In Blogging for Business, Keep the So-Long-As Short!

"If you plan to stay anywhere within your home remodeling budget," cautioned the interviewee on a Destination DIY radio episode I heard just the other day,  "stay away from 'so long as' extras.  In other words, she explained, "So-long-as-we're-fixing-up-the-kitchen-we-might-as-well-add…" can turn out to be a very expensive train of thought.

"So-long-as" add-ons in blog content writing tend to get "expensive" in a different way.  Attempting to cover too much ground in a single blog post, we lose focus, straining readers' attention span.

"One message per post" is the mantra I pass on to newbie Indianapolis blog writers.  In fact, because blog posts are updated so much more frequently, they have a distinct advantage over more "static" website copy.  Each post, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, should contain a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of the business or practice.  Other important things to discuss?  Save those for later posts, I tell them.

Still, I like the idea employee benefits professional Mel Schlesinger teaches his salespeople: adding an "Oh, by the way…" to describe an add-on service or product feature.  In SEO blog marketing, you can lead to "so long as" information with a link to another page, an offer of a down-loadable white paper, or by simply telling readers to watch for that additional information in your next blog post.

Keeping the primary focus is crucial in business blog writing, though, because online searchers tend to be scanners rather than "readers".  (Truth is, many won't ever get far enough into your post to even notice any "so long as" towards the end.)

In Do-It-Yourself projects, "so long as" add-ons may not be a very smart idea from a budgetary standpoint.  In business blog writing, lack of focus can get uncomfortably costly as well.  But for readers who stick with you, you can use "so long as" add-ons to let them know you have lots more helpful information, products, and services to fill their needs.