Have you always wanted to blog, but didn’t know how to, where to start or why you wanted to do it in the first place?
In this blog post, I will outline the advantages and disadvantages of blogging which should hopefully confirm your “why” and finally get that website up and running!
I’ve been blogging full-time for nearly 6 years now and I have learnt a LOT along the way. It might seem a bit daunting when you first start blogging, I know! I wanted to start a blog around 5 years before I actually got around to doing it because I kept putting it off.
Things like; trying to get the perfect blog name, the best niche, and creating an actual website, stopped me from just flipping doing it and now I know this was a huge amount of time wasted.
As they say, if only I knew then what I know now!
Blogging combines the freedom to talk and share about a subject you love and the potential to gain a huge audience through your website. By sharing your thoughts, images and experiences with others, you can slowly build a brand and turn it into a full-time job.
Blogging has become increasingly popular over the years, with millions of blogs available on the internet. One of the biggest advantages of blogs is that creators use their platforms to generate income through advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and other revenue streams.
Blogging is a versatile and powerful tool for individuals and businesses to connect with their audience and share their message with the world.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Blogging
Whether you have come to this blog post because you want to want to finally convince yourself to get your blog up and running.
Or whether you are in two minds and think the disadvantages may be too much, I will cover what I know about the blogging industry through my own experience and give you the advantages and disadvantages of blogging.
Advantages of blogs
For me, the advantages of blogs have far outweighed the disadvantages of blogs and this is what keeps me highly motivated.
I am in it for the long game, mainly because I know if I keep working at it, keep learning and applying new skills to my blogging, I can continue to be my own boss, and work from home and the monetisation prospects are endless!
So, let’s outline the advantages of blogs!
- Building an audience and a community
- Helping others
- Share your interests and talk about what you love
- Be your own boss
- Work from anywhere
- Diversity in your daily work routine
- Opportunities for monetisation
- Earn a passive income
- Finding clients
- Flexible time
- Improve your writing and communication skills
- Learn a new skill
- Quick and easy to set up
- Don’t need to know tech speak
- No capital needed
- Enhances SEO value of a website
- Start your own business
- Easier to sell your products
1. Building an audience and a community
Just like social media, building an online community via your blog can help build relationships with like-minded people. This can include your readers and other bloggers in your niche!
People often leave comments on my blog posts and send me emails asking questions about interior design and social media. I always make sure I message them back as these can all be potential customers or subscribers!
2. Helping others
The advantage of blogging is that it gives you the opportunity to inspire and educate, depending on your niche. I always try and create value in my blog posts so that my readers go away feeling they’ve learnt something and can use it in their homes or on social media.
I get a lot of good feedback from this website, I enjoy helping others and inspiring them to start their blogging journey!
3. Share your interests and talk about what you love
Your blog is your creative outlet, and it gives you the opportunity to talk about what you love! I have a real passion for interior design and digital marketing, and I have successfully managed to combine the two.
What other job lets you talk about things you love and make money from it? One of the great advantages of blogs!
4. Be your own boss
One of the biggest advantages of blogs is that you can be your own boss.
Building my blogs and creating content for social media means I am self-employed full time and don’t have to answer to anyone (apart from brands. But I’m working hard behind the scenes to move away completely from working with brands. I sometimes find them a nightmare to work for and I might as well have a boss! Ha!)
The fact that I don’t have to answer to anyone, and don’t have to rely on other people to promote me or tell me what to do, is one of the biggest reasons why I love blogging.
5. Work from anywhere
Another advantage of blogging is you can literally work from anywhere! Although, it depends on what you are blogging about. I initially started blogging about my home, our renovations and DIY projects, which meant that I would have to be at home to take the photos, write up content and share it to my blog and social media.
Why didn’t I start as a travel blogger??
However, these days I tend to write about more general interior design stuff and this blog means I can write it wherever I want.
Although, that being said, I much prefer to be at home with my proper desk set up when it comes to writing my blog. But I can take my laptop and work whilst away or on holiday if I should wish to (I don’t)…
6. Diversity in your daily routine
No two days are the same for me. Mondays, I tend to do admin, create Canva pins for Pinterest, schedule all my content, reply to emails etc. Tuesday, I like to take photos for my upcoming posts and then for the rest of the week, I like to write.
I would like to write full-time, but my social media posts get in the way.
However, I don’t really have a set routine. I could get a brand drop into my emails at any minute and then I would have to paint a room and create new content for them.
Or I get invited to events at the drop of a hat. I love the diversity of being a blogger. No two weeks are the same!
7. Opportunities for monetisation
This is another big reason why I persevere with my blogs. My interior design blog now earns me enough money to pay myself a full-time wage every month, not including all the brand work I get through social media.
