These days, everyone has a blog. So much of it seems to be from a personal perspective, that it can be difficult to imagine how a legitimate, professional blog could possibly fit into the mix. Well, the good news is that the mix is diverse enough that just about anything can fit into it. If you’re thinking about starting a blog for your business, keep in mind that not everything you hear online is true.
Let’s go ahead and debunk some of the blogging myths that are floating around.
1. You Have to Post Every Day
Sheesh, please don’t stress about this. There may be some people who manage to blog every day, but in reality, most people just don’t have the time. But guess what – that’s ok. The reality is that people aren’t going to read a daily blog post, so there’s not really any reason to make a daily commitment, unless your market demands it.
It’s much more important to post regularly, in whatever way you choose. Managing to blog at least twice a week is often enough and not too much, and it shouldn’t upset people if you go on vacation for a while and miss one.
2. Blogging Is Time Consuming
Let’s go ahead and get this one out of the way. Blogging can be time-consuming if you allow it to be, but it’s the same way Facebook can be time consuming. If you are trying to write about something that you aren’t familiar with, then yes, you can lose time to research. If you don’t understand how to talk to your customers or what they’ll be interested in, you’ll lose time there as well.
If that’s the case though, you may want to focus on learning more about your industry before you start blogging. If you know what you’re doing and you have a decent product line, then writing a page or two about your thoughts on industry developments shouldn’t be hard. A thirty-minute session, two or three times a week, should be enough to get it completed.
3. You Can’t Make Money
This “myth” is only a half-myth. It’s true that you probably won’t make a lot of money off your blog directly, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t see an increase in your leads. Blogging is your soapbox. You can jump on it to announce new products, special promotions or to even explain why your company is superior.
Did you get a rave review from a customer? Get permission and post it on your blog! You might not sell people on your products or services quite yet, but you can increase your credibility. And let’s face it, online credibility is everything.
4. Getting Traffic Is Easy
Actually, it’s not. I’m not trying to bust your bubble or make this seem like an insurmountable task, but if you put up two blog posts and are already wondering why you only have sixteen page views, it’s going to be a long road for you. In order to get a solid, reliable readership, you have to do one more thing – market your blog. The majority of traffic comes from marketing your blog, not from making posts. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it!
Therefore, it is a pretty fortunate occurrence that we live in the internet age. Even if you have a degree in biochemical engineering, it is still possible to learn about marketing. It may be helpful to take a few classes and learn about it from the experts because no matter what you’re doing, you will have to market your product or service somehow. It’s easier to focus on your blog first. After all, if you make a mistake here, it doesn’t cost you much except your time.
5. Customers Don’t Read Blogs
OK, this might be true if you’re selling a really specific, unusual product with a tiny market, but it’s much more likely to be another myth. This is only going to be true for a very small percentage of people and if you market to the vast majority of people, your customers do read blogs.
Your customers may not be reading a particular blog on a daily or weekly basis and they may not even be aware that they’re doing it. However, if they’re browsing the internet and learning anything, they are most likely doing it from blogs.
Regardless of how you choose to go about creating and marketing your blog, it’s important to keep in mind that this is only as difficult as you make it. On the flip side, it’s also only as good as the effort you put into it. So work at it, make it good, but don’t lose your mind over it. After all, it’s only a blog. It can help your business, but it’s not going to break it.
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