One of the many things that I have learned over the last few years is the importance of blogging.
I have not been the most diligent in this department, but I do try to do it whenever I think of it. I know that may not sound very professional, but it’s sometimes the best I can do.
Now, I would like to share a success story to the importance of blogging.
The other day I received and email from a potential client who was interested in my services as a virtual assistant. I responded to his inquiry and we set up a time to chat.
At the appointed time, he called and we did chat and he did in fact hire me.
I then asked him how he found me and he told me that he had Google Alerts set up for Virtual Assistants and my latest blog posting showed up. He then went to my website, read all about me and contacted me.
I have become a successful VA, partially due to the quality of work that I do, but also because I have another wonderful client and mentor, Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound. She has been instrumental in my success.
I also get a daily alert from The Blog Squad as well and I read and learn from what they teach as well.
I have clients that I have been hounding for some time to blog. Blog, blog, blog. The common response is “I don’t have time.”
I argue that it only takes 15 minutes to post a blog entry and that it doesn’t have to be a tome. It could be something they read or that they are promoting. I can’t seem to get the message across the importance of it. It’s not overnight success, it just takes diligence.
Set up a reminder to yourself to blog at least once a week. Once you get in the habit, increase it to twice a week and so one. It is a trickle-down effect and eventually you will have success as well.
Christine, you could not be more right to hound your clients about blogging. Marketing is an incremental tool to build awareness and blogging can create massive online visibility.
The blog isn’t about writing; it’s about demonstrating your expertise and building credibility with your prospects. When someone says they don’t have enough time, I ask if they have time to market their business, if they want more customers and clients.
A blog is one of the best darn marketing tools on the planet and a business owner who ignores that will be left behind.
BTW, I found this blog post from a Google alert I have set up for “Blog Squad.” 🙂
Thank you Denise,
I must say you have also been instrumental in my success in blogging as well.
I follow The Blog Squad on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Keep up the great work and you can be sure that I am listening!
Several people have been asking me the last few days about the latest article in Wired that states blogging is “so 2004” and that people who have blogs should let them die and spend their time, instead, on Facebook and Twitter. You can read the entire article at http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay?showAllComments=true
Rubbish. Many of my followers who blog do so to be considered experts in their field and are in very narrow niches. They aren’t trying to compete with blogs like the Huffington Post. They simply want to pull traffic—much of it from people who have set up Google alerts for specific keywords.
When blogs stop pulling in traffic, I’ll stop blogging.
Per Joan Stewart’s comment, I wrote about the article in Wired and my response to the question about whether it’s time to stop blogging:
http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2008/10/stop-blogging.html
Your experience of showing up on the Google alerts to attract a client is the primo statement about blogging for business. I love to write in my blog, but find I must consider it a luxury because I sometimes delay writing. My ‘preaching’ to others about blogging became more “Do as I say, not as I do”. Being a member of the VACommentators at vanetworking.com has stimulated some sort of repetitive discipline that keeps me writing more frequently but steadily.