Blogging – What’s it All About? 

Everyone has heard about blogs and bloggers, but how much do you really know about blogging? Are you blogging at all? Do you know how to write an effective blog? Do you know the benefits blogs can bring to your marketing? Do you know the best places to post your blogs, or how often? There is so little known about such a common topic that could really benefit your business.

 Why Should You Blog?

Blogging is a brilliant tool that should definitely be used as part of your online marketing strategy. Not only is it a great avenue for getting people connected to you, it’s also a simple and effective way to direct them to your website. By posting frequently you also raise your online profile, which is great for public awareness of your company and your SEO. One of the most immediately enjoyable things about blogging, though, is getting people to comment and seeing discussions start. This again draws attention to the blog and back to your company, especially if you do it well and consistently.

 What Should You Write About?

There are several elements involved in writing blogs, everywhere from topic and content to tone and style. Blogs are an excellent place to connect with people, so I always keep my causal and personable. I like to cover current events as well as professional and personal topics. By varying what you write about, you are virtually unrestricted with new topics. It also presents a well rounded blog site, and keeps your readers interested. If you only ever blogged about politics, only die hard political fans will remain interested in your posts. And don’t shy away from controversial topics – they are great for starting conversation!

 What Should a Blog Include?

You blog should always include some thoughts by yourself, and usually that involves an opinion or a story – or both. It’s good to get people involved and get comments and discussions going. One of the best ways to do this is to have questions at the end which either invite people to share or provoke them to action in some other way (like asking for advice). Keep a positive or humorous tone about it – nobody wants a downer. So if you have a negative story to share, like a horrible experience, be sure to put a twist on it so people can sympathise without getting depressed!

How Often Should You Post?

Some people only post once a week, other people post several times a day. The once a week people generally tend to be conservative business people who are afraid of flooding their site. The multiple times a day bloggers tend to be social bloggers. I prefer to be more in the middle of the road and post once a day. This keeps SEO up, gives my readers something to look forward to each day, and increases my online profile. You can post as often or as rarely as you like, but I would say a minimum of two to three times per week, and preferably every day. Every once in a while you could do two blogs in a day.

Stress seems to be a permanent part of our lives. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure that it has to be, but I’m also not entirely sure how to avoid it. But in an effort to work more effectively I’ve discovered that getting things done and feeling good about my work day has helped reduced that nagging feeling that hits at 4:00 when you suddenly think, “Where has the day gone?!”

How many times do we look at the clock and wonder where the day has gone? Or how many times do we do that and think, “What have I done today?” Often the feeling of stress is synonymous with being overwhelmed. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with work, let alone life and all that goes with it. But one thing at a time – let’s look at ways to take out some of the weight at work and maybe, just maybe, we’ll feel better, work better and look back and say “Wow, look at everything I got done today!

One of the most important keys to your outcome is your outlook. Your attitude will affect so many areas of your working day that it’s very important for you to check whether you are being optimistic and positive in various aspects. Choose to “look on the bright side” in the genuine sense, not the tragically ironic sense. But having a good outlook will affect how you see things, how you interpret situations, how your clients perceive you and how well you perform your job. And as you can imagine, constantly having a negative attitude will raise your stress levels – if nothing is ever right, how can anything be pleasant?

Another key to getting through the day and feeling good about work is setting realistic goals. Setting goals helps you take things one step at a time. It causes you to pace yourself and plan out your time, and allows you to track your progress. Instead of having loads of things to do and this ambiguous cloud of confusion looming over you head, you have a defined set of tasks which progress you toward your end goal for the day. At the end of the day (and even throughout the day!) seeing a list all ticked gives a great sense of accomplishment and also shows you exactly what you did get done that day. And if there are items that you didn’t finish, they are still clearly defined for you so that you’re not constantly bombarded or surprised by new items.

One final and very important aspect of being productive but not overwhelmed is to not lose momentum or enthusiasm. The two keys listed above – attitude and goals – will help keep you going strong throughout the day.

Go Out and Do It!

I’ve stumbled upon something that we’re all guilty of, especially myself, and thought I would bring up a few ways to encourage us all to go out and take action!

Good Ideas
Good ideas mean nothing if we don’t turn them into reality! I am absolutely brilliant at coming up with thousands of things to do, but not so brilliant at seeing all of them through to completion. So what I’ve learned to do is set out action plans for each of my new schemes. Doing that shows me

1. whether it’s feasible
2. what the timeframe would be
3. whether I can do it or I need to delegate.

Just by doing these few simple things I have been able to use my viable ideas while avoiding getting bogged down by wonderful ideas that simply aren’t practicable.

New Contacts
Everyone needs new contacts to extend their network and get more business. But how do you obtain them? Well I can tell you one thing: It’s not through wishful thinking! You need to get out there and network. In fact, look at everything you do as a networking opportunity. Sitting next to other parents at your child’s football match? The gym (another new years resolution I bet!) Ever see other people in your office building? Neighbours? Nearly every situation in life can be viewed as an opportunity to network and make new contacts, so take advantage of them all!

Online Profile
It’s very easy to get busy with tasks and think “oh, I ought to…” And often one of those “ought to do” things is building up your online profile. We all know that today’s business world is online, and you need to be too. But it’s not enough for you to be online, you need to have a presence so that you stand out. But how much effort do you actually put into building that presence up? Since it is so vital to today’s market, you do need to invest some time into social networking and concentrating on getting your SEO up, and take it off the “ought to” list!

Meeting People
It’s all well and good if you go to networking events or use online networking, but what good is it if you don’t talk to them? So get out there, initiate conversation. You’ll be amazed at how kindly people respond to a nice person. If you’re not good at meeting new people, you might want to consider a course on it, or chatting with someone you know who is good at meeting new people. Alternatively, come up with some conversation starters that are normal and natural to you. Figure out ways of saying “hi” and neutral topics to bring up. Then you can chat about business, introduce yourself, and so on. But you need to actually start talking to people if you want to meet any!

Increasing Business
Who doesn’t want more business? Anyone? Nobody I know, that’s for sure. But this is another thing that is very easy to think about as a far off and lofty idea, but is equally easy to turn into reality. Look at your business – do you have a marketing plan? How effective is it? Do you have a mentor or coach to help propel you forward? What are you actively doing to increase your business? Don’t be daunted by it being a big concept – increasing the amount of business you do is a very real possibility, so start working on what you’re going to do about it!

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by any one of these areas when it comes to actually putting it into action. I often find that if I break it down and set realistic goals in each area that I am able to plan out my time and efforts, and actually see results.