Last updated: March 8, 2023
Starting a blog is a relatively easy thing to do.
You choose a domain name, a blogging platform and a host, and you can have a website up and running in just a few hours.
It’s the steps that come afterwards that can be both really rewarding as well as really tough.
The process of turning your blog into a successful enterprise that brings in the visitors and makes you money is a very difficult task.
Blogging, like any business, has its downsides and is not a quick and easy route to take towards financial or brand success.
But on the flipside, blogging can be really rewarding in so many ways if you stick at it.
There are many great advantages to blogging alongside the disadvantages of being a blogger.
If you’re considering starting your own blog, be it for the purpose of starting a new business or to give a boost to an existing business, read on.
These are the major advantages and disadvantages of blogging both as a career and as a hobby.
The advantages and disadvantages of blogging
Below are the main blogging advantages and disadvantages to take into account if you’re thinking of starting to blog on a regular basis.
The main advantages of blogging
These are the advantages of blogging that come from running a blog.
Related: is blogging worth it?
You are your own boss
This is a huge advantage of blogging and one of the things that motivates people to start a blog in the first place.
It’s also one of the things that ensures people continue with their blogging business.
Being your own boss is not only an incredible feeling, but it also puts you in full control of your business.
You decide what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
An advantage of running a blog is the ability to set your own work hours.
You can fit blogging in around family commitments and, as your time is flexible, you can decide when to work and when not to work.
You do not have to answer to anyone else, and can make all the decisions for your blog and business yourself.
When it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of blogging in general, this aspect on its own is often the overriding factor that encourages bloggers to keep going.
You can make some really good money
If you are dedicated to what you do and treat it like a business rather than a hobby, there are possibilities to make a really good living out of blogging.
There are lots of different ways you can bring in a really decent income.
If you’re wondering how to make money blogging, you can earn money through advertizing, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships and by selling your own products.
You can make money actively through sponsorships, and passively through affiliate links and advertizing revenue.
When it comes to making money from a website, there is no limit on what you can do over time and also no limit to what you can potentially earn.
Having a successful blog means you will be able to make a good income, can quit your day job if you want and finally start working for yourself.
The costs of blogging are relatively low
To start a blog you simply need a computer or laptop, an internet connection, a website host and a domain.
Over time you may want to invest in better equipment, a good camera, a better host, a few courses or some online tools.
But one of the big advantages of blogging is that the costs stay relatively low compared to that of most business owners.
If you work from home you also don’t need to commute into the office, saving on travel costs.
You don’t need to buy fancy office clothes (unless you want to) or get wear and tear on your car going back and forth to work.
The main investment is your time.
You can work from anywhere
This advantage of blogging is really good news if you have a travel blog in particular.
However it also means any kind of blogger can become a digital nomad and work their way around the world.
With your main tool being your laptop, you just need to connect it to the internet somewhere to get to work.
Making a living from your blog is a great way to give yourself the freedom to travel without missing a day of work if you don’t want to.
When it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, the flexibility is a huge plus.
You can use a blog to grow another business
Creating blog content is a really good way for any small business owner to create some brand awareness.
Well-written and optimized blog content can bring in a lot of visitors through Google and other search engines.
These visitors are potential customers and so a blog is a convenient way to attract more attention for your brand.
Creating a company blog is in fact a great marketing tool you can utilize for almost all business purposes.
Small businesses in particular should weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of blogging if they’re looking to attract potential clients.
Blogging can bring you lots of additional opportunities
It’s not just the money and freedom that make blogging as a full-time job so great.
Online blogs can open the doors to partnerships you wouldn’t otherwise experience.
This is one of the best things to come about after starting a blog.
Through various social networks and other digital marketing, you will likely be contacted by companies who want to work with you.
Alternatively you can also start to reach out to brands you would like to work with.
Depending on the type of blog you have, collaborations with brands can involve sponsored posts, being sent items to review or trips to new places.
