This post is one of my longer ones. Stick with me til the end though, because I’m addressing two of the most common questions I get…
I get two primary questions from new bloggers. First, you may want to know how you can possibly come up with a constant stream of ideas for your blog. Understandable! I’m going to show you how. Second, you may want to know how you can possibly fit blogging into your already busy schedule. I’m going to answer that for you today also 🙂
The question I get MOST often is how to come up with ideas for what to publish to your blog, so I’ll start there. It can be intimidating to have to always come up with something to write about.
Til you know the trick!
The trick is, you’re already blogging. Did you know that?
I bet you didn’t know that 🙂
Well, you’re not blogging per se, but I guarantee you’re already doing 95% of the work it takes to have a profitable, lead generating blog. You’re just not publishing. Stick with me for a second, and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean…
Blogging is Way Easier than You Think
The idea of sharing ideas with your readers on a consistent basis can seem daunting when you haven’t done it. But here’s something weird…you never seem to struggle with what to say when you’re talking with a customer or client in your normal day-to-day business, right? Why not?
It’s because you just act like yourself. You talk casually. You have fun. You share ideas. You answer their questions. It’s just a normal human interaction. It’s all very natural.
What a lot of would-be bloggers don’t realize is that your blog is the same.
Blogging isn’t for stuffy, uptight professional writing. It’s the opposite actually. It’s very casual and honest way of communicating. It’s just a different format than you might be used to using.
Your Blog is Your New Cell Phone
If you’d grown up in the 1800′s, the idea of talking to someone on the phone would have been strange indeed. Some people probably would have even said it was from the devil.
If you grew up in one of the past few generations, having a cell phone you can carry around in your pocket…that’s some freaky weird alien technology shit right there. We don’t think twice about these things now. Your blog is no different.
Sure, it’ll take a minute for you to get used to using it as a communication tool. But rest assured, it’s not any more complicated than operating a smartphone.
Is there a learning curve? Of course. There are a few mechanics you’ll need to learn, but you can learn everything you need to know by simply browsing YouTube for some tutorials. We even give our clients an entire archive of training videos, showing them how to blog, how to create squeeze pages, how to build an email list, etc. It’s really as simple as that.
How to Fit Blogging into Your Already Insane Schedule
Remember when I mentioned you’re already doing 95% of what it takes to have a successful blog? In the section above, my intention is to demonstrate that blogging is not a technical, geek-o-licious nightmare. From a technical perspective, it’s actually quite simple.
But if you don’t have any time to do it, you will clearly not be able to benefit from it. So what I try to explain to clients (and today, to you…) is that there’s no reason blogging has to take up a huge chunk of your time.
Remember all those emails and phone calls you get from customers or clients of yours? They ask you questions. You have answers. Instead of just clicking “reply” and responding to that email, why not take a couple extra steps and publish your helpful answer to your blog?
Seriously. If someone had a question compelling enough to email or call you about it, there’s a good chance several other people may be looking for an answer to the same question.
When you start looking at your business in that way, all of a sudden you’ll start seeing that you already spend plenty of time producing content that is more than appropriate for your blog.
You’re literally…already doing it.
Examples:
- Your interactions with your customers
- The lessons you learned during that day in your business
- Your comments about some recent changes in your industry
- Changes in your business (new hires, promotions, expansions, etc)
- Your thoughts about why you got into your business to start with
- The toughest thing to deal with in your business
- The most enjoyable thing for you in your business
- Funny things that happened in the office that day
- Employee birthdays
- Community events, hobbies, etc …blog content doesn’t have to be strictly business.
- Etc
All of this and much more are things you’re ALREADY DOING. You already have all this (or similar) going on. You’re already discussing these things with others in and around your business. You’re already having these interactions with your customers, etc.
You’re just not capturing it. You’re just not taking the extra step to share it, and that means you’re not leveraging it.
And that, my friend, means you’re not getting the maximum benefits from the work you do.
What Happens When You Choose to Write a Blog
Initially, you’ll go through the learning curve of getting comfortable using your blog. After you publish your first handful of posts, it’s pretty much a piece of cake from there from a technical perspective.
