I’ve been working with the WordPress platform for a little while now, and I’ve been a regular blogger since January (though I had been promoting blogging for years earlier, and had my first blog in 2000 [yes, I’m a bit insecure about my blogging creds]). I’ve created many sites with blogging capabilities, some of them based on Blogger.com integration, and others WordPress.
I’ve explained the benefits of blogging many times to my clients, made nagging phone calls reminding them to blog — all to little avail. I even wrote an article about the importance of blogging to help explain myself. But still, the blogs remain silent.
What I tell my clients about the benefits of blogging
If my clients already know what a blog is, then I can dive into why it’s so important (other than people KNOW that it’s important). I tell them the following:
Blogging is a great way to reach people who may not be searching for what you want them to be searching for. Let’s say you have a service for “healing touch,” but it’s not “therapeutic touch.” With a normal website, you would not be able to rank well for the other key phrase. If you write an article on the differences between therapeutic touch and healing touch, you then will be able to rank for both phrases, even if your business only focuses on one service.
The more you write about what you know, the larger your online sphere of influence grows. By writing consistenly about topics important to you, you’re able to rank better in Google and other search engines, build a community of people who follow what you write, and become an authority on your topic.
There’s no other marketing medium like blogging where all you need to invest is your time, and you’ll get direct benefits. Fliers, radio, tv, newspaper, business chambers — they all take money. Blogging is free to set up, and free to use. You will get out of it what you put into it.
That’s the jist of what I tell people about blogging. They generally get very excited, get a blog, and post a few times. One month later, cobwebs form on their admin login form.
Maybe try a professional blogging service?
One thing I’ve considered is writing the articles myself. I’m no copywriting expert (I’m a Denver web designer), but I do know my clients’ business well. If they don’t have the time or commitment to write their own articles, they should find someone to do it for them. There are many professional blog writing services out there, maybe I should start recommending them?
Does anyone have any experience using a professional blog writing service?
3 replies on “Encouraging clients to write often…or using a blogging service?”
Hi! Link Exchange?:
Freelancer Design. All The Best!
Google doesn’t like link exhcange spamming… also, WordPress.com blogs have
rel="nofollow"; a link to your site wouldn’t affect PageRank anyway.I know a lot of freelancers like to do blog posting for clients; it’s fairly easy work and enjoyable. My only stink with it, so far as businesses go, is that the writers tend to get paid very little (though that’s a problem with freelance writing overall). Getting someone else to write your blogs for you seems like a good idea: either you don’t have the time or skill to write it, so it’s well worth hiring someone else. But I don’t know if a business is the way to go when there are so many lone freelancers looking for a cushy job like that and can be found on many work for hire sites like scriptlance or vworker…
Have you used a professional blogging business or hired a blogger since this post? What did you think of it? I’m interested since I’m the hired, not the hiree and it’d be nice to hear from that perspective 😀