The number of people blogging is growing exponentially, with new blogs starting up every day. From big businesses wanting to tell a more personal story and be more accessible, to new mums wanting to catalogue their children’s earlier years. There’s so many hosting companies, and plugins on the market, it couldn’t be a better time to start blogging. Students may be worried they don’t have time to blog, but we’ve come up with some tips to help you fit your blog in with your studies. You may even find it can help you, if you do it right.
Write What You Know
Why not blog about your course? Whatever it is you’re doing, from sports, to a doctorate in nursing, there’s so many other people out there taking the same course as you, who would love to learn from your experiences. Or if you don’t want to talk about your student days (your kids might read your blog one day!) why not write about the subject matter of your degree? You’ll have gained a lot of knowledge you can pass on to others, and whilst researching topics for your blog, you may find you learn new things yourself.
Use People You Know
This is a fantastic tool for students; you’ve got access to the alumni at your university, use them. Interview pieces make some of the best blogs. You might even make some connections you will find useful once you graduate.
Make it Work for You
While your blog may be a fantastic hobby, your passion, something you love, have you considered monetizing it? There are a few options open to you if so. Advertising, working directly with brands to review products, selling eBooks, and affiliate marketing are all good options. Some people make a little extra cash, but others make a full time living from their blogs, look into Google AdSense and WooCommerce to get started.
Self-Host
I highly recommend self-hosting your site from the very beginning. There are many great free blogging platforms, but you’ll be limited in your options to customize and monetize. After a few months, if you decide you want to make the move to self-hosted, you’ll have to transfer everything across, including your followers. If you want to take your blog seriously, it would be a great idea to just self-host from the get go.
Organize
This is one of the most important tips for student bloggers. Your studies must come first. Even if you’re doing an online course, such as this doctorate in nursing course from Bradley University, and you think you’ve got more time, blogging can get really addictive. Time seems to pass really quickly when you’re editing pages, and before you know it, suddenly the whole night has gone. Make sure you plan your time wisely, use a diary and even an alarm if you’re really need to.
A blog is a great thing for anyone to have, and certainly could be useful for students. Follow these tips and you might find that your small hobby grows into something really important to you.