A reader emailed me recently, to say she is about to start a business blog.  She wanted to know how I find the time to keep this blog updated as frequently as I do, with useful content.

Image: Maria Reyes-McDavis

The answer is that I don’t have to “find time” to write here!

Let me explain: I see business blogs a little differently from most people.  I regard business blogs as massively valuable assets.  So, I give this site high priority within my business.

To me, business blogs are online magazines, which provide articles to interested people; with an opportunity for the readers to connect with the author and their fellow readers.

Just as you can’t play around and accidentally produce a worthwhile business magazine, you can’t play around with a business blog and expect it to develop a great community of highly valued readers.

Magazine thinking?

Think of any great business blog.  It provides valuable articles for people interested in their niche, just like any high quality business magazine.  For example, Brian Clark from copyblogger refers to his site as a media asset and his posts as magazine style content.  I have always been of the same mindset.  I see this site as a genuine media asset and I treat it with the respect it deserves.

• It’s not a hobby.
• It’s not a passtime.
• It’s not a gesture.
• It’s not something I do when there’s no real work that needs doing.
• It IS an extremely valuable business asset.  Look at this!

This site never needs me to have spare time to invest in it.  If it did, it would be another infrequently updated business blog.  I regard Jim’s Marketing Blog and the reader community here as an integral part of my business, so it gets worked on ahead of many other less important (to me) business activities.

• People who just write posts when they have spare time, after the important work is done, end up with a site which reflects that level of investment.
• People who regard their site as the important work, treat their site very differently and see very different results.

The bottom line:  It’s a question of priorities.  Professionally, I place an extremely high priority on developing this site, so it always gets the time and attention it deserves.

Today, I want to help you and your business attract more word-of-mouth than ever before.  I want to help you create an crowd of people, queuing down the street, just to get a peep of what all the buzz surrounding your business is about.

It starts here.

When you look at the vast majority of websites in any niche, it gives you an extremely accurate insight as to why so many businesses fail.  Very, very few of them stand out as being worth talking about.

UVSP’s and Purple Cows

In 1995, I was telling small business owners to develop what I called a UVSP (Uniquely Valuable Selling Proposition.)  This was my version of the USP (Unique Selling Proposition), which I have always believed to be incorrect.  It’s not enough to be unique, without offering unique value.  In 2002, Seth Godin wrote about this in his best-selling book, Purple Cow.  UVSP or Purple Cow, it amounts to the same thing; a product or service, which stands out for being of unique value.  Something with an interesting and attractive story.

Most small businesses stay small, because they do the opposite.  They don’t offer unique value.  They are too similar to their competitors.  Their story isn’t interesting, so no one talks about them.

How similar are your competitors?  Check out the blogs or websites of 10 of your competitors and look at what they have to say.  Look at what they offer.  Look at their testimonials, their promises, their guarantees.  Notice how amazingly alike they are.  In almost every case, their messages could be swapped around and I am not sure anyone would notice.

They want word-of-mouth referrals, but give the marketplace nothing worth talking about.

An alternative approach? Twylah

This weekend I spent a lot of time talking about Twylah, because it’s an interesting story worth sharing.  I saw this video about how Twylah works on Robert Scoble’s blog and it blew me away.  Their story was so compelling, that I wanted to tell people about it.  It didn’t cost them a dime.  It was their story, not their money, which compelled me to talk about them on Twitter and share the service with you in this post.  In doing so, I have just spread the word to thousands of people.

And so… some of you will watch that video, listen to how valuable Twlyah could be for your marketing and tell others.  Very soon, LOTS of people will be talking out it.  It’s a valuable, easy to use marketing tool.  That means it’s interesting to business owners.  It’s the kind of thing we want to share with the people we know.  You can check out my Twylah here.

BTW: If you look at the page without watching the video, you will think you’re looking at a paper.li clone.  It’s pretty much the polar opposite and allows you to make money direct from your Twitter stream, without Tweeting ads etc.  Ask them nicely and you may get an account. (It’s in the pilot phase right now.)

