Blogs are dead. Or so I’m told. Yet I write blog posts. (This here’s a blog post.) And why not? Timely, high-value content still rules.
“Are Blogs Dead?” I Get This Question A Lot.
I’m constantly told blogs are dead. No one cares about them, no one reads them, they’re just a big waste of time, yadda yadda.
Are blogs dead? It’s a good question in a day and age of noise, noise, and more noise.
Here’s the thing. I read blog posts. And lots of my clients (and my clients’ clients) do, too. Not all blog posts, mind you. Just a fraction of the ones posted on topics that matter to me. You know, the ones filled with lots of content goodness, the ones that educate or entertain. The ones that keep me on top of my game and get the wheels turning.
Why Blogs Aren’t Dead
For one thing, I get a lot of timely, relevant information from blogs. Take the field of marketing, for instance. You can say that blogs are dead, but what’s really dead, it seems, are books on marketing. They usually become outdated literally the moment they come into print (or the moment they’re ready for PDF download).
For another thing, I learn a lot about companies in my industry based on the blogs they publish. Are they enlightening their audience? Addressing pain points and sharing solutions? Or are they playing an SEO game in the hopes of luring unsuspecting readers who might hand over wads of cash? Are they wasting everyone’s time (theirs and their clients) by producing vanilla content that doesn’t get any job done?
Voice and tone are particular interests of mine. Does the blogger have a discernible personality? Is that personality one that I find engaging and intriguing or dull as dirt? Is the blogger edgy — or attempting to be edgy but missing the mark? Is the blogger funny? Passionate about her subject matter or bored by her topic? Is he an impressive big thinker or falsely confident in weak, flawed strategies that simply don’t work?
And, of course, blogs are great for search engine optimization (SEO). Your site should be built using WordPress, and all of your blogs should be search engine optimized around designated keyphrases. Think of it this way: Every time you publish a blog with a new designated keyphrase, you’re giving Google another opportunity to find you and giving your audience another door or window to climb through.
5 Reasons to Write Blogs
If you’re going to write blogs, do it with intention. Here are five considerations:
1. Attract Your Audience
Search engine optimized blogs can help you promote your business. When you use carefully chosen keyphrases, you can attract your audience. Best of all, you’re giving them something of value before asking for anything from them in return. By creating a high-value blog, over time you can build rapport with your readers, convert site traffic into leads, and convert leads into customers.
2. Validate Expertise
Writing about topics that are relevant to your audience reinforces your credibility and establishes yourself as an authority in your niche.
3. Organize Your Thoughts and Stay Current
Blogging forces you to organize your thoughts, communicate what you do know, and teach yourself what you don’t know. Blog writing keeps you on your toes — and helps you maintain your expertise in your field or niche.
4. Tell Your Story
Blogging enables you to tell your story the way you want to tell it. It also gives your audience a flavor of who you are at your core. Of course, in a perfect world your voice and tone should align with your brand identity. If your blogs are flip and light and your brand is uber-serious, your blogs will confuse your readers. And you’ll confuse your readers if your blogs are vague subject, passive verb, boring object (aka, dullsville) but the rest of your brand comes across as relatable and conversational.
5. Stand Out from the Pack
According to “the 1 percent rule,” only 1 percent of Internet users actively create new content, while the other 99 percent of the participants view it. To be fair, the one percent rule is an old-school rule. However, by blogging, you will stand out in a super competitive marketplace where most people are consumers vs. producers.
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