As a content creator, there are so many platforms available to you outside of blogging. The internet opened the door for social media, and social media cracked open the floodgates for everything! Now we have pithy quotables in the form of tweets, to succinct video featured on TikTok’s viral creation space.

But there remains a tried-and-true medium that is sometimes overlooked or disregarded for it’s perceived lack of entertainment value – the humble, but ever-enduring blog.  According to Hubspot’s analysis of Marketing Statistics for 2021, blogs are among the primary three forms of media used in content strategies today!

“But I’m an auditory learner, I process information visually, I like to communicate by speaking, and have my listeners engage with my voice. That’s why I jumped into podcasting! What do I need a blog for?”

Well…I’m glad you asked! Why not purchase a camera and lighting fixtures and start a YouTube channel? Why not book a studio shoot and double down on creating industry-standard Insta content?

Despite the shiny alternatives, writing articles and making your thoughts available to the world in text format is still an avenue of content creation that remains viable and valuable. By all means, pursue the other options, but don’t allow yourself to miss out on the power of consistent article writing.

Should you add blogging to your content creation?  I say, “Yes!”  And here are 6 reasons why…

1. Directing Traffic

You’ve put in the ground work by creating your podcast. Your name, artwork, and mission statement have already been strategically crafted. You’ve done the tough work of creating a landing page website. You’ve built your following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You’ve see you listenership has grown steadily. You have the clicks and the clout to begin expanding your reach by casting a larger net. This is where adopting blog writing can be a great strategy!

By creating a blog to which you post consistently, you will inevitably begin to reach and draw new engagees with the material you create. You will then be positioned to direct your podcast listeners to your blog to become readers, and your blog readers to your podcast to become listeners! 

2. Go In-depth

Podcasters with daily shows opt for episode lengths of ten to fifteen minutes, if not less. These types of audio offerings are typically consumed by listeners who are going about daily activities. Think preparing breakfast or the commute to or from work. This is a means of redeeming the mundane, making it an enjoyable experience or a learning opportunity. 

Are you a podcaster who has adopted a shorter episode format? Do you effectively communicate your message in fifteen minutes or less? Starting a blog and becoming a writer may be a refreshing avenue of content creation for you! This may actually serve to act as an outlet for bottled up information that you’re unable to share through your usual channels, namely your pithy podcast.

This bottled up information is unrealized blog content that would otherwise remain uncreated and unleveraged.  

Adopting the long form text medium will allow you to flesh out ideas to a greater degree. You can explore topics and go down the rabbit trails and tangents without fear of losing interest. You’ll be able to unpack thoughts thoroughly. It allows for a deeper level of engagement with a subject of interest that may be valuable to you, and will definitely be valuable to your reader.

On the other hand, you could choose the opposite approach…

3. Stay Shallow 

You may be a podcaster who has a long form show. This may feature in-depth, comprehensive discussions with knowledgeable guests on subjects of interest to your listeners. Perhaps your blog could then exist to serve up the expansive delicacies of your podcast in small, tasty, finger-food bites.

Use your newly-created blog to condense your lengthy podcast episodes! Present the key takeaways in easily digestible point form.  Try using formatting cues such as bullet points, numbering, clear section headings, and a one-thousand word cap, to guide your readers through an easy-to-understand reading experience.

You could even keep the posts short by dividing the information of one podcast episode into two blog posts. This not only allows for easier synthesis, but allows you to double up on your content creation!  It’s a clear and simple win-win situation!   

4. Add To Your Skills

Training yourself in another discipline will add to your “toolbelt”. By becoming a blogger, you’ll have another useful, marketable skill at your disposal.  Writing and speaking are similar in the sense that both disciplines make strategic use of words and are mediums of communicating thought, ideas, and information.

However, they are distinct in the way they’re created and engaged with. Writing has different boundary lines in regard to sentence structure, paragraph structure, and grammar. Different programs and tools are required (a laptop alone will suffice, but you could put pen to paper for your initial drafts if that’s how your ideas flow best).

