With classes, sports and work schedules, it can be difficult to justify taking on another project such as Blogging, but there are lots of reasons why college is the perfect time for you to start a blog.

Besides impressing future employers and giving you a platform where you can demonstrate your knowledge on a subject, a blog can be an important stepping stone from your college life to your professional life.

Here are some key tips on why and how to start a blog post:

The Why

Showcase your expertise

You won’t be able to include a lot on your resume when you set out to apply for jobs after college. So, how can you show employers that you’re the right person for the job if you don’t have any experience? A blog is the ideal way for you to show what you know and how well you know it.

Become a thought leader

College is a time of incredible mental exploration. Mark Zuckerberg was still in college when he came up with the idea for Facebook. If you have an original idea, a blog is the perfect platform for you to establish yourself as a leader in your field.

Make professional connections

In college, your contact is limited to your peers and professors. But once you start blogging, your universe, especially your professional universe, will expand. Other people will read your blog, share and post comments. Likewise, you should read other people’s blogs on similar topics, not only for inspiration for your own blog, but also to start forming a virtual community where you can connect both socially and professionally.

The How

Picking a blogging platform

The first thing you need to do is choose a blogging platform. And there are plenty to choose from, so you’ll have to do some research to find which one suits you the best. Here are some of the most popular platforms to get you started:

Wordpress.org

One of the oldest blogging platforms on the market, this site offers both free and paid subscriptions. Custom plug-ins and themes and a free domain name allow you to design your blog to your taste. This platform is not necessarily recommended for beginners since it requires some technical knowledge in order to use all the customizable features. Fortunately, they offer free tutorials to help you learn how to use them.

Blogger

Recommended for beginners with a super simple interface and very few bells and whistles, this blogging platform is owned by Google. If you just want to focus on content and getting it published, then this is the best bet. They don’t offer any upgrades which usually means that bloggers change to another platform once they’ve gotten their sea-legs.

Typepad

Recommended for both beginner and experienced bloggers, this platform has an easy-to-use interface and offers themes and plug-ins for those who want to design their blog to their own liking.

Choose a blogging platform

Since the point of starting a blog is to showcase your expertise, you should choose a subject that you have a lot of knowledge in. Don’t try to fake it. That might work for the first post or two, but over time, if you don’t have enough knowledge to continue creating new posts, it will show and your blog will suffer. However, a blog is also a lot of work and requires time and dedication. Make sure that you write about something that’s also interesting to you.

Strike the balance between casual and professional

A good blog will reveal the blogger’s personality as well as their expertise. A blog should be educational but it should also be entertaining. Dry, overly-academic language isn’t fun to read. But neither is a post that’s full of inside jokes and slang or foul language. Also, don’t include overly personal information or use your blog as a diary. While the occasional anecdote that provides a good example for the reader to help them understand a concept you’re writing about is fine, too many confessional types of posts will be seen as unprofessional. If you want to learn more, here’s a great guide to successful blogging.

As you build your blog, keep in mind your post-college professional goals. Use it as a platform to show your knowledge and expertise to impress future employers. Happy blogging!