Three Bad Ideas For Business Blogs
In their rush to add content to their business blogs - and gain readers and search engine rankings in the process - a lot of businesses and self-employed professionals take a "spaghetti" approach to their postings.
That is, they grab a whole bunch of stuff, throw it on line, and hope it will stick.
Predictably, this hardly ever achieves the kinds of results they were hoping for.
After more than 10 years as a professional writer, I can tell you that putting words to paper (or screen, as the case may be) is rarely as easy as it looks.
Coming up with articles that are fresh, original, and interesting takes a certain commitment of time and energy.
Every time you're tempted to take a shortcut, realize that you will usually end up cheating yourself.
That's because what you're looking for in the end isn't "content" - its readers.
And they can tell the difference between a few words that were slapped together and an article that's going to be informative and entertaining.
Here are three things you should avoid when looking for content for your business blog: Rehashing old material.
Taking FAQs from your website, pulling out tired product descriptions, and otherwise recycling material that was never meant to stand on its own is almost always a mistake.
Even though it might have a few of the right keywords, the chances are that it's going to come across as bland - not what you want when you're trying to keep a customer's attention.
Of course, that's not to say you can't use existing copy as a base for making new blog posts.
In fact, looking at what you've written about before, or what themes, products, and ideas are important on your website, can be a great way to come up with ideas.
Just don't borrow from your old writing and try to pass it off as fresh; readers can tell the difference, and they'll learn to steer clear of your blog.
Hiring "discount" copywriters.
There are a couple of important distinctions to make here: when I talk about discount copywriters, I don't mean the graduate student who's just starting out, or your local wordsmith who hasn't made it Madison Avenue rates yet.
While hiring a blog ghostwriting specialist will probably yield you better long-term results, there are certainly times when you have to bite the bullet and save some money on an unknown writer.
What I'm really telling you to watch out for are the "copywriting services" you see advertised on a lot of project boards.
They're easy to spot, because they are offering to craft articles for five dollars apiece, and sometimes even less.
Common sense should come into play here.
If you were an experienced and competent writer, would you work for a couple dollars an hour? Of course you wouldn't, and neither would we.
At best, your bargain-basement ghostwriter is going to be a hard-working person in a Third World country who has a marginal grip on the English language.
I don't have anything against these people, but I don't want them writing my content, either.
More likely, however, your articles are going to be "written" by a piece of software that's designed to rip sentences and phrases from other people's sites.
Not only will this leave you with worthless copy, but it could get you into hot water, legally-speaking.
Just writing anything.
While it's true that having some content is almost always better than having none at all, be careful about what you post online.
Uploading a thinly-veiled sales pitch message that's plagued by spelling and grammatical errors, or worse, a collection of your random thoughts, makes you look like an amateur.
And rather than drawing new customers in, it may actually push away the kinds of clients you're trying to attract.
Your blog posts and online articles should be well thought out.
Each one should be able stand on its own, either as a composed marketing message, an insightful information piece, or even a explanation of news, industry trends, and practices.
What should never be, however, is a personal rant about your favorite sports team or what you had for breakfast.
Your readers and customers don't have time to sift through material like that, and what does it say about your business if you have the time to sit around writing it? A well written business blog with a steady stream of fresh material can be one of your most powerful marketing tools.
To make it work for you, though, you'll have two invest a little bit of time, energy, and/or money.
As tempting as it might be to look for shortcuts, none of them are going to help you find readers or profits.
That is, they grab a whole bunch of stuff, throw it on line, and hope it will stick.
Predictably, this hardly ever achieves the kinds of results they were hoping for.
After more than 10 years as a professional writer, I can tell you that putting words to paper (or screen, as the case may be) is rarely as easy as it looks.
Coming up with articles that are fresh, original, and interesting takes a certain commitment of time and energy.
Every time you're tempted to take a shortcut, realize that you will usually end up cheating yourself.
That's because what you're looking for in the end isn't "content" - its readers.
And they can tell the difference between a few words that were slapped together and an article that's going to be informative and entertaining.
Here are three things you should avoid when looking for content for your business blog: Rehashing old material.
Taking FAQs from your website, pulling out tired product descriptions, and otherwise recycling material that was never meant to stand on its own is almost always a mistake.
Even though it might have a few of the right keywords, the chances are that it's going to come across as bland - not what you want when you're trying to keep a customer's attention.
Of course, that's not to say you can't use existing copy as a base for making new blog posts.
In fact, looking at what you've written about before, or what themes, products, and ideas are important on your website, can be a great way to come up with ideas.
Just don't borrow from your old writing and try to pass it off as fresh; readers can tell the difference, and they'll learn to steer clear of your blog.
Hiring "discount" copywriters.
There are a couple of important distinctions to make here: when I talk about discount copywriters, I don't mean the graduate student who's just starting out, or your local wordsmith who hasn't made it Madison Avenue rates yet.
While hiring a blog ghostwriting specialist will probably yield you better long-term results, there are certainly times when you have to bite the bullet and save some money on an unknown writer.
What I'm really telling you to watch out for are the "copywriting services" you see advertised on a lot of project boards.
They're easy to spot, because they are offering to craft articles for five dollars apiece, and sometimes even less.
Common sense should come into play here.
If you were an experienced and competent writer, would you work for a couple dollars an hour? Of course you wouldn't, and neither would we.
At best, your bargain-basement ghostwriter is going to be a hard-working person in a Third World country who has a marginal grip on the English language.
I don't have anything against these people, but I don't want them writing my content, either.
More likely, however, your articles are going to be "written" by a piece of software that's designed to rip sentences and phrases from other people's sites.
Not only will this leave you with worthless copy, but it could get you into hot water, legally-speaking.
Just writing anything.
While it's true that having some content is almost always better than having none at all, be careful about what you post online.
Uploading a thinly-veiled sales pitch message that's plagued by spelling and grammatical errors, or worse, a collection of your random thoughts, makes you look like an amateur.
And rather than drawing new customers in, it may actually push away the kinds of clients you're trying to attract.
Your blog posts and online articles should be well thought out.
Each one should be able stand on its own, either as a composed marketing message, an insightful information piece, or even a explanation of news, industry trends, and practices.
What should never be, however, is a personal rant about your favorite sports team or what you had for breakfast.
Your readers and customers don't have time to sift through material like that, and what does it say about your business if you have the time to sit around writing it? A well written business blog with a steady stream of fresh material can be one of your most powerful marketing tools.
To make it work for you, though, you'll have two invest a little bit of time, energy, and/or money.
As tempting as it might be to look for shortcuts, none of them are going to help you find readers or profits.