What does a good blog look like? If we were to define blog writing success in terms of visibility and search engine optimization, a successful blog is a consistent blog. Committing to writing a blog may seem daunting but it will become increasingly easier and more rewarding as you continue to write. Amanda MacMaster of Macmanda Media recommends providing new content on a regular basis so that your readers and search engines learn you are a reliable source of information.

Check out her full article: Why Being Consistent in Blogging Matters

Trust me, writing is like a muscle that needs to be worked and trained, the more you do it the stronger and more proficient you will become. 

Check out WordPress for a great blog hosting platform,and get started for free!

5. Increase Visibility

Having more text based content can help a podcast be more discoverable. This will only become increasingly important as the world of podcasting continues to grow. 

According to Podcast Insights research from April 2021, there are over 48 million podcast episodes.  This is an expansive industry, with online audio broadcasting being set to grow further. Larger established companies are launching their own podcasts in recent years (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and relatively newer innovations such as social audio being adopted at a rapid rate (checkout Clubhouse and Stereo for examples of this). 

This means that any way in which you can stand out, increase the visibility of your brand and attract listeners to your podcast is worth investing in. Writing blog posts is a strategic way of doing this as it will help to increase your odds of being discovered in a vast world.

What can I do?

Use your blog to explore that controversial case study, or to give a thorough rebuttal to an established viewpoint in a public space. Sure, it means wearing another hat and doing more work. But the bulk of the heavy content-creation-lifting will have been done at the podcast creation stage, this is all extra icing on an already-delectable treat.

You can even leverage your already existing social media platforms for the purpose of increased exposure.  CEO of Authority Publishing, Stephanie Chandler advises:

“Share each new blog post across your social media networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. If you spend time cultivating your networks and share great content, social media sites can become some of your top traffic sources.”

The more visibility, the greater your social media presence! Creating a blog and using it to do this will not only benefit your podcast, but your overall brand. This is a great reason why you should add blogging to your content creation. 

Related Reads: 6 Effective Ways To Repurpose Your Podcast Content

6. Give More

Lastly, and simply, blogging is a fine way to give more value to your followers. Your people patronize your podcast because they already value your voice and regard you as an authority. Leverage that. But now, allow your patrons to experience the value you have to offer through your authorial voice. By creating a blog you’re giving more content, on another platform, to more people.

Adding blogging to your online portfolio will inevitably benefit you personally: it is a great way to become more visible online. Stepping into authorship will add to your status as an authority in your niche, and a trusted voice in your particular field. However, the benefits aren’t solely limited to you – your fans win too!

They will get the benefit of enjoying your knowledge on multiple platforms, your podcast will carry a certain tone and rhythm, this will speak to (excuse the pun!) your audience in a very unique way, but your blog content will resonate in a distinctly different way.  You could explore different topics altogether – if you’re a foodie podcaster, instead of interviewing local chefs and restaurateurs, maybe dedicate your blog to the exploration of novel recipes. Try taking a different tone – is your podcast lined with one liners? Maybe take a slightly more muted tone and lean into your knowledge and expertise.

Blog writing has the potential to be a deep well of value for consumers, whether the creator of the blog is ex-military or a florist. But if that military man or floral specialist already has a podcast under their belt, where time is already spent dispersing meaningful information, that value is compounded in a greater way. Like I said, your fans win too! 

In Conclusion

Writing a blog is a simple process. There are few barriers of entry as the work (i.e. thinking and generating creative ideas for topics) has already been done when you were crafting your podcast episodes. You could even use transcription services and have the speech of your podcast converted to text to cut down your workload even further!

Crafting your very own blog is a great way for you to allow new listeners and readers to join your content creation ecosystem.  You can take your thoughts and ideas as deep, or as shallow as you want – or even need  – to go. It’s a sure fire way to increase your skill set, and become a more marketable content producer.

Having a solid blog may not seem as sexy as having swathes of followers on a Twitter account, or thousands of devotees on your Instagram profile. But it will give you an invaluable degree of increased exposure, whilst also enabling you to give more to the increased number that follow you.

So, should you add blogging to your content creation? By this point, it’s not a question of if but how soon you can get started! So, creator, I encourage you to add consistent blog posting to your repertoire.  In so doing, you will increase the value of your brand and take your creative capacity and online influence to a whole new level.  Here’s to your future success!