Thursday morning, I checked my email at 7:30, to find that 83 of you had emailed me following Wednesday’s post and a further 9 people had called my office. The post offered a place on my mentoring program and was not published until 3:45pm Wednesday, making those 92 requests even more amazing.
Your incredible response, both in volume and in speed, confirmed the marketing effectiveness of having a blog. Yes, like every other form of marketing, blogging only works when handled correctly. Copying what 99% of sites do, will all but guarantee failure, but for those who decide to learn how to blog effectively, the results can be stunning. As of Friday morning, I have had a total of 117 genuine inquiries for that single spot on my program.
Based on my fee and typical conversion rate, the small blog post I wrote on Wednesday would have generated at least £90,000 in fee income, if I had an empty client list!
You, blogging, time and money
How different would your client list, income and lifestyle look right now, if you could generate over 100 client inquiries from a post like the one I wrote on Wednesday? OK, that was a rhetorical question. Here’s a direct question for you:
“Is that kind of potential inspiring enough to you, for you to commit to invest the time and money needed to make it happen?”
Sadly, very, very few small business owners are willing to resource their blog properly. Some will invest the time required, but refuse to pay for expert help, even though their blog clearly isn’t generating what they need. Others will invest in the expert help that’s essential, but refuse to invest the time that’s required. Many will do neither.
My investment
I’ve invested the time required to write around 800 posts. That kind of commitment means I wrote for you on days when I was ill and days when I had other deadlines to meet. But I still turned up. I have also invested around £6,000 on this blog so far, though my hosting is now sponsored by WebFusion (that’s not an affiliate link, just a link to their site.) That’s my commitment so far and I will continue to invest more time and more money.
As part of my ongoing investment, I have also started a dedicated Internet marketing blog for you.
What next?
If you have a business blog that’s under-performing, get serious about it. Listen to what your blog is telling you. If it isn’t generating the results you need, stop! Invest in some expert help. There may be one small element you are getting wrong, which when corrected will transform your results.
As Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!” Be one of the tiny minority of small business owners, who does the right things, correctly. Oh, and if you DO pay for expert help -TAKE IT!
If you don’t currently have a business blog and are thinking of starting one, start off with a commitment to do it right. If you can’t afford to do it right, save some money, do some research and then launch correctly; knowing what to do, so you start off in the right direction.
Give your blog everything it needs and it will give you all the high quality business you can possibly handle.
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!
Jim is totally right.
I had a blog, which I wasted 2 years on. I copied what I saw other bloggers doing and saying and then realized they were full of crap.
I then tried copying what I saw on the big famous blogging sites, but realized they were already famous and were using strategies that when copied by a small blog didn’t work.
Anyway I decided to start again, doing it right this time. I am working with a copywriter and a marketing guy and the new blog will be live in March.
Thanks for the feedback Nicky. Your point about copying what you see blogs with huge readerships doing, is an excellent one. It’s also probably the most common mistake new bloggers make.
There are strategies that work really well on blogs with hundreds of thousands of readers a week, which just don’t scale down when you have a small readership. Many of those sites had zero monetization for their first year.
For example, Darren Rowse from Problogger, famously went 2 years before making any real money. He busted his butt writing posts every day, twice some days, building his readership, before he started to make worthwhile money. Darren’s blog is also a very good resource —> http://problogger.net
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grant Griffiths, Jim Connolly, Kevin Gillard, HoundDog SocialMedia, Scott James Bell and others. Scott James Bell said: RT @jimconnolly: 92 reasons to invest in your business blog! http://bit.ly/gl1VG0 ((Just Posted)) [...]
Teaching people that they need to make a sincere commitment to whatever they are doing and take the steps to invest in help is a never ending battle. When I spoke to a group about social media the other night, the top question was: “How much time do you put in?”
They were wondering about how they would get their work done if they entered into this brave new world. Yet they are looking to expand their market. You have to figure out that it will take some investment to get off the ground but if you are wishing for more business and doing the same old thing that hasn’t worked in the past, you will get the same results.
Congratulations on the large turnout!
Agree with you Jim, best investment is in people – the right people with the right know how to get it done right!
Dan
[...] Over on my marketing blog, I know exactly who I am writing for. I write for Bob (or Barbara). They own a small business and want to achieve better sales results or win more clients. They have a moderate understanding of marketing and will have tried some marketing in the past, but they want better results. So, they are looking for professional marketing advice they can trust. Then, when they arrive on that blog, that’s exactly what I give them. I focus 100% on providing marketing information to help small business owners boost their sales and profits; in plain English, with no buzzwords or bullshit. It works extremely well, as you can see here! [...]
[...] Invest in your blog – with all the huge numbers of blogs and web sites, competition is hard and needs a very good and wise investment to stand out among your competitors in order for your blog to build a good deal of audience. Invest on your blog’s design and even your logo. It is on your advantage if you know web designing but learn to leave on the web designer’s if you don’t know how to make a good and quality designs for your blog layout. [...]
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[...] inquirer to client, if I had enough places, I could have sold almost £100,000 worth of places. You can read about it here. Compare that, to the emails I receive weekly, from business owners with more [...]
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