This post is the third in the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for bloggers and readers.
One of the most satisfying benefits for those who create blogs is the ability to use them to enhance your learning and to strengthen your interests. Readers of blogs are also able to enjoy this benefit simply by searching for blogs on any topic throughout the world.
Enhance Learning
What do I mean by enhance learning? Everyone has a certain method that helps them learn about a new subject. For most, if you simply learn something but never use it, there is less retention of the things that you learn.
Blogging can help you retain the things that you learn. For example, if you were learning a new language, as a blogger you could start writing a blog in that language, and as a blog reader you could visit blogs in that language and interact with them through the comments. If you are studying a particular subject, you could create or find a blog on that topic and network with others interested in the same subject to discuss it.
Blogging can also help you learn to become a better writer, which is can be a personal and professional benefit. They say practice makes perfect, and so the more you practice your writing, the better you will become at it. You may find that writing comes much more easily when you blog, or even simply regularly respond to blogs via the comments.
And what about research? If there is something that you want to learn more about, but have not found the right places to research it, why not blog about it? You can essentially reach a worldwide audience and build a community of others interested in researching the same thing.
As an example of using blogs for research, I have wanted to know more about my grandmother’s side of the family in Japan, but all I have to work with is an old family registry and one or two photos. So I have created a blog, Sarukura, containing the information I know about her family. I hope to build a community interested in Genealogy (Japanese in particular) that may lead to finding out more about the family I have never known. In addition, I hope that readers who visit the blog find useful resources in their own quest to learning more about their family history.
Strengthening Interests
Blogging is also a powerful way to strengthen your interests and hobbies. If you enjoy photography, why not share your photography and some tips in a blog? Others interested in photography can be inspired by you, and in turn, you will be inspired to take more photos. Professional photographers may be able to offer some advice that can lead to better photo taking techniques. You may even be able to take your hobby of photography to the next level and turn it into a freelance career opportunity, using your photo blog as your portfolio.
What about physical hobbies, such as a sport? I was surprised to learn that creating a blog about a sport that you play, in my case tennis, could actually benefit my mental game. On Tennisopolis and Hawaii Tennis (free membership required to view profile), I occasionally blog about league matches and other tennis related thoughts and personal discoveries. Knowing that a community of people would be reading this, I found myself thinking more positively about my game, which has in turn helped my mental game out on the court. I plan on doing something similar for my ballroom dancing as well.
So Many Interests, Too Many Blogs?
What you may find yourself wondering at this point is if it is possible to have a blog for all of your interests? What would it cost to have so many domains, and how much time would it take to customize them all? Is that even possible?
I say yes! I was able to create my blogs for tennis and ballroom dancing quickly and free on pre-existing communities, which comes with the bonus of already having a target audience built right into the network. For my genealogy research blog, I was able to secure the .info domain for Sarukura for $1.02, and I added it to a deluxe hosting plan that I’m already using for this domain. So the total setup cost for that site was just the $1.02! And if I didn’t want to pay anything, I could still have just gone to Wordpress or Blogger for a fully free, no hosting needed blog.
Blogging Your Interests
So now it’s your turn. Do you blog about a particular subject to enhance your learning? Do you blog, or read blogs about about a particular interest or hobby? Have you found it helps strengthen it? What topics can you think of that blogging would be particularly helpful in learning and strengthening?
This post brought to you by Kristi Hines
Kristi Hines is creator of Kikolani which focuses on blogging tips and social networking. Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Kristi has written 310 awesome article(s) for Kikolani.
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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I can certainly vouch for having a separate blog for many of your most favorite interests, but an individual one for each and every individual interests may be stretching it a little thin
I’ve actually have two photo blogs, one for sharing favorite photos along with tips and stuff when I remember, just as you suggested, and the other for showing photos of the lovely city and state in which I live.
I think it’s safe to say that most serious bloggers find that they become addicted to it and thereby embark on a learning curve covering a lot of blogging topics, including SEO, CSS and PHP, not so much for me on those ones
, and stuff they need to know in order to get their point out to the multitude of readers out there. They also concentrate on improving their writing skill so that they can put forward a good product.
