6 Reasons Why Blogging Will Always Be Important
Truthfully, I've lost count of how many posts I've seen lately about the blogging world being dead and I can't deny I find them for the most part incredibly frustrating to read. There is no denying that the blogging world has certainly changed and it's not as booming as it once was, but dead? No, I don't think so and here are some of the reasons why I think blogging will always be valuable.
A PLACE OF YOUR OWN
One of the reasons why I love blogging and one of the biggest reasons why I created my own blog is that I wanted a place of my own to speak up. Social media platforms are wonderful and can be used to create entire businesses but ultimately you don't own them. But something you can own is your blog which I think is important to remember. As much as I love Instagram [sometimes] there is nothing more special to me than my blog, I love that I can create long-form posts with multiple images and a carefully curated layout which is not something you can really do with social media. Now blogging is such a huge business we often forget the innocence of it, a place to share your candid thoughts, special moments or the things that we might find a little more difficult. And a blog is always such a wonderful place to spark a conversation too.
IT'S PERMANENT AND YOU'RE IN CONTROL
Like I mentioned above, we don't own our social media platforms and they could be shut down within seconds and we would have no control over that. And that is something that personally I find terrifying, especially when some of your income comes from something that you do not own. Which is why it's so important not to pop all your eggs in one basket. We all get so annoyed by the Instagram algorithm and the various amounts of change that happen daily on the platform. And I know that I've done my fair share of whining because it is frustrating when you see something change for the worst but there is nothing we can do. We have absolutely zero control of what our most loved social media platforms choose to do but something that we do have complete control over is a blog. The only way that a blog is going anywhere is if you choose to delete it or the internet goes up in flames.
it's still a very new industry
Whilst everybody is discussing that maybe the blogging world is dead something that we seem to have forgotten is that blogging as a job, is still something that's incredibly new. Whenever somebody says they're a full-time blogger it's still met with the same confused face as it was 5 years ago so to say that it's already past its best is something I'll never be able to believe. Everything goes through a lull when it's a creative field and that's totally normal as so does a lot of the regular working world. If you've worked in retail you will know there are quiet spells in that profession too. Does that mean consumerism is dead? Absolutely not! Personally, I've never found myself wanting to read my favourite blogs more than I have now with the rise of the unrealistic Instagram profiles I crave that honest portrayal of life.
BLOGGING REQUIRES A HUGE LEVEL OF SKILL and can teach us so many things
Due to the nature of my photography degree, I thought I already knew a good amount about imagery etc. But hands down my blog has taught me the most and without the sheer amount of imagery I've taken over the years, I would have never been able to pin down my style. Unless you're a blogger then I don't think anybody else will ever quite understand the amount of skill that goes into creating not only a blog but the posts we publish too. It's so easily overlooked as a fad or an easy career but it's certainly not easy at all. Of course, it's not on the same sort of level as brain surgery but blogging still requires skill and can teach us some valuable lessons.
a hub of information that can be easily found
One of the biggest conversations about blogging being dead is that it has been replaced by Instagram and I understand why that conversation is being had. I spend a tonne of time scrolling through Instagram and spend far too long immersed in people's stories. And there is some really valuable information to be found on Instagram, there is no denying that. But it's not that easy to search for specific things, even with the use of hashtags and even then if you want to find a certain beauty product you're not going to find swatches and true thoughts without some serious searching. Which is why I think blogging is still so relevant, you can Google search for something and come across a dedicated review within seconds. I search and look for things every single day without fail and when I want to know someone's thoughts I want an in-depth blog post. And it's not just beauty posts either, I find myself searching for certain style items and making my way through a plethora of posts to see how they've been styled. The likes of Instagram is so fast-paced whereas blogging in comparison is much slower and I really like that and I think it's something that should be savoured.
BLOGGING IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY
II think a few years ago a big trend that occurred when blogging really did go big and into the mainstream was, everybody thought they would start a blog and give it ago as it was the done thing and absolutely everybody had a blog. And this isn't to say that if you didn't start blogging years ago then you can't start now, not at all. But because it was a trend and people jumped on the bandwagon thinking they could maybe make some money from their online space it became absolutely huge. It's something I see time and time again where people say that they want to start a blog for the perks but they're absolutely clueless about what they want to write about. And that's when I always think, well why do you want to start a blog then? The whole process of blogging is not for everybody and that's ok and it's ok that people don't choose to have anything to do with it either.
