Q. My writing professor has encouraged us to start a blog, claiming it will help advance our careers. Since you have been blogging for several years, do you agree? How do you keep the process from becoming overwhelming? Other tips?
A. I agree with your professor to a point. I endorse anything that encourages frequent and regular writing. But I would only encourage you to start a blog if you are passionate about a specific subject area that will motivate you to make regular posts. The Internet is overloaded with blogs started with good intentions but soon abandoned when the writer realizes the amount of work required.
Success Story: Supporting your professor’s claim that a blog can help your career, I often refer to the several instances where hiring managers have told me that a well-written blog and social media presence helped them make hiring decisions. During a visit to the Weber Shandwick Chicago office a few years ago, the office head introduced my students to her team, including a young woman she discovered through her food blog. “We needed to hire someone with food and social media experience, so we checked out local food bloggers, sent her a note and hired her,” said the hiring manager.
If you are committed to starting a blog, you can get some great tips from How the Beginning Blogger Fails (And How to Fix It) and How to Start a Blog — Beginner’s Guide for 2019.
You also might want to check out backlink checker tools.
Try It Before Launching. A colleague of mine decided some time ago to satisfy her desire to share writing and career-related thoughts through penning guest posts for others, including Culpwrit. She may eventually start her own blog, but this experience gives her a chance to validate that this is something she wants to do for the long term. That’s exactly how I started out before launching this blog 11 years ago. -RC