A blogger recently told me how his analytics software was unavailable for several days.
He went on to say how much more he enjoyed blogging and social networking his business during that period; without the pressure of checking ‘the numbers’ after everything he did.
Freedom to blog and connect
He kept saying how he enjoyed the freedom to really connect with his readers and those in his network; without the worry of whether his last blog post, tweet or facebook entry was driving visitors to his blog or not.
Although (like me) this blogger sells a service via his blog and not a product or advertising, he says he is obsessive about checking his statistics. It guides everything he does.
Like many service providers, I monetize jimsmarketingblog.com by attracting enquiries from people who read my work and then contact me, when they want someone to help them market their small business or boost their profits.
As a result, I only write posts if I believe people will find them useful, but I base the decision on what to write exclusively on whether I feel the post has value – NOT it’s potential to go viral or attract hits!
Because of this, you will see posts here like this one, which I know in advance will only get a small number of comments, next to the previous post, which currently has over 70 comments. You will see other posts here with over 250 comments, next to posts with 20 or so. The reason this happens, is that if I believe a post like this one, is offering a valuable message, I will write it – even though it’s not a sexy marketing topic.
Give everything you believe your readers need
I believe that it’s important for everyone, but for service providers especially, to write posts based on what we believe to be valuable to our readers; even if it’s not always going to be a viral post or get hundreds of comments. The irony, is that this approach has helped this blog grow from it’s launch a few months ago, to a couple of thousand unique visitors a day (often far more.)
The numbers are important for every commercial blog, but they should not be the only driver of what we decide to say! After all, some of your least populist output, can be the most interesting to a section of your blog’s community.
The small business owners I work with enjoy far more sales, attract better clients and grow amazing businesses.
If you want the same, here’s exactly how it happens.