Most small business owners know that blogging is an essential marketing tool. While there are small business owners who CANNOT write blogs, there are many that can but convince themselves they can’t - I call them UNbloggers and I have divided this group into five unblogger categories.
Before you convince yourself you CAN’T write blogs – take a few minutes to examine the five writer categories below – discover which category you belong to (THE BAD NEWS) and then read what you can do (THE GOOD NEWS) to stop convincing yourself you CAN’T blog and start BLOGGING like a pro.
The MULLER You have to think good, long and hard about what you are going to write, what information you will include, what style of writing you will employ - before you can write one word.
THE BAD NEWS It can take forever for you to actually begin to write a blog. You can’t write before enough thoughts and sentences have formed in your head and once they’ve formed you may need to have them 'float' around until they really take shape. This can take days and sometimes weeks before you will actually begin the writing process.
THE GOOD NEWS I’m am a muller and I am a blogging fanatic. You can write – you just need to ruminate over what you will write and this can take time. A tool that helps me through this phase is a voice-to-text app on my phone; here’s my favorite https://speechnotes.co/ I record my ideas and sentences and then email myself the texts. I have been able to write introductions and sometimes whole blogs this way (this blog was born in one such session) cutting my mulling time in half! Once the first paragraphs are on the screen in front of me, the rest of the writing goes much smoother.
The OVER-WRITER You write too much content and get bogged down by facts, words and ideas. You may go off into too many tangents and then you can’t decide if you should change the basic concept behind the blog or the title or both and then you find yourself lost in a forest of words and just give up.
THE BAD NEWS You can get so mired in writing that you get exhausted and just stop writing all together or you have just too much content and you can get lost in words, details and ideas. Either way you never get a blog written.
THE GOOD NEWS You have a lot of content to work with. I believe that all you need is a good blog editor – someone, with new eyes, who can review your content, decide if the core message is strong and then make order from the chaos. This could be in the form of dividing the content into a series of blogs, whittling down the content to correspond to a single message and create a subject title to match.
The IN-LOVE-WITH-MY-OWN-WORDS WRITER You fall in love with each and every word you write and find it painful to part with (= edit/delete) even one word. When you cannot bring yourself to edit, modify or delete your content, you will find yourself in a situation that prevents you from writing valuable (for the reader), timely (if you want to hit a trend that requires a blog NOW) and of a length that suits a blog reader (blogs are not supposed to be length of a doctoral thesis).
THE BAD NEWS It’s hard to get out of this habit, you need to realize that writing a blog is not like writing the “great American novel” – you do not and should not expend your life’s blood on every single blog.
THE GOOD NEWS You know how to write, your problem is quantity not quality. Take some time off from writing blogs and read, read, read other people’s blogs – in your area of expertise and other areas. Explore their writing styles, learn how they treat their subject matter, how many paragraphs of information they provide. If you can’t stop this habit, then it’s time to call in a good blog editor.
The TELEGRAM WRITER You write as if you have to PAY for each word you write and are stingy with the number of words you use and the information your share. Because of this you will spend too much time finding one perfect word, instead of writing about your subject in a more natural manner and using multiple, topic-specific emotional words.
THE BAD NEWS This sparse, sometimes barren way of writing doesn’t leave the reader wanting to read more, but rather scratching her/his head trying to fill in the gaps of what you wanted to say to begin with. In blog writing - Less is NOT More!
THE GOOD NEWS Let’s start with some data: blog word-counts have been rising over the last few years. There are some statistics that show that shorter blogs bring more comments and longer blogs bring more social media shares, however, the bottom line is : a blog should average between 500 and 1500 words. 1500 words is about a seven-minute read. A graphic/image-heavy blog should have about 750 words. Start thinking about your readers, see how others in your industry write their blogs and start to write for content and quality, not word-count.
The SCAREDY CAT You are afraid to write on any subject – even if you are an authority – because you feel everything has already been written and so there's no point in writing at all. And therefore you do not see the point of blogging.
THE BAD NEWS Everything has already been written!
THE GOOD NEWS Everything has already been written and now it is your chance to write and make your mark. I love to use the chicken soup recipe example: in 0.52 seconds, Rabbi Google found 4,470,000 chicken soup recipe results. It’s chicken soup! Why are there more than two recipe results (no.1 chicken soup with soup powder (yuch!) and no.2 without)? Because everyone has their own special take on this Jewish penicillin. So stop making excuses, start writing blogs and make your mark as the expert in your field.
Now, be honest, which unblogger are you? Next find the GOOD NEWS, take the advice and become a blogger and blog your heart out!
Do you want to open yourself to a more successful business? Are you lost in the social media jungle? Let me help you re-energize your business and rediscover your passion in your profession. We’ll work together to improve your marketing strategy and online exposure and find the perfect target markets for your business. Contact me today to schedule a free introductory meeting.
