You may think that this post does not make sense. What’s the relevance of a country for a blogger?  Bloggers publish their work online for everyone to see, so their location supposedly does not matter. The point of this post, however, is to point out countries that offer certain advantages that make blogging easier. This is not a countdown list of countries deemed to be the best for bloggers but a citation of countries that can be considered best for blogging for certain aspects.

Best in Internet Connection

South Korea continues to dominate the race for the fastest internet connection. In 2016, it remains as the country with the fastest internet connection at an average of 48.8 Mbps. For bloggers who require fast and reliable connections to post large files, multimedia content in particular, South Korea’s relatively superfast internet connections are indubitably advantageous. Other countries worth mentioning are Japan (42.2 Mbps), Latvia (37.5 Mbps), and Romania (37.4 Mbps). Bloggers in these countries can quickly upload high definition videos for their Vlogs. Similarly, photographers or photography enthusiasts will enjoy the advantage of having superfast connections as they can easily post full resolutions of their photographs.

Of course, this does not mean that you have to be in South Korea to enjoy superfast internet connection. Even if you are in New Zealand, for example, you can find internet service providers in NZ that offer fast and reliable connections. You just need to carefully scrutinize your ISP options.

Best in Internet and Media Freedom

Unfortunately, internet freedom has been declining. 2016 marked the sixth consecutive year that it has been reduced as 67% of internet users were reportedly subjected to censorship. Authorities in 38 countries have imposed unprecedented penalties on social media users. More than a quarter or 27% of the global internet user population reside in countries where people have been arrested for merely publishing, sharing, and liking content on social media that governments found offensive.

In terms of internet freedom, Estonia, Georgia, South Africa, the Philippines, Argentina, and Hungary can be considered the best places for bloggers. They score 6, 25, 25, 26, 27, and 27 respectively in the Freedom on the Net 2016 and Freedom of the Press 2016 list prepared by Freedom House.

Image credit: unsplash

Best in Events

For bloggers who want to cover events, current affairs stories, and other interesting stories right within the same country, the United States is arguably on top. It is the location of many things with international impact, from economic developments to entertainment and of course politics. It certainly helps that the current President of the United States is a very colorful person—or maybe mostly orange if you go by how critics jokingly describe him. With Donald Trump as president, there’s just a lot to write about. He provides a wide variety of materials bloggers can feast on. His officials and allies are similarly “blogworthy” for the right or wrong reasons.

Best in Blogging for Profit

There has been no survey yet to determine which countries can be considered the best for for-profit blogging, something that takes all profit streams into account. However, Google has released its 2016 Adsense ranking per country. Majority of blogs rely on Google’s monetization system for their blogging income so it can serve as a good estimate when it comes to identifying which countries can be considered the best in terms of profit generation.

Topping the list is the United States with a cost per click (CPC) average of $0.30-$0.70 and an average click through rate (CTR) of 2%-3%. Following the US are Canada (Average CPC = $0.50-$2, Average CTR = 2%), United Kingdom (Average CPC = $10-$0.60, Average CTR  = 1%-2%), Germany (Average CPC = $0.40-$1., Average CTR = 1%-3%), Thailand (Average CPC = $0.30-$1, Average CTR = 2%), Japan (Average CPC = $0.20-$0.80, Average CTR = 3%), United Arab Emirates (Average CPC = $0.15-$3, Average CTR = 4%), Switzerland (Average CPC = $0.20-$1, Average CTR = 3%), Italy (Average CPC =$0.10-$0.50, Average CTR = 1%-3%), and South Korea (Average CPC = $0.15-$1, Average CTR = 1%-3%).

Yes, these numbers don’t necessarily mean that you have to be in the country with the highest CPCs to earn based on these rates. However, it’s worth noting that the CPCs in these countries are the way the are because the advertisers’ target markets are in these countries. If you are a blogger targeting US readers, it would make more sense if you focus your blog on topics or issues affecting US citizens or residents.

Best in Anonymity

Where can you write blogs anonymously and not get bound by government policies that support internet usage monitoring by government and iSPs? With the US Congress recently paving the way to allow internet service providers to sell their subscribers’ browsing history, the United States under the Trump administration may not be the best place for bloggers who want to maintain anonymity. It’s difficult to pinpoint countries that clearly have laws protecting online anonymity but it’s possible to identify those that appear to have minimal controls or mechanisms to target online activities. Good examples of which are those that issue licenses for online casinos, especially those that appear to be conducive for truly anonymous bitcoin use. These are countries or territories like Costa Rica and Netherlands Antilles.To emphasize, the countries mentioned here are not top countries for blogging in general. After all, you likely wouldn’t want to go to Costa Rica just to enjoy anonymity for your blogging. Also, you don’t have to be in the United States to reach out to US readers and focus on US-centric topics and issues. Again, the point here is not to rank countries for being blogging-conducive but to cite the advantages different countries offer. If you want to be a blogger, it’s impractical to decide to move to a different country. You will most likely stay in your home country and make the most of what you have and try to exploit means that will allow you to enjoy the advantages found in other countries. Want anonymity? Use VPN and the Tor browser. If you want to make higher profits, aim your content at countries where online advertisers pay the highest rates.