Why do I need a blog?

Working with many people I often get the same question again and again.

Why do I need to have a blog? I am just a…

If I got asked this question four to five years ago my response would be very different. But nowadays, having a blog is a necessity no matter who you are or what’s your field.

Blogs help businesses

Up to now only large corporations had blogs, but today it seems  everyone has one or has started one recently.

Why? It’s simple.

When you create a blog for a company(also called corporate blogging) you are sharing your views and your expertise with your field. If it’s a consulting company, employees write articles, which help readers give solutions to their problems. Why? Because they gain trust and “followers”, something that is very,Very important nowadays.

Having a “static” site is not enough nowadays, because there’s only a limited amount of things you can do. Yes, you can submit it in social networks, you might also hire a consulting company to increase your website’s search engine visibility, but that’s not gonna work anymore. People need to be informed and stay up to date with the latest trends of the niche they are interested in. By having a blog, you display more information than your competition -who has a conventional site-, you gain visitor trust, -making them more inclined to buy or use your service- and overall gain exposure, value and followers.

Blogs help individuals

Blogs are not only extremely valuable for corporations but for individuals too. And since I love examples, I’ll use my self as one. A year ago I had a company. We did projects for clients, including website creation, e-shops, promotion, monetization of internet “properties”, videos, and TV spots. When I closed my company, for reasons stated here, one friend believed I had made a huge mistake. This is because, whereas beforehand we got unearned increment for our company with each project completed, as a freelancer this is no longer possible.

A month after this conversation, and after failing to convince him he was wrong, I started this blog. After the fourth or fifth post he understood what I meant. I don’t have to hide behind a name to do business. I can become that name myself.

• I write articles on Internet Marketing and help people understand it’s concepts.
• It’s a powerful tool to raise awareness about what I do and why I am good at it.
• It’s a great way to promote my own in-house projects. By having a strong presence and gaining trust from the visitors I feel confident that they will give new projects a spin. Furthermore, when I promote the blog I also promote my work and my interests.
• I am pursuing my dream of teaching other people a reality.

Needless to say, we are now creating a corporate blog for my friend. :)

Some might say, that by educating people within my own niche, I loose customers since I teach them how to do it all on their own. This is partially true because:

• I don’t want just customers, I need good partners that will devote as much time as I do to their project.
• I prefer working with people who have a good understanding of internet marketing.
• I need people who will trust me as professional to help them out and won’t try to do all the work themselves, see how that goes and most probably make a big mess.
• I show the world that I am an expert in my niche and encourage being contacted for bigger projects and not being used to help promote your local bakery (not that I have anything against bakeries).

Last but not least, don’t think that your niche is strange or your interests are not that “mainstream” enough to make your blog popular. If you are passionate about something, thousands of people, if not more, will be more than happy to learn more about what it is you have to offer.

Take your self as an example. Let’s say you want a new website for your company. You’re doing your research and you find Ten companies that can cover your need.

Won’t you go to the one that has a blog with past work, interesting design articles and proof that they can deliver exactly what you need?

Just Think About It.

Angel

Ps. If you want to create a blog but don’t even know where to start, please do contact me via my contact form. I’ll make sure to give you some good start-up guidelines and further reading suggestions.