So – why should you blog?
Yes, blogs are hard work. They can be boring, time consuming, and it takes a lot of work before you get them off the ground…
But once you do get them going, the rewards are simply awesome.
So – why should you blog?
Firstly, your blog is a “base of operations”, if we can call it that. That’s where everything happens, and where everything points to. It’s where you build your credibility and authority systematically – by being consistent and systematically adding useful content. When you think of any established internet marketer, you will find they have a well established blog. Think about people like Darren Rowse from Problogger, and Brian Clark from CopyBlogger. Heck, think about Tony Robbins and even about Brain Dean from Backlinko.
Secondly, your blog is a collection of ever-accumulating content. As such, Google will eventually start sending you more and more visitors, purely because it will eventually acknowledge the value you offer to your blog’s visitors. As such, it has what we call “SEO (search engine optimization) leverage”.
Thirdly, as you keep on posting more and more content to your blog, you have more and more “reasons” for people to visit it (every new blog post is a new “reason for visiting your blog – how good the “reason” is, will depend on how well the blog post is received, and if it serves a purpose or addresses a question). This will hold true regardless of where those visitors may come from.
Fourthly, your blog is a conversational medium. People can comment on your blog post, you can respond to their comments, and they can respond to one another’s comments. To make it even more interesting, you can make it possible for people to comment via social networks like Facebook, Google Plus and more. This means that their comments left on your blog will be visible to their friends, which can send you even more visitors. I’m not even going to try and do the math around the potential of that, because it can be mind-boggling (especially if you happen to write something which goes viral, or is shared a lot).
Next, your blog is a launch pad for new products, services, and anything new you want to get into. You can use it to launch a new forum or social group, a membership site/section, or even a new product you want to launch. In fact, you can use your blog (and the interaction from comments and sharing) to create a buzz long before you actually launch the product or service.
Next, your blog is a list building machine. After all, you are attracting people to it because of what you wrote, right? Some of them will be so happy with what they learned from you that they’ll want to know more, and sign up to your mailing list. As your blog grows (more and more value content) over time, so will your traffic, and so will the number of signups to your mailing list. Your mailing list give you the option of not only notifying people about new blog posts, but also to send emails about “recommended products” – whether they’re your own or not.
Next, your blog is a “sounding board”. Whenever you want to do something new or big, you can use it to ask people’s opinions. For instance, if you want to create a product or a course, but you don’t know what should be, or whether you would have a potential market, you can ask for opinions. You can also use it to gather input if you want to improve on exisiting products, and you can even use it to gather info on what you can do to improve your blog (for your existing audience).
Lastly, your blog can help you grow your social following. Many of your blog visitors may have a favorite social network, but they arrive at your blog via another route. The “follow me” buttons or links on your blog can help them to connect with you on their favorite network, where they will be more likely to notice your next blog post or status update.
At the end of the day, having your own blog brings with it a multitude of advantages. There are even more options and tricks to leverage your efforts over time – which I’ll get into in the future – but there is just so much that counts in your favor when you blog.
In fact, as we love to say in internet marketing…
It’s a no-brainer.
