7 Reasons For Starting a Blog: Let Your Expertise Shine

Periodically, I’m confronted with people who question the importance of putting your thoughts, expertise or passion into words, online.

Ironically, it’s often writers, editors and other storytellers whom I’ve met, who don’t have distinctive websites, blogs or platforms to showcase their thoughts/works. Some have nothing but their LinkedIn profile. And I get the idea of supercharging your LinkedIn page. That’s a whole different topic.

Still, some writers have inactive websites and no blogs.

Regardless, when someone asks them, “What do you do,” they’ll say, “I’m a content creator,” “I’m an editor,” etc.

And then, more often than not, there’s that pregnant pause.

A VERY pregnant pause.

Because anyone can say they can anything. Like create content. Or build websites. Or write. Or even build quantum computers. What matters is whether you can show them your subject matter expertise, or the expertise of the people you work with.

Showing them what you know is the first of 7 Reasons for Starting a Blog.

1. A properly written blog will allow you to highlight your subject matter expertise, and to give your work a human voice/face.

If anyone – or any company – is to survive in today’s market, they must specialize and excel in what they do, what they sell, etc. Many of us – creative types, especially – risk replacement by artificial intelligence, unless we learn how to use the tools that threaten to replace us, with our wit, ability to adapt, and by emphasizing our empathy for others.

This Upwork study – released a few weeks ago – supports that claim.

Yet when I advise writers that they need to start a blog, or to consistently populate their websites with their expertise or content, a common answer I get is that they expect that their writing and editing jobs will mostly come from their personal connections. And I totally understand that – people often know the writer/storyteller/editor before they hire them. But if you’re relying on word-of-mouth for your business, and your business is in your own specific brand of written storytelling or content creation, isn’t that a contradiction?

The internet doesn't look kindly on content that is parked online and grows moss. You've got to keep feeding your platform to get anywhere. Might as well tell people if there's an origin story for what you do in the process.

Shouldn’t you be telling your own story, in your own words? Shouldn’t your words be compelling enough to at least land an interview, to work for a client?

Recently, I met someone who introduced themselves to me as a Storyteller. After warning me that they hadn’t done the SEO for their site, they gave me their website address. Of course I looked up the SEO score for the the word "storytelling" for their site. How could I not?

C’mon, people.

2. When you publish blog posts focused on your subject matter expertise, readers will beat a path to your door.

Here’s where you or your in-house subject matter experts get to geek out on some freaky new tech that blew your collective minds. Maybe someone wrote or did something that was a case study in brilliance or humiliation. You’re spouting off someone’s steam, and informing the public as well. It’s like watching Uncle Roger (pictured above) criticize Gordon Ramsey for his egg-fried rice. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. People can learn more about how things work when they see specific cases. It’s why I started my “Critical Content” series, to review articles and media content that evokes a strong reaction from me. Your readers and potential clients will get to know you better when you show them you’re not a walking calculator or style guide.

So, if you're grasping for reasons for starting a blog, here's a great one: It gives you an excuse to interview and collaborate with subject matter experts. They will teach you how they used the scientific method to solve their problems, or how someone totally whiffed on a challenge. To learn more about the process of helping subject matter experts tell their stories, visit my blog post on the subject.

3. Starting a blog informs others of the larger purpose behind why you do what you do, in detail.

If you read Richard Branson’s blog posts, you already know where this blog post is heading. Millions subscribe to Branson’s blog, where his enthusiasm bubbles about the hundreds of partnerships he’s made via Virgin Group.

No, Branson doesn’t vent his spleen about the 737 MAX (even though maybe he should). He writes about people. 

Branson busily feeds his perky blog on the Virgin website, and has millions of followers on LinkedIn.

Branson knows that it’s easier to relate to a person than to a company. So, while Virgin Airlines might not be at the top of mind when it comes to corporate leadership, Branson keeps chugging along, posting weekly, and even exposing some of his weaknesses, when describing why he surrounds himself with good people:

So, even though Branson would benefit more if he could talk you into flying on Virgin, he’s selling his humanity along with his platitudinous business advice and observations. He has been a thought leader for decades.

If your operations are smaller than Virgin Group (which employees 60,000), you’ll have even more reasons for starting a blog than Branson, because you’ll have more hands-on subject matter expertise to share with customers and potential customers. Based on Branson's blog, I'm not even sure if he knows how airplanes fly.

Branson's lack of salesmanship is ingenious.

He knows, above all else, he needs to make what he and Virgin do about more than just turning a buck.

So, if you’re a people person and a thought leader, rather than a gearhead, you can still be a blogger. In fact, that might make you especially qualified. (Even if you just resell old pants on your website.)

4. Posting content several times a month improves your Google search results and might just leave your legacy.

Granted, populating your website with new content – just so your content will land higher in Google searches – sounds incredibly mercenary. That’s because it is. Regardless, you MUST allow your blog to serve as a 24-7 repository for your intellectual property, if your customers are to find you. You cannot assume they know what’s in your head. And saying you know something isn’t the same thing as demonstrating a deep knowledge of a process, a law, or a system. In words, charts or even videos. If you’re not writing a book right now, write content for a blog. Pass along what you know. It very well might be your legacy.

5. Publishing blog posts consistently keeps you aware of industry developments/innovations.

I was recently reading Esri’s ArcNews Winter 2025 edition, when I came across this article about a digital technology and strategy employed to deploy lights strategically to reduce blind spots, and in the process, to cut the number of traffic accidents. I probably wouldn’t have been reading that if I hadn’t been searching for new fodder to blog about. My new commitment to blog twice a week has definitely made me step up my consumption of work-related content, and pay attention to my processes for working with clients, in solving their problems, and making connections.

6. Starting a blog can be foundational to your media production.

I realized this truth not long after I started working for my first client, HomeEc: A written blog post can serve as the foundation for your company’s mission, or at least, its media production. We're talking about launching a podcast off of HomeEc's first four blog posts.

7. While the rest of the media world burns, let your expertise shine above it.

If you haven’t noticed, when you Google for information, the search results are often a Dumpster fire. Wouldn’t it be nice to go somewhere for trusted information and opinions, that might provide some curated, tried-and-true answers? You and your website might not have all the answers, but the deep content that you’ve seeded your platform with will earn you the trust/faith that you deserve.