Do You Need Good English to Blog? (5 Questions Answered)

English is undoubtedly the most popular language in the blogging industry. 

There’s just one problem – you’re not very confident in your English skills. 

This begs the question: 

Take me, for example. 

I, myself, don’t have perfect writing skills. I often consult an editor to make sure every article is grammatically correct and polished.

But that didn’t stop me from building a blog that’s recognized and appreciated by thousands of readers. 

Without my blog, I’m just an average guy. I made it here because I was willing to learn, dream, and turn ideas into action. 

With that out of the way, let’s answer another important question.

In a previous post, I talked about my blogging journey and discussed the specific steps in becoming a full-time blogger. Read it to learn the ins and outs of blogging as a career!

Do I need to perfect my English before I start blogging?

While good English is necessary to build a respectable and authoritative blog, you don’t need to have it right away. Your English is guaranteed to improve over time – you just need to keep practicing and writing more articles.  

Remember, blogging itself will improve your English. 

I used to tell myself one thing before taking risks in the early stages of my blogging career: 

The good news is, I’m more than willing to help you throughout your blogging journey. By the end of this post, you’ll find a handful of valuable resources that will help you through each step.

But first, allow me to address a couple more crucial questions. 

Can you blog with bad grammar skills?

Publishing articles with grammatical mistakes and spelling errors will definitely hurt your blog’s authoritativeness. Still, you can successfully build and run a blog with the help of a professional editor or proofreading tools. 

Take note that, when it comes to blog content, it’s the idea and value that matter the most!

As a professional blogger, your job is to produce content that can help readers solve their problems. If you want, you can focus on generating valuable content ideas and let someone else handle the writing and editing.

However, it’s much preferable to improve your English and instill your own personality into your blog. 

This will make sure that your blog articles will turn out exactly the way you want them to be. Not to mention you don’t have to worry about paying other people to develop content for you. 

Apart from that, having good English offers other advantages.

If you’re looking to hire freelancers to help with writing and editing, don’t miss my ultimate guide on how to find and hire talented blog writers. Check it out!

How will good English help your blog?

Writing a blog in good English has dozens of benefits. But they’re not all equal in terms of impact. 

Below are five big-time reasons why bloggers should strive to perfect their English skills:

Of course, having great English skills is also a huge advantage in terms of productivity. 

The more skilled you are, the easier it is to write high-quality articles. You’ll also need to spend less time proofreading and editing if your writing is awesome right out of the box. 

Even non-native English speakers can perfect their writing skills and create brilliant articles that readers worldwide will appreciate. 

This leads to the next question I want to answer.

Is it possible to become a successful blogger if English isn’t your first language? 

Yes – anyone can build a successful blog in English even if it isn’t their native language. There are countless successful bloggers from non-native English countries all over Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. 

You don’t have to look far for specific examples. I, for one, speak Hindi as my first language, but I managed to create a fairly popular blog in English.

Here are a few more examples: 

1. Celes Chua from Singapore blogs at Personal Excellence
2. Farnoosh Brock from Iran blogs at Prolific Living
3. Henneke Duistermaat from Netherlands blogs at Enchanting Marketing

If you read their blogs, you’ll notice that all of them write in perfect English. This allows them to connect with a wider audience and grow their blog on an international scale. 

Of course, you will be able to do the same – I can guarantee that. It doesn’t even matter if English is your second, third, or even fourth language.

But it would take a lot of work. 

Without further ado, let’s talk about the ways you can make it happen. 

Tips to blog in English if it isn’t your primary language

Here are the top 7 tips for bloggers who are non-native English speakers: 

1. Don’t be a perfectionist 

Remember, you don’t need to be a perfect content writer upon starting. Allow yourself to make mistakes when writing your first draft – learn from them later when it’s time for editing! 

2. Use a proofreading tool to spot your mistakes 

Speaking of learning from mistakes, a proofreading tool like Grammarly will help accomplish your goal. Even with the free version, it automatically detects all punctuation, grammatical, and spelling mistakes – as well as provides correction suggestions.

3. Try to write every day 

Writing every single day will not only improve your English writing skills over time. It will also help you identify and develop an inner writing voice that will make your blog unique. 

4. Read and watch a lot of English material 

Whenever you have time to spare, you should keep yourself busy with other English articles, video tutorials, and books. Take note of every new word you learn and its proper usage.

5. Communicate with native English speakers 

Thanks to the internet, anyone in the world can build connections with the English-speaking community. Visit websites like Reddit, Quora, and various social media platforms to interact with them firsthand to learn how they communicate.

Here’s one of the many times I communicated with a native speaker despite not having perfect English at that time:

6. Ask a native English speaker to correct your mistakes 

When connecting with native English speakers, be open when it comes to your intent to learn their language. Invite them to point out your mistakes and provide suggestions to improve.

7. Create a swipe file 

A swipe file for writers is basically a collection of words and phrases you can use on multiple posts. This can include transition phrases like “the good news is” and expressions like “see eye to eye.”

Below is an example of what this type of swipe file looks like:

As a bonus tip, you should actively seek out learning resources that will help you learn and master English faster. 

Let me help you with that.  

Some resources to help you write better

Here are some of the best English writing resources that I handpicked just for you: