Maintaining an active blog has been one of the best decisions I ever made in terms of my career. I feel that every designer could greatly benefit from running a blog if they have the desire to share their thoughts with others. Here is my list of 10 reasons for designers to blog.
1. Increased Exposure
Vandelay Website Design gets far more exposure as a result of this blog than it would from any other method, outside of spending a ton of money on advertisements. Without the blog, 99% of those who have heard of us probably never would have. There’s obviously no shortage of designers and design firms out there, so we all need to stand out in one way or another. In my opinion, a blog is as good a way as any.
2. Improved Name Recognition
With the competitive nature of the design business, having a name that is recognized by potential clients can be an advantage. A blog is just one way that you can achieve name recognition, but it is a very achievable method.
3. The Learning Experience
Writing new blog posts can be a challenge that constantly builds your knowledge and your ability as a designer. Personally, I like the fact that I can produce content for the blog and learn at the same time. By writing blog posts that will challenge your knowledge and abilities, you can improve your overall performance as a designer by learning on the go.
4. Networking
Whether you design for a firm or whether you freelance out of your home, networking with other designers, SEOs, marketers, and potential customers can make your work more enjoyable and productive. With a blog, networking online is a natural occurrence and you will be blown away by the connections that you can make so easily.
5. Helps Customers to Find You
A blog can bring potential customers to you in a number of ways. They could come to your site through search engines, through social media, or through a link to one of your posts. They could even be one of your subscribers that follow you on a regular basis. Publishing a popular blog will bring plenty of new people to your site that can potentially turn into business.
6. Improved Content on Your Site for Search Engines
As I just mentioned, potential customers may find your site through search engines. With a blog you will have far more pages indexed than you would otherwise, plus it will be fresh content that covers a variety of design-related topics and draws search traffic for a much greater number of keywords and phrases. Just having a small design portfolio will not give you a very good chance of drawing search engine traffic because the web design market is so competitive. However, with a blog you can easily build up search traffic over time.
7. Improved Communication Skills
As a blogger you will be constantly improving your writing and communication skills. While these skills are important in just about all aspects of life, they are especially valuable skills for designers who need to be able to effectively communicate with clients and other designers. With a blog you can develop skills that will make your projects more successful.
8. Demonstrate Your Knowledge
When prospective customers visit your blog they will be able to see that you know what you’re doing and that you are a qualified designer. While a portfolio can demonstrate your technical design ability, a blog will allow you to put that knowledge into writing and go a step further towards showing customers that you are the one for the job.
9. Potential Promotion When Needed
Once you have built up a decent number of subscribers you will have the ability to promote your work to an interested audience. Say you are having a bit of a slow time when you could use some additional work. Why not publish a blog post that announces a short-term discounted price to your blog readers? Rather than spending considerable time and money to find a new project you may be able to get quick results by simply reaching out to those who subscribe.
10. Variety of Work
One of the nice things about blogging is that it can break up the monotony of your work and give you something different to do. Designers obviously enjoy designing, but sometimes it is nice to mix in another worthwhile activity like writing blog posts.
What’s Your Experience?
I shared the reasons that I think designers should blog, now it’s your turn to add to the conversation.
23 comments from readers
1 Greg J. Smith Feb 27, 2008 at 7:15 pm
A good list! I think designers make great bloggers, it just expands our knack for “neverending critique” into content… and really, why not do that? My take on my blogging and online writing is that I am researching this stuff anyways, why not package it and other people can check it out if they are interested.
I don’t even care about getting freelance work through online presence (although some comes).. I just love the exchange of ideas.
2 10 Reasons Web Designers Should Blog « The Digg Outpost Feb 27, 2008 at 10:19 pm
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3 James Mann Feb 28, 2008 at 3:55 am
I started my online life as a web designer and didn’t get into blogging until just about a year ago and not seriously until just a few short months ago. I wouldn’t have it any other way now.
I now have a dozen blogs and growing.
I feel the networking aspect of blogging is so much more powerful that the static web site, at least in my experience. I have grown ten times faster using blogs that when I was using static web sites.
I have a friend that wants to build a static website and I keep telling him to go with a blog. He could have a static home page that would do what he needs but he can be hard to get through to. I am going to email him your post and maybe he will come around.
4 HighFivez.com: Your Guide Through The Blogosphere Feb 28, 2008 at 11:59 am
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5 Vinh Le Feb 28, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I can’t agree more with the need to separate yourself from the others and show that you actually know your stuff. It is also fun and a nice change of pace from web designing and coding all day.
I think for people who want to go into blogging, they should grab a good book on blogging or find a blog on blogging to get a better understanding of it. But they shouldn’t hold off from blogging, get a quick installation of a blogging platform up with a basic template and start blogging right away. As time goes on, they can decide on designing a better blog or focus on different topics.
Once again, nice article.
6 Vandelay Design Feb 28, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Greg,
Thanks for your feedback. I’m glad to hear that it has been a good experience for you.
James,
I agree with you that the networking aspect of blogging is much greater than that of static websites. That’s something that I didn’t truly understand when I started blogging.
Vinh,
Yes, it’s definitely important to get starter. The learning will come with time. Thanks for your comment.
7 Watch out: Web Designer’s Awesomeness in February Feb 29, 2008 at 3:31 am
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12 Nathan Ketsdever Mar 6, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Great post!
Check out a recent Dosh Dosh for a fantastic post about owning your niche with relation to art.
13 Biodun Mar 10, 2008 at 3:36 am
Informative Post! Blogging is a great way for designers to gain exposure and improve their skills.
14 orangeguru Mar 11, 2008 at 7:56 am
Reason #11 - wasting time discussing the same issues over and over again - while non-blogging webdesigner make all the money.
15 Vandelay Design Mar 11, 2008 at 2:33 pm
orangeguru,
You have a point. If blogging doesn’t help improve your business in some way than you are better off without it. Personally, that’s not the case for me.
16 Natalie de Guzman Mar 16, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Web designers don’t really mind about it but doing SEO could also help them.
17 your website sucks Mar 17, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Hey,
Very interesting post … but indeed i think orangeguru isn’t get it wrong. I think blogging can help a webdesigner in his business alot. Thanks for ideas
18 Yaz Okulu Mar 22, 2008 at 7:47 am
does anyone knows if there is any other information about this subject in other languages?
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23 Peter Jun 3, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Great post and advise. I will give it a shot!