However, this website is currently earning nothing, and I am putting all my hard work into this site alone. Why? Because I know it has huge potential and the sky is the limit when you start getting a serious amount of traffic to your blog.
I follow a lot of niche site builders on Twitter who divulge their income reports, and the figures are eye-watering! A lot of them are earning far in excess of 5 figures a month, some even hitting a 6-figure monthly income. That is motivation in itself!
How? They have been working at their niche sites for many many years. They have learnt SEO along the way, they have invested money into their blogs and they monetise with on-page advertisements, affiliates, services and courses.
There is HUGE potential to earn a decent amount of money from blogging and this is why, even though I am putting hours a day into this website, I know eventually it will earn me a decent wage. This is probably the biggest advantage of blogging, the sky’s the limit when it comes to how much you can earn!
8. Earn a passive income
If you get the monetisation bit right, your blog will start earning you passive income. It is extremely hard work to get to this stage and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Currently, I am working very long hours, but I am already seeing passive income from my interior design blog. Whether I write new blog posts or not for this site, I am earning a 4-figure income from it each month. I could take a month off and go travelling, it would still be making money for me in the background.
If you tap into the online course business as well, this is an even bigger chance to make passive income. It takes a lot of time and effort to set one up, but the rewards are huge.
9. Finding clients
If you are a service lead business, having a blog will help you to find clients.
What do people do when they are looking for a service? They head to Google and ask it. There will be plenty of people in your niche trying to get that coveted first page of Google, but by having a blog, you have more chance of getting to that page.
Why? Because in your blog posts, you can fill them with keywords and queries people are searching for. This helps build your domain authority and lets google know you are an expert in your field, so they will suggest your website over others. It all comes down to SEO.
10. Flexible time
One of the reasons I got into blogging and social media was I didn’t want to go back into my old world of IT and project management after I had kids. I started reading renovation blogs back in 2017 as we were doing up our new house, and the rest is history!
Now, I work around my kids. I use the time that they are in school to do the majority of my work, so I am always here when they need me. I often work in the evenings too, but as I love writing my blogs, it doesn’t feel like a chore!
11. Improve your writing and communication skills
I’m not a bad writer, I absolutely love reading and have always enjoyed writing. But wow! My first blogs were pretty bad.
I was basically writing the posts for myself, and maybe my Mum? They were extremely short, full of stories about my life that not many people would want to read and I didn’t really provide anything that a reader could take away.
My writing has improved vastly since I started blogging and I am always learning. I bet when I come back to read this blog post in several years, I will frown at what I wasn’t saying or including. It is a huge learning curve and something I didn’t think I could improve on!
12. Learn a new skill
Writing for example! You can learn anything if you keep at it. As a blogger, I have taught myself graphic design with Canva, how to build a website and use hosting services, and how to grow a huge following on social media.
I am always learning; it is one of the things I love the most about blogging and one of the many advantages of blogs!
13. Quick and easy to set up
There are plenty of sites out there that you can use when setting up your blog. Squarespace does all the backend for you, so you don’t even need to know how to create a website or sort out the technical bits. You just blog!
Although, I do prefer WordPress. You will have to find your own domain name and hosting, but it is the best blogging platform out there by far. To being with, it is best to concentrate on creating content. Once your blog starts to grow, you can invest in more plugins and digital products to explode your blog traffic
14. You don’t need to know tech speak
I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said to me they don’t understand all the blogging and website jargon. HTML, SEO, Plug-ins… it would seem like there is so much to learn.
There isn’t when it comes to a blog. If you go with a blogging service like WordPress or Squarespace, it really is as easy as coming up with a domain name, creating a quick logo in Canva and start writing content. You will learn all the rest as you go along, but if you have no content on your website, you haven’t got a website!
15. No capital is needed
Another advantage of blogging is that you can start a blog for as little as $10 a month. A domain name can cost as little as $5, a hosting service such as SiteGround can cost anything from $5 a month and creating your logo and branding can be done for free on Canva
As your blog grows, you can start investing in more tools, courses and resources for your blog. But from the beginning, it is extremely cheap to set up.
16. Enhances SEO value of a website
I can’t believe this still isn’t very well known to small businesses. Having a blog section on your website has huge implications for your traffic.
Blog posts are full of keyword-rich content that signals to SERPs what your content is about. If your website is just full of products to buy, with not much text attached, how does a site like Google know what you are offering? You have to think about search intent.
Search intent is what a user on Google is really searching for when they type in a query. It is the goal or purpose they have in mind and can be either informational, navigational, transactional or commercial.
