Blogging is beyond a fun past time or an outlet to express yourself. It’s also a great way to develop a wide range of skills that can benefit you in different areas of your life. You may adopt self-awareness, creativity, and problem-solving skills, which I mentioned in the first part of this post—Life Lessons I Have learned in Blogging. Here the other skills and benefits you’ll get from being a blogger:

6 Benefits of Blogging: It helps you to make connections

But of course, follow healthy protocol whenever you do it. Attending conferences and seminars is something I do and recommend to others. Why?

I am not that active in attending media conferences. A consequence of that is I have limited exposure or connections in the blogging/vlogging community and PRs, which also leads to

• I often miss some fantastic events I wish to be a part of.
• I have fewer chances to grow my connections.
• I need to learn more about the latest local trends and updates in content creation.

It is why I appreciate people or companies that invite me to their events. So why do I still get invites? Let’s discuss that a bit later. For now, I want to share the benefits of attending events for content creators such as iBlog, WordCamp, and Blogaplaooza.

• I love meeting and learning from mentors, veterans, innovative creators, and fresh-blood bloggers/vloggers. I learned a monetization technique from a student blogger way before professionals discovered that.
• It is an event type that always reminds me of my values as a blogger and what I can offer—whether commercial or non-profit. Wordcamp (the first event I ever attended) taught me about the ideas and techniques of freelancing. Through iBlog, I started dreaming about podcasting, e-book writing, and using my platform to offer help. 
• Moreover, such events often include snacks, games, souvenirs, and bonding time (Oh, I miss iBlog and Wordcamp!) 

7 Being an online publisher or content creator helps you learn to negotiate 

Once, a foreign company emailed me about its affiliate marketing program. In other words, they want me to blog about them and put their dedicated code on my website. No problem with me; they met my simple standards, and I appreciate the persistence of their sales and marketing staff. However, in our last conversation, the boss said, ” You can ignore our offer if you don’t want our terms. 

I followed her advice of not accepting their proposal. It is not because of their terms but because of her negotiation skills. I understand that she has goals for the company and is just doing her job. I was willing to help them in any way possible because their business concept is excellent and serviceable for Filipinos. But whatever she misinterpreted from my inquiries, it was her issue as a negotiator/ businesswoman. 

From my standpoint, I’m inclined to prioritize what I value as a website owner and blogger, so I am inquiring about things about them and how we can work together. Parang sa tono n’ya ay oo lang ako kasi nag-agree na ako sa call at hindi ako magtatanong about sa company nila.  

Remember that you are a website owner/ online publisher too. You have the power to say no.

8 It propels your sales, marketing, and other business skills.  

I appreciate companies and individuals approaching me for affiliate marketing, guest blogging, etc. Some are good, but I often need to ignore or say no to offers that don’t meet my criteria when accepting business/collaboration for blogging, such as:

• It must provide short-term or long-term value for my website and goals as a blogger. When I say “value,” it is not only about the monetary thing. 
• The topics should be something related to the categories I blog
• The proposed post/business is valuable for my readers, which Filipinos in general but highly prioritize SMEs, workforce/OFWs, and students.
• The app or material will not affect the technical aspects of my website. For example, loading speed and white hat SEO
• They will assist me with technical aspects ( e.g., coding) and complexities.

I am open to doing business and collaborating with others. But some individuals/companies’ requests look hard sell and too demanding. Or they make it apparent that they think content creators/ bloggers like me are money-driven and naive about digital marketing practices. 

Here are the typical proposal issues that most bloggers or content creators like me encounter: 

• (9) Some offer bargain fees for work that is too demanding and perpetually beneficial for them. Remember this; their material may gain something from your website for as long as it’s up. Quite different from advertising on magazines, billboards, and TV/ Radio programs with limited duration. Additionally, website content provides an intimate vibe (possibly more convincing) since the readers/ audience can consume it through their smartphone. It’s the power of mobile marketing!
• (10) Obviously, some only want to link juicing- For example, some want to publish articles (with links) on websites/ blogs that have nothing to do with a blogger’s usual content. I can accept materials written in English (most Filipinos can understand it anyway), but these should cover the type of subjects I feature on Hoshilandia. 

Moreover, if they’ve prospecting me/ Hoshilandia, it is evident that I’m writing primarily for Filipinos because I usually write in Tagalog. By the way, link juice is when a website shares its value with another through hyperlinks. 

By the way, it’s almost automatic that you will learn content marketing when blogging/vlogging. It would help if you learned techniques to boost traffic or readership on your website and prevent problems.