As usual Kristi, you have put together a wonderful post and I am so happy to be the first one to comment for a change, unless someone beats me before I click the submit button that is.
Sire@ WassupBlogs last blog post..What Made The Baby Boomers So Strong?
Kristi,
Interesting insight. If you asked me 5 years ago would I ever write 1 to 2 article a day, I would have said you wee crazy, but I love it!
Frank Js last blog post..Firefox 3.5 Under The Hood
Hi Kristi, I could relate to each of your points. I think blogging helps us define who we are by providing a way to learn and express through the same medium. We also get feedback which requires further refinement of the self-defining process.
Jonathan – Advanced Life Skillss last blog post..The Relationship Between Success and Failure
Hey
Blogging has literally saved my life. To keep a long story short. It gave me something to occupy my time to stay out of trouble. I went from a drunk to someone who has drank twice in over a year.
Now it’s really going to change my life even more then it ha$
Also it has let me know and met cool people like YOU
John Sullivans last blog post..The best post you ever read $$$$$$$$
I have several blogs for my various interests. It can get overwhelming at times but I still like to think I blog for pleasure. If I don’t get to update some of them as often as I would like, I don’t worry about it.
I have learned a lot more not only about the interests that I already blog about but I am learning constantly about blogging and the technology of blogging. Would have never even thought that possible for this non-techie mom.
JMoms last blog post..Summer Activities Challenge
I could see how blogging could be used in the way that you describe. It’s funny because I just came from John’s blog where I kind of ranted about my blogging predicament and trying to figure out where I exist in the online realm if at all. Your insight has definitely got me thinking and thinking positively at that. Thanks as always.
Kristi,
Loved your insights. I had not really approached blogging from a true learning perspective. I am interested to see how your efforts on Sarukura evolve. Best wishes in learning more about your family.
Definitely some food for thoughts as I continue to grow my blog and begin to expand into others. Thanks.
Mike McEvoys last blog post..Buying New Computers Before Windows 7 Ships
How about HELP! Educational Blog As the name would imply it’s purpose is to educate.
Jon Winthorps last blog post..7 ways to stop hating your spouse
In the entire course of my blogging life I learned more and more. Learned from people and from my mistakes. Writing has been improved, learned new words and accent and my typing speed is now 27 WPM!
It’s a self learning process and the way to create something that you’ll be known for, Wonderful post, SU’d
Tamals last blog post..Bangladeshi blogger Romel shares his experience in BlogKori
Hello -
I love to blog. Many of my articles are about my interests and knowledge. I want to provide inspiration others. I enjoy learning the whole process and it has opened a new world to me. After a year, I am more passionate about it. When I get an idea, I write it down and get excited about starting to write.
Great article
bunnygotblogs last blog post..17 Sexy Commercials: Advertising Towards Dummies
Many people has different aims in making a blog.
Some may want to earn bucks, some may just want to share their experiences in life, some may just want to expand their knowledge.
I am not yet starting my personal blog(based on my personal experiences) due to my work but I am planning to make my PERSONAL life experiences blog for fun. through blogging we benefits a lot of things, that’s true.
Its a way of communicating through other people. The readers would see how and what type of man you are, cos it will be reflected on how you write your contents.
BLOGGING is really the BEST.
I’ve notice that when I write about something I end up getting more ideas and growing personally. Even more when i read and then I write. Ideas and deep understanding come out making me grow a lot more.
Reading blogs where the authors are really smart and deep thinkers spark up solutions to personal problems that I’ve found.
So blogging is definitely a great way to “go deep” and enhance our learning as you said.
All the best,
Eren
Eren Mckays last blog post..Penguin Lesson Plans Facts Crafts Coloring Pages
Hi,
As I am Wordpress beginner,just start blogging for different health topics before few days.
Find here some interesting point for great blogging work.
Interesting insight. blogging is different mean for different people. Some do it for fun and some do it for make money online. By the way thanks for such nice article.
