With a few years’ daily blogging experience behind me, I appreciate both the limitations and value of blogging. The limitations: It takes time and effort to compose worthy blog posts and you are unlikely to hit a financial jackpot through the process. The value: In addition to search engine ranking improvements, the blog has generated some worthy leads and enhanced the business reputation. It helps that I enjoy (and am reasonably skilled) at both writing and journalism — two qualities rather important for a successful blog. If you can’t stand stringing words together or are afraid to speak your mind, you shouldn’t blog.
Here are the ground-rules for a successful blog:
Consistency
You need to follow a regular, reliable schedule. I believe if you don’t blog at least once a week, you won’t achieve much of value — and you will find it hard to maintain the habit. Daily blogging requires more discipline and effort — and I expect would be rather hard for people who aren’t naturally skilled at writing. Consistency sometimes requires a little bit of extra planning and extra work. For example, I’m heading to a cottage for a couple of days without Internet access. However, you will read this blog posting on schedule because I’ve set it to be published while I’m on vacation.
Content
A successful blog obviously has to add something of value to readers. Defining this “value” can be a challenge because what is important to you may differ from what is important to me. Generally, however, if your blog has a theme, you should provide content and context relevant to your topic.
Personality
The blog should have personality. It should reflect you as an individual, not your corporate-speak. I suppose if you routinely speak in cliches and talk like a power-point presentation, your blog could contain that sort of content. But your blog will be most effective if it is human and responsive. You can tell your own story here.
Respect
Your blog should be respectful. Sure, you can stir the pot with controversy if you wish, and even go on the attack, but I’m assuming you are writing the blog for marketing reasons, not to fight a personal vendetta. (In some cases taking a hard stand on an issue can be relevant and effective for a blogger — just be careful that your friends are current and potential clients and your enemies are people you never expect to do business with.)
Rules
Observe and respect copyright. That means, if you are using images or words taken from other places, cite them and unless they are short passages covered under fair comment provisions, obtain permission. Usually you need to get permission before you use materials of others, but if your comments are positive and you are providing useful hyperlinks, you can blog first and request permission — just make it clear to the person whose images or materials you are borrowing that you will be happy to correct or remove the content right away (and so definitely don’t use borrowed material if you will be away for any length of time.) Also, you may have your own policies and rules. I have a simple one: Never speak negatively about an individual or organization. This keeps me out of trouble.
Share
I’m happy to share the wealth. if you have a worthy blog you wish hyperlinked on this site, let me know at buckshon@cnrgp.com. The blog should generally meet the guidelines above. You can of course reciprocate but that isn’t necessary — if your blog relates to construction marketing, I’ll be happy to give you a link with nothing expected in return.
