Musings of Erin

When we hear some *new and improved* marketing technique, we all want to jump on the bandwagon. Technorati.com estimates that there is a blog created every second, and ProBlogger.com estimates that many of those blogs die within three months. Why do those blogs die? Maybe the owner didn’t have sufficient time to keep it up. The owner may have chosen a topic that was far too narrow and ran out of things to talk about; or they may have chosen one that was far too wide and couldn’t get focus.

Blogging is perceived as ‘easy’

Many people who choose to blog begin doing so because it’s so easy, and so cheap, to get started. Blogging is a credible marketing vehicle – it is a great way for the search engines to stay keen on looking at your website, it provides valuable information to your clients and prospects, and can even make money through affiliate income.

How do you know if blogging is right for you?

1. Will your target market respond to a blog?
   If your market doesn’t know what a blog is, doesn’t care what a blog is, or doesn’t have the time to learn – don’t even attempt a blog. Seriously. Of course we need to educate our customers, but using technology for technology’s sake is just a little too self-absorbed. Let’s keep it real.
2. Do you have the time to devote to the upkeep of a blog?
   If you can’t post at least once a week – whether it’s a long post or a short article, you won’t get return readers. Readers want to depend on your information, and if you can’t post at least once a week your ROI will suffer tremendously.
3. Can you define a blog niche for yourself?
   You need to have a content niche – and something that’s wide enough for you to be able to post on regularly, and narrow enough where your readers won’t think you’re jumping all over the place. You can’t depend on free-reprint articles for your blog – your readers want to hear from you! (Believe me, I’ve been down that road, it doesn’t work no matter how hard I wanted it to) If you can’t devote time to finding and developing great content, then blogging isn’t for you.
4. Do you know (or are you willing to learn) how to market your blog?
   As with any other venture, blogs can be very lucrative, but you need to know how to market them. While, yes, business blogs are a marketing tool, no one will be able to find a blog without proper marketing. So, learn what you need to do in order to properly market your blog to get readers.
5. Do you know (or are you willing to learn) all the technological needs of your blog?
   Chances are going into blogging you aren’t going to know what half the terms mean. If you can’t invest the time, make sure you have someone available to help you who can (or already knows it). If you’re not savvy on the platform before jumping into it, you will spend a considerable amount of time learning.

As you can see, blogging isn’t as easy as many will lead you to think. Many customers won’t respond to blogging, because it’s not part of their worldview. For those customers that will respond to it you need to ensure that you’re able to give them the content they want – or they’ll go somewhere else for it. The beauty in blogging is the possibility to inform subscribers and ‘wanderers of the internet’ about you, your expertise, and your passions – with the simple click of a button.

If you don’t have the time, or your customers aren’t ready for the world of blogging, then don’t waste your valuable energy and resources creating and maintaining a blog. Instead, you should focus your efforts on things that will bring you a high return on income – and not something as labor-intensive as a blog.

If your market will respond to a blog, then by all means go ahead and begin one. However, if you do not have the time and energy to expend in learning the various aspects of blogging, then you must either hire someone to help you or wait until it’s more feasible in your business. There are many people available (myself included) to help you in your blogging efforts – inclusive of everything from creating and maintaining to helping you write your blog. Finding help isn’t hard; but if you have a lukewarm approach to blogging, the response will be the same.