Have you started a blog? Or perhaps you really want to but something is holding you back?
Blogging isn’t for everyone, but most businesses can truly benefit from blogging.
Some of the benefits are:
- Driving traffic to your website
- Showcasing your expertise
- Building credibility
- Being of value to your audience
- Higher ranking in search engines (think Google)
But if something is holding you back from blogging, let’s look at a lighter way of blogging so that it doesn’t feel like such an uphill battle.
Firstly, let’s look at what style of blogging suits you best, because not everyone is a writer.
If writing is not your thing, have you thought about creating an image blog? This is particularly valuable if your work is very visual, for example as a photographer, designer or artist. You don’t need many words to explain what you do as the images speak for themselves.
If you don’t mind speaking but you simply don’t like writing, you could consider creating a video blog and it doesn’t need to be pro quality and recorded in a studio. Simply start with your iPhone or laptop camera, choose a quiet spot with sufficient light, use a microphone or your iPhone headphones and start recording. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time around, the point is that you connect with your audience and you provide them with valuable content.
If you don’t like writing, being on video or you don’t have visual content, you have the option of recording audio and/or start a podcast. Podcasting is becoming very popular and it’s a great way to build a connection with your audience, showcase your expertise and bring traffic to your business.
The main point is, your blog doesn’t need to be a written one. Any content form will be valuable for your business, you just need to work out what works for you.
But what about the content?
As the expert in your field, you know best what your audience wants to know. Listen to conversations, pay attention to the questions your clients ask in online groups and in emails to you so that you can answer them in blog posts.
Sometimes I tell people to forget about the strategy and to write or speak from the heart. The best thing is to start. Start talking about anything because the more you do, the more it becomes a habit and the easier it becomes. If you are comfortable, start writing or talking about your personal story because people love connecting and seeing who is behind the business.
If you find it challenging to come up with content, you can incorporate a different structure where you interview people on your video or podcast or you can ask for guest submissions to your blog. If you do decide to go down this path, make sure that you have some guidelines in place around the topic and the publishing rules. You must always ensure that you are providing value for your readers and never publish for the sake of publishing.
The best way to consistently come up with content is to pay attention, keep your ears and eyes open and always note down ideas for posts. I have a ‘running list’ of topics that I can pick and choose from.
If you are really stuck, think about tips or advice you can give your readers and put a number on it. For example, ‘3 tips for [your topic]’, or ‘the number one mistake people make when [your topic]’, or ‘8 tools to use when [your topic]’. This technique will get you started and will hopefully get your writing (or video) mind happening.
Happy blogging, find what works for you and go with that… and we’d love it if you shared your post with us on Facebook.
