First, a definition:
“Blog” is short for “web log,” which is a running record of entries posted on a website over time. A blog is a type of website or a part of a website where the pages aren’t permanently organized into menus or a hierarchy, but are instead regularly updated “posts.” A visitor to your blog sees the most recent post at the top, with older posts below it. This running chronological record serves as a sort of “newsletter” that your readers or followers subscribe to and regularly see. Additionally, you can send it out via email or social media to ensure that you’re visible to everyone you know.
Writing a blog is an important part of your web strategy. It’s how you keep your website fresh and how you keep people coming back to your site. A website without a blog goes stale and irrelevant. A website with a blog is like constantly inviting people over to your house to hang out and chat.
Why Is a Blog Important?
Your blog is the thing that you keep sending out to people in order to keep in front of them. Your website is like your storefront on the web. If you don’t send anything out, you won’t get anything back…like customers.
A blog is the 21st-century way of keeping in touch. It’s regular. It’s free. It’s easy. We all read blogs every day on Facebook or elsewhere on the Internet. They’ve become a ubiquitous part of the way we get information. No Internet strategy is complete without a blog.
Key Points of Writing a Blog
First you have to have an overall strategy. Blogging has to fit into an embracive web marketing strategy that actually gets sales or honestly benefits your company in some way or you will drop it because it seems pointless…which, as a matter of fact, it will be. Once you have an overall strategy, you can decide how blogging fits in.
In order to blog effectively you have to be able to write well. You don’t have to be a literary genius, but your punctuation and grammar can’t be atrocious either, or else you’re basically sending out an advertisement that you’re uneducated.
You have to honestly understand your readers. To really make a blog work it has to be interesting and relevant to their lives–that’s what makes them keep coming back and reading it. Everyone has had the experience of getting emails or Facebook updates from someone they could care less about. Don’t be that person. The way to avoid it is by understanding who your readers are, what they’re looking for and how to write about your business or organization in a way that’s relevant to them and that makes them want to keep reading because it’s honestly helpful.
Persistence is key in blogging. The thing about writing a blog is that you have to keep doing it. You can’t just set it up once and be done with it. It becomes a regular part of your company’s marketing strategy; it’s something that you do as part of your everyday life and routine.
Back in the day we used to look things up in the phone book. Back in the day we used to handwrite letters. Now we use Facebook and Google. Today a blog isn’t an “extra”; in this 21st century it’s just a regular marketing tool like sending out postcards.
How I Can Help
Blogging requires that you come up with cool content on a regular basis–at least 300-500 words per post, but they can be more. This can be a lot of work for a busy person and can be a pain if you don’t know how to do it. That’s where I come in.
I can write blogs on any subject. Regardless of what your field is I can blog for you. The basic way it works is that I will interview you to get key knowledge you have about your field–things that would be valuable to your audience–and then I will turn them into blog posts. This is extremely painless for anyone who wants to blog but doesn’t have the time or know-how.
You know about your particular areas of expertise. I know about blogging. Let me help communicate your message to your customers and prospects.
Contact me here if you have any questions about how this would work for you.