The Best Things About Blogging

By Tony Bedford

Have you ever wanted to create a business you could run from the comfort of your own home?

Would you like to have an online business that could generate income for you 24/7?

Does the idea of a business you can run from anywhere in the world appeal to you?

Do you have a desire to write creatively?

Do you have a hobby, expertise or passion that you would like to write about?

If you answered "yes" to any (or all) of the above, then you should consider starting your own blog-based business.

There are a number of advantages to starting your own blog business. In this article I'll list a few of the main ones.

Flexible

There are few business opportunities that are as flexible as running a blog. You can tailor your operation to suit your lifestyle, knowledge and financial requirements. A blog can be run part-time or full-time, you can chose your blog niche, with some constraints, based on your own areas of interest. A blog is ideal to run along side other business ventures. You get to chose your own hours.

Mobile

You can run a blog from anywhere in the world. All you need is Internet access and a browser. Virtually everything can be done online, with tools that are available for free or minimal cost. If you like to spend your summers in one country and winters in another a blog business can provide the ideal solution.

Passive income

One of the major advantages of a blog is that its revenue is passive income. To explain passive income lets look at active income first.

Active income is where you exchange your time for money. For example, if you have a job you get paid a salary for working a fixed (in theory) number of hours per week.

However, passive income is different. With passive income you create content that can be sold or delivered through an automated system. This requires an upfront development effort to create the content and set up the delivery system. Once the content is created the system is automated.

Visitors buy your product through your blog site or click on your online ads to generate revenue for you. At this point you are not exchanging your time for money. Your passive income generation system is making you money even when you are asleep.

When you realize that you can actually set up multiple streams of passive income then you can begin to appreciate the power of passive income.

Satisfying

Starting up and running your own blog business is extremely rewarding. You get to write about what you love. In fact if you are not writing about what you love then you have probably picked the wrong topic! What's more, you are getting paid to write about what you love! It doesn't get any better than that.

Freedom

Running your own blog brings great freedom. You don't have to commute, you don't have to put up with a boss you hate, you don't have to work long hours to make someone else rich. You set your own hours and work when it's convenient for you.

Conclusion

Setting up and running a profitable blog is not easy. But, with the right guidance, and with some determination on your part, it is very doable. Most of what you need to know can be learned as you go along. Starting a blog is definitely not a get-rich-quick-scheme, but then you probably already know that such things do not exist. It takes time and effort to create a successful blog, but it is possible if you are prepared to move out of your comfort zone and take up the challenge.

Tony Bedford first started blogging in March 2000. Tony currently maintains a free guide to more profitable blogging at http://the-business-of-blogging.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Bedford

Why Blog - What to Blog About?

By Linda Merlino

Blog. A word foreign to me nine months ago. Blog to sell books. Blog to find readers. Blog to drive up my rankings. Blog to get more traffic. Blog for authority. Blog because your publisher tells you to blog like your life depended on it.

Blog on subjects controversial. People like to have an opinion, squirt their opinion, and contradict another's point-of-view.

So far all good reasons, but what about blogging about something that makes you think; something that maybe changes your mind set or your life. How about my main character that has breast cancer and gives up hope? She's done. She's out-of-here. But life takes a twist, like yours-like mine, and she finds herself a hostage in an all-night market in a blizzard, trapped and sure to die by the hands of a murderer more deadly than her disease.

So that's fiction, that's got a title: Belly of the Whale, but what about real life? What about blogging about what we encounter everyday? Who will read those blogs? Will you care? Will I? Will a blog change your life or someone else's?

How about the hobo I saw today? The homeless man, the street bum, the Charlie on the MTA guy who took up nearly five seats on the downtown train from 96th Street to Grand Central? What about him? I think blogging should carry a measure of emotion, some caveat of wisdom that gets us stimulated, such as the hobo on the subway.

The platform was full at 9:15am and the doors to the downtown train opened to allow as many that could fit a ride. I stepped aboard aware of my cape and for a fleeting few seconds concerned that it would get snagged in the closing doors. Watch the doors.

I was dead center of the crowd with no overhead handle or bar to steady my balance. I dug my feet into the floor afraid that one sudden jolt would toss me sideways like a domino. Ahead of me, four layers deep the rim of the passenger bench appeared headless. I wondered what dire act had happened upon it to cause the standing riders to avoid a seat. At 77th Street passengers debarked and I moved to the headless bench. Laying five passengers long was a hobo curled in a fetal position, tattered sneakers and bagging trousers wrinkled at the knees, a thread worn coat lapels up, covered him and a wool hat was pulled low on his ears. One hand was under his coat, scratching his shoulder.

Scratching...scratching...over and over. I wondered about body lice and checked the faces of the passengers next to me. What was in their eyes? Did they think the same? He needed a bath, a shower a full disinfecting. No one objected to his inconveniencing them. No one thought to oust him or shout for him to move on. For who would sit in his place? No one present, not me. And what of this hobo? Who knows about such men? Is that term ancient, outdated? A modern day traveler of no means, keeping warm underground, that's a hobo.

The whole experience made me think, made me grateful for what I have, what I could loose and if I did loose everything; what would become of me? So I thought...here's a blog...blog about what I see. Blog about life. Blog about dying of breast cancer, blog about survival, and blog about old men sleeping in subways cars because we all need to remember that we are not on this planet alone.

Linda Merlino, authorBelly of the Whale release date April 1, 2008

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Merlino