As I just said in my last blog, there are a lot of pluses to having your own blog, such being able to write as often as you want, the blogs can be as long as you want, and you can write on any topic you want to. These next pluses can be even bigger though; check ’em out:
*You have complete control over how your blog looks, what the set-up for it is – all of that fun stuff. Speaking from experience here (I have changed the theme on my personal blog no less than 27 times) this can be a real blessing and a real curse. For those of you who just love to tweak your blog down to the nitty-gritty, to make it look exactly how you want it to, this can be the best part of having your own blog. Even if you don’t have the knowledge to change your HTML or CSS of the blog, you can pay someone who does, and they can make it look exactly how you want it to. It can quite a lot of fun to make it “just right.” And if you can’t make it “just right” – if you’re struggling to make it do one thing and it is doing another – this part of running your own blog can make you pull your hair out. I still haven’t found the “perfect” theme yet, and I have a sneaky suspicion that I’m going to have to pay someone to build it for me. That can be expensive (think $500 or more) and so for me, it’s going to be a last resort. Of course, this all depends on you, your budget, and how much you really care (does it truly matter if the columns have a light pink background vs that peach color you just love? It just may – it’s up to you!)
*You can also choose whether or not to use swear words or slang in your blogs, although you risk losing readership (or never gaining it in the first place) if your blog’s focus is how to raise a family and yet you’re using cuss words every other paragraph. On the flip side, if your blog’s focus is gangsta rap, you may lose readers if your language is too clean (sadly enough). Since the blog is extremely personal, you can choose to do whatever you want with it, but as always, the size of your readership may be affected one way or the other depending on those choices.
*You receive all income from the blog – no matter how little or big that income is. When you write for a company, they take the money they make on ad revenue, give you your portion, and then keep the rest for themselves as profit. When you write for yourself, you don’t have anyone taking a portion of those profits – you get it all.
Which brings me to the minus side of having your own blog: That income may not be much at all! Read on to my next blog, where I discuss the downside to blogging on a personal site.
This was part of a series on blogging. If you haven’t read the other entries in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all blogging articles. Comments and feedback are always welcome – feel free to leave them below or send me an e-mail at Hava L {at} Families dot com. Thanks for reading!