Personal vs. Staff Blogging: Choosing the Best Path
Gone are the days when “weblog” or “blog” was simply a term for an “online diary.” Today, nearly every large corporation or small business has a blog for promotional and engagement purposes.
This trend has created a wealth of opportunities for writers who want to express themselves online and earn a living. You can either build a blog from scratch or get paid to write for other blogs as a staff blogger. This brings up an important question: Should you blog for yourself or for others?
Of course, you can do both. But if you’re too busy to manage multiple blogs at once, you may need to choose one. To help you decide, here are some pros and cons of going solo versus blogging for a site.
Blogging For Yourself
Pros
The biggest advantage of having your own blog can be summed up in three words: Complete Creative Control. You decide what, when, and how often you post. Whether it’s political commentary on Monday, a funny cat video on Tuesday, or flash fiction on Wednesday, no one can stop you because it’s your blog.
You’re also in control of your blog’s design; you can make it minimalistic and elegant or bold and attention-grabbing—whatever suits your style.
For further reading on how to design your blog, check out:
- 30 Quick Ideas To Make Your Website Look Nicer
- 5 Tips To Simplify Your Web Design
- 6 Practices That Make Your Blog Look Less Professional
Your blog can also be used to promote your products and services in any way you want. You can write an entire blog series around your products or limit your promotions to sidebars and widgets. While some self-promotion is possible even when blogging for others, it’s usually confined to your bio section.
Lastly, your blog can be monetized. As long as you have regular and significant traffic, you can earn a decent income by posting regularly, engaging with your audience, tracking your metrics, and marketing your blog effectively.
Cons
Wait, did we just say “marketing”? Yes, we did.
If you’re blogging purely for fun, marketing isn’t something you need to worry about. But if you set up your blog for business purposes or expect to make money from it, you’ll have to work hard to reach the right audience.
Even if you gain a significant following, you can’t afford to become complacent and disappear from the virtual world for months. If you do, your followers may drop off or forget about you altogether.
You’ll also need to be mindful of how you present yourself. As a relatively famous blogger, you’re no longer just a nameless person on the Internet; you’re now a brand, and people will expect you to act like one. (Hint: Good brands take care not to post overly offensive content online).
Staff Blogging
Pros
As a staff blogger, you already have a fully functional website to write for. There’s no need to worry about blog design, marketing, ads, or similar tasks. Your focus is on creating fresh, original, and engaging content for the blog’s existing readers.
If the blog you’re writing for already has a large following, you can use your position to expose your work to a wider audience. If your work is high-quality, there may be readers interested in your blogging services.
And let’s not forget that staff blogging is usually a paid position. Need we say more?
Cons
On the flip side, the type of content you can create is restricted by the blog’s niche, voice, and writing guidelines. For instance, if you’re writing for a blog with a fun, playful voice, your style can’t be too stiff and formal. Similarly, a tech blog has no space for fashion articles, unless they relate to tech, like apps that help you find the right dress size.
There’s also the accountability factor to consider. Everything you write reflects on the blog owner, so if your post is subpar in any way, it’s a disservice not just to the readers but also to the person who gave you the job.
The Decision is Yours
Whether you want to build a blog from the ground up, write for someone else’s blog, or do both, rest assured that all are legitimate ways to carve your space in the blogosphere. Just ensure that whatever you do is aligned with a clear vision of the kind of blogger you want to be and that blogging is something you genuinely want to do for a living.