Business Blogging Without the Bullsh*t

It’s always nice when someone more famous than you says exactly what you’ve been saying for a long time, and author Geoffrey James, in his book “Business Without the Bullsh*t”, did exactly that when he advised, “Don’t blog unless you’re a natural.”

James starts off by pointing out a fact of the universe: “Almost everybody who starts blogging gives up after a few weeks, after which the posts become few and far between, and eventually peter out altogether.  What remains is an out-of-date blog that’s a testament to your inability to blog regularly….If you’re determined to blog, be realistic rather than ambitious.  If you think you can post once a week, set a schedule to post every two weeks or every month,” James advises.

In fact, the how-often-is-often-enough? is one of the very first questions I hear from business owners or professional practitioners getting ready to launch a blog. Here are some opinions I’ve read on that very subject:

Once a week:  (Stan Smith of Pushing Social) – “Your blog strengthens your relationship with your customers by keeping you top of mind. Your weekly post establishes a rhythm to your relationship.” Megan Totka (Small Business Trends) reminds readers that daily content can give a small business blog a great boost, the once a week is an absolute minimum for getting search engines to crawl your website.  “If your updates are more than a week apart, it’s about as effective as not blogging at all,” is Totka’s view.

Anywhere from 2 to 4 times per week to multiple times per day: (Ben Roberts of Salty Dog Interactive) – “Less is not always more where blogging is concerned,” says Roberts “…7 days a week, 30ish days a month. This is where the magic starts happening.”

So what about the Geoffrey James caution about not blogging unless you’re a natural? TashWord offers three reasons for using a professional writer to craft blog posts:

• To save time.  Blogging is a task to be outsourced so you can spend more time doing what you’re best at – running your business or practice.
• Distance – a blog content writer is not so close to your business and will have a clearer perspective on what needs to be said.
• To get words that work well, are easy to read, and are grammatically correct.I have to agree with James’ that it would be “bullsh*t” to advise business owners and professionals who aren’t “naturals” at writing to try to maintain what I call the “drill sergeant discipline of blog content writing.

  Given all the many potential benefits of business blogging, though, “Don’t blog!” is hardly the best advice. You may not want the BS, but you definitely want the business!