So, you don’t have a blog for your business.
Or you have a blog but it’s kinda dead…
Let’s talk about that. Because I’m sure you feel as though your reasons for not blogging are perfectly valid. But the more you keep repeating excuses to yourself, the longer it’s going to take you to come around to the realisation that blogging is not optional in business. And that means you’re going to have way more catch up to do than if, say, you decided today to stop making excuses and start blogging.
Here we go…
You don’t have the time
Let’s re-frame this as… you just haven’t prioritised. Spend less time on Facebook 😉
You just can’t write
Righto. In my experience, most people can write – they can certainly write well enough to blog. All you have to do is tell your story and share what you know. Don’t overthink it. If you genuinely can’t write, you can probably do something else like record yourself speaking on video and share that. Someone else can transcribe it or put it in blog form for you. Totally do-able.
Your audience doesn’t want to read blogs
Yeah they do. People want to know stuff. People want to know you. A good portion of these people would prefer to do so in written form and by googling for information. Hence why blogging is such an effective platform!
Your website doesn’t support a blogging platform
Sounds like a pretty useless website. ? Talk to your web developer. It might be a quicker, easier, and cheaper fix than you think. Most business websites are built in WordPress these days which in itself was designed for blogging.
You don’t know what to write about
Brainstorm. Think about what your audience’s frequently asked questions are. What is your story? Are there any problems have you solved recently? What interesting observations have you made? Stop thinking too much and just write.
You don’t have the tech skills
You don’t need to be very tech savvy to write and publish a blog post. Most blog platforms are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), sort of like typing into Microsoft Word. You don’t need to be able to code to use them. If you’re really struggling, get your web developer or someone with a little more tech skill than you to publish the post. But really, a simple tutorial and a few clicks of the mouse should have you up and running in no time.
Everyone in your niche is already blogging
Great! But they don’t have your personal skills, story, experience, and background. You have something unique to bring to the table. Your voice matters, so share it!
Blogging puts you out there too much
Welcome to the age of the personal brand. If you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll be left behind. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. That’s just how it is now. Either get a different job, or persist with blogging and putting your name and experience out there.
You’re just not confident
Confidence will come. You just need to get started.
People in your business don’t blog
Great! You’ve come across an incredible opportunity to be the FIRST!
You don’t have time to respond to all the comments
Firstly, most blog posts don’t get many legitimate comments these days. It’s mostly spammers. Your blogging platform should have built-in measures to prevent spam comments from being published – you won’t need to stress about this. Most of the comments you get will be on the platforms you share your blog links, and if you manage to generate a discussion, that’s great, and worth spending the time replying. But most of the time, you won’t get a lot of comments, and that’s normal for a new blog or a topic that doesn’t generate a lot of controversy. This is a non-issue!
You’ve already got social media, why add another platform?
Oh, so many reasons. A blog gives you much more authority, for a start. The longer format blog post style gives you the chance to really provide value and tell a story. Blogs on your own website are completely controlled by you, so you can ask your audience to take action (like buy from you or opt into your offers) while they are there. Social media is a place to share your content, but blogging is a place to really create and own the space.
But wait, blogging isn’t really for everyone, right?
Like with everything in life, there are exceptions to the rules. Unless we chat, I don’t know your exact circumstances. But I would suggest that nearly ALL businesses and personal brands can benefit from blogging.
Sooooo we could really go on all day here. Like with everything in life, you can keep making more excuses, or you can decide to do something about it. One thing is for certain – if your blog is dead or non-existent, it isn’t serving you. If you’re ready to start sharing on your blog and having all of the awesome things happen to you as a result (I’ve talked about the whyyyyys of blogging elsewhere), then START.
Write a blog post. Schedule it. Share it. Then do it again and again so that you have a bunch of them scheduled to go ahead of time. This is the best way to keep your blog alive and well while you go about life, then return to blogging when inspiration hits. Rinse and repeat.
Happy blogging!
Angela
