With the popularity of blogs, many online business entreprenuers are turning to blogs in promoting…
There’s no doubt about it, blogging is a powerful tool for marketing and promoting your business online.
As one report has shown…
- Companies that have a business blog drive 55% more web visitors than those that don’t!
- B2C businesses that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those who don’t! and,
- B2B businesses that blog generate 67% more leads per month than their counterparts that do not blog!
Impressive figures there you must agree…
However, despite these wonderful stats, blogging can kill your business and shred it into pieces as quickly as salt would an earthworm!
I’ve been blogging for about 5yrs now and within this period I have seen many entrepreneur bloggers fall into the blogging “black-hole” and losing their businesses in the processes!
In this article, I want to draw your attention to the dangers of blogging and how it could kill your business quickly than you can imagine. Of course, I’ll also give you some insights on how you can stop that from happening.
The Dangers of Blogging to a Small Business!
1. Blogging Is Addictive!
Yes, this could be both good and bad for your business.
It is true that adding a blog to your business site is one of the greatest ways of driving traffic and connecting with your potential clients/customers. However, because of the addictiveness of blogging you will soon discover that you feel more “happier” and “elated” working on your blog than working on your business.
This is dangerous to your business.
You must remember that your business blog is a tool that will help you promote your business. Whether you have your business as your blog or you have a blog as a support to your business site, the fact still remains that the purpose of the blog should be aligned with your overall business purpose.
If this is not done, you soon discover that you don’t have a business!
What to do about this: Have a clear cut purpose for your blog taking into consideration your overall business purpose.
2. There Is So Much Bad Blogging Advice Out There!
This is really a big one!
Over these years of my running a blog I’ve discovered that there are many “experts” in the blogosphere who have very wonderful pieces of blogging advice, which if not taken with care, could be harmful to your business’ health!
For example, how many times have you heard things like:
You should blog every day if you want to succeed with your blog!
The secret to blogging success is quality content!
You should be reading and commenting on tens or hundreds of blogs every day and make sure you reply to every comment posted on your blog!
You mustn’t ignore social media. You should spend quality time updating and connecting with your online networks everyday!
Now, on the face value these are truly great pieces of blogging advice but do not lose sight of this fact: to achieve all of these in a day, you will need more than 24 hours to work on your blog!
Running around social media sites, blog hopping to post comments, researching content ideas and then packaging “quality” content every day for your blog will soon take you away from doing what your business really needs to flourish.
Please don’t get me wrong, these things are good for building a community around your blog and subsequently your business but done wrongly, they will quickly kill your business!
What to do about this: Ensure you have a blogging plan that is designed around your business overall plan. Your business should be the focus of your blogging activities and not just your blog!
3. The Dangers of Being Assimilated Into the Blogging Mold!
This is another big problem of blogging.
When I said above that blogging is addictive I meant it literally. You see I’ve discovered that bloggers have such a connection with their blogs that you sometimes hear things like:
“I just can’t stop blogging no matter what, I’ll always blog!”
That is good, right?
But, whatever good is in that statement the fact is, many of those who say such things are not saying it because blogging is helping them put food on their tables. Rather what they are saying in effect is,
“Even if I’m not getting anything from blogging I love blogging for what it is and will not exchange it for anything else!”
That is passion at play, right?
but the fact is that is the blogging mold…
…and falling into it will soon make you forget why you started blogging in the first place. In fact, those who are entrenched in this mold actually believe that blogging to make money is ethically wrong!
I have referred to this on several occasions as the bloggers’ mindset. The problem is that as you visit and read different blogs you will soon begin to accept these anti-business blogging ideas as the truth and once they get settled in your mind, your business would be the one to suffer!
What to do about this: Mind the company you keep. As the Good Book puts it: “Evil communications corrupt good manners!”
Don’t let those anti-business ideas being thrown around on many blogs out there get into your head. Remember you’re an entrepreneur running a blog to build your business.
Instead of just running around reading blogs about blogging, go out there and read blogs about business blogging. Subscribe to them so you can gain from their insights!
4. It Could Distract You From What Is Important – Productivity!
From experience in these past few years I’ve discovered that bloggers relishes in activities!
Read blogs about blogging and you’ll soon discover that there is a long list of what to do as a blogger every day. The general advice is that except you do these things you cannot succeed as a blogger.
Unfortunately however, most of these activities hardly translate to results for your business. As pointed out earlier when you spend most of your daily hours working on your blog you will soon discover that your business will be neglected.
But please note: Businesses don’t thrive on activities but on productivity!
Your return on investment (ROI) is what matters when you are building a business. I have seen blogs that are “successful” only on the number of blog comments they have but when you look really closer you will discover that the blogger is hardly making a hundred buck each month!
As I write this the biblical story of Jesus and the cursed fig tree is greatly impressed in my mind.
The story goes that on one of the days while Jesus was on his earthly ministry he desired something to eat and seeing a fig tree ahead of him with every sign of fruitfulness, he thought he could get some fruits from it and satisfy his hunger. But what a disappointment when Jesus got to the tree and discovered that the fig tree only had an appearance of fruitfulness but had nothing to show for it!
I’m sure if you know that story very well then you know what happened to that fig tree!
Now, that is a strong analogy indeed but the fact is that when you start a blog as a tool to promote and market your online business you should be aiming for results – productivity and not just activities!
What to do about this: From the start define what productivity is to you as a business. Is it a long list of blog comments, most of which are posted by other bloggers who expect you to return the “favor” else you’ll never see them again? Is it how many blog posts you are able to publish in a week and the number of traffic you are able to drive?
Or,
Is it about the number of traffic you are able to convert to leads and subsequently, customers?
If the latter is what productivity is to you then you must see your blog as the top of your marketing/sales funnel.
You simply cannot afford to concentrate your efforts on just your blog. You must learn to use your blog as an email capture system and put more effort into building relationships that will eventually result in more business profits!
Final Thoughts
Blogging is a veritable tool for your online business. Adding a blog to your business website is the quickest way of growing your business. But you must learn to use it well else, like a two-edged sword, it can become a dangerous weapon against your business!
You must always constantly evaluate your blogging activities so that they do not sideline your business purpose. Most importantly, be vigilant enough so that you do not pick up the bloggers mindset that does not expect anything in return for your labors.
Don’t let blogging kill your business. Clearly determine where your blog should be in your business scheme of things and then let it do what you have designed it to do – drive valuable and potential clients and customers to your business!
Your turn: Did you learn anything from this post or do you disagree with what was discussed? Make your voice heard in your comments below.
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@joue si,
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Fifty five percentage is too high I have to say. The power of blogging shows in the numbers there.The dangers of doing it wrong can also ham as you mentioned that it’s a tool for the business.Blogging everyday can help but with quality content without any doubt or it will take your business downwards.Quality content is the king and you can’t ignore the fact.But the best thing for me was where the truth is unleashed that business thrive on productivity and not on activities.Brilliant article.
@James Frost,
I’ve never questioned the power of quality content. The point I tried to make clear in the post however is that, writing quality content is not REALLY the key to success. You need to know how to position that content to achieve your purpose. That is why I pointed out that you needed to first define your blogging purpose in the first place and then work to achieve that purpose.
Unfortunately many bloggers really do not have clear-cut purpose for their blogs. When this is the case no matter how much quality content you create you might just end up broke!
Or, what do you think?