Top Ten Reasons I Love Blogging
Top Ten Reasons I Love Blogging
Next week will be a big week here at Financially Blonde as I am celebrating my one year blogiversary. Make sure that you stop by for my giveaway and other exciting stuff. In anticipation of the celebration of my first full year of blogging, I thought I would kick it off today and share with you my top ten reasons why I love blogging so much.
1) Community
I wrote about this a few months ago, but one of the best things about blogging is the online (and sometimes real life) community of friends that you build. I never would have imagined when I started blogging a year ago, that I would meet so many wonderful people. I speak about you with FB Hubby all the time and feel as though I know some of you as much as I know my real life friends.
2) Education
One of the greatest things about being a personal finance blogger is that this community is crazy smart and thoughtful. I always love reading blogs where someone has found another way to save money or a great tip for productivity and everything in between. I learn so much from my fellow bloggers and I share this knowledge with not only my clients but also my friends and family.
3) Comments
I don’t know if there is anything a blogger loves more than comments on his or her blog. Even negative comments are fun to read. I sometimes learn more from comments people leave than I think I do from the process of writing my blog post.I like to not only receive comments, but I love to leave comments. It feels as though I am part of a conversation, and I will frequently check back on the blogs where I comment to see how the blogger responded to my comment. I love the back and forth.
4) Accountability
I am sure that people don’t wake up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday looking for my blog posts, but I have committed to writing at least three days a week, and I hold myself accountable for this goal. There have been some weeks where this was more difficult than others, but I am proud to say that I have kept to this goal.
5) Expression
I love having a voice. It was one of the main reasons I started this blog. I wanted to have a voice after not having one for my 13-year financial services career. I know that some posts are better than others, but I really have enjoyed writing every single one and expressing myself in different ways over this past year.
6) Online Journal
It is nice to look back over the year and realize that I have created a journal for myself. One of these days I will probably even organize everything and this blog will become the content for my second book. I just finished the first, though, and have no interest in going through that process anytime soon.
7) Progress
I love seeing progress and after blogging for a year, it is amazing for me to see how far I have come in not only my writing but also my blog technical skills. I still have a long way to go, but I love that I have developed new skills that I never imagined I would a year ago.
8) Results
I am an overachiever and I am not afraid of hard work; therefore, it is really rewarding to see that the more you put into a blog, the more you will get out of it. Blogging is one of the few areas of life that delivers rewards equal to the efforts that you put into it.
9) Milestones
Like most bloggers, when I started writing, I was pretty much just writing for friends and family. With each link back, though, and post highlight, it is amazing to watch various milestones occur behind the scenes of your blog.I will never forget my first 1,000+ view day, it was so exciting to refresh and see the numbers jump all day. I am excited that I have reached my one-year milestone, and I am excited about reaching others in the future.
10) Competition
You may not know this, but I am highly competitive and watching the success of other bloggers only pushes me to work harder on my blog. I love when I read about an accomplishment that one of my blog friends achieves because I am not just excited for them, but excited for another goal or the motivation to push myself to work harder.
BONUS: Awards
I found out this week that I am a finalist for the 2014 Plutus Awards or the Personal Finance Blog Awards that are given out at FinCon, the annual personal finance blogger conference. Financially Blonde is a finalist for Best Designed Personal Finance Blog and Best Financial Planner Blog.
First of all, I am incredibly humbled and thankful to everyone who voted for my blog. I can’t tell you how much it even means to be a finalist, especially considering the amazing work my peers produce day in and day out.Secondly, I am not sure how the voting process works, but I noticed that I am the ONLY female financial planner blog in the finals. I hope that I get some love for representing my fabulous female counterparts who help people achieve their financial goals every day. You all inspire me and do amazing work!