Making the Most of My Creativity in Blogging in a Smart Way

Chapters

1 — Roots of My Creative Passion
2 — Creative Skills Involved in Blogging
3 — Reality of Being a Creative in Blogging Industry
4 — Using Creativity in Blogging the Right Way

Soft Skills

Ah… Writing. It reminds me of a common misconception that stops people from blogging: only skilled writers should blog.

Based on my experience, that’s just not true—it’s actually kind of silly to think that way.

Some of the people I know began blogging without any writing or creative experience—they just love sharing their stories. It’s so inspiring to see how successful they are now, with tons of subscribers and fans on social media!

If you want an example, just check out the blog of your favorite travel blogger that you’ve been following for years and compare their first post to their latest one.

Especially if they don’t focus much on SEO (search engine optimization) and haven’t heavily edited their old posts, you’ll see how rough their early writing was.

You might see hardly any difference in their writing quality today if your favorite bloggers have had editors.

But whatever you discover from your mini investigation, the main takeaway is that everyone starts as a beginner and can learn and improve.

Ha! You have no idea how cringey I felt reading my very first blog posts from 2021 when I revised them for the first time. I couldn’t even get past the introduction because they either sucked or were just plain boring.

But look at my posts now! I’m not bragging, but I’ve kept you reading until this point, which means I’ve really improved my writing! 😉

So, I’d say a person doesn’t need any creative skills to start blogging—just the courage to jump in, enthusiasm to share, passion for their craft, dedication to their goals, or simply a willingness to learn new skills. 

Throughout my blogging journey, I’ve learned a lot, including the three key skills needed for blogging: writing, web design, and creating visuals.

Let me share some of my thoughts on these skills with you.

Writing

Among the three, writing is clearly the most important part of blogging.

Written content is the core of any blog. It’s what drives everything. Bloggers need to make improving their writing a top priority, especially if they want to succeed quickly.

But keep in mind, writing isn’t something one learns overnight, and grammar is just one piece of it. There’s also clarity, structure, cohesion, and so much more, all of which improve with practice.

One can take a writing course to speed up the learning process. But honestly, there’s no better way to improve than by writing every day.

That’s been true for me and for many, and it’s what they’ve learned from following influential writers on X or Twitter like Dan Koe, Dakota Robertson, David Perell, Kieran Drew, and Alex Mathers—so they can trust this advice!

The most important thing when learning to write a blog post is training yourself to always bring a unique perspective, voice, and some added value to what’s obvious.

This is super important, particularly now that we’re all blogging in the age of AI.

Visuals

A blog can definitely exist with just text, but it’s much more engaging and interesting when visuals complement the writing. Skills like photography, graphic design, or video editing will really help a blog stand out in a sea of information.

For example, have I mentioned how helpful it is to have a photo for each step in a how-to blog post?

And that travel blog with all the photos and videos of their candid moments during their trip? It’s just so fun and amazing to see how real they are!

The importance of using visuals, though, may vary depending on the topic or industry for which the blogger is writing.

For travel, food, fashion, interior design, fitness, photography, beauty, art, and design, it is essential to include visuals; however, this is not as critical for personal development, technology, philosophy, and legal topics.

Nevertheless, while some topics may not require visuals, I still recommend adding at least one visual to a blog post.

Whether it’s an infographic, a short story video, or a selfie of the blogger engaged in work related to the post, I think it would enhance the overall content.

The reason for this is generative AI.

I think that as the internet gets flooded with boring AI content, people will start looking for more stuff created by real humans. The best way to show this is by including visuals that prove there’s a person behind the blog.

Honestly, ever since generative AI became popular, I think visuals have become a must-have for blogging. In my case, hunting down photos and videos of the person behind the blog is the first thing I do when I’m browsing the web these days!

Creatives Must Know Marketing

The thing is, getting people online to check out our work isn’t easy either. It might come naturally to those who are really talented or good-looking, but for regular folks like me, it means picking up some extra skills.

What skills? They’re all about distribution and persuasion—basically, marketing skills.

Early monetization methods like affiliate marketing and ads are pretty straightforward to implement. However, indeed, they won’t bring in money without effective marketing. No eye balls on blog posts = no income.

Thanks to the courses I took at the start of my blogging journey, I quickly learned how important marketing skills are.

So, throughout my journey, I paid attention to learning about things like SEO (search engine optimization), copywriting, content planning, and even a bit of psychology.

Honestly, it felt overwhelming at times. I really wanted to be a successful blogger as soon as possible, but there was just so much to learn—technical skills on top of creative ones. If I could have, I would have worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to make it happen.

The Need to Learn Evergreen Skills

What makes a blogger’s life even tougher is that blogging relies on constantly and swiftly changing technology. As that tech evolves, so do marketing strategies.

The things I might be studying now could become outdated or irrelevant tomorrow. This rapid change is why it’s essential to be wise in choosing the right skills to learn and develop. 

If you asked me what marketing skills new bloggers should learn, I’d say focus on the evergreen skills.

These are timeless abilities like understanding consumer behavior, storytelling, and communication that stay valuable no matter how technology changes. They’re the foundation that makes our creative work relevant across all platforms.

Personally, I’m putting more effort into building relationships and storytelling because I believe that’s the key to blogging in the age of AI. AI just can’t create authentic stories or form real connections, so I see this as a great opportunity.

The Fight Against Artificial Intelligence

Speaking of AI, it’s another challenge bloggers face today.

I see generative AI as one of the biggest thefts of ideas in history. The victims are creatives worldwide whose work was used by big tech companies to train AI to mimic their creativity.

Unfortunately, we can’t fully protect our work—like blog posts, videos, and pictures—from being automatically stolen by generative AI companies once we put it online. But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world for us.

It might sound cringy, but there’s no way for AI to take our human qualities that we put into our work. Our authenticity, personal experiences, moral judgment, complex empathy, and intuition—things a machine can’t replicate—will be our best defense against AI. 

Again, people will always look for that human connection, which AI just can’t provide. So when building a blog, it’s important to remember to highlight these qualities in our posts.

Honestly, after getting used to the robotic answers from ChatGPT, I can easily recognize AI-written text. When I see it on websites, I immediately click away.

The no-effort vibe of AI-generated content is what really turns me off. I mean, come on—there’s no real connection or help from someone who just throws together content without any thought.