Not only should your personal brand have a healthy social media presence, you should also have a blog.

Blogs are important for a number of reasons, and everyone is getting on board. Just to give you an idea, as of 2/16/11, there were over 156 million blogs in existence. As of 2/20/14 there were 250.8 million blogs...on Tumblr and Wordpress alone! Having a blog has become a key tool for growing your freelance business, so freelancers, it’s time to get on board!

A blog gives you an opportunity to express your personality, relate to people and attract an audience to your work. The fact is that it won’t take up all that much time, but will be incredibly useful for your freelance business. This is why you should have a blog:

1. It’s good for your brain...and your nerves

You know all of those studies that say how good meditation is for you? Well, if you don’t like to meditate, I’ve got good news for you: Writing benefits your brain in a lot of the same ways as meditation. It slows breathing and helps you get into that “zone” that everyone’s always talking about. For this, stream-of-consciousness writing has been shown to be a very effective method of de-stressing.

2. Your business will thank you

A blog is a simple, easy-to-use platform for connecting with and sharing timely and relevant information with customers. Think of it as a marketing investment. Finding content for your social media profiles isn’t always the easiest task, right? Well, every post to your blog can be used as valuable content for the variety of social media accounts you (should) have in your arsenal. In that way, your blog can function as the heart of your marketing content.

3. You’re a freelance professional, so tell the world!

No matter what industry you’re in, things are changing at a rapid pace. New technology is always changing the way we work and entirely new industries are springing up all the time. If you want to stay ahead of the pack, it’s important that you stay on top of the latest developments that affect you, your freelance colleagues, and your audience. Staying active and up-to-date on these developments can also help to establish you as an expert in your field.

4. It helps people find you

The more your content relates to someone’s search terms, the more likely it is to come up. If you already have a standalone website, a blog will help bring more traffic to your site. If you’re new to having a blog, start writing! The fact is that each individual blog post gets indexed separately on Google. This means that every blog entry on your site presents a new opportunity for new visitors to access your site. In fact, most people access web pages through blog posts and other inner pages, not the home page.

5. Analytics can help you learn about your audience

Do you know anything about analytics? Well they can be incredibly useful in helping you understand your audience. Blog analytics can help you track readers, click-throughs, shares, comments, and popular topics. If you know that your readers tend to check your blog on Wednesday nights, maybe you should aim to have a post up by Wednesday morning of each week. The more you know about your audience, the better.

6. You’ll improve your writing skills

The more you write, the better you’ll be. It’s as simple as that. No matter what type of freelancer you are, writing will help your business. The better you are able to articulate yourself, the better you’ll be able to communicate with clients. So think about your writing skills as a muscle. Every blog post is an exercise. The more you work at it, the better you’ll be.

Freelancers, has your freelance business grown as a result of your blog?