Our company exists because business owners and operators see the value in blogging, but they don’t feel they want to handle the task.
And that’s common with many tasks for just about every business. There are always a lot of tasks to handle and an owner simply can’t do them all in most situations.
The most common reason we hear when it comes to blogging is that the owner doesn’t have time. The second most common reason is that the owner doesn’t like writing or they feel they’re not a good writer.
I want to address the feeling of not being a good writer. Because there are folks out there that have a little time to devote to blogging and if they can get over this hump they can probably really enjoy blogging and get value from it.
1. Use The Blog To Improve
It’s not easy to start something new. Actually, it is easy to start something new. It’s the second, third, etc. steps that are really difficult.
We all expect to be pretty poor at something the first time we try it. What we struggle with is putting in the first 20 hours to get pretty good at something.
In terms of blogging, that’s about 10-20 blog posts. After doing that you’re going to be pretty good at blogging. You’re going to see the difference and that’s encouraging. But during that time it’s going to seem like you’re not making progress.
But you can use the blog to learn. If you see blogging as an opportunity, give yourself a break on the first 20 posts. Use those as a learning experience. With 20 posts you’ll see some engagement from folks when you share it on social media. You’ll see some traffic numbers.
But most importantly you’ll be learning a lot about blogging. Even if you’re not a good writer right now. You will be pretty good after the first 20.
2. Embrace It
Perhaps the biggest obstacle with business blogging is accepting the potential. It’s the reason there are countless business blogs on the web that have about five or six posts and then fizzle out. Maybe the owners post once or twice a year when they get a little hit of inspiration. But they’re not embracing the medium.
Embracing business blogging means choosing a schedule and sticking with. It means scheduling time each month to brainstorm ideas, then putting those ideas on a calendar and then writing at set times each week. It means writing one post a week for a year. Then assessing the situation and deciding on whether to do it again the next year.
The reason most blogs don’t work is because most blog owners don’t embrace the idea of writing 50 or 100 posts. It’s a lot of work.
If you embrace that number you’re going to get over the hurdle of feeling that you’re not a good writer.
3. Hire An Editor
Trainers remain in high demand at gyms and even in homes. Some people need someone else to push them to workout and stay in shape. Even to eat healthy. We all have things that we can drive ourselves to do. But we all struggle with other things that we know are important, but that we struggle with when it comes to self discipline.
Maybe blogging is one of the struggles for you.
An editor can be your “trainer” when it comes to blogging. They can help you after you’ve written each post. They can provide suggestions and even help fix the posts. They can give you direction for the next post.
Not only can they help ease the load of getting posts ready to publish, they can guide you as you learn how to become a better writer. They can push you when you’re not feeling inspiration to write.
You can hire someone already at your organization or you can hire someone remotely. There are lots of editors available as freelancers and you can often find them as “virtual assistants”.
4. Record Your Thoughts, Have Someone Write It
Maybe it’s true that writing isn’t your thing. I’ve found that people are typically at least a little better at either writing or having their thoughts recorded. So the option in this case is to record your thoughts and have someone else write it or turn it into a blog post.
Let’s say you brainstorm four topics for the month. Schedule time to record your thoughts on each topic each week. Send the recording to a person you hire and have them take the thoughts and create the posts.
It’s still you creating the content, but you’re getting help with the writing.
5. Break Up The Parts & Use Scheduling
This is the biggest tip I can give to aspiring bloggers. It doesn’t matter if it’s for personal blogging or for business blogging. There are just too many tasks involved that make it nearly impossible to do them all at once.
You have to break blogging into parts:
- Brainstorming
- Research
- Writing
- Editing
- Formatting/Publishing
It’s impossible to sit at a computer with no idea and expect to write and publish a post in an hour. Is it possible? Sure. But it’s not sustainable.
Schedule an hour every month to brainstorm. Set your four posts. Schedule time prior to writing to research. Schedule time for writing each post. Schedule time for editing. Then schedule time to format and schedule or publish.
This is an issue that many run into and it causes a lot of frustration with business blogging.
Conclusion
You might find that you enjoy writing after your first 20 posts. Or you might find that writing still isn’t your thing. In either case, there are ways to still be a business blogger. There are ways to still do business blogging in a way that lasts a long time and brings the value you see others experiencing. Hopefully these tips and insights can help you get past your own label of not feeling like a good writer.