If you have a membership website, then you can also offer research and data to subscribers.

For examples, see some of our research articles we offer for free here at WPBeginner:

• Research: The Truth Behind Make Money Online Videos on YouTube and TikTok (We Analyzed 344 Videos)
• 60+ Internet Usage Statistics and Latest Trends for 2023
• 2023’s CMS Market Share Report – Latest Trends and Usage Stats
• 2023 Blogging Statistics, Trends & Data – Ultimate List (UPDATED)
• Ultimate Web Hosting Statistics and Market Share Report (2023)

Bonus: Plugins and Tools to Market Your Digital Products

Now that you know some of the most popular digital products to sell online, you’ll also need to market them to your customers.

Here’s a list of WordPress plugins and tools that you can use to promote your product and boost conversions:

• OptinMonster – It is the best lead generation and popup plugin for WordPress. You can create different campaigns and use smart targeting rules to promote digital products and increase conversions.
• WPForms – This is the best WordPress form plugin. You can use it to create an order form, payment form, and more.
• All in One SEO (AIOSEO) – The plugin helps you optimize your website for search engines. This way, you get to improve search engine rankings, attract more organic visitors to your site, and boost sales of your digital products.
• MonsterInsights – It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. Using the plugin, you can track your digital products performance, which files get the most downloads, uncover the most popular products, and track eCommerce revenue without editing code.
• PushEngage – This is a push notification software for WordPress and allows you to send personalized web notifications to customers about new products, promotions, sales, etc.
• WP Simple Pay – You can collect online payments on your website using this plugin. The best part, you don’t have to set up a shopping cart to sell digital products while using WP Simple Pay.

We hope this article helped you find the most popular digital products to sell online. You may also want to see our guide on low-cost and easy online business ideas that make money and the best email marketing tools to promote your digital products.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 15 Most Popular Digital Products You Can Sell Online in 2023 first appeared on WPBeginner.

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Blogging has been around since 1993 and has become an essential marketing tool for many businesses. But is it still relevant in the age of social media?

In this article, we’ll talk about why you should blog. And what are the benefits of blogging?

Top Reasons and Benefits of a Blog

Blogs began as a way for individuals to write about their passions, day-to-day life, and things they found interesting. They were like online journals or diaries.

However, blogging quickly became an important part of the marketing strategy for businesses due to its benefits.

Currently, there are 1.9 billion websites in the world, and over 600 million are blogs. That means that the blogging industry makes up a third of the web.

For more information, see our guide on what is a blog and how is it different from a website.

Out of these, WordPress powers more than 43% of all websites, which makes it the best website builder and the best blogging platform.

It is used by both individuals and businesses to promote their ideas, brands, stories, products, and more.

Let’s dig deeper and take a look at some of the most important benefits of blogging and why you should consider starting a blog.

1. A Blog Brings Traffic to Your Website

A typical business website consists of a few important pages. You may have a homepage, landing pages for your products/services, a contact page, and a few more.

Search engines may not find your website more important than thousands of other much older websites in the same industry.

Adding a blog allows you to publish additional content which over time will help you bring more traffic to your website.

For instance, let’s say you sell gardening hoses on your website. There are thousands of companies selling similar products and users may never find your website on their own.

However, with blogging, you can add more content relevant to the topics they’re searching for.

For instance, you can write about ‘Environment-friendly gardening tools’ or ‘water preservation.’ You can also write guides on how to maintain small lawns and gardens and more.

Writing content for a blog opens a doof for more traffic to your website, allowing you to reach more customers, gain a wider audience, and even poach business from big-name brands.

2. Blogging Helps you Generate More Leads and Conversions

Now bringing traffic to your website by creating a blog was the easy part. The more complex part is to convert that traffic into sales and growth for your business.

More than 70% of people visiting your website today, will never find it again. That’s because there is so much content and information on the internet.

A blog helps you convert website traffic into potential leads, convert them into subscribers and social media followers, and allow you to reach out to them later.

Tools like OptinMonster, help you build an email list and grow your social media following.

Add push notifications to your blog, and you can send targeted messages to your blog visitors and bring them back to your website.

3. Helps you Repurpose Content for Other Marketing Channels

To build an active marketing presence, you need to actively promote your business online.

However, the problem with a static website is that there is no new content for you to share.

Adding a blog to your website allows you to actively use blog content across your other marketing channels.

For instance, here are some ways you can reuse blog post content.

• Share the link to your blog post on social media
• Use the blog post content in your email newsletter
• Make a YouTube video based on blog post content
• Edit YouTube videos to create content for TikTok, Instagram Stories, and more.

These are all the ways that we reuse WPBeginner content across our social media and marketing channels and it works really well.

4. Helps you Build Authority in Your Industry

It is harder to prove your expertise and authority on a subject if all you have is a five-page website selling your products/services.

Adding a blog allows you to regularly publish content on topics related to your industry. This helps you establish authority and win users’ trust.

If you are consistently publishing new content, you’ll become the go-to place for your users and other businesses interested in those topics.

Whether you are a business or an individual, this trust is an invaluable asset. It will unlock tremendous growth opportunities.