You get to utilize your existing skills
Many times when you fall into a job you don’t generally love, you don’t get to use the full set of skills you have as an individual.
A huge advantage of blogging is that you can utilize these skills to benefit your personal income.
For example, if you have untapped writing skills and language skills these become a huge advantage when it comes to blogging.
A food blogger can really get to showcase their baking skills, or a tech blogger can show off their knowledge of all things technological and scientific.
When it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, this is a huge advantage as you can allow your own personal skills to shine on your blog.
Blogging encourages you to learn lots of new skills
One of the most difficult parts of blogging is learning all the aspects that go with it, from search engine optimization (SEO) to writing to research.
However, to run a blog you will need to gain some knowledge of all the parts that go into blogging.
These can often be skills that are outside of your current knowledge or comfort zone.
To run a successful blog you need to spend time learning new skills.
Although this can sometimes be hard work, it’s always worthwhile to learn new things and these will only benefit you throughout your blogging journey.
Blogging introduces you to a new community of people
When you start a blog you get access to groups and networks of fellow bloggers.
There are plenty of Facebook groups and communities of like-minded people on other social media platforms.
These networks are a great way to learn new skills, ask lots of questions and feel part of a community.
Full time bloggers as well as part time bloggers find that learning from others, and in return sharing your own advice, is a really important thing.
Starting a blog is the perfect creative outlet
Confucius once said ‘choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.’
While not strictly applicable when it comes to blogging as there’s no denying that blogging is hard work, in many ways this does ring true.
For example, if you’re stuck in a day job you hate or just generally feel creatively stuck in life, blogging can be a great outlet for you.
Writing about something you love, and immersing yourself in that topic, is a wonderful way to tap into your own interests.
Additionally, starting a blog is like starting a business and you can really enjoy all the creative ways you can grow it from the ground up.
The disadvantages of blogs
Now we’re fully immersed in the topic of the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, let’s move on to the cons of blogging.
As incredible as the advantages of blogging are, there’s no denying that on the flipside there are several disadvantages of being a blogger.
Creating a successful blog takes a long time
There is no quick route to building a successful blog.
Quite simply, it takes a very long time to see any results from your hard work.
Learning new skills, transferring these into creating new content, and all the technical aspects that go into a blog take a lot of time to execute.
On top of that, you really are at the mercy of search engines like Google.
You can create the most amazing piece of quality content that you’ve poured your heart and soul into.
But, unless you’re incredibly lucky, it won’t just appear on the first page of search results instantly.
In fact, it takes several months in general for a piece of content to rank highly on Google.
If this is your first year of blogging you likely won’t see much website traffic.
If you’re planning to earn a full-time income from your blog, just know that it takes much longer than you might think when you’re starting from scratch.
There’s very little back up in place if things go wrong
As a self employed blogger, you won’t have the benefit of any company sick pay or insurance.
This is one of the major disadvantages of blogs.
If you’re planning on blogging full time you’ll definitely need to factor in some financial security for yourself.
There are also a lot of things outside of your control that can be a disadvantage when it comes to blogging.
For example, during the recent pandemic advertizing budgets were cut almost overnight.
This led to many bloggers losing a huge chunk of their income for several months.
Travel bloggers in particular were hit hard by lockdowns as vacations were cancelled, and Google traffic effectively stopped for travel-related topics.
It’s also true (as with any business) that you’ll have collaboration partners that don’t pay you from time to time, and you’ll need to deal with that.
Blogging can be a lonely profession
This is one of the disadvantages of blogging if you’re a particularly social person.
Personal blogs in particular are usually written by only one person.
You’ll find as a blogger that you spend long periods of time alone as you work on your website.
If spending a considerable amount of time alone starts to impact your mental health there are some ways to help.
For example, find a local coworking space so you can share your workspace with others.
This is a great way to get some social interaction particularly if you miss working with other people.
