For some inexplicable reason, “blogging” seems to be a taboo word to a lot of business owners. I’ll often suggest it as part of an ongoing business building strategy and the business owner will jump like I just zapped him or her with 1,000 volts of electricity!
People say things like:
- “But I’m a businessman, not a writer”
- “Everyone knows you can’t make money running a blog”
- “Only hippies blog”
- “I don’t have time for that nonsense”
It baffles me how people can still think this way. But I guess a lot of business people are still to get on “this internet thing”, so I shouldn’t be too surprised.
A blog is just a collection of articles, regularly added to and sorted chronologically. There’s nothing hippy about that.
Let me put it to you this way:
If you’re not running a blog as part of your overall online business strategy, you should probably close your business now and get a job.
Bold statement? Yep
Care to prove me wrong? Didn’t think so :)
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal’s Wager:
- If I’m wrong and it doesn’t make a difference to your business long term, what have you got to lose? A few hours that you would have spent watching TV or on Facebook.
- If I’m right, what do you have to gain? Prosperity in a grand new world.
- Come to your own conclusion.
As I’ve said before, both social and search marketing are transforming into a single entity. The pinnacle of that combined entity is blogging. It builds your home base, provides ample content to build your authority on Facebook and Twitter and generally builds the “I’ve Seen You Out There” factor.
Blogging, no matter your business, should be the focal point of all your marketing. It’s one of the easiest and best ways of distinguishing yourself from your competition and building your market dominance.
You might say “but I don’t have anything to write”. Yes you do. You’re an expert in your field aren’t you? Or at least pretty damn good at what you do? If you aren’t, you better get good at it or again, go get a job.
The way the world is going, the people who are really good at what they do will be successful, while everyone else will work for them.
My sister had really bad warts that no skin specialists could cure her of. After years of painful treatments she finally went to a great doctor who was actually good at what she did and within a few weeks only has a few scars. Who do you think everyone who knows my sister will recommend in the future? You got it.
If you’re really good at what you do, but no-one knows about it, how can you run a successful business? If that’s you, blogging about your area of expertise will in almost every instance help you get past that problem.
It’s really easy to get started. It only costs between $20 and $100 (if you get a professionally designed theme) to get started blogging on your own custom branded domain. Read my free Build Your Own Website guide if you want to do it yourself or send me an email if you’d prefer us to set one up for you for a nominal fee.
As far as time spent writing, given it’s an area you’re very familiar with, you should be able to write a 400 word article (a good length to aim for), add a picture (essential for Facebook & Google+ visibility) and publish it within 90 minutes. For this to work, you only need to post once a week. Can you spare 90 minutes once a week to become a market leader in your field?
You don’t have to be Shakespeare to write a blog. If your writing is really that horrendous, get someone to proof read it. You could also dictate posts and transcribe them. Or do a podcast (audio blog) or video blog. There’s no excuse for not being able to blog.
Social media is the world’s greatest Word Of Mouth marketing platform.
- If you’re excellent, people will tell their friends and your business will flourish.
- If you’re terrible, people will tell their friends and your business will fail.
- If you’re mediocre, people WON’T tell their friends and your business will fail.
The catch is, if you’re excellent and not visible online, a few people will tell a few friends. But if you’re excellent and highly visible, a lot of people will tell a lot of their friends.
The choice is yours.
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