By having a blog on your website, you can answer readers’ queries and boost your site’s SEO!
17. Start your own business
Have you ever wanted to start your own business, be your own boss and work remotely?
Well, having a blog and website fulfils all these needs. When I was looking for employment after having children, I really didn’t want to go back to commuting or working in an office.
I had several ideas including upcycling furniture, making craft items to sell or offering my painting and decorating services. However, these all meant I would have to invest my own money, find customers and sell! Something I have never been very good at.
Creating a website was perfect for me. I come from an IT background so I understood the concept of website building and SEO. Although crazily, I didn’t actually start implementing SEO until around 3 years of blogging. Oh! The money I could have made in that time…
18. Easier to sell your products
As I have said before, SEO is a game changer when it comes to people visiting your site. Blogging isn’t just about creating a blog post only website where you talk about your interests and hobbies.
Blogs can be put on any website to increase SEO!
If you have a product-based business, think about putting a blog on your website. You could create blog posts around new products, trends, and inspirational ideas for your customers. Filling these blog posts with keywords will help drive customers from SERPs to your website and in turn, help you sell more products!
Disadvantages of a Blog
While there are many advantages of blogging, there are also some potential disadvantages of blogs to consider.
I talk a lot about how I love blogging and how it has changed my life. I get to be at home for my kids, I am my own boss, and I can work flexibly. However, there are times when I question what I do and whether I should go back into employment!
Why?
I work very long hours. I am often up until midnight trying to finish off blogs and I often work weekends.
It can take a very long time to monetise your website which will put a lot of people off in the beginning. According to TechJury, 33% of bloggers don’t earn any money at all!
So why do I persevere? Because I know that if I keep being consistent, keep learning about SEO and build my community, my blogs will become highly successful and reach my goal of a passive income!
What are the disadvantage of blogs and puts potential bloggers off?
- Very long hours at the start
- A heavy workload
- Gatekeeping!
- Be highly motivated
- Can take a long time to earn money
- Investment overload
- Being on your own a lot
- Trolls – being in the public eye
- No one understands what you do
- You need to be on top of trends
- Imposter syndrome
- It’s more difficult than it looks
- You often don’t turn off
- Highly competitive
- The Gurus and people selling courses
- Being extremely consistent and not giving up when things aren’t working out
- No fixed income
1. Very long hours
The problem with blogging and one of the disadvantages of blogs is that everyone tells you how you can make good money from it and go travelling around the world whilst your little blog makes you a passive income. This isn’t always true.
It is true when you have worked obsessively at your blog for many years to the point where it starts making passive income. As it starts to make passive income, you can start employing writers, VAs, social media managers etc which will give you more time on your hands.
But it takes a long time to get there! I have been blogging continuously for around 6 months now, churning out around 6/7 blogs a week and I’m only just starting to see slow growth. There is no way around it, you have to put in long hours if you ever want to see an enormous return on your blog!
2. A substantial workload
Another disadvantage of blogs is you don’t down tools and leave the office. As you can see from the previous point, it takes an enormous amount of effort and dedication to begin with to get your blog anywhere near making passive income.
A good rule of thumb for having a successful blog is to have at least a year or 100 blog posts on your website. It takes me on average around 4 hours to create a good blog post, so that’s 400 hours of labour before you start to see any rewards.
Now you can see why so many blogs don’t make it past the year mark! It takes a lot of effort and discipline to keep writing good blog posts and is one of many disadvantages of blogs.
3. Gatekeeping!
What is gatekeeping? This is a term used to describe the process of controlling access to a particular resource or community.
In the blogging community, there will always be people who tell you what works and what doesn’t, what niches you should go for and which ones to avoid. Normally, they’ve got a course to sell to help you on your way!
I always do my own research and look at my own results to show what is working and how to proceed. One path might work for some, but it might not work for you.
4. Be highly motivated
If you are not highly motivated to make your blog a success, you will not put in the long hours or commit to consistently creating content. It can be exhausting and leave you feeling exasperated at times which is one of the biggest disadvantages of blogs.
You need to make sure you know what your “why” is. Why are you blogging? What do you want to achieve? Where do you want to be a year from now?
I absolutely love talking about social media and blogging and I have a real passion for SEO. I know this website is in a hard-to-crack niche, but I know if I stay consistent and slowly build it up, it will be successful. That is enough motivation for me.
5. Can take a long time to earn money
Let’s be honest, you are not going to make a lot of money when you start blogging, especially if you are a beginner. You’ll be lucky to make $100 a month after a year of blogging.