So you publish that first blog post. So what? Who cares, right?
Well consider this. You’ve decided to take a couple extra steps to publish something. Maybe your post only gets a handful of visitors. With a new blog, that’s to be expected. But here’s where the magic kicks in:
- You publish that first post. Let’s say it’s an answer to a question you get from your customers all the time.
- You were going to answer the question anyway, so might as well take a couple extra steps to publish as a blog post.
- Now you have an asset. A page on the web. It’s not bringing in a lot of traffic, but it brings in a little. Let’s say 20-30 visitors a month or something like that.
- Now that you’ve published an article, you now have a relevant, non-salesy reason to contact your customers. You get to email your prospect list (or contact your people however it is you usually do) with a helpful article. This initiates some awareness of the fact you have a blog.
- Next, you’ll see that after some time has passed, that article continues to bring in a trickle of traffic each month. Again, maybe it’s not much, but it’s something.
- In the meantime, you’ve published a handful of more articles. You’ve decided to stick with this “blogging thing” for a year and give it a fair shot. Others have built multimillion dollar businesses around their blogs, so surely you can reap at least some modest benefits from blogging yourself 🙂 What you notice at this point is that traffic is starting to increase. That first post is continuing to bring in a few visitors each month, but your others are too. So maybe that first couple weeks you only got 30-50 visitors. Well, now you’re getting 30-50 per day. Thinking more clearly now, it occurs to you that if you keep it up, you just might be able to continue seeing growth. You’re right about that by the way.
- After a few months and some diligence on your part, you have a well-crafted blog with at least a dozen or more articles, all bringing in new visitors every day. A percentage of them are signing up for your email list, because you have a compelling call to action installed on your blog as well.
- From there…your results start to snowball a bit, because you’re getting more traffic. But you’re also getting more signups to your email list. You’re also seeing that some of your visitors are sharing your content with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. This is when it starts to get fun 🙂
From this point, it’s just a matter of continuing with what you’re doing. Yeah, you’ll make tweaks to your approach along the way, but this is the essence of it. Carry on, fellow blogger. It’s really as simple as that 🙂
To help you get started blogging, I’ll even give you some topics that should keep you busy for the first few weeks or months…
Here’s a quick list of blog post ideas to get you started. Please take these and use them as you see fit:
- Video or written review of the your favorite tools you use in your business.
- Talk about a book you’ve read that relates to your industry and what you’ve learned.
- Share your thoughts on an article or blog post you’ve read.
- Predict where your industry is headed and share why you feel that way.
- Describe something specific you do in your business that sets you apart, and share how you came to do it that way.
- Share a problem with your industry or a concern you have about the market.
- Share testimonials and case studies. Has a client taken your advice recently and had great results?
- Give a step-by-step system for how to accomplish a specific result in a specific amount of time.
- Video and/or pictures of your office, your team, your family, your town, your hangouts, etc.
- Showcase a member of your team or one of your favorite clients.
- Rave about your favorite blog, magazine or writer. Share what you love about them and thank them for helping you.
- Share something you’ve learned lately? What are you doing differently now than you were this time last year?
- Have you responded to an inquiry from one of your customers or clients lately? If one person has that question, it’s likely others do too.
- Have you ever made a mistake? Share the details and what you’ve learned.
- Do you consistently see clients or customers making the same type of mistakes? Identify a common mistake and educate your readers to save them a bit of heartache and hassle.
- Share why you love your business. What motivates and excites you about doing what you do? What got you into your business to begin with?
- Share your to-do list. What are your 5 biggest goals in your business in the next year? Where are you going? Get your readers involved.
- Publish your reading list. What do you have on your list to read that will motivate, inspire or educate you?
- Ask your Facebook friends a question, and share the feedback you get.
- Interview someone in your industry. Post the audio or video as well as a transcribed version on your blog. This is a great way to educate your readers, yourself and meet awesome people all at the same time 🙂
Got questions or need help getting set up? Hit me up any time.