Darren Rowse has an interesting article about a “new” breed of blogger, who doesn’t blog for money but rather earns income as a SIDE effect of blogging. His post was inspired by a post written by Seth Godin (the MASTER of earning income as a side effect of his blogging) called “The Wealthy Gardener” in which Seth writes:
Blogging is much the same way. The best bloggers make money, but mostly as a side effect, not as a direct result of setting out to use a blog to make a profit. It’s just too long a ramp up time, too frustrating and too uncertain to be the best path to make a living.
AMEN!!
Which is why I encourage my clients to embrace the “new breed of blogging” with a passion. See, in my practice, my clients are engaged in making what Neil Rackham classifies as the Major Sale. According to Rackham, a major sale is one in which the seller needs to establish a trusting relationship with the buyer in order to complete the sale.
If you’re an independent service professional, chances are good that YOU are engaged in making a “Major Sale.” If that’s the case, then a BLOG is a great way to communicate with potential clients and begin building the TRUST needed for them to eventually hire you so you can perform your services for them.
With that in mind, when I have a client who expresses desire to “monetize” his or her blog, I encourage them to think FIRST of why they’re blogging and then WHO their target audience is when they blog? A consultant whose monthly retainer is four or five figures should probably focus more on building a relationship with potential clients rather than focus on the nickels and dimes a “monetized” blog will generate.
Even blogging superstar Micheal Arrington of Techcrunch began blogging not with a “monetized” blog in mind, but rather as a way to get up to speed quickly on the emerging technologies of Web 2.0. It wasn’t until after he had built a MASSIVE audience that he parlayed his blogging “success” into a successfully “monetized” blog.
Mark Butler writes about the things Courtney Tuttle did right when he launched his blog and the first item Mark identifies is Court “began with the end in mind”.
Figure out what the ‘Why’ behind your blogging is, and remind yourself of it every day. Hint: “To make money” isn’t specific enough. Your blog should have a clear place in your business plans and goals. Define it, and stick to it.
I recently wrote about a GREAT contest being launched by the Search Engine Journal blog where they’re inviting guest writers to create dynamic posts to their blog. It’s a great contest, but one I won’t be entering. Why? Because my blog is a promotion tool for my business and my clients are NOT RSS subscribers nor readers of the Search Engine Journal.
A conversation I had this morning with a client illustrated this point well for me. I found myself creating a word picture for a client to help her to understand the difference between her domain name based email account and her beloved Hotmail email account. (The word picture involved an RV, a mail box, and two dogs named Outlook Express and Hotmail.) Trust me when I tell you that the readers at Search Engine Journal do NOT need that word picture to understand the concept of having two separate email account.
It’s easy to get distracted by shiny objects and small furry creatures as you build your blog. However, when you keep in mind WHY you’re blogging and FOR WHOM…. it makes it MUCH easier to decide where to invest your most precious commodity…. TIME.
To Blog or Not to Blog…. Which is Better for your Business
When Darren Rouse of Pro-Blogger posts, bloggers listen. So when I saw that he had post “Should I Change My Website Into a Blog” I felt compelled to share my experience.
Darren points out 6 reasos why you might want a blog and 5 reasons why you might not want a blog for your business. It’s a great post and I heartily recommend it to you.
Darren states that one reason you may not want to use a blog to promote your business is that blogs take time to mature. A HEARTY AMEN TO THAT!!!! Nothing frustrates me more than to have a blogging client contact me 6 weeks after the launch of their blog and complain that they aren’t ranked #1 on a highly competitive search term which they haven’t used ONCE in any of their 6 posts. However, it takes time for ANY web presence to “mature”… even traditional ones which are launched with all their content “in tact” and ready to roll.
Darren also recommends blogging daily. If your blog is the foundation of your business, then by all means, you’ll be posting at LEAST once daily to generate the kind of content you need to generate. If you want to blog for blogging’s sake… then think of it as launching your own independent newspaper. Fresh content and breaking news are truly king.
However, most of my clients don’t aspire to full time blogging. My clients want a powerful marketing tool they can use to promote their business.
I’ve played it both ways. I had a “conventional” web site parked here for YEARS!!! When my web site was “just a web site”, when a potential client would contact me, the conversations would begin with “so and so says you’re wonderful.” After launching the blog, my phone began to right with people saying, “I read your post on [insert topic here] and I thought you might be able to help me. I can’t say I ever had ANYONE who wasn’t a referral contact me without an article being picked up by a newsletter prior to launching the blog.
Darren is MUCH more “balanced” on this issue than I am. Read his 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers… despite earning a comfortable income from his blog, he still doesn’t think it’s for everyone.
However, Darren blog is his business. My clients are encouraged to see their blogs as COMMUNICATION TOOLS for their businesses.
My favorite word picture is as follows and I use it with clients who have a web site they love and they are considering whether to add a blog. Read that post here: Using Your Blog to go Fishing (warning, it’s targeting authors, but it works for any business!)