Everyone has a professional voice. But, many people don’t know how to harness it and use it to their advantage. Enter blogging! Blogging is an effective way for professionals of all types to express themselves authentically online in a voice that represents them well.
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of owning your professional voice by creating your website with WordPress which is the most popular CMS aka Content Management System.
Note: A CMS is a program which allows site owners to create their own webpages and blog posts. WordPress, for example, is one of the most popular content management systems out there with over millions of websites running on it.
First, What’s the difference between a website and a blog?
A WordPress site can be used for blogging only if you want, but it can also be used to build an online store, a membership website or any type of site you need. Blogging entails posting content in regular intervals (i.e., daily). Websites can be used for creating static pages about you and your service or company and have blogging as a way to keep people up to date with your thoughts, ideas or opinions.
Benefits of Owning Your Professional Voice by Starting a Blog
- Building your personal brand online
- Owning the Platform where you share your thoughts and ideas
- Finding your voice in a crowded space online and being seen as an authority on the topics you share content about (i.e., SEO)
- Reaching more people with your thoughts, insights, and expertise
- Building relationships that can lead to new opportunities down the line by extending yourself via blogging
Do you really need a blog? Can’t you just be active on Social Media? Nope!
Social Media is not the same as owning your professional voice by starting a blog. On Social Media, you are at the mercy of algorithms and what they decide to show in their streams or timelines for users. You can argue the same can be said about websites and the search engines, but I’ll touch on that in a few.
On Social Media, you also don’t own that platform where you share your thoughts and ideas so if it goes away, then all those conversations disappear and the time you spent creating content, has just vanished.
If your business is 100% dependent on one social media platform, then you’re really at risk if the algorithm changes.
In contrast, on your blog you are in control. You set the schedule and topics you want to post about without worrying about a 3rd parties approval. When someone visits your website they know that this is where all of your content lives so it gives them a sense of comfort knowing there will always be fresh posts available from you.
There is a level of control you have by owning your website, that you just don’t get from only being on social media.
Isn’t WordPress Just for Coders?
WordPress is coded using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, on a Linux Server running either Apache or Nginx. Sounds like you need to know how to write code, but you don’t.
Without getting too technical in this post, WordPress has it’s Core functionality and uses themes for the frontend and plugins for the backend of your website.
WordPress is a self-hosted platform that allows you to manage your site content and make changes without knowing how to code.
You choose a Theme for how your website looks on the frontend and you choose Plugins to handle the functionality of your website.
The WordPress blog editor has many features other platforms do not offer such as the ability for users to post from mobile devices, create custom layouts and upload photos or videos directly into their posts. It also integrates with social media for sharing your content and connecting with others.
WordPress has a large community of users who are always willing to help answer questions. WordPress also offers free plugins for extending your blog and adding in new features, which you can search by keyword or category (e.g., SEO). This is especially useful if you don’t know how to code but want some additional functionality on your site.
WordPress also powers well over 40% of the modern web and is growing by the day. WordPress powers some of the biggest websites but is also used by countless Small Businesses and everyday bloggers. WordPress is the most popular CMS when compared to other options out there.
How will People Find My Website?
Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean people will automatically find your articles. That’s where Social Media and Search Engine Optimization come in to help drive traffic to your website.
When you post a blog article to your social media channels, from your WordPress website, it will automatically be posted with a link back to your site. This is an easy way for people who follow you on other platforms to find and share your content. If you’re active on more than one social platform, you can have multiple places to share an excerpt of your latest posts and drive traffic back to your website.
Search Engine Optimization aka SEO is a long term strategy to get your content discovered on Page One of the Search Results from Google, Bing and others.
SEO is built into the platform so that with each update, your blog articles are always optimized. You don’t have to worry about much other than writing quality content and getting it online!
Why Every Small Business Needs to be Online with their own Website
With billions of people online at any point during the day and night, you need to have a presence where people are. That means besides having your various social media accounts, you also need to be active on your blog.
You can’t just post once and hope that it goes viral. People need to see your content multiple times across the social media platforms they are on, in order for them to know who you are.
Your blog is a hub of information about everything related to your business or writing niche. And when people spend time on your website, they will often subscribe and might end up being a client or purchasing your service or whatever you offer on your website.
Blogging is a great way to improve your search engine optimization, which in turn will help you rank higher on Google.
Is there a learning curve when you get started with WordPress?
WordPress is a user-friendly CMS. It’s incredibly easy to set up and maintain your WordPress blog.
WP blogs are flexible, friendly, SEO optimized, mobile responsive with the ability to be translated into various languages for international users. WP blogs also provide an intuitive interface that will make it easy for you to create and share your content.
Of course you will need to learn a few things and the beauty is, you can just Google or search YouTube for How to Start a WordPress Website/Blog.
Is Blogging hard?
Blogging on a topic you’re familiar with isn’t hard at all. You don’t need to be a master writer or have perfect grammar. Blogging doesn’t require you to know how to use graphics programs, coding languages, or Photoshop in order to create beautiful blogs that are polished for everyone who visits them.
Here are a few more reasons to choose WordPress.
- WordPress is intuitive and has an easy learning curve
- WordPress offers tools like plugins for Google Analytics and others to help measure how your audience engages with your website
- WordPress offers the ability to create blogs on any subject
- WordPress is easy and free, you don’t need a degree or special skills to use it
- You can edit your blog anytime from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection
Aren’t you Still Dependent on an Algorithm for the Search Engine?
Consider your website/blog as your home base where you provide your valuable insight in the topics you care deeply about. If you are indeed knowledgeable in the area you’re blogging about, the search engines will see your value and eventually drive traffic to your website.
In the mean time, you will have to do some work to let people know that your website exists and whenever you release a new blog post.
You can use Email Marketing, Text messaging and of course Social Media to help with your initial and ongoing traffic. If you have a few dollars, you can advertise on Google and other websites.
There are many successful bloggers who have built their own audience by being active on social media and sharing unique content from their blog.
Blogging is a great way to get your voice out there and help people.
What do you need to create your own website/blog with WordPress?
You will need a domain name, hosting account, an SSL certificate and ideas on what to blog about.
How much Money Do I need to Start my Website?
You can start a site with WordPress for free (the software is free), but you will need to invest in hosting and domain name.
- Domain Name: $12/year, more or less
- Hosting: Starts at around $10 per month depending on which hosting provider you choose
- SSL Certificates are what secures the traffic to and from your website and can either be free with Let’sEncrypt or around $40 per year for a paid solution
How long will it take for your blog to take off?
Some blogs take off immediately while others will gradually pick up momentum. WordPress has a system in place that helps you promote your blog and this can help it get noticed through search engines, social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. With WordPress, the promotion of your content is built into the platform as well as e-commerce plugins for people who want to sell things online.
In Conclusion
I hope you realize the value of owning your professional voice online with your own WordPress Powered website/blog.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article.
This blog post on the benefits of owning your professional voice is coming from a WordPress expert who has been blogging for over ten years and believes that everyone should have their own WordPress site and use it as their blogging platform.
For many people, starting a website can be intimidating but by bookmarking my website, you will be kept up to date on how to get started and keep going.