Better Blogging

We all know blogging is good for business

Just about every business owner out there understands that blogging is good for their business. It will:

• show them as an expert in their field
• add value to their client relationships
• drive traffic to their main website
• raise their profile

As a freelance copywriter I use blogging a lot because it helps me reach out to a wider audience (especially when I couple my blogging with Twitter), I can demonstrate that I do know what I’m talking about and (more importantly) that I can write.

My whole blog is centered around eveything copywriting and marketing. This focus is essential because it’s relevant to my work and, when people subscribe to my RSS feed, they know each post I make will be of use to them – after all they subscribed because I give them copywriting and marketing tips. If I suddenly started posting stuff about recipies and knitting I would loose the relevance and a lot of subscribers.

I don’t know what to write

If I was given a pound everytime someone said that to me, I would have retired a long time ago.

All you have to do is take a look at what your business does – there’s your subject matter. Throw into the mix comments on industry news, debates about new ideas and you’ve got yourself an interesting and relevant library to write about.

Follow other blogs within your industry. What are they talking about? Expand on their ideas (but always link back to the original source of inspiration). You can even get inspiration from print media too – the opportunities are endless.

Do I have to do it myself?

My personal opinion on this is yes.

I know there are many people out there who’ll write and post blog posts for you (for a fee) but, for me, that defeats the whole object of having a blog.

Your blog should be a means of communicating your thoughts and personality to your readers. With each post you are building a relationship. Your readers are getting to know you. If you are using your blog to drive traffic to your main website, your readers are going to feel as though they know you before they do business with you.

If you’re not the one doing the writing, how can they forge a relationship with you? It’s a bit like when, back in the 1980s, Milli Vanilly was found to be a complete fraud and their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that the lead vocals on the record were not the actual voices of Morvan and Pilatus.

Yes, blogging takes time but isn’t it worth it?

The whole stimulus for this post was actually another blog post written by Chris Brogan called Write Better Blog Posts Today. Chris talks about being focused on your end result. Why are your writing your blog? What do you want your post to achieve? If you have these ideas straight in your mind before you start, you’ll become blogging dynamite.