If you have a way with words, you have access to a tool that, according to all reports, is mightier than the sword. If you are competent with photos, you have something that is a thousand times more powerful than words, alone. If you have facility with both, you should be blogging. It can not only win wars, it can pay your rent and put your kids through college. If that sounds like more work than you’re looking for, consider that it can at least pay a power bill and keep the lights on when times are tough.
That is not to say that blogging is easy. If you can make money doing it, then it is a business. If it is a business, it’s hard. Success is not guaranteed. It might be a small business. But you have to run it like a business. You don’t need a lot of startup capital or startup time. But you need more than zero if you are going to make a run at it.
If you don’t want to make blogging your whole business, you can make it a tool that gets you more of the business that matters to you. Even if you run a nail salon, you should be utilizing that way with words and photos you have. Here are a few ways to incorporate it into your life:
Share Stories from Your Daily Experience
You are too busy doing your job to stop and write a blog post every time something interesting happens. However, you are not too busy to take a note as a placeholder for when you do have time. With the Evernote notes app, you can write a quick blurb, add a photo, or take an audio note that can be saved and retrieved for later. That is how you keep up with the relevant and interesting parts of your day.
If you wait till the end of the day, then try to remember all the interesting things that happened that day, you are never going to find material to blog because your memory will inevitably fail you. The best stories are personal stories that include lots of little moments. Blogging is storytelling. If you want people to care about your business and engage with it, you have to make it approachable and engaging. You do that with short, personal stories. It is the small things that make a big difference. So keep the notes app open and you can record the small things when they happen.
Don’t overdo It
If you are only blogging as a way of driving traffic to your site rather than making money directly from the blog, don’t overdo it. You can get blog traffic without writing much if you are good at the craft. Sometimes, quantity matters because it gives your work more opportunities to be seen. But if you manage your SEO properly, one post can drive traffic.
Use tools offered by Google to see trending topics and searches. You can either write posts about those things, or include those things in your titles and metadata. The key is to make your post come to the surface when people are in the mood to search. You also need to see what is trending on social media. If you can’t drive a lot of traffic to your posts, you at least need to drive engagement. You can have a list of super fans who engage with every post. They will use their social media reach to drive traffic for you.
Offer Useful Advice
Don’t try to boost your services by withholding the good information. When people come to your blog, they are looking for help with something and expect to find it. They will reward your blog and business only if they find the kind of information that gives them real solutions to real problems. Offer generous help in informative posts, and readers will come back for more. Your business will be the beneficiary.
You can make a surprising amount of money by running a successful blog. But even if you just want to use it as a tool, do so by taking relevant notes throughout the day to make your story more personal. Don’t overdo it. And be generous with useful information for your readers.
About Mohammad Mustafa Ahmedzai
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