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3 Reasons Why Blogs Fail and Others Thrive

January 22, 2014 / by Natasha Hawkins

Blogging can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. As an inbound marketing agency we are always trying to set the right expectations for our clients. Especially when it comes to blogging. If you're starting to ask the question, "why blog?" don't give up yet. First identify your frustration, which may be coming from one (or all!) of the reasons below.

 

Time clock for blogging1. The Time Killer

Writing blogs can be time consuming, in fact they can even suck up all your time. Don’t be the company who spends all its time thinking about what they will write, but not actually writing anything at all. This is a waste. Meeting about blogs might take longer at first, but after a while it will go a lot faster.

Another time sucking task can be actually writing the blog. A writer can over analyze everything they write, dragging out the writing process and delaying publishing deadlines.

When writing keep your writing time within 1-2 hours. Don’t go overboard. At the beginning stage of your blog you are looking for volume of blogs, not necessarily a masterpiece. After you have established a good amount of blogs or at least made it to page one of search results you can become a Picasso with  your writing. Until then keep it quick, short (400-600 words), and sweet.

 

2. No Focus

glasses trying to focus on blogging

Some customers come to us asking, "why blog? I have one, but it doesn’t work." In these cases, it’s true they are taking the time to write and publish blogs on their website, but they are lacking focus in their writing. Lack of focus on one subject per blog can lead to low positioning in search results, which reduces your chances of being found by customers. This is why it’s important to write with a specific purpose in mind. Take 5 minutes before you write each blog to answer these 4 questions:  

 

a)   Who are you writing to? Think about your ideal customer.

b)   What is the goal of your blog? To get traffic, a lead..?

c)   What is your main subject?

d)   What questions would the person in (a) ask about this subject?

Why blog? Focusing on your business’s persona, and on one specific subject per blog will increase your blogs positioning in Google and your page conversion. Plainly put, you will get MORE CUSTOMERS!

159208058 resized 6003. Lack of Planning

Let’s cut to the chase. Throwing up blogs here and there with no real plan is never a good idea. In fact, it makes it almost impossible to measure how effective your blogging is, and it rarely budges your position in Google. If you are blogging, or plan to blog, take the time to put your writing on pause and accomplish a few things. Here is a quick list of things you need to consider before you start publishing blogs: 

a)    What is the goal of your blogging?

b)    Who is your target reader (persona)?

c)    What are some frequently asked questions            about your industry?

d)    What topics will you write about?

e)    How long will you stick to this plan before              making a change? (at least 6 months)

f)     Who will write your blogs?

g)    Will you have more than one author?

h)    Who will edit for spelling and grammar?

i)     Who will publish blogs to your website?

j)     What keywords will you focus on?

k)    How often will you publish a blog? Once a week, 2x, 3x, every day?

If you're asking, "why blog" use this blog to keep your small business on track, and avoid the pitfalls of blogging. Blogging is an exceptional way to increase your website traffic, and drive more customers to your business.

If you have any questions or concerns about blogging please leave them in the comments below. We love answering questions and helping small businesses just like yours.  

Related Articles:

Internet Marketing Tips: 10 Resources I'm Thankful for as a Blogger

Stop Asking: Why Blog? Commit & See Results from Blogging

Topics: Blogging

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