Many freelancers don't have blogs. Some of those who have are idle and forgotten blogs. WHY? Because we set these blogs up to generate money and when we fail to see the results we expected, we abandon them. Well… in this article you have 5 reasons why every freelancer needs a blog.
1. TO SHOWCASE YOUR SKILLS
Blogs are a great way to show potential clients what you can do. Some clients are lazy or just don't have the time to go to your portfolio section in a freelance platform to look at what you have done. My personal statistics show that I got more replies from clients to whom I included a link to my work samples than those I requested to take time and have a look at my portfolio. Try it out! By the way, clients and employers like hiring people who love what they do; and by showing them your blog you are telling them ‘You DO'.
2. ALLOWS CUSTOMERS TO COME TO YOU
When you have a blog or website, you have a high chance of receiving clients at your door step. Freelance job platforms are a great way to get jobs but the competition is growing and affecting pricing in a negative way. The benefit of clients coming to you is that you have the ability to charge relatively higher rates compared to what you would on a bid in freelance portals.
3. CAN BE YOUR SOURCE OF IMPROVEMENT
If you are starting out as a writer, you will need to do lots of practice; and there is no better place to do your practice on your own blog where you have full control. This also makes you stay informed with what ever is going on in your industry because you will continuously do research to find information to write.
4. MAKE USE OF UNPAID OR REJECTED PROJECTS
This applies most for new article writers. When I started freelance article writing, I had an average bounce rate of about 9%. That means for every 100 articles I wrote, 9 of them were not accepted by the client. And I never found a place to sell them. So what did I do? Created a blog and started posting these articles in my own blog. The only problem is that my blog contained completely unrelated articles and it was hard to rank in search engines.
Here is the good part. I had 160+ articles about different topics and every time I applied for a writing project, I found something relevant to offer my potential client as a sample.
5. MAKE EXTRA INCOME BLOGGING
While the blog will help you establish credibility and land you more freelance jobs, you could actually monetize and generate some cash. The income will entirely depend on the number of visitors and how relevant your blog is. For monetization; affiliate products, ad space selling and amazon are my favorite.
To sum this up, blogging is a pain in the neck to those who HATE writing and typing. You don't really have to write if writing is not what you do. You can make videos or even images; add meaningful descriptions and there you go. Just make it easy and fun for you -after all it is your blog.
If you have any other reasons why every freelancer needs a blog, please add them below in the comments area. I will very much appreciate your contribution.