It took me nearly 4 years to start seeing a decent return on my first blog and I still have a long way to go yet before I can make a 6-figure sum that a lot of bloggers and niche site owners often talk about. Sometimes I feel like this is one of many cons of blogging – we’re told we can all do it, but that isn’t always true.
It is hard, but it is not impossible. The best thing for me was that I started to treat my blog as a business, instead of a hobby or something I enjoyed. Once I got my head around that fact, I could start applying a proper blog strategy and now I am seeing some real growth on my websites.
6. Investment overload
Everyone has got something to sell. It is true that you most certainly need to invest in your blog to help it grow, but where do you start?
There are a few things I’ve invested in recently. I have signed up for KeySearch to start doing proper keyword research.
I have downloaded SEO tools like Rank Math Pro – which gives me extras like site schema etc.
I have just purchased Link Whisper after seeing many bloggers recommend it.
These all come at a cost and can be one of the disadvantages of blogs, but they are a worthwhile investment. Even though I know I have a good grasp of SEO, I have my eye on a few expert SEO courses to help me gain more expertise. As your blogging journey progresses, you will know where you need to invest. Just don’t jump into anything too quickly!
7. Being on your own. A lot
This might sound like a real joy to some, but blogging can be a terribly lonely business. I often spend several hours at my desk without speaking to anyone and although this doesn’t bother me too much, I do miss social interaction.
I try and attend PR and blogging events and meet up with other like-minded bloggers where possible. In time, I’m hoping to move to a public working space so that I can leave the house for a few days a week!
8. Trolls – being in the public eye
Ah, the trolls. Thankfully, I’ve not had too many trolls in my time on the internet, but even one horrible remark can make you feel low for hours and is probably one of the biggest disadvantages of blogs.
I will never understand people who go out of their way to leave hateful comments on your blog or social media. Not when it’s taken you hours to create content that (you should) love, for someone to tell you it’s crap,
I’ve grown a very thick skin over the years and have learnt to ignore it, be bemused by it even.
I will normally just block or delete, but I have found the best tactic is to just respond with a thank you message. Something like – “thank you for taking the time to comment on my post that I worked very hard for, even if you don’t like it” It always leaves them lost for words…
9. Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is crazy! I still have it even after 6 years of being on Instagram, blogging, and creating a large following. I still feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m very jazz hands about it all. Ha!
Although, I am getting better. The more I blog and grow, the more my confidence grows with it. I DO know what I’m talking about when it comes to social media and blogging, I am one of the very few people who have actually turned blogging into their full-time job.
We all get imposter syndrome at some stage, it’s best to just work through it and build on your confidence.
10. No one understands what you do
I’ve given up trying to explain what it is I do. I don’t even know! If people ask what I do, I tell them I’m an interior writer and content creator and I always get a lot of questions. The biggest question of all is, how do you make money from it?
I think there are a lot of people who would like to be self-employed and create for a living, but there are also a lot of people who don’t know how to go about it. Most people think I’m just sitting here talking about colour schemes when I say I’m a blogger but there is so much more to it than that.
11. You need to be on top of trends
One of the best ways to grow your blog is by keeping up with current trends. If you know what people are searching for on search engines, you’re onto a winner already! But keeping up with trends is a full-time job in itself and I often feel like I’m being left behind.
I can sometimes find all the content we have to consume overwhelming and really, I just want to write about the things I love.
But that’s where treating your blog like a business comes in. If you want to grow and earn a decent income, you need a fantastic blogging strategy which includes keeping on top of trends.
12. It’s more difficult than it looks
The internet would have you believe that you can just write a few blog posts, put up a few Reels on social media and if you do this a few times a week, the rest will come. Wrong! There is so much going on behind the scenes.
Writing the article is an important, but small jigsaw piece of the large jigsaw that is running a website. You have to become a master of all trades – writing, photography, editing, SEO, keyword research, graphic design, website design, marketing… the list goes on and on.
13. You often don’t turn off
I wake up thinking about what I am going to be writing today and I can still be sitting at my desk creating blog content at midnight. I am always thinking up new ideas, researching and learning new skills to help me grow my blogs.
Thankfully, I love doing it, so it never feels like a chore. If you really want to make your blog a success, you have to enjoy it as it can become all-consuming.
14. Highly competitive
The influencing and blogging world are known for being over-saturated and this is one of the reasons it has become highly competitive. We are all battling for our space on the internet and trying to get those coveted high volume, low difficulty keywords and are consistently at the mercy of social media algorithms.
There will always be people that have a head start and have been blogging for years. There will always be accounts that for some unknown reason, the social media algorithms love to push.
For years I would get frustrated watching other bloggers do extremely well in their niche and I wondered why mine wasn’t. Now, I don’t waste time on the competition, I work on my SEO, content and what I am best at and I am finally starting to see results from all my hard work.
