Blue Moon Business Blogging

One good rule to keep in mind when blogging for business is to provide information that’s actionable. After all, isn’t the whole idea behind all the effort to provide relevant, frequent action to win friends and customers?
 
Like all rules, even good ones, though, it’s meant to be broken every once in awhile. Sometimes, if the facts you present in your blog are intrinsically interesting, even if they are things that are actionable by readers right then, it may be worth including them. For fun. To add variety. To demonstrate your own curiosity and knowledge in your field.

And, speaking of including fascinating, if not immediate actionable, material in your blog at least once in a blue moon, what’s the origin of that expression “Once in a blue moon”?

Lunar mechanics may not seem related at all to what you do or what you have to sell in your business, but everybody can relate to the expression “once in a blue moon.” Just the other day an acquaintance remarked on the fact that my Say It For You professional ghost blogging business address starts with the number 1313, saying it’s fitting for a ghost to be situated at such a location!

Here’s the scoop: In most years, there will be one full moon per month, three times for each season of the year. Seven times every nineteen years, though, there comes a year when there are thirteen full moons during the year. According to the now-defunct Maine Farmers’ Almanac, “this was considered a very unfortunate (hence “blue”) circumstance, especially by the monks who had charge of the calendar…..it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals.”

What’s more, we learn, in each season, the first full moon was called “early”, the second “midsummer” (or midwinter, midspring, or midfall), with the third being called “late”.  So as not to upset this system, a different term needed to be found for the “extra” moon, so they chose “blue moon”.

This type of “so-now-you-know!” material can add interest and variety to business blogs. Yet, in order to make the details relevant to the corporate blog “mission”, as I teach in my blog content training sessions, It’s a good idea to establish a tie-in to your own topic.

• Landscaping company – using blue formula to enhance the look of ponds
   
• Dry cleaners or laundry appliance company – bluing white garments
   
• Pet care company – whitening dulled hair on a pet with bluing
   
• Lighting company – The wave lengths of different colored lights and which colors of light are most appropriate for different uses
   
• Electronics store – Blu-ray technology

But, since frequency is one of the criteria for winning search, please – don’t blog just once in a blue moon!