5. Helps You Strengthen Brand Recognition

A blog helps you strengthen your brand identity. It gives you more opportunities to use your custom logo across your website, your social profiles, search results, and more.

This brand recognition when combined with customer trust and authority adds enormous value to your digital assets.

As an individual, you get recognized by industry leaders, influencers, and enthusiasts. This opens doors to many opportunities.

Similarly, as a business, your brand becomes more valuable and this weight will be considered by any potential buyer if you want to sell your business in the future.

6. Helps You Build an Engaging Audience

A static website doesn’t leave much room for a conversation. It is uninspiring and often quite boring.

Adding a blog to your website helps you bring the conversation to your website. Now users can engage with your blog posts by leaving a comment, sharing it on social media, writing about it, and more.

We recommend all our users engage with comments and other user activity on their blogs.

It helps you build a community around your business which is extremely useful.

When people leave a few comments on your blog, they develop an affinity with your brand which pays off when they are looking to make a purchase.

These users are also more likely to recommend your products/services to their friends and family.

7. Share Business News, Announcements, Sales, and More

On a typical static website, it is hard to share your business news, announcements, sales events, and more.

A blog on the other hand makes it super easy. In fact, you can get into more details, add context, and write more persuasive content.

For instance, if you are launching a Black Friday sale, you can promote it with a blog post. And then promote that blog post across your website with a floating header or footer banner.

You can make it more rewarding for your regular users and offer a special coupon code to your blog readers.

8. Helps You Improve Long Term SEO

A static website has fewer pages and even if they are ranking high you are still limited to a fixed set of keywords.

Adding a blog allows you to target related keywords and cover more ground by writing on different but related topics.

Over a period of time, you will have multiple posts ranking top on several keywords. Each of these pieces of content is like a soldier in your army.

If you properly optimize WordPress SEO with All in One SEO, then you can gradually build a whole army of content.

It not only helps you rank for secondary keywords with such authority even your home page and other pages start ranking higher.

9. Beat Competition in Organic Search Traffic

A big part of keyword research is to find out what keywords your competition is ranking for.

This helps you see which keywords bring them more business, and then you can just go ahead and create your own content targeting that keyword.

Having a blog provides you plenty of room to beat your competition in organic search traffic.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to do an SEO competitor analysis in WordPress.

10. Allows You to Educate Customers

When asked why they read blog posts, 33% of people said they wanted to learn something new.

Blog posts allow you to educate customers about different ways they can use your products.

You can utilize this opportunity to compare your product with competitors, showcase product features, inform users about benefits, and more.

This makes your blog posts highly valuable even for your existing customers. They can use blog articles to learn about new features that they may not be using.

Basically, it is an opportunity for you to provide real value to your users while promoting your products/services at the same time.

11. Build Additional Revenue Streams for Your Business

Blogs provide many opportunities to generate additional revenue for your business and make money online using your WordPress blog.

For instance, you can display ads in your blog posts using Google AdSense. You can also promote affiliate products and make money with affiliate marketing.

You can even use your blog to sell premium content using MemberPress or Easy Digital Downloads.

12. Helps You Learn Online Marketing

Adding a blog provides you with more opportunities to expand your marketing skills. You’ll have more content to promote which may be suitable for even more marketing channels.

For instance, you will find more opportunities to promote new posts on social media websites. You will also have more useful content to include in your newsletter.

As you explore different opportunities to promote each piece of content, you get to learn more marketing skills to reach new audiences.

13. Unlocks Partnerships and Opportunities for Growth

Blogs are a magnet to attract partnership opportunities to boost your business growth.

With all the activity going on with your blog, you will attract the attention of individuals and businesses looking for mutually beneficial opportunities.

For instance, new vendors may reach out to offer you better pricing or wholesale pricing, smaller shops may want to sell your products, large businesses may want to partner with you regionally, and more.

Similarly, if you sell services or just promoting your personal brand, then your blog may help you get the introduction to the right people. You’ll be able to gradually grow your network and influence.

14. Helps You Find Your Dream Job

Your blog may eventually lead you to find your dream job. Blogging is a popular tool to build a personal brand and promote your services and skills online.

You can show your passion, skills, and knowledge in your specific interests. This may get the attention of businesses looking for talented individuals like you.

Even if businesses don’t reach out to you, you can reach out to them. Your blog will help you see your interest, passion, and expertise in a more interesting way than a plain CV.

How to Get Started with Blogging Right Away

Getting started with a blog is quite easy.

First, you need to choose the right platform. We recommend using WordPress which is the world’s most popular blogging platform.

Now when we say WordPress, we mean WordPress.org and not WordPress.com.

See the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com in our detailed comparison.

To start a WordPress.org blog, you’ll need a domain name and a hosting account.

Our friends at Bluehost are offering WPBeginner users a free domain name with a generous discount on hosting. Basically, you’ll be able to get started with just $2.75 per month.

Once you have signed up for a domain name and hosting, Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you.

Need more help? See our complete beginner’s guide on how to start a blog with step-by-step instructions.

We hope this article helped you learn why you should blog and the benefits of blogging. You may also want to see our list of popular online business ideas or take a look at our guide on starting an online store with your blog.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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