A blog is an outstanding tool to grow your business. It expands your market reach, builds your credibility, presents your expertise, and shapes your brand awareness. Plus, it’s a cost-effective tactic for driving more traffic to your website…once the common blogging challenges are unscrambled.
Before we can consider growing blog traffic and encouraging reader interaction, most of us need to conquer the most common blogging challenges of topics, time, and talent.
A Blogging State of Mind is Messy
Those who blog – whether labeled a blogger or not – face the same issues as any writer. Finding the time to blog is stressful. Waiting for the inspiration to blog is excruciating. Awaiting the confidence to blog is nerve-racking. Pinpointing topics is painful.
In January of 2013, I was challenged to a 30-day blogging challenge. It felt more like a dual than a challenge. It was agonizing for all the same reasons most entrepreneurs don’t blog often enough. Drudging the self-assurance and focus to meet the challenge took determination and guts.
I won’t lie! There were many days I wanted to wind up my commitment. Growing a small business is stressful enough without this, I thought. Luckily, it’s difficult to pull the plug on a promise made when held accountable by others. Ack! So I toiled.
I don’t consider myself a gifted writer, like Carolynn Aristone, who can sit at the keyboard and effortlessly pound out pearls of wisdom. My blogging was one of spits, sputters, stops, and starts…until I discovered a method.
It was a process that eliminated the ambiguity, calmed the nerves, and nudged me into action. It was an approach to blogging that ensured that blogging was a delight rather than annoyance.
Download the Step-by-Step Blogging Process here to thwart “blog jams” and “bloggers block”.
More importantly, I learned that blogging is a form of discovery. It helps you understand what you know…and what you don’t.
As with any skill, blogging takes practice. The more you blog, the better you get and the easier it becomes.
What has been most helpful to your blogging process?
