Get a Blog - the fastest, cheapest easiest marketing machine. (Part 2)
By Robyn Logan
Strategy Director, ICA
In the last newsletter I shared some of the most frequently asked questions new coaches have around blogging. In this edition I continue, this time focussing not on WHY, but HOW.
Q. OK - so I want to get a Blog, but I have no idea how to go about it.
This one is easy. There are several free blogging options. Each one offers a very simple step by step approach to setting up your Blog. You can also choose a colour or style theme and you can even have it hosted for free!
Here are three of the most popular choices. They all have their pro’s and cons. I suggest you have a look at each of them and choose the one you feel most comfortable with.
Q. I am not sure what to write about, or what tone to adopt in my writing.
Like all forms of writing, Blogs are a genre with unique rules and conventions. The best Blogs are direct, to the point, personal, sometimes funny, informative… A List Apart has some good guidelines…
My favourite Blogs fall into 2 camps:
- Blogs by professionals who consistently deliver high quality analysis about topics on which they have expertise
- Blogs by individuals who act like “curators” of sorts. They are people who are interested in the things I’m interested in, care about the things I care about and can point me to other interesting places in the huge wide world that is the Internet.
The most important thing, however is to just write! Many coaches I talk to are unnecessarily paralysed by performance anxiety. “Who would want to read what I have to say” “I wont be interesting enough” etc. My advice to them is to forget about their audience and just start posting. As often as they can, whenever they can. The great thing about Blog software is that you can’t stuff it up. There is nothing you write that can’t later be edited or deleted. And let’s face it; until you actually put some effort into getting your Blog found on the Internet, there is very little chance of anyone coming across it by accident.
So - my strategy is to write, post, play around as much as you want until you have a Blog you like the feel of. Then, when you choose, you can start promoting it, put it on your business cards, link to it from your website etc.
Happy Blogging!