Remarkable. Interesting. Shareable.

Today, if you want your business to thrive or even survive, you have to break out of the sea of sameness and offer something that has unique value to your marketplace.  Business has changed.  Years ago, you could be just like all your competitors, but if you outspent them or out networked them, you would win the majority of the business.  Today, your clients and prospective clients see their social media streams light up, as soon as one of your competitors announces a fresh, interesting way of doing business.  News like that spreads through your marketplace via social networking sites very quickly.

So here’s my suggestion:  Focus on developing a UVSP or Purple Cow of your own.  Develop a uniquely valuable, remarkable way to be of service.  Become one of those interesting stories, that your marketplace LOVE to be part of and share.

Make your business the one they are talking about!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Picture: Robert Scoble

Here are 9 ways to write more, high quality blog posts.

1. Write short posts.  You don’t have to churn out 1,000 word essays.  Most of my posts are under 500 words. Some are under 150.
2. Don’t try to write like someone else.  The more your posts reflect you and your unique self, the more people will value them.
3. Spend less time publishing your ideas on social networking sites.  Then, use that time to feed your blog.
4. Avoid seeking perfection.  The perfection mindset will cause you to write from a position of fear.  Be human, which means being imperfect.
5. Use a voice recorder or your phone to capture ideas for blog posts.  You will often get your best ideas when you can’t write them down.
6. Don’t feel like you have to bring the answers with your posts.  Ask the questions.  Get a conversation going: It’s a blog, not a broadcast!
7. Write when you feel creative.  If you feel inspired to write a post, write one.  Then, write another one! I seldom write 1 post at a time.
8. Use the questions people ask you, as inspiration for future posts.  If someone is asking you a question linked to your topic, there’s a good chance other readers will find the answer useful too.  I wrote this post, after a reader asked how I managed to publish 12 posts here in the past 7 days.
9. Most importantly, enjoy it! Many bloggers say they have to force themselves to write posts.  You don’t need to force yourself to do something you enjoy, so identify and resolve whatever it is, which is stopping you from enjoying your blog.

Just as shouting loudly for too long will cause you to lose your voice, blogging for traffic can do the same.

Focusing on traffic (numbers) ahead of people, will influence what you say and how you say it.  The challenge with that approach is that it’s hard to get your voice heard, when it’s simply part of the noise created by all the other people, saying the same things.

Yes, if your business model is based on how many page impressions you can create, it may be a useful strategy.  This is not the case for 99.9% of people though.  Our success is linked to the relationships we build with the PEOPLE behind those traffic numbers.  This means allowing your readers to connect with you.

The numbers

If I were to write posts here just for “the numbers,” this blog would cover far fewer subjects and read very similar to every other traffic focused, marketing blog.  I would be trying to tie in my blog posts to recent news events.  I would also jump on every new social media bandwagon and blog about it.  I would regularly have to use infographics. I would bore the shit out of you, talking about the latest crazes on Twitter.

That approach may attract traffic to this site, however, those people would leave just as fast as they arrived.  Why?  Because there are thousands of sites already writing those posts. I would lose my voice in all that noise.

Amplifying your voice

What gives you your voice, is your ability to share what you think.

• Your thoughts
• Your words
• Your opinions
• Your insights

The irony here, is that it is the people with the least generic approach to blogging, who often have the largest and most engaged readerships.  These are the blogs we share and link to the most often, because they have something interesting to say.  Those links (sometimes called inlinks or back links), are the single biggest factor in the volume of traffic a site gets from search engines.

By blogging about our area of expertise or professional interest, using out own voice, we are far more likely to motivate people to want to share what we have to say and link to it too. This is a very liberating message, for those who connect with what it means!

If you want to build a great community of readers and prospective clients, have something worth saying and say it well.  Say it in your own voice and give yourself permission to be human.  That’s what makes you unique.