Anyone who knows me knows that I am very passionate about writing and blogging.

The proof is in the pudding really, my commitment to writing has been fundamental to my private practice and professional success.

As of today, I’m a 8x published author – which would not be possible without my blog.

My latest book, The 5-Ingredient Heart Healthy Cookbook, is available now!

If you want to learn more about why I chose to write on that topic in particular, I’ve addressed it previously.

Today’s article is not about myself and my books though, rather it is about why I so strongly believe that YOU ( the future or current dietitian) should be writing/blogging.

Here are my 7 reasons why I believe it is such a critical activity to take part in:

1. It is a natural way to keep current: Continuing education is a fundamental component of dietetic practice. No matter how confident you think you are with a  given topic, actually writing about it requires a different level of precision and articulation. Not only that, but it forces you to keep as up to date as possible. When you blog on topics you don’t just learn about the topic for the sake of it, you learn about it for the purpose of conveying an effective message and so the knowledge comes and stays with you more naturally.

2. Your blog becomes your portfolio: When you regularly produce high quality content you are essentially creating a portfolio that reflects your understanding, views and expression of topics.  This allows you to be a much more attractive candidates to employers and potential clients and puts you in a strong position to acquire additional opportunities that involve writing for print or web. This could lead to an increased income and certainly increased exposure.

3. It improves your web presence & grows your audience:  Having a website is awesome. Having a website that people actually visit is even better. These days you never know what opportunities could come your way and the more unique content you have on your website the more searchable it becomes and the higher it ranks on search engines.  Regularly updating your website with engaging content gives visitors a reason to return to your site regularly and  keeps it relevant.

4. It keeps your writing skills sharp: In the age of social media and digital everything, I feel like writing has become somewhat of a lost or forgotten art. Don’t let this changing landscape fool you though. Writing is, and always will be, an invaluable skill to have and if you feel that you have become estranged with the written word, blogging may be your solution.

5. It provides you a creative outlet/opportunity to show off: If you are a dietitian or nutrition student I am willing to bet you have a skill worthy of showing off. Whether that’s opinion pieces, recipe development or even the critical analysis of research studies.  These are all topics that translate very well to blogs and also allow you to express yourself creatively, which I believe is something we all need to keep sane.

6. It lets you reach and help people: If you are in this field it is almost inevitably  because you love helping people become healthier. When you produce high quality insightful and evidence based blog content, that is exactly what you are doing. I believe that blogging is such a natural extension of our profession because we have a responsibility to fight all the misinformation out there and keep the public a informed as possible.

7. Writing allows you to reflect:  Reflective practice is a massive part of being a dietitian because it allows you to appreciate what your experiences have taught you. In my opinion, there is no better way to reflect than to write out your thoughts and self-assessments. And believe me, other people want to hear what you have to say. Let give me you an example, let’s say you are a dietetic intern. Do you have any idea how many young nutrition students are dying to be in your position and would love to read your own personal reflections on going through that experience?

I truly hope you guys found this information useful.

Before closing I want to offer up a friendly reminder that my latest book is indeed available for order  – it’s currently the #1 New Release in its category!

Until next time,

Andy De Santis RD MPH

Bonus Content

What happens after you write an article?

For many of you, actually writing the article may sound like the hard part.

Don’t hate me for saying this, but the only thing harder than writing a great article is actually getting people to read it.

There is so much competition out there and in order to stand out you need an effective strategy for sharing and propagating your content to your reader base.

That’s exactly why I recommend using an effective and efficient e-mail marketing platform, such as provided by Emma e-mail marketing and automation.

Emma provides the tools you need to really connect with your subscribers and ensure the content you spent so much time producing does not go unnoticed.

Want To Get Started But Don’t Know How?

That’s where Kaleigraphy comes in.

I created my Kaleigraphy service purely as a passion project to help support young and aspiring writers in all stages of their careers to grow in confidence in all aspects of the writing process from topic conception to writing to promotion and marketing of an article.

I won’t spoil it for you here though and will let you learn more by visiting the page.

Please do reach out if you’d like to learn more!

Until next time,

Andy De Santis RD MPH