Pros and Cons of Blogging for Students
While blogging is taking the world by storm, it’s hard for a student to resist the temptation of becoming “rich and famous” before even starting one’s own career. Indeed, sharing your expertise via your own blog, growing your devoted community, not to mention enviable revenues, can be a huge head start on the threshold of your professional life. But it also can be a false start, depending on how you perform… The truth is that blogging has another, less glamorous side of the coin we, professional bloggers, rarely tell about. Because if you take it seriously, blogging isn’t just a hobby, it’s the way you live, 24h a day. I’ll try to be honest about the joys and pains of blogging while still in school. I hope this balanced review will help you make an informed decision before you give this venture your best years in life.
Benefits of student blogging
Your first independent income
A blog creator for students helps you launch your own blog in minutes; however, the monetization benefit will depend on how committed, hardworking, and interesting-to-read you are. You’ll be able to earn some real money from advertisement or sponsorships only after your blog gets solid traction. Get ready to sweat before that point.
The first real thing in your portfolio
If the topic of your blog is within your college major, you can boldly include this experience to your portfolio. It will tell your future employer that you are passionate about the niche and willing to grow.
Improved writing and other skills
Blogging becomes your first real work experience that hones your skills (creative writing, grammar, communication, research, analysis, critical thinking, ethics, etc.) and self-discipline. As blog posts must be consistent, engaging, and innovative (you aren’t going to just rewrite what other people write, are you?), there’s a lot of competences you need to master in order to stand out.
You know yourself better
As you want to present really valuable and genuine content, you will be constantly asking yourself questions like:
- Who am I?
- What am I going to say?
- What’s unique about my experience?
- How can I help others with my blogs?
- What can I change in the status-quo (do I have innovative ideas)?
This continuous self-analysis will help you understand your inner self and your role in the world in a way you can really make an impact and inspire changes in the industry.
Major drawbacks of blogging for students
Expensive to start off
Like in many ventures that promise good profits, in blogging you need to invest first. There are free blogging platforms that offer basic features, but if you want more, you’ll have to pay:
- for a domain name
- for hosting
- for customizable design
- for increased bandwidth, and
- for the internet itself as a source of all evils.
Calculate these fees in advance if you don’t want them to break your student budget.
Distracting and time-consuming
As a writer, I honestly confess that great blog posts take enormous amounts of time to write (although I’d be more flattered if they didn’t). One post can consume days and days of researching, interviewing (sometimes), drafting, proofreading… Plus, if you think you can publish one great post and then disappear for weeks, I’ll disappoint you. If you don’t consistently pop up with interesting content, you’ll never gain massive followers, and thus, any income. Add to this social media management, interacting with like-minded people in your niche, SEO, and learning how to do all these things. With this being said, at some point, blogging turns into a full-time job that can put your academic success at risk.
Harms relationships
If you hear successful bloggers saying they enjoy a saturated social life, don’t believe them. Full-time blogging is usually a lonely long run when nobody is near you apart from your computer. So if you choose blogging, be ready to say no to parties and other extracurricular events.
Takes time to yield income
Blogging isn’t the option for college students who expect to earn (or need) money right away. Even if you do everything correctly, expect revenues no earlier than in 4-6 months.
Can harm your reputation
Someone has once told that the internet is a huge village where everyone knows each other. The internet exposes you to the world making you “naked”. Everything you publish stays there forever. Being too honest in your posts, telling (or sharing) lies or impolite things can work against you in the future when your potential employer will be scanning your internet activity.
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