Why Blogging May NOT Be For You

When developing your online marketing stratey, ivariably, the questions of blogging come up.

"Should I or shouldn't I?"
"How often?"
"Is it profitable?"
"How do I monetize it?"
"Should I have more than one?"

And these are just a handful of questions I've been asked in the past.

I enjoy blogs and blogging. But blogging may not be for you.

Uh-oh, another rejection of online marketing strategies?

Naaahh... Just a reality check for people that suffer from shiny object syndrome.

In all seriousness, I think blogs are an important component in your online marketing arsenal - but only if you are ready for it.

Blogging takes time - believe it or not, blogging is one of the most mind-taxing social media strategies. There are ways to minimize the time investment, and we'll talk about that in my 12-week challenge program, but even so, there's a time committment involved to write/edit/review posts and respond to comments.

While I'm a big fan of blogs and encourage people to start with a blog instead of a website, there are times when this just doesn't make sense.

Blogging takes consistency - people that are following your blog will be looking for your posts on a regular basis. If you're unable to post consistently, people stop following your blog.

That doesn't mean you have to post every day - and you can win back some of your readership if you get back on the posting wagon. It means that whatever you choose to do, you need to be consistent about it. More frequent posters will have more frequent readers - and the faster you can build rapport with our readership, the sooner you can build the bridge from online acquaintance to business partnership - which is the whole point of doing this in the first place, right?

Well, not exactly, but I'll share about that in another post.

Blogging takes quality content - this is a non-negotiable. Regardless of the frequency or even the topic, there's got to be quality information in every post you make. You can post once a month with killer content and people will look forward to that post all month long. But if all you're posting is "my company's the best thing since sliced bread", you'll turn off readers faster than "The Clapper".

And no, it doesn't need to be perfect content - grammatically excellent, without a single spelling error - but you should strive for perfection.

When you see an error (or someone points it out to you), correct it. We all know nobody's perfect. It takes a level of integrity to acknowledge our mistakes, correct them and beome a better person in the process.

Blogging needs an "end game" - blogging for bloggin's sake isn't a bad thing - and it's done frequently. Blogging for business, however, needs to have a desired end result. It could be a call to action at teh end of the post, a newsletter opt-in on the blog itself, or links within the post copy. There's got to be a reason for all this blogging - and the more transparent you are, the less it looks like you have something to hide.

So when you're contemplating adding blogging to your online marketing strategy, consider the issues above. Not sure your'e ready for a full-blown blog? Try a micro-blogging platform like Twitter. It's a great place to get your feet wet in the meantime.