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.