According to current research, 20% of Americans aged 65 and older continue working full time. The majority, however, have retired and have turned to blogging to remain busy, stay intellectually sharp, contribute, and maybe even earn a supplemental income during their retirement. They bring a wealth of experience to the blog dialogue and have unique perspectives to share in a medium that is otherwise dominated by much younger voices. Should you blog during your retirement? Read on to learn how easy, fulfilling, and valuable it can be to share your voice by blogging.
You Can Share Your Wealth of Experience
There are many great reasons to start blogging, and really very few reasons not to. Blogging during retirement can be particularly fulfilling, however. Retired or senior bloggers are able to share experiences and knowledge that may be missing from the greater online conversation. Say you want to blog about wedding planning because you’ve worked in the industry for a number of years. If you know that almost 48% of couples research reception venues online, your blog could be a resource for engaged couples everywhere. Great bloggers are teachers, in essence, and teaching requires knowledge and experience.
It Can Be a Satisfying Pastime
Blogging can be a very satisfying way to spend time. Retirees often report feeling directionless during the earliest part of retirement: blogging gives them something relevant, challenging, and even social to spend their time and skills on. Even the process of creating your blog can be an engaging creative project. A good rule of thumb is to choose three main colors to create a theme, then use those colors judiciously for titles, headings, subheadings, sidebars, links, and body content. And once your blog is fully functional, you have the opportunity to engage with a community that you create. Initiating dialogues on topics important to you, as well as engaging with others who have perspectives that may either reinforce or challenge your own, can be very fulfilling. Bloggers often develop modest but dedicated groups of followers who are enthusiastic for new entries and writing.
It Helps You Remain Engaged
Blogging can provide you with three things that are very important during retirement, but difficult to replace away from structured work: community, intellectual stimulation, and purpose. Blogging connects you to a network of ideas and allows you to contribute to it regularly and with a community of like-minded people.
Blogging Can Generate Income
Blogging often generates ad revenue for the blog’s host, and that revenue is distributed among the bloggers whose content has drawn users. A successful blog can generate a range of incomes, from modest and occasional payouts to legitimate and sustained earnings. The best part? you can do this all from home! The average workstation has decreased in size from almost 80 square feet to under 40 square feet over the last few decades, which means a small home office is a perfect area to start your new online venture. Of course, income is never guaranteed from this activity, but the potential to earn even a nominal income from blogging is one more reason to try it out.
Blogging Can Be a Legacy
While the purpose of a blog is to distribute content that will be compelling and of value to others, blogging can have a great value to you as well. You can blog about your life, about your family, create a serialized memoir, tell your story or stories, or share things that you are passionate about. A blog can be a legacy: even better, it can be a legacy that you design.
Blogs Can Grow
Popular and successful blogs can grow into other and greater things: podcasts, full websites, active and engaged social media pages, even books and films, though these last are less likely. Still, if you create a great blog and demand for your story or writing grows, you may be surprised what it can lead to.
Grow as a Writer
The blogging process itself will develop your writing skills. But many bloggers find that reading widely from other blogs helps them to become better blog writers, which is somewhat different: remember that the very best writer won’t necessarily be the very best blogger, and that only you can write your blog. But there are great ideas out there waiting to be found, and if you enjoy writing blogs, you will likely enjoy and benefit from reading them as well.
Blogging during your retirement is a great way to remain intellectually active and engaged, to share your experiences and knowledge, be a part of a community, to help people who are still accumulating knowledge and experience, and perhaps even generate income. Writing a blog is a satisfying hobby that can develop into a great many other things, or remain as a blog. It’s easy to get started and fulfilling to keep up with.
