That little cursor on whatever word editor you use looks you in the eye with this “I dare you” kind of intimidating anticipation. I’ve personally faced that more than 400 times or more if I could care to count. But the benefits of writing or blogging are far more rewarding than that daring sight of intimidation. You can start blogging for several reasons, but here are four good reasons to write I found worthwhile according to Guy Kawasaki; #You have accumulated knowledge that merits sharing #You want to further an idea that benefits mankind #You want to entertain, amuse or inspire people #You want to conquer the intellectual challenge of writing However, what’s more undermining is the thought of starting or being in your own ghost town of words — alone — without an audience that will tickle your ego with comments and shares like on Facebook. Perhaps that’s why majority of folks today prefer posting their stuff on Facebook including that which warrants blog posts. Anyway if you’ve chosen to give blogging a spin, here are some tools I personally use and recommend; Evernote: Note taking App for collecting and noting stuff — anything. It’s really cool. They have mobile and web apps so that your notes are automatically synced across all devices and accessible anywhere with an internet connection. So if a blog idea hits you, you can easily jot it down and work on it later. Google Docs: This is like Microsoft word on the web. Your documents stay in the cloud and go with you where you go. I use this to write drafts or collaborate on certain posts that need co-authoring, commenting, edits or something similar. It’s not rocket science, even though the fact that two or more people can work on a document in real-time at the same time is mind blowing. But that’s Google. Feedly: This is an RSS reader or simply a news reader App that helps you keep track of your most favorite websites/blogs. I chose this one among hundreds out there because I inherited it when Google screwed us with its end of Google Reader product. I’ve over 200 online content sources I keep track of on my Feedly account which isn’t a crazy figure for a pro blogger but surely is for a normal or first-time one. Twitter/Facebook: Yeah, these are the oceans of content these days. Twitter in particular is a real-time curation space of everything you might be interested in based on who you follow. Facebook on the other hand provides a great environment of interaction with close friends and fun. You could easily pick-up something to write about based on a discussion you had on your newsfeed or some group you subscribe to. WordPress/Blogger: Finally if you wish to put something out there that is accessible to anyone in the public, then you have to use a blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger. There are several, but these are the most common ones. I started off with blogger by Google and I was impressed by its robustness and simplicity. But when I wanted to do this professionally, we had to use WordPress. Dignited is a self-hosted blog,meaning we incur costs running it, but you can start with WordPress hosted blog for Free. It’s the Swiss knife of online publishing. However, recently, I started keeping a personal blog using Medium. It just makes me want to write! When you’re done writing that awesome blog post, then don’t forget to share it on your social media channels. That’s how people get to know about your blog or post and they might reward you by commenting or re-sharing your post. That’s exactly what am going to do to this post. Don’t really mind about the numbers, that is, is how many people read your blog. If you have something that merits sharing, the world is hungry to read it. So start blogging today. Image: bonniegroessl.com