There are also lots of blogging networks on social media that you can join.
Here you can connect with other people in the same boat and not feel like you’re alone in your profession.
You need a lot of discipline
In terms of the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, this can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage.
In reality, you can’t just write what you want on a blog and expect to make money.
You’ll need to spend time researching keywords and search volumes.
Then you need to spend time crafting relevant content.
You have to wait for your new posts to gain any traction with the search engines.
Because everything takes a really long time when it comes to blogging, you need a lot of discipline and patience before you see results.
If you work from home, discipline is a must too because when you’re your own boss, you can do anything you want with your time.
You’ll need to put in extremely long hours without distraction to see the results you want from your blog.
The best way to look at it is to see blogging as a job, which it is.
Treat it like a job to keep your discipline and motivation going even through the tougher times.
Blogging is not all about passive income
Blogging is a never-ending process of updating blog pages and posts.
Although advertizing revenue and affiliate sales are an excellent way to earn money passively on a blog, there is still a lot of maintenance involved.
Even the most informative blog posts need constantly reevaluating and rewriting.
All different kinds of articles need to stay relevant so you will need to keep on top of updates on a regular basis.
This is to ensure you’re putting the most relevant and useful content out to search engines to keep your website traffic coming in, and that passive income going.
When it comes to advantages and disadvantages of blogging, passive income is not actually passive some of the time.
Your income is not predictable
When you work a regular job, you usually have a fixed income every month.
This helps you predict how you’re going to pay bills and afford other things in your life.
With blogging, one of the disadvantages is the unpredictability of your income.
It usually fluctuates from month to month no matter how you make a living from your blog.
Many people really don’t like this aspect of blogging, but to become a professional blogger you’ll need to accept this as a part of the job.
It’s a really good idea to always keep some financial back up to help you skim over the leaner months.
You may need to deal with negative comments
Social media accounts are both advantages and disadvantages of blogging.
While you can utilize platforms like Instagram and Facebook to grow your blog, it inevitably opens you up to the public gaze.
The disadvantages of social media include negative comments and trolling.
It’s not overly common but a number of bloggers do deal with this, particularly if they put a lot of their personal information on their blog.
Fortunately there are ways to learn how to deal with negative comments on social media.
Search engine ranking factors aren’t easy to navigate
When you’re a blogger, you’re at the mercy of search engines.
The ranking algorithm of Google, for example, is partially known to us but other aspects behind the scenes remain a mystery.
Google continually updates its PageRank algorithm which will move ranking blog posts up and down in the search results.
Even a really good blog post that is well optimized for Google is not always placed in the position you might wish in the search results.
You can put so much work into a piece of content that you believe truly outshines the rest of the competition.
However, due to the intricacies of these algorithms, your excellent piece of content may never reach its target audience at all.
One of the disadvantages of blogging is that some things work out and others don’t.
The key is perseverance, patience and staying motivated to achieve your blogging goals.
Not having a boss
Being your own boss is both one of the advantages and disadvantages of blogging.
Although being your own boss is truly a wonderful thing and often the best part of blogging (aside from the potential income), in the early days of blogging in particular you may struggle without any direction.
If you’re starting a blog for the first time it’s hard to work out what to do first, and new bloggers as well as seasoned bloggers can regularly feel a sense of overwhelm.
There are so many skills to learn, technical issues to sort out and tasks to complete on a daily basis.
You need to be able to plan your time effectively and make sure you are working as efficiently as possible.
This is especially true if you rely on your blog as your sole means of income.
It’s worth reading this post on managing your time when you’re self employed.
Try to work at a set time every day and use plenty of lists and other blogging tools to find an easy way to stay on top of things.
These advantages and disadvantages of blogging apply whether you run business blogs, personal blogs or any other kind of niche website.
You can easily set up a blog without too much extra cost and it can be written around various topics, but the same advantages and disadvantages of blogging will apply to any niche.
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