Last week I announced that I'€™m doing a week-long series on how to blog.

Then I received an onslaught of emails reminding me of how I have always said that it'€™s stupid to try to earn money blogging. Here'€™s the post where I outline the rationale for this. But the bottom line is that making money from blogging based on getting tons of traffic is a terrible goal because so few people can do it.

So most advice about blogging is stupid, because making money from ads on your blog is a lost cause. But you know what you can do really well with a blog? Create a stable, engaging, career – that is not blogging – that accommodates your personal life. Because a blog is a career tool, like a resume. It's the magic pill for your career.

Here'€™s a photo of what I did last week. I went to galleries, in New York City, with my kids.

Do you know why I can do this stuff? Because I have a secure career. I can always make money, I can control my own hours, and I can always find someone to give me work if I need it. I am not more diligent than you or more lucky than you. I am a fanatic about always making sure I can make money in ways that are interesting to me.

So when I tell you to blog, I tell you that as a way for you to give yourself the same sense of career stability that I have. I worry about a lot of things in my life, but I don'€™t worry about being unemployed or having boring work.

I can show you how to get that confidence. That'€™s why I decided to do the Blogging Bootcamp.  Here'€™s what blogging can do for you:

1. Blogging makes career change easier.

Most people have trouble with career change because they know what they want to do but they can'€™t get a job doing it. A blog allows you to show people your ideas and your investigations in a given field. And that'€™s what being an expert is:  asking the best questions. Make your blog an exploration of the field you want to be in, and sooner than you realize, you will actually be qualified to be hired in that field. This is not rare: it happens all the time, in a very wide range of fields.

2. Blogging lets you skip entry-level jobs.

No one wants an entry-level job if they can avoid it. The pay is low, the responsibilities are questionable, and the assumption is that you are paying dues. A blog can allow you to skip over this drudgery by making you well known in the field for your ideas, rather than for your experience. Also, as you are linking and responding to other bloggers in your field, you are building a network of people who know you as someone with a reputation in the field and they can help you land a job that'€™s not entry-level.

3. Blogging opens up the world of part-time work.

Pew Research reports that most moms would rather work part-time than have a full-time job or be a stay-at-home mom. This means that almost every mom is the US is competing for the jobs that are engaging, well paying, and part-time. How do you stand out in this crowd? Blog. A blog shows people how you think and how you'€™re connected in a way that a standard resume or standard work history simply cannot. A blog is a differentiator when the competition to get the job you want is fierce. You don'€™t need a lot of readers, you just need one reader, who is able to hire you, and is impressed with what they read.

4. Blogging makes it easier to re-enter the workforce.

If you'€™ve been out of work for a while, your resume probably has a hole in it, and your network is waning. A blog can solve both problems by showing you as intellectually vibrant on your blog and engaged in your field. Your blog is a better calling card than a resume if you have been out of the workforce.

5. Blogging builds a network super fast.

When you blog about the arena where you want to get a job, you start building a network of people who can help you get that job. Blogs are best when they are filled with ideas, because people like to talk about ideas, and share ideas, and we all like to be around people who are interesting thinkers. Your blog creates a magnetic force that brings people who would be interested in you toward you. When it comes to getting a job and staying employed, you'€™re much better off spending time cultivating a network like this than spending your time actually hunting for a job. With a blog-generated network you won'€™t have to look for a job again—they will be there when you need them.

If you want a stable career, if you want to take charge of where you'€™re going in your career, then you should be blogging. But you need to know how to manage blogging in your life so you don'€™t spend too much time on it, and so you don'€™t get sidetracked by snake oil salesmen telling you that you should make money from your blog.

So look, this is why you should learn how to blog. You should learn how to blog to get the life you want. So you can go to art museums in the middle of the day, so you can have someone to build Lego projects, so you can think about things that are more fun to think about than how to stay employed.

So sign up now.