I’ve been getting some questions about blogging for business from my subscribers . It’s a long time since I posted one of Alison Rothwell’s wonderful articles and as this one answers the questions so eloquently I thought it was time to post another.
The Six Biggest Blogging Myths
Myths arise from lack of information and in the case of blogging, often from inexperience. Some of the common myths related to blogging in general and business blogging in particular are:
Myth #1: Blogging is Not Appropriate for Business
Says who? It’s easy to see the reasons and benefits of having a business blog, and these are covered in detail in other articles in the SEO Training Club. A blog enhances a business. Having a website is no longer enough. You can increase sales, establish excellent PR, reach your target market and become known for your knowledge and expertise, all by having a blog.
Myth #2: Your Business Income Will Increase Immediately After Starting a Blog
Let’s get real. A newly established business doesn’t show a profit for years! Starting a blog with the expectation it will earn money is a mistake. Like any business, a blog takes time to establish itself. Some may taste success faster than others, but it?s a similar story in running a business. Give your blog time, tend to it properly and don’t give up. Your business blog may not ever earn you money directly, but the indirect increase in your income through it will definitely be there.
Not convinced? Consider this: all those contacts you made through blogging that led to more business. Sure it’s not your blog making money directly, but it is your business increasing through contacts you made via your company’s blog.
Myth #3: Blogging Doesn’t Require Much Time
I’ll be honest, I thought this too. Just one week into blogging and I realized I was mistaken. Blogging doesn’t require much time only if your blog is so established that you’ve worked out all the kinks and it now runs like a well oiled machine.
Since not many of us have reached that stage, blogging requires a lot of time and dedication. The minute a post is published we start worrying about the next one. We’re thinking two weeks ahead and panicking how we don’t have ideas for blog posts after that.
On a minimum, a blog needs an hour or so daily.
Myth #4: Maintaining a Blog is Easy
Maintaining a blog is as tough as keep a business afloat. There is nothing easy about keeping a blog going successfully. From having content issues to traffic woes, nothing comes easy in blogging. To get results you have to work hard at your blog and exercise patience.
Myth #5: A Blog has to be Updated Everyday
While it is true that a blog has better chances of becoming popular if it is updated daily, there is not hard and fast rule. What works for some blogs may not necessarily work for others. To get results you have to work hard at your blog and be patient. It also depends on your niche and topic of your blog. If most of your blogging requires feature length blog posts then blogging daily is not realistic. The posts would need time to sink in and register with your readers as well as get the proper attention and comments.
It also depends on your niche and topic of your blog. To find out what frequency of posts works best for your blog, you will have to experiment with different schedules.
Myth #6: You Must be an Excellent Writer
That’s a bit like saying you must be great at holding meetings to have a successful business. You don’t have to be an excellent writer to get your point across in a blog post. Spellings and typos (occasional) are all overlooked if the basic idea is intriguing. To write a blog, all you have to be able to do is string two grammatically correct sentences together and know your mind well enough to convey your message.
Alison Rothwell, online marketing expert, is founder of the SEO Training Club and AlisonRothwell.com, the proven step-by-step solution to your internet marketing problems. To receive her weekly online marketing ezine to help get higher search engine rankings to increase your online sales, visit www.AlisonRothwell.com.
This article is completely spot on! Having the blog active on our site has given us a way to interact with our customers on a whole new level. Since our biggest market is the nearby college, having a bunch of drink recipes and photos on the blog weekly has shown to bring people back to the site many times over. This is a consistently over-looked opportunity by most businesses.
Hey Dan,
That just shows how important it is to give your readers what they want. Not only have you got them returning to your blog regularly but you have them returning as customers.
Sandy
I have to agree heartily with numbers 5 and 6. I know from personal experience that a blog is a terribly powerful thing, even in the hands of amateurs. I do most of the blogging for my site, and being able to explain things about your product or service in a non-sales tone really does wonders to lower the barrier to calling or emailing.
Hey, Sandy! You’re a real mythbuster! I like your article very much. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Tony,
Glad you liked the article. Alison always writes some great tips.
Sandy
Thanks Sandy.
I wish I had known all that two years ago!! LOL
But then I suppose I’d never have started.
I so wish all the gurus out there would be as realistic, because it’s easy to feel you’re the only one not making mega-bucks!
Hi Sandy
What Alison says resonates strongly with my own experience of blogging. It does take a lot of effort, especially in the beginning, but if you’re persistant and accept that you may make a few mistakes along the way hopefully you’ll find blogging an activity that can be both enjoyable and returns a little profit.
Yes, you are right Bethany, I don’t think a lot of people know what it takes to keep at it in the beginning. It certainly takes perseverence. There is plenty of good information and guidelines about blogging around both free and paid courses if you want to learn from the masters.
Sandy
Blogging has showed me that there are many other things worth learning and doing. Also when I start blogging I realized how big the online world is and how many opportunities it can offer.
And therin lays the problem for many would be Internet Marketer’s Becca. There are too many oportunities being thrown at them from all directions so some never take the first step or get distracted along the way so don’t complete any project.
Sandy
Thank you for saying that blogging takes time! I can’t tell you how sick I became of ‘gurus’ telling you that blogging is a 15 minute job! Yeah, when they outsource it! ; )
My blogs take around an hour at least. I proof read until my brain hurts too!
Hey Gareth,
When you look at some of the very successful blogs the bloggers usually write very long blog posts. It takes time and a lot of research to write quality posts like that. You can’t outsource stuff like that without it costing a lot. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Sandy
Powerful arguments! Would like to agree that blogging takes a lot of effort and time and is never easy. Just thinking about what do I post next makes me go nuts already. Every beginner should read this.
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Hi Jeane,
I think that some gifted people never run out of ideas and can just write naturally. For others it takes practice.
Ideas come from all sorts of places such as magazines, online & offline newspapers, TV, news sites, google alerts.
Checking out other blogs in your niche can often prompt ideas.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sandy
Sandy,
Exactly. I’d rather write one spot on high quality blog a week than 6 or 7 watered down ones lacking quality. I’ve seen so many top marketers doing this. Becoming lazy once they’ve started to make a bit of money and weak blogs cause them to lose their credibility. Outsourcing can be so dodgy as well because readers can sometimes detect the change in writing style.
Thanks again.
Hi Sandy,I am agreed with your point of view.The two myths I came across with were updating blog on daily basis and you should be an excellent writer.I think most bloggers go through these myths at early stages of their blogging.Well! good that you bring light on these myths,
Yes, you are right Pete. Some of the top bloggers actually advise that you don’t blog daily. They say you should write a good quality article and wait a while to get comments before you write another.
I think it helps though to build up traffic by blogging frequently in the beginning. Until you get a following you aren’t going to get the comments!
Sandy