These days the idea of starting a blog may seem like an outdated concept. It seems everyone just uses a social media platform these days. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, the list seems to just get longer every year. As a budding entrepreneur, you may wonder if it's even worth your time and energy to start a blog anymore.While it's true social media is a powerful channel these days, it's not the be all end all. Especially when you're targeting a professional audience (B2B), which you should be if you want to make money IMO.Google and other search engines are still powerful channels for attracting a large audience.

Working professionals engage in more search activity and research than your typical consumer and if you're trying to reach these professionals then blogging and search engine marketing are very important still.Even if your business is more B2C then I still think it's important to own your content and web property. Social media platforms can shut you down overnight for any reason they want. They can change their algorithms overnight and leave you without a way to reach customers. This is not an all or nothing situation here. It's best to have your own website and publish content on there to build up a web property you own. You leverage social media only to bring more attention to this web property! This way you build a customer email list and then you're the one in control.

What platform you use to start your blog is not really that important. My only advice is to pick something you're going to stick with for the long term because switching platforms is a headache.I use Ghost.org and I'm obviously a fan, which is obvious if you've been following my blog at all, but there are even easier and cheaper options to get started. So there's really no excuse! Platforms like Medium.com and Wordpress.com allow you to get started in minutes for free but I do think there's something to owning the platform and using open source but whatever gets you started and keeps you going is the best option.Here's another cool option that is in the works. The guys behind the email service I use, Hey.com, have an interesting new way to easily publish blog posts using your Hey.com email:

Whatever method you use be sure to build an email list ASAP. To start it can be as simple as, 'Hey sign up to hear more from me.' Overtime you can test out different lead magnet offers to increase your optin rate and gain even more subscribers.