This is a guest post of Mary Moh from her delicious blog, Keep Learning Keep Smiling

I was, and still am, very excited when my first blog post took off on 16th June 2009. That was really my dream come true. Since then I really enjoyed writing and making friends with other bloggers all over the world, learning much from them and contributing in whatever little ways I can. We add values to each other’s lives. So, to me, blogging has to be one of the best hobbies. It can be a hobby on top of your hobby.

It is a lot of hard work initially as I learned how to blog and how to do it well. I am still learning how to be a better blogger, to write valuable contents and to social network with others. 

After just about 2 months into blogging, I have come to a conclusion that there are tremendous benefits in blogging and that blogging is highly beneficial for everyone, both young and old. I have seen people of all ages blogging and posting awesome, inspiring articles. Nothing is easy in the beginning but if you don’t give up but keep learning, you will find lots of amazing stuff that you can do with your blog. I have here:

Top 11 Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For Everyone

1. Quickens your thought flow and helps you to communicate more effectively
   Because you have to write, you have to put your thoughts together so that it flows. You learn to be more precised and focused. In doing so, you are able to communicate more effectively without beating around the bush. The more you blog, the more your thoughts flow more smoothly and the more engaging you are to your readers or listeners
2. Makes you a better thinker, learner and writer
   As is always said, ‘You stop growing when you stop learning’. Blogging is a good way to make you keep learning. As you read other people’s blogs and make research for your own blog posts, you naturally become a better thinker, learner and writer.
3. Make new friends all over the world to exchange information and to encourage each other.
   There are millions of bloggers all over the world and lots of them share the same interest as you. Blogging opens up huge opportunities to connect and make friends with them and share your interest and information with them. There are many friendly and helpful bloggers around. I have already met many. The many social media networks make such connection possible and easy.
4. Motivates you to learn and add value to your own life
   As long as you have the right motive and purpose, blogging motivates you to learn. The more you learn, the more informed you are and the more confident you become. You become more confident to write, to share and to communicate with others. By so doing, you are adding values to your own life, making your life more meaningful and fulfilled.
5. Enables you to contribute and add value to other people’s life
   Not only do you add more values to your own life but you add values to other people’s lives too as you contibute useful information through your blog. I have benefitted a lot from reading other people’s blog posts all these years. They have added much values to my life without them even knowing it. It is a noble thing to add values to other people’s lives without expecting anything in return from them.
   
6. Makes you more creative and gives you the freedom and leverage to do so
   Blogging makes you a more creative person, especially so in areas that demand more creativity like photography, art, music, cooking, wood work and so forth. It can include creative writings. As you write, you are actually keeping a journal of your interests which itself is very self-motivating. It has the potential to spark off more creativity.
   
7. It is therapeutic through expressions in writing
   By writing about things you are passionate about, whether just personal ramblings, your business or your hobbies, helps you to distract and de-stress. It has proven to be therapeutic. It is possible to help a person out of depression as he/she lays down all unpleasant feelings in words. It can be very encouraging when other people suffering similar conditions are helped through his/her blog.
8. Potential to start a business and make money
   Blogging helps to build up your profile on the web in a good way if you project yourself well as one who is very helpful, friendly, kind and knowlegeable in your field of expertise. In time, as you keep on writing good contents, there’s a big potential to make money out of it. You can sell your products or service online and also earn from adverts placed on your blog.
9. Cost very little or even free
   It doesn’t cost much to have a blog. If you use a paying platform like Hostgator which I’m using, you pay about $10 per month which I find is affordable and a great investment into a very good activity or hobby. It is an investment into my life. It is money worth spent. Otherwise, you can go for a free platform like Blogger which many people are using. Then of course you need a digital camera to take pictures for your blog to make your blog more interesting and outstanding. If not, there are a lot of free digital photos for download from the web.
10. Blog wherever you are and anytime you like
    There’s so much flexibility in blogging. You own your blog and you can do what you want with it. You can post as often as you like and anytime you want. You can even keep writing and schedule them for posting at a later date. And if your blog is making money, how cool is that to be travelling or on holiday and still be able to write and make more money.
11. Learn a lot without having to travel and pay
    These days learning online is very popular and a preferred option for many.  Any information you want, you can just google it. There are lots of professionals out there who are very willing to share their expertise for free. You can learn a lot from others for free as you can learn a lot from my blog here for free too.

Are you considering starting a blog? If you have a blog, what motivates you in the first place? What is your blog about?  What benefits do you see in blogging? Please share, add and comment in the comment box below. If you like this article, you can subscribe for free to the RSS or through email (both on the top right corner) so that you don’t miss out on any future articles.

You can read here about My First Blog Post - My Dream Come True. Another article about my blogging journey, how I got it all started, is on the way. You will learn what I did wrong and what I did right. In the mean time I’ll keep learning and keep smiling to be a better blogger, adding good contents for you. My goal is always to be a consistent, happy learner to live a happy, fulfilled and meaningful life. I want to keep learning and keep smiling. I hope that’s your goal too.

Quote of the day…..

‘Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.’

Mary Kay Ash