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.
My tip for trying to avoid the “bright shiny things” syndrome that Becca is finding, is to NOT check my email first thing in the morning.
First of all I do something productive (probably using the last “offer” I didn’t resist) and often get so involved in that that it’s very late when I get round to emails, but at least I am using the offers/training I bought.
As most of my emails are sales emails anyway it’s a good thing I’m too tired to read them 🙂
Also, have an unsubscribe day every so often. Only stay on the email list of people who send you really useful things,
Hi Sandy,
You have made some great points here.
Blogging is not easy, you need to invest the time to create and reach out to other bloggers in order to spread the word otherwise all your writing efforts could be in vain!
Thanks
James
Very well said. Every bloggers should follow this myths. You actually make me more realize to the things that I need to change. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
I have experienced almost all of these myths busted first hand. I started my blog for reasons I should not have and a couple months in had to change my whole mindset and game plan.