I know, I know. Sometimes it feels like EVERYONE and their brother, sister, pet, and pastor has a blog nowadays. Maybe you feel like the digital world is already saturated with blog-worthy content, and you just can’t imagine how you and your small business’ area of expertise quite fit in.

Well let me tell ya, fellow pessimist…NEITHER COULD I.

I forcibly resisted starting a blog for well over a year of my website’s young life because:

A. My website wasn’t pretty/polished/trafficked enough

B. I wasn’t creative enough to regularly generate written content

C. I didn’t have time to write! I was running a business and raising a small family, for goodness’ sakes

and D. I didn’t see the purpose

BUT if you, like me, have read and loved Girl, Wash Your Face by THE Rachel Hollis, you know that all of the above are just lies and excuses I was giving myself for not getting started. And you know that if an idea keeps itching the corner of your brain, it’s a sign from the universe that you need to get going and take action towards turning this idea into a reality. After months of thinking about a blog, I did a little research and I learned about the function and importance of regularly generating new content for your website. So, I jumped aboard the blogging bandwagon and got out of my own stubborn way.

So ladies and gents, I humbly give you, the Molly Knuth Media top 4 reasons your website needs a blog and some tips for getting out of your own way and getting started:

The Top 4 Reasons your Website Needs a Blog (and how to get started)

1. If you, like me are going the el-cheapo, bootstrapped small business route, you probably don’t have a super-customized, top-of-the-line website like some of the celebrity bloggers you see. This may leave you thinