As featured on www.makinthebacon.com
A Successful Blog Can Create Success For Your Business
If you’ve been following my blog for the past year and a bit, you may have come across the popular blog post – Why You Need To Blog For Your Business.
So you know about the why. I’m going to share a little bit about the how (it’s not as complicated as you think)
First off, just start.
Seriously.
Your first blog post may not be pretty or polished the first time around. But just start with a simple plan and go from there.
Take a look at my first blog post back in 2012. I like to think that I have come a long way since then. Note that it’s hard to build credibility or a following with just one post or one video either. You need to have several blog posts. One isn’t enough. People will want to read more of your posts and may come back to your site on a regular basis to check for new posts.
There is a lot of noise out there that only focuses on how they gained 1,000 views in their first month of blogging or how they are making “X” amount of dollars from blogging. When starting out, it’s tempting to give up early on and you will be frustrated at times, may not think your blog posts are good enough. We are our own worst critics. The more you write, the more content you’ll have and the better you’ll get. Remember, you’re not writing a book (yet). But keep in mind that blogging can often lead to writing ebooks and physical books.
Focus On A Different Definition of Success
If you treat your blog the same way you treat your business (i.e. you’re in it for the long haul and are focusing on growth and long-term sustainability), then that’s progress right there. You have to have grit and be willing to persist.
For the record, when talking about a successful blog, I’m not focusing on the making money part. Thanks to society and perhaps upbringing (mine), we were led to believe that money = success. More money, more success.
One of my Instagram posts, shown below here stated what my current definition of success is and I believe it can be applied to blogging.
As a matter of fact, my blog enabled me to achieve all of those things.
Keep It Simple Silly
When it comes to being productive with your blog, there are a few simple things to keep in mind.
1. Set a rough schedule for your blog. If the idea of a content calendar is too much, you can always start off simply by just making a note in your agenda to write a blog post this week or every other week, etc.
2. Remember it isn’t necessarily about the number of blog posts, it’s the quality. Business blogging does not serve its purpose if you are constantly producing sub-par content just for the sake of posting frequently. You wouldn’t want to be known as the blog that provides useless information or poorly written posts.
You may think that you need to post every day, every week and no that isn’t always the case. At the same time, don’t be like the old me and write blog posts every other month.
3. And don’t be a perfectionist either. Yes, check for grammar and spelling but you don’t have to be the grammar police. Blog posts are meant to be more of a conversational tone than a research article. As long as you tried your best, reviewed it several times (I’ll even read my blog post out loud from time to time), just hit publish already.
The great thing about blog posts is that you can easily edit and update them. You can’t do that with video.
4. Be willing to commit and make time for it. It’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of priorities.
Remember that being productive isn’t about getting a lot of things done, it’s more about getting the RIGHT things done.
If they are the right things, the ones that will help your business and move your business forward, then that is productivity at its best.
New Blog Post, New Opportunity
Mindset is key. Know that each blog post you publish is a new opportunity to connect with your current and potential customers. Think of each blog post as an opportunity to share your knowledge/opinion/advice (recall that we are a sharing society) and promote your business.
People will come back to your blog because they know you are THE resource for the topics of x, y and z. They’ll want to share your content with their networks because they found it to be very valuable/entertaining/interesting.
You’re killing two birds with one stone in that you don’t have to come up with as much new social media content. Just pull stuff from blog posts or promote the entire blog post.
It’s a sign that your site is of good quality because it is being updated with new content on a regular basis. According to Hubspot, Blogging helps boost SEO quality by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers’ questions .
“In addition to my love of writing, these are the reasons why I continue to blog. So keep going, keep sharing and keep putting yourself out there.”
Karen Swyszcz has over 6+ years of blogging experience and has written content on the blog for brands such as SupperWorks, Camp Tech and Meridian Credit Union. She is also the instructor at Sheridan College for the Blogging For Fun and Profit Course and Effective Strategies For Social Media Course.”