You think you can’t blog. You can! I don’t know who told you that you couldn’t, but they are wrong! You don’t have to be a writer to blog. If you can carry on a conversation you can blog. Even if you only know how to turn on a computer and then hunt and peck out a document you can blog. You might feel a bit overwhelmed at the idea of writing and you might have built it up into this huge unachievable task.
I have only 3 rules when it comes to writing blogs. My 3 rules should take away most of your intimidation about writing. You know what you know. That makes you uniquely qualified to blog about your business. Who else can fully educate your potential customers? By blogging you don’t give your competitors a chance to try. And that really is the entire point of Internet marketing, putting information on the Internet to make your site a go-to industry leader in information. When potential customers learn from you, that is a benefit you can not replace.
Rule 1.
- Give visitors value
Sure you can tell fascinating stories about every cute thing your cat did, but unless you are a veterinarian or own a pet shop I’m fairly certain your average visitor won’t be half as intrigued. For every business blog I setup I get the same question: “what do I write about?”. This is so simple that it is not readily obvious to a business owner new to blogging. What are the top ten things your customers ask you and your employees? Answer those ten questions and you now have 10 blog posts. What are the top 10 things you wish your customers knew about your business? Another 10. What about 10 things about your industry? Or 10 new advances? Or 10 ways your services can help them. All of these give value to your visitors. By giving information and answering questions you are giving your potential customers what they want information and reasons to keep coming back for more.
Rule 2.
- Use your own voice
No one wants to read a boring long dissertation on the history of blue widgets written as if it is your thesis for some obscure doctorate degree. It’s good info to have on your site, and there are one or two people out there that might be fascinated and rivet by such a style of writing. The vast majority of visitors aren’t interested in that type of writing style and in fact will never come back if every blog post reads like the worlds most boring author wrote it. I’m fairly certain this same author is responsible for most school books and for fun writes instruction manuals for items he/she has never seen. If you write every blog post as if you are having a normal conversation with your readers, they will be more engaged in what you have to say.
Rule 3.
- Write often
State of the Bogosphere
Nothing is sadder than a abandoned blog. Technorati has reported in their Technorati State of the Bogosphere that there are about 112 million blogs out on the Internet, of those only 7.4 million have been updated in the last 90 days. That is a long time to ignore potential customers. When a blog has not been touched in over 90 days it’s considered dead and abandoned by the author. If this is your business blog you are telling your potential customers HORRIBLE things about your business. This is why ELC associates always make sure a client is willing to commit to 1 post a week at the very least. We also let them know that the most successful business blogs have multiple posts per week. If the client can’t fully commit to posting, it’s better if the blog is put on the back burner till the client can commit.
This is good news for you! Chances are your direct competitors either don’t have a blog or have a dead blog. The average blogger only spends 1-2 hours a week writing which is not a huge time commitment for a sales tool that will gain you business by giving potential customers reasons to use your products and services over the competition. Writing 1 post a week is an easy commitment. ELC can help you with your writing or proof reading.
We ask every potential client: Can you afford 1 -2 hrs a week to allow your competition to beat you? We ask this question of the larger companies as well as the “Mom & Pop” shops.
What is your answer?
thanks for the interesting read. Would you say the way to go would be to incorporate a blogspot blog within your official .com website and update the blog regularly with quality and relevant content? would that improve the SEO of your overall website?
Hi Adel,
Thanks for the nice compliment. I would personally recommend against a blogspot blog for a business website just because I feel it is unprofessional to not have your own blog. However, I understand that often people either don’t have the budget, know how or correct webhost (I like my host – cheap & great service MDD Hosting . If you are set on a blogspot blog then I definitely would encourage you to set it up. It is better than nothing & will help you. In the future the blog can be moved onto a better blogging solution.
Having a blog can definitely help your website’s overall SEO on several levels.
1. You are adding content which search engines love.
2. You are giving search engines more reasons to offer your posts as a search result.
3. You are giving potential customers/clients a chance to get to know you and your level of knowledge.
Thanks for the effort you took to expand upon this post so thoroughly.
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