In a quest to get back on the blogging bandwagon, I thought I would take a look this week at the different benefits that blogging offers.

Ownership might not be the most obvious answer but for me it’s the most important reason why I blog. I’m not just talking about the blog itself, but the words and the content and how my writing acts as my soapbox in the world today.

Owning Your Words

The most important reason why I blog is because it allows me the opportunity to put something out there that’s mine. They are my words, my opinions, my stories, my views. It might not always be gold, but that’s okay. They are my words.

It can be a short post, an article, some long form writing or even a short story. It might be a quote a link or even just a word. Just a single word is enough to convey some message across about where you are.

Owning Your Space

Another reason why I blog is the fact that I want to own my words. Lately there’s a lot of chatter about the pros and cons of hosting your blog in Medium and whether it’s a good or a bad thing. I can see why people would choose Medium as a blogging platform. It’s a great entry into writing online.

However I do prefer having more control over my blog and where it gets published too. Medium is snowballing as more and more people make the switch from their own hosted blog to becoming part of the Medium network, but the problem with this is that it becomes difficult for anyone but people on Medium to see your and follow your blog.

The other great benefit of owning your words is that you can take your blog with you to other blogging platforms if you find that you have outgrown your blogging platform. I started blogging on Tumblr years ago. I then moved to Posterous (now Posthaven), then to Jekyll and now I’m using Ghost. Throughout this time I’ve been able to take my posts with me so that nothing gets left behind.

Own It

The ability to own your little corner of the Internet and carve a niche out for yourself is why many people blog, but being accessible means owning your words and the space you blog form. You don’t have to run a fully configured server with a custom Wordpress install on it. There’s plenty of great blogging platforms out there that allow the world to read what you have to say.

Write it, publish it, own it. It’s as easy as that.