Is your blog bad for business: (Part 1: the dead blog)

Are you one of the millions of people who have a dead blog on their hands?

Remember when you decided to write a blog for your business?

You probably felt excited, and had numerous ideas for blog posts. You may have even written up a content plan to follow.

And maybe you got around to writing a blog post or three.

But then you got busy, and didn’t post a blog for a while.

When things quietened down, you wrote another post — maybe even two, this time determined to be disciplined and do it ‘regularly’.

But then you became busy again and before you knew it, your blog began gathering dust in the corner.

Quite frankly, it all became too hard.

And maybe, it’s now in the graveyard with thousands of other blogs. All the life snuffed out of it. A completely dead blog.

Dead blogs can harm your business

If your blog has died, you need address for the sake of your business. More so, if you still have the link to your dead blog on your website.

Because it’s far better to have no blog on your website than a dead one.

One of the first things potential customers do — after checking if your service and price will suit them, is to read your blog.

Blogs don’t just provide (hopefully useful) information, but they give your customers an idea of what you’re all about. They tell a story about you and your business. They reflect your professionalism and expertise. They provide an insight into you, the person behind the business.

So, if a potential client visits your website to see you haven’t updated your blog since 2014, where does that leave them? What will they think of you and your business?

Valid questions they may ask include:

“Will this company be able to follow through and deliver my project?”

“If they can’t update their blog (and their website), what other areas of their business will they ‘forget’?”

“Is this company still doing business? There hasn’t been any recent activity on their website.”

And a valid response to these questions, is to move on and find a business that doesn’t raise these red flags.

Resurrect or kill off completely: you need to decide

Making a commitment to blogging regularly is HUGELY important.

If you can’t blog regularly, then delete it all together, or hire someone who can help you.

But whatever you do, don’t let your dead blog cast a shadow over the rest of your business.

Tips to resurrect your dead blog

If you really want to have a blog presence, it’s possible to resurrect a dead one. However, there are few key things you need to do.

1. Work out why your blog died in the first place. Was it lack of time? No ideas for posts? You lost interest?

2. Decide how often you will publish a blog. Google rewards websites that update content frequently, which is why many people recommend weekly or at least fortnightly blogs. However, this is a big commitment. The key is blogging regularly. Your clients should be able to count on your blog popping into their mail box on a regular basis (You do send your blogs to your subscribers, don’t you?)

3. Decide if you’re going to write it, or is it better to outsource it? Outsourcing not only frees up your time, but you’re likely to get better quality writing from an experienced copywriter (assuming you’re not one yourself!)

4. Develop a content plan. It’s much easier to write blog posts, when you know what topic you’re going to be writing about. Avoid ‘winging’ it from week to week. If you’re a fellow health writer, here are 6 ways to develop content for your health blog.

5. Set aside regular time to write your blog. This should be as important as a meeting with a potential client. Schedule this time in your calendar and get it done.

6. Make it more interesting to avoid boredom setting in. Try different styles of posts (e.g. videos, infographics, as well as writing). Try different post lengths.

7. Share your posts. Use your social media platforms to share your blog content, and engage your readers and potential clients again.

Blogging can be a great tool for your business — provided you use it correctly.

Join us next time, when we look at other blogging mistakes that could be doing more harm than good, when it comes to promoting your business.

Until then, if you’d like help planning your blog content strategy, or writing content on a regular basis, I’d be delighted to help you out. Just shoot me an email.

Cheers
Nerissa