With all the social media hoop-la lately there seems to be much less of a focus on blogs and blogging for business. Even this past weekend as I attended Podcamp Toronto many of the sessions were on Social Media, Twitter, Facebook and Building Online Communities.
Now I’m not against social media at all but I am still very partial to building a community on MY website. That’s why I think blogging is still a largely important task for many business owners promoting something online.
Why Should I Blog?
With that being said, blogging for the sake of blogging is a mistake. You must know why you are blogging. I’ve worked with clients who’ve set up websites and blogs that have hundreds of pages with no results. The reason being is they never really understood why they were blogging in the first place.
In order to make more sense of why someone should blog, let’s look at some of the ways you can make money blogging:
- Sell a physical product.
- Sell a service.
- Sell an information product.
- Sell a product as an affiliate (physical or digital).
- Sell advertising.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment.
Not only is it important that you know how you are going to make money with your blog but you need to know how you will call your readers to take action.
Let me give you and example by using my own blog here at Marketers Mojo. My goal is to help my readers make an income doing what they love and in turn make myself a full time income through affiliate marketing. Now to do that I know I need to do my keyword research, write relevant posts, provide useful information and then lead my readers on to the next step.
In my case the next step is going to be either:
1. Sign up for my email list (or one of my number of email lists).
2. Click to buy a product I recommend.
3. (Coming Soon) Sign up for a webinar I’m offering.
With that information in mind I craft my posts around useful, helpful business products that help online business owners have a less stressful business. Then I link over to am appropriate free email list, product review, post or product website directly to send my readers on to the next step.
It’s not an overly complicated plan but it is a plan. Actually simple plans are usually the best. All I’m saying is that you must have a plan with your blog. What do you plan to achieve. And then you must believe in that plan and go after it.
Blogging to me is a conversation and every day I love connecting with people. It’s always a thrill to know that something I write or offered inspired or helped someone else in their business. Think about your reasons for blogging and then make them happen and I’m sure you’ll get the same rewarding feeling out of the blogging you do for your business.
p.s. Now that I’ve provided you with some useful info and food for thought I would like to invite you to find out more about blogging by getting the free report and weekly tips on ‘Beginner’s Blogging’. It’s all here:
http://www.marketersmojo.com/freebies/beginners-guides/blogging
Loading ...