15. The Gurus and people selling courses
One of the biggest cons of blogging is everyone is trying to sell you something. The internet is absolutely saturated with websites, gurus, courses and consultants telling you how to create a blog, how to grow and how to manage your social media.
There can be a lot of noise and it is becoming increasingly difficult to drown it all out.
When I first started blogging, I reached out to quite a few bloggers and instead of giving me a little bit of advice, they would point me in the direction of their friend’s courses (or even their own).
There is some amazing advice out there, and some amazing courses and statistics to back it up. I have taken a few to get me where I am today (some good, some terrible), but, I have found that doing my own research has helped me the most.
I am all for online courses. Often, time is something you don’t have and they can help to fast forward your growth and success. Just be very careful whom you buy from.
16. Being extremely consistent and not giving up when things aren’t working out
This is a big one, especially when you look at the figures of blogs.
According to Orbit Media, only 22% of bloggers report seeing strong marketing results and 55% say they see some results. This will explain why so many people start a blog and quit before a year. It takes so much work, time and dedication, it is extremely hard to stay consistent when you are not seeing any results.
To really see any results from a blog, you have to be persistent and confident that your efforts will be rewarded in the long term.
17. No fixed income
Some months are better than others. You often don’t know where your next sponsored post or brand deal is coming from and if you don’t diversify your income (use affiliate marketing, display ads and create your own courses or products), your income can be unstable.
A lot of people who start out blogging do so whilst they still have other employment. Making the jump from being employed to a self-employed blogger is a nerve-wracking step and can become extremely stressful. To earn an excellent wage from blogging, it is best to have multiple sources of income and more than one blog!
Why do blogs fail?
There are so many people shouting from the rooftops about how amazing blogging is, but there are plenty advantages and disadvantages of blogging.
However, what they don’t tell you is that they’ve been doing it for years and probably have a team of writers, SEO managers and other personnel behind them. This is especially true of the bloggers and niche site owners who are showing us their 6-figure results.
It is not a quick fix to riches, if at all!
I have never worked as hard in my life to get my blogs off the ground, and I am still a long way off getting a 6-figure salary.
So, why do I keep doing it? Now that I’ve learnt SEO and many other tactics for growing a blog, I am starting to see results and my income is growing. I know that if I give up now, all the hard work would go to waste. I keep thinking, in a year’s time, I will be so glad that I persevered and worked long hours.
Earning good money from a blog is available to all if we put the hard work in.
Many bloggers give up because of time. A lot of bloggers are still working full-time and the amount of work you have to put in to create a successful blog can put a lot of people off. Also, for around 99% of bloggers, you will not see immediate results. You might not even see results after a year of blogging.
This is why it is so important that you love blogging, you enjoy writing about your niche and you have confidence in yourself that your blog will one day earn you that big salary so many successful bloggers talk about!
If you have any more advantages and disadvantages of blogging, leave them in the comments!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How can blogging help me establish my brand?
A. Blogging allows you to share your expertise and provide valuable information to your audience. This can help you establish yourself as an authority in your industry and build trust with your customers. By consistently producing high-quality content, you can also create a brand personality and voice that resonates with your target audience.
Q. How can blogging improve my search engine rankings?
A. Blogs are a great way to add fresh content to your website on a regular basis, which can improve your search engine rankings. By targeting specific keywords and phrases in your blog posts, you can also increase your visibility for relevant searches. This is a huge advantage of blogging.
Q. Can blogging help me generate leads?
A. Yes, blogging can be an effective way to generate leads for your business. By creating content that addresses the pain points of your target audience, you can attract visitors to your website who are interested in your products or services. You can also use calls-to-action (CTAs) in your blog posts to encourage visitors to take action, such as subscribing to your newsletter or downloading a free resource.
Q. Is there a risk of negative feedback or criticism on a blog?
A. Yes, there is a risk of negative feedback or criticism on a blog, especially if you are discussing controversial or sensitive topics. It is important to be prepared to handle negative comments and feedback in a professional and constructive manner.
Q. How can I avoid my blog becoming outdated or irrelevant?
A. One of the disadvantages of blogs in the need to consistently update. To avoid your blog becoming outdated or irrelevant, you should stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your industry and regularly review and update your content to ensure it remains relevant and valuable to your audience.
Q. How can I ensure I am successful despite the potential disadvantages of blogs?
To ensure your blog is successful, it is important to create high-quality, valuable content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
You should also engage with your audience and respond to their comments and feedback in a timely and professional manner. Additionally, you should stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your industry and be prepared to adapt and evolve your blog over time.
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