Systems for Blogging

Lately I’ve been working on systems for various types of marketing, and wanted to share some tips for blogging as a business strategy.

Before we dive in I should mention that not all bloggers are business owners and not all businesses have blogs.

It’s like this… if your blog (hosted independently, at WordPress or Blogger for example) is a place where you share posts and occasionally make money from ads or sponsors, it’s not necessarily a business.

I see this far too often with bloggers who may be incredibly dedicated to growing their following, they’re active on social media channels, they pay attention to their stats… and yet, not businesses.

From my perspective, in order to be a business you have to provide something of value to your audience either by means of products and services or as a recognized expert with a platform.

Having a blog and writing about stuff doesn’t create a business, no matter how many page views you get.

On the flip side, not every business utilizes a blog to connect with their audience, but every business should.

Blogging gives you a chance to put out regular content to keep attracting readers, followers, leads, and clients as well as educates that audience.

If you’ve never blogged before, it can be rather intimidating so consider this your getting-started guide to blogging.

First up, a blog doesn’t have to be written content. You can do videos, audio, music, written, or any mix thereof. I encourage clients to try out all mediums before deciding what works best for them.

(Personal note here because, Sara, this really bugs me. If someone refuses to even try creating content for their business, then they have zero room to complain about not “being famous” or getting enough clients to make a living.)

Second thing to remember is that blogging is an active and organic process. What works for you now may not be part of your strategy in another year, but that’s okay. You’ll learn by doing.

The top challenges that I hear from entrepreneurs new to blogging are 1) I don’t know what to say and 2) I don’t have time to create content, so let’s tackle those now.

Challenge #1: What the heck do I say?

When it comes to finding your voice in blogging, it can be easy to think that everything’s been done and you might as well just keep quiet. But the world needs your voice too. I always start by writing down topics that come up in conversations because I’ll get really excited talking about things and realize it’s a good topic for the blog.

To start with, ask yourself the following questions to complete the prompts:

• all of my clients need to know…

• if I could tell these people this one thing it would be…

• what no one really understands about my work is…

My #1 strategy for never having writer’s block is… write down lots of ideas and then only write the ones I’m excited about today.

I probably have 100 blog post topics in my file, often called a “copy bank” or “copy drafts” but I don’t try to write them in order, I’ll just pick the one that I want to share.

Challenge #2: I don’t have time to create content

I, kindly, call bullshit. I get it, everyone is busy but I’m willing to bet that you update social media, find time to pay your bills, are probably caught up on your favorite TV series, and managed to shower recently. Why? Because those are priorities, my friend.

What you need to do is make content a priority in your business. To do this you must carve out time because, like any good relationship, if you don’t give it attention, then you’re going to fail.

In my business, content creation happens on Monday so no matter what else happens during the week, the articles I’ve committed to write are ready to go. This becomes especially helpful when I fall and injure myself or a launch takes over my life.

No matter how frequently you’re creating content, you have to be disciplined to follow through.

Action Step: Create a time block on your calendar to write, record, or otherwise create one piece of content in the next week. And, if you’re so inclined, hit reply and let me know what you’ll be sharing!