I just have one domain at this stage. Serradinho.com is about most of my interests at this stage and I have a pixel site on the same domain. I do intend on adding 1 or 2 more domains in the near future and this post has given me the ideas of what to start now.
Thanks for this great post and for sharing your thoughts on the issue at hand
What i learned from blogging?
Blogging has improved my english writing skills. may not be 100% correct, but better than pre-blogging days :
Nihars last blog post..June 2009 Blog Traffic & Income statistics
Following your Benefits of Blogging posts is very useful for me Kristi, as Nihar said I was having lots of problems writing in English, so many comments was about my grammar and typos and thing like that, it’s getting better all the time
even some of my bloggers friends put me on their lists of top blogs which makes me a little shy sometimes!
Keep the good work!
Heshams last blog post..How to Stripe a Single Line of Advertising Message on your Blog
As you mentioned, blogging when it comes to learning something new is more of a group study rather than an individual pursuit; primarily because of the commenting that goes on. Anyway, I love blogging even writing on some mundane subjects that some might feel interested and others think how crazy to write about such topics!
Raj Krishnaswamys last blog post..Build a 55 gallon drum tools rack
Kristi, this is all great stuff. I can barely keep up with one blog and now I’ve started a second one with Jonathan. I need to wait until I retire to start more.
Stephen – Rat Race Traps last blog post..More About Living in the Now
Yeap, you’re completely right here. As a Romanian who’s blogging in English, I know what you mean. If I look at posts written more than a year ago, I understand how much I evolved in terms of English knowledge. And, as a personal development blogger, I take tremendous advantage from actually practicing what I preach
Good article
Dragos Rouas last blog post..System Overload
Nice series, Kristi, and I think you’ve only scratched the surface, so I can’t wait to see what’s coming next. I will say that I love blogging because it keeps me in communications with lots of folks, but I also like writing about stuff I learn because, if something comes up that I don’t remember, I can come back to the blog to find it.
Mitchs last blog post..Marketing Vs. Promoting
Nice post i think for Blogging Consistent writing is the most important thing for any writer / blogger which maintains its visitors on the blog and get more traffic to it. thanks for sharing!!!
SEO Companys last blog post..Improve your Title Tags for Higher Rankings
As a blog reader, I get a lot of industry news from blogs I read. Most of the times the ‘news’ site won’t cover specific niche and blogs are a great way to share / find news related to smaller industries.
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I think when we started, none of us would know it would go this far — from the perspective of an online diary to a hub that connects with people, and sharing information. I’ve learnt about communications, writing skills (still yet to be anywhere brilliant as yours, Kristi =) ), and going in depth research for the interested topic. It’s satisfying to learn, and knowing myself better from the process. Guess it’s the best of both worlds — to inspire and get inspired. ^^
Keep up the good work!
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Ching Yas last blog post..16 Misconceptions About ‘Serious’ Blogging
Hello Admin and also all this post visitors
From this informative helpful article,I get answer of mine one question that
Why do you blog? Here are some interesting insights.
Quite an agreeable article posted here.
I have checked your Sarukura blog and have seen an old family photo. It is pure history as well and so valuable for a family. Keep on writing interesting content.
Cult French Moviess last blog post..8 Femmes (Women) – French Musical Crime Comedy Film
Hi Kristi,
Benefit of blogging is really help full for SEO is really only one very small part of the many benefits being discovered.
Hi there!
wao you did a fantastic job i would like to say that blogging is the way where you can your knowledge,experience and all those thing who can make your life easy!
Good work! thanks for sharing!
I have the problem that I have ten blogs for my different niches/interests, but I feel like I am not giving any of them enough attention. Maybe it would be better if I just stuck with one at a time.
I love how blogging has helped me dig deeper into learning, it’s almost like constant inspiration.
We all (generally) blog what we’re passionate about so when we first start we have knowledge of our subject. Down the line, since you’re always talking about it, you go out of your way to learn more so you can share it.
I think using multiple blogs is a great way to divide your interests. You don’t always have to post every day, not all blogs are meant to take off and become famous. Just having something out there where you can collect your ideas and find highly interested people within the niche is a reward itself.
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