When you decide to blog, you need to ask several preliminary questions. For the bloggers that are publishing a blog for the purposes of growing their business, establishing themselves as an expert, selling products, promoting services, etc…certain questions must be asked first – before you begin – in order to reach your goals. Here’s the list:
- Why are you blogging? What is your goal, your mission, your raison d’etre?
- Who is your audience? You will write, I hope, different kinds of posts if you’re communicating with 12 year-olds vs. electricians.
- What is your audience looking for? This will influence your post topics, your keywords and your tone.
- What do you know? Please only write about things you know – we look to many bloggers as sources of quality information, add to the trend.
- Who knows what you don’t know? Interviewing experts offers vital information to your readers and it rounds out the information. I know, I know – I think I know everything too…but I don’t!
- What does your schedule look like? It is best to pick regular blog publishing days and stick with them. We are all creatures of habit and we tend to expect our blogs to air at their usual times – like our favorite TV shows.
- Can you commit? The biggest blogging pitfall is not following through. If you can’t commit, pay someone to. If you recognize blogging as a powerful marketing tool for your business, it’s worth it.
- Can you write? Valuable information that is captured in quality prose raises your levels of professionalism, engagement, return visitors, joint partners and respect. Hire a writer to help you if this isn’t your forte.
- Does blogging make sense for your industry? Is the Pope Catholic? Sorry, I’m biased. I’m hard pressed to find a business that wouldn’t benefit in some way from a member’s establishing themselves as an expert, driving qualified traffic to their website, spreading the word, etc. But, if you can think of one, send it along. Let’s see if you can stump me. The gauntlet has been thrown. I’m giving away:
- 2 quality links from my blog to your blog or site AND
- a Blogging Roads post featuring your business
(unless it is mean, dirty distasteful or unfriendly, according to me). Just comment below or email me directly: julie(at)writingroads(dot)com
Julie,
I wracked my brain all the way home on the train to see if I could come up with someone who couldn’t benefit from a blog… the only one I could come up with is Area 51. So basically, unless you don’t want to exist, or your business is based on secrets that you’re highly guarding and never intend to sell, or your mere existence has inspired a whole bunch of foil hat wearers to do all the leg work for you with copious sites and forums dedicated to you – you need a blog.