Writing on the Internet has never been easier, but there’s a lot of competition out there.  That’s why, if you want to put your knowledge and skills to work online, your first step is to establish yourself as an authority on such things.  Social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can help towards this, but one of the best ways to expression your knowledge on your subject of interest is to maintain a blog. 

Blogs are a bit like a combination of diary and personal journal.  You can make a blog about any subject you like from your hobbies to your professional work.  The key for making this work for you is to develop your blog into a useful resource for others.  For example, if you were making a blog about your baking hobby, you might share recipes on it or run articles talking about various techniques involved in making cakes.   

Overtime you would develop a backlog of content that both demonstrated your knowledge and capabilities and that established your authority of knowledge on the subject being discussed.  Even for professionals not intending to directly make money out of their writing, it still serves as an excellent way to demonstrate to potential business partners the length and breadth of your professional knowledge.  For example, if you wanted to start a kitchen company, then having a blog helps demonstrate your market knowledge, prior work designs and the justification behind them so you can show others just what you are capable of. 

There are further benefits to having a developed blog.  You’ll get plenty of practice writing article length pieces which will come in useful both as part of a portfolio to others and in developing your personal writing skills.  You might even decide to turn the contents of your blog into a published book when you have enough content. 

Getting started with blogging is really easy.  The two big blog software providers nowadays are Blogger and WordPress, though other versions exist and the choice of which to use is entirely up to you.  You can install the blogging software on your own website if you are savvy enough or alternatively get one set up for you.   Indeed, a blog makes for an ideal personal website for those with limited technical ability, allowing you to provide a professional standard of representation on the web with relatively little personal knowledge being required.

Whether your passion is children’s stories, farming or business getting a blog means getting your opinion out there.