Blogging has been a phenomena for over a decade now and there are now many thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of blogs. So have made people famous, some have made people rich and famous and the large majority of blogs languish on unknown sites unread and also never updated.
I am frequenty asked about blogging as a tool for business and marketing, and when I ask why they want to blog the most frequent response is "I heard it would be good for my website / business". More than that they can't add. Some will say something about SEO and Google rankings and while they are not wrong that blogging can benefit both of these it still isn't a reason to blog.
I'm not a natural blogger, despite the fact that I can write and I have lots of ideas and things to blog about but I need quiet concentration time to create a blog and I'm easily distracted. So blogging for me is a bit of a task, as such you'll find me starting blogs and then dashing off to do something else ... as I so often say avoidance behaviours speak volumes about what is really going on. However, I do understand that blogs can boost my business and my online presence and as such I am becoming more disciplined about sitting down and blogging. The question is really should everyone blog? Yes and No! I'm going to split it into two sections To Blog and Not to Blog and then you decide.
- Blogging is a great way to demonstrate your expertise in your area of business. There must be things in your business that you know and clients or potential clients don't know and writing about them is a great way to inform your audience.
- Blogging is something that you need to do regularly - blogging once every three months doesn't really make an impact.
- Blogging adds content to your website and provided that content is relevant to your site then Google is going to slurp it up and reward you for it.
- If you're not native in the language in which you are writing or you're unable or uncomfortable writing blogs that's no reason not to have a blog. There are a number of alternatives, one of the best is to get a professional to blog for you and these days it is easy to find one on services like Fiverr. Make sure you test them out before you make any committments.
- Know what you want to blog about, there are plenty of cues to help you with blog content. Often customers will tell you what they want to know more about, listen to the questions you get asked, or ask customers. Look at the things people on social media are saying or asking about. What is happening in your business that is newsworthy or would be interesting. I tend to jot down ideas as they come to me on my notepad and then tick them off as I address them.
- Be interesting ... NO ONE reads a boring or dull blog! I'm hoping you're still with me here :)
- If your website is your blog that is fine and works great, be sure to give it a name that 'says what it does on the can'. This means when people see the title they immediately have an idea of what it is about. For example - if you called it 'Thoughts', well we all have them and I'm not sure I'm interested in yours, I have enough trouble with my own. But if you called it 'secret thoughts of a successful entrepreneur' well that's going to attract more attention.
- If you decide to blog, or even if you choose to brief someone to write for you, it is important to decide
- what topic(s) you wish to broadly cover within your blog,
- what the 'voice' of your blog will be (i.e. formal, fun, informative, etc); and
- what uniqueness will set your blog apart from your competitors.
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If you don't have time or can't do it regularly, get or employ help or just leave it alone. There is nothing so disappointing as looking at a blog and seeing that nothing has been added for months or years.
- Don't blog on a site outside of your website, it is pointless and purposeless. I often get clients who have website, newsletters and blog, all on different platforms. This means that all the valuable time and effort going into creating content in newsletters and blogs doesn't benefit your website one bit. This in turn means that your website doesn't have new content from these sources and Google can't slurp it up and you can't get better rankings ... tell me again why this is a good idea??
- If you cannot write well in the language of your blog and you won't employ someone to write it for you or proof read it, DON'T blog. There is nothing so off putting for people than reading poorly written or gramatically incorrect content, you're likely to do your business more harm than good.
- If you don't have a passion for or knowledge about your chosen blog, again just don't, there will be others out there who do and your blog will easily and quickly lose ground to them.
In summary, a blog is well worth doing, but do it well, do it regularly and integrate it into your website.
Happy Blogging ... or not!
Want to read more about blogging, below are my book recommendations:
