Is Blogging About Your Life A Mistake?
Author: Yaro Starak
I hear many business blog teachers note the importance of staying on topic with blog content if you want to establish the right type of audience. I agree, this is a smart thing to do, however some bloggers worry when it comes to talking about their personal or business lives, whether they risk becoming too off-topic, too wishy-washy and unprofessional, especially if they are blogging for business purposes.
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR NICHE TOPIC
The most important thing is to pick a niche that is 100% in-line with your blogging goals. If your blog is designed to generate new leads for your small business you better produce content that is relevant to your target audience - your prospective customers. If you aren't exactly sure who your target niche is yet, don't worry, start writing about what interests you and your audience will define itself. If it's not the audience you want slowly take your blog in new directions and see where you end up. You are the captain of your ship and it's never too late to change course. You may lose some readers along the way if you keep changing focus, but eventually you will settle on a mix that brings in the right type of people to meet your traffic goals. It can be quite surprising to learn what people find interesting.
If you already know the audience you want you must be certain your content is interesting and relevant to them. See which articles get a better response and follow the methods that work best. Always remember to ask yourself "how does this benefit my audience?" and work towards helping others, don't just toot your own horn. If you aren't blogging purely for pleasure than you have to consider what others want first and beware of getting stuck too much in your own ego.
KEEP THINGS PERSONAL
One of the true strengths of blogging is the power of personality. Many bloggers blog in a traditional sense, diarizing their lives each week with personal anecdotes, stories and opinion. This is fine for hobby and personal blogs but if you are talking business blogging you don't want to turn people away by complaining about how big your bum is after all the food you ate at Christmas, including a bunch of pictures to prove it!
To get the right kind of traffic to a business blog you want to project your humanity but also stay tightly on-topic. One of the best ways to do this is to blog about your business mistakes. By explaining how you went wrong, what you learnt as a result and how you dealt with the situation you provide fantastic blog content. Your readers connect with you (rapport building) because they make mistakes too, all humans do. You provide a practical lesson that your readers will learn so as not to make the same mistake you made. You also demonstrate your professionalism by explaining how maturely you dealt with the situation. Of course this assumes everything did work out reasonably well in the end, but I'm sure you get my point.
The key to good business blog traffic is personality and focus without too much of either ingredient. You don't want to express your deepest darkest fears, fantasies and passions (unless that is the purpose of your blog - voyeur blogging perhaps), but you do want to inject your emotions, personality and unbiased opinion into your articles. Emotive and personal opinions should be used to enhance your content, not dilute it with rambling off-topic diatribe.
Here's to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King
I hear many business blog teachers note the importance of staying on topic with blog content if you want to establish the right type of audience. I agree, this is a smart thing to do, however some bloggers worry when it comes to talking about their personal or business lives, whether they risk becoming too off-topic, too wishy-washy and unprofessional, especially if they are blogging for business purposes.
HOW TO DEFINE YOUR NICHE TOPIC
The most important thing is to pick a niche that is 100% in-line with your blogging goals. If your blog is designed to generate new leads for your small business you better produce content that is relevant to your target audience - your prospective customers. If you aren't exactly sure who your target niche is yet, don't worry, start writing about what interests you and your audience will define itself. If it's not the audience you want slowly take your blog in new directions and see where you end up. You are the captain of your ship and it's never too late to change course. You may lose some readers along the way if you keep changing focus, but eventually you will settle on a mix that brings in the right type of people to meet your traffic goals. It can be quite surprising to learn what people find interesting.
If you already know the audience you want you must be certain your content is interesting and relevant to them. See which articles get a better response and follow the methods that work best. Always remember to ask yourself "how does this benefit my audience?" and work towards helping others, don't just toot your own horn. If you aren't blogging purely for pleasure than you have to consider what others want first and beware of getting stuck too much in your own ego.
KEEP THINGS PERSONAL
One of the true strengths of blogging is the power of personality. Many bloggers blog in a traditional sense, diarizing their lives each week with personal anecdotes, stories and opinion. This is fine for hobby and personal blogs but if you are talking business blogging you don't want to turn people away by complaining about how big your bum is after all the food you ate at Christmas, including a bunch of pictures to prove it!
To get the right kind of traffic to a business blog you want to project your humanity but also stay tightly on-topic. One of the best ways to do this is to blog about your business mistakes. By explaining how you went wrong, what you learnt as a result and how you dealt with the situation you provide fantastic blog content. Your readers connect with you (rapport building) because they make mistakes too, all humans do. You provide a practical lesson that your readers will learn so as not to make the same mistake you made. You also demonstrate your professionalism by explaining how maturely you dealt with the situation. Of course this assumes everything did work out reasonably well in the end, but I'm sure you get my point.
The key to good business blog traffic is personality and focus without too much of either ingredient. You don't want to express your deepest darkest fears, fantasies and passions (unless that is the purpose of your blog - voyeur blogging perhaps), but you do want to inject your emotions, personality and unbiased opinion into your articles. Emotive and personal opinions should be used to enhance your content, not dilute it with rambling off-topic diatribe.
Here's to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King
posted by Giovanni Busco at 8:39 AM
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