For all of the pages and pixels that have been filled already about blog marketing (including what you'll find on my own site), it can be very easy to lose sight of an important detail: that nobody - and I really mean nobody - goes online to "just read some blog.
" Think about that for a second.
None of us has enough hours to look through the sheer amount of material and information we would need to in order to stay current in our professions and careers, much less study up on the things we'd like to know more about our personal lives.
There just isn't time.
So, we have to be ruthless in the way we divide our attention; if we constantly gave it away, we'd never get anything done.
This isn't exactly an earth-shattering idea, but it's one that a lot of blog marketers tend to forget.
You can tell because they constantly post material that isn't interesting to anyone but themselves...
and maybe not even them.
Sure, each post might have a few keywords, links, and images, but it is bland as a beige on beige sweater vest.
And so, as a reminder, I'd like to offer one of the only ironclad, hard and fast rules there is about using your blog as a sales tool: keep things interesting.
Don't sit down to write because you think you should, or because it's time to put up another post; wait until you have something of value to say.
Try to find a topic that provokes interest - or even better, insight or controversy - and then let your fingers run wild.
Write and revise to your heart's content, but only after you've decided on a subject that can somehow attract readers.
The Internet is a big place.
It's actually something of a modern miracle, if you consider all of the tools and information at our disposal - most of which wasn't there even five or ten years ago.
But the flipside to that convenience is that there is too much of just about everything online.
For every one useful bit of writing you can find, there are a dozen other "filler" pages.
The world doesn't need any more of that, so make sure you aren't writing it.
You might think it's going to help you bring traffic, but in the long term it will only convince customers to stay away from your site.
Not everyone is a great writer or an expert authority in their field, and this article isn't meant to discourage people from contributing.
But the next time you sit down at your keyboard, remember the fundamental rule of writing blog posts: write something that interests your readers, rather than filling the space with bland collections of keywords.
Your readers might not think you directly, but they'll pay you back by giving you their attention and business again and again.
" Think about that for a second.
None of us has enough hours to look through the sheer amount of material and information we would need to in order to stay current in our professions and careers, much less study up on the things we'd like to know more about our personal lives.
There just isn't time.
So, we have to be ruthless in the way we divide our attention; if we constantly gave it away, we'd never get anything done.
This isn't exactly an earth-shattering idea, but it's one that a lot of blog marketers tend to forget.
You can tell because they constantly post material that isn't interesting to anyone but themselves...
and maybe not even them.
Sure, each post might have a few keywords, links, and images, but it is bland as a beige on beige sweater vest.
And so, as a reminder, I'd like to offer one of the only ironclad, hard and fast rules there is about using your blog as a sales tool: keep things interesting.
Don't sit down to write because you think you should, or because it's time to put up another post; wait until you have something of value to say.
Try to find a topic that provokes interest - or even better, insight or controversy - and then let your fingers run wild.
Write and revise to your heart's content, but only after you've decided on a subject that can somehow attract readers.
The Internet is a big place.
It's actually something of a modern miracle, if you consider all of the tools and information at our disposal - most of which wasn't there even five or ten years ago.
But the flipside to that convenience is that there is too much of just about everything online.
For every one useful bit of writing you can find, there are a dozen other "filler" pages.
The world doesn't need any more of that, so make sure you aren't writing it.
You might think it's going to help you bring traffic, but in the long term it will only convince customers to stay away from your site.
Not everyone is a great writer or an expert authority in their field, and this article isn't meant to discourage people from contributing.
But the next time you sit down at your keyboard, remember the fundamental rule of writing blog posts: write something that interests your readers, rather than filling the space with bland collections of keywords.
Your readers might not think you directly, but they'll pay you back by giving you their attention and business again and again.