Earlier this week, I had a nice long chat with a friend and colleague of mine who started her business around the same time I started mine. We were discussing some of the things we’ve learned over the past year and one of the topics was something along the lines of advice we’d been given and how much of that advice we now agreed or disagreed with.
One particular piece of advice I remember getting that went against everything else I’d been learning was that, if you’re running a service-based business, you shouldn’t be worrying about blogging. The advice-giver said it was just one more thing you’d have to fit into your schedule and gave an example of one particular service-provider who had plenty of business yet they don’t even have a blog.
This didn’t really sit well with me but every time I’ve started to feel guilty for letting my blog go stale, that little piece of advice would pop into my head and I would wonder “do I really need to be blogging regularly anyway?”
Since I don’t have an answer to this question, I decided to ask people I trust and admire: Michael Martine, Grant Griffiths, John Haydon, and Danny Brown.
When I say “ask”, what I really mean is that I fired off an email at 1:30 a.m. sucking up to them and telling them how awesome I think they are (I do!) and by the time I woke up and checked my email this morning, they had all taken the time to respond which really says a lot about what kind of people they are to take time out of their late-Friday/early-Saturday to share their thoughts with me. Great guys, I tell ya.
Ok, enough of my rambling….here’s what they had to say:
From Michael Martine
You need to be blogging regularly if the date of post publication shows, because people have a bias against what they perceive as “old” information on the web. If you’re not displaying dates, then it doesn’t matter as much, but it still matters. The reason why it still matters is that regularly updated sites get crawled and indexed more frequently by Google, and this is generally better for your search rank position (provided you’re doing other necessary search optimization tasks). If you’re using WordPress self-hosted and you have the Google XML Sitemap plugin (which you should), then you can alter its settings to tell Google to crawl your content according to the frequency with which you publish.
People crave consistency, so establishing a rhythm is key, regardless of how many times a week you post. Posting frequently means you’ll generate more content at a faster pace, and the more relevant content found via search, the better for a site’s search ranking.
Your readers will respond favorably or unfavorably to changes in posting. Pay attention to their reactions, and adjust accordingly. On Remarkablogger, the majority of my readers indicated in a poll they’d rather receive larger doses of content less frequently. When I delivered, my numbers shot through the roof. You’d think posting less frequently would mean less traffic, but that has not been case. I now receive more traffic.
From Grant Griffiths
Short answer, yes. And to even be more knee jerky, why wouldn’t you want to post regularly if you have a service-based business?
A service business is just that, it is a business. And like any business, you want to market and promote your business. You want to be found and you also want to be known as the place to go for information about your particular type of service-based business.
In fact, it has been shown that in today’s business world, 75% of those looking for a service-based business are going to the internet to find what they need. And if you have a presence online, you are going to be found. But, more than that, you need to make sure you can be found and blogging will accomplish this.
Blogging as a service-based business on a regular basis also positions you as a thought leader or opinion shaper in your particular area of service. There is no reason that a service-based business should not be blogging on a regular basis.
From John Haydon
Yes, yes yes! In order to create trust with folks, you need to give them value first – then they buy. Blog posts (to me) are ways to give away free stuff to thousands of people at a low cost (you write the post only once, but it gets read a thousand times). You’ll notice that all of the successful real estate agents teach people how to buy a home or select a mortgage.
The second reason is SEO. I rank #1 on Google for “how to make a Facebook Page”. Part of that result is due to the sheer amount of posts I have on Facebook. I’m no expert, but I think Google also looks at how current an article is.
Note: John also followed up his email with a link to this post about relationship management.
From Danny Brown
I’d say you need to be blogging as regularly as you have something worthwhile to share to your readers (whether they’re potential clients or not). It doesn’t even have to be about your particular service, but an off-shoot of it that’s still relevant. It’s a great way of showing your skill sets, knowledge and passion all under one cool roof. But… if it’s just filler for filler’s sake, this will come across and put you back a bit.
So… yes, but only if it’s “worth it”.
Now watch the other guys completely contradict me
Nope, Danny, they didn’t! In fact, all four of you gave some great advice! And it confirms some of my own thoughts, especially when it comes to two of the main reasons I think blogging is a great “tool” for marketing your business – you’re providing fresh content for the purpose of search engine ranking and you’re providing value to your clients and readers who may become clients.
Thanks again to Michael, Grant, John and Danny!
To anyone else who may be reading, what do you think? Do you have a service-based business? If so, how has blogging (or not blogging) affected your business? If you don’t have a service-based business but you’re a consumer, would it influence your selection of a provider if they were blogging regularly?
Related posts:
Trust Haydon to pitch an image with his – surprised he didn’t throw in a screen cast as well… (hehe, just teasing, John!).
Love everyone’s take here, and coming from folks like Michael, Grant and John, well that’s just a sweet bonus! Bookmarking this for “great advice” section
And thank YOU, April, for asking in the first place – proves that your serious about what you offer, and any client (or future client) can clearly see that. Woot!
John loves his screencasts!
Thanks again Danny! I know I’m not the only one who has wondered this and if its worth finding the time to blog so I appreciate you sharing your take on it.
Thanks for the great information and getting some top industry bloggers to weigh in on the topic April! As a service based business, I agree that posting frequently to your blog is important. However, you have to determine what that frequency should be for your niche (daily, every few days, weekly).
One of the best things to do is download a calendar plugin for your blog (or use Google Calendar) and come up with a posting frequency schedule and start scheduling your blog posts on a regular basis (we’ve settled on a Tuesday, Thursday format). Schedule them in advance, have a draft of X number of posts in the future, and adjust accordingly.
Once you have a calendar of upcoming posts (internally) you now have a roadmap for keeping your blog updated regularly and delivering content on a schedule your readers can come to expect. Write as much as you can in advance, so you have a few weeks (or even months) laid out, and then add extra blog posts as they come up and are relevant or “breaking” news.
But it seems the experts all agree – A stale blog is a “dead” blog (and is extension of your company), which a service provider never wants to portray to potential clients.
Rob – LexiConn
April,
Here’s what’s great about you: You have the courage to ask others for help. That’s a huge part of what we’re all about. Helping each other!
Danny –
That’s all for now. Oh yeah – Headway kicks ass!
Rob,
Thanks for adding some great pointers!
I wondered about frequency too so I made sure I used the term “regularly” instead of daily or weekly.
And you touched on another topic I’ve thought about which is once you decide on a schedule, how do you stick to it and come up with enough topics to meet that schedule? Before I slacked off on my blogging, I kept a notebook where I would jot down post ideas when they came to me and I’d sit down and write a few posts at a time then schedule them to be published on future dates. Did the same with clients who would purchase PLR article packs.
—
John,
I hate asking for help but once I do get up the guts to do it, I never regret it because, like you said, there are people out there who really enjoy helping!
P.S. Your videos and screencasts are awesome, btw!
P.P.S. Headway ROCKS!
This is great. It’s always good to see people sticking their necks out and asking for help… I totally agree with John (likely because I have a tiny blog crush on him.
Atta girl for both asking for advice, and for knowing the right people to ask… following the right people gets you 3/4 of the way there.
Elisa,
It took me a while to figure out how to filter out all the “noise” and just tune into the right voices.
I’ve got a blog crush on all 4 of these guys. I feel like the little sister that’s always tagging along behind.
April, you are NEVER tagging behind hon, but if you’re putting yourself there as our little sis, then hell yeah, we’re gonna look after you
Haha! Thanks
I’m the oldest with 3 younger brothers and the 2nd of 20+ grandkids so I never got to do the whole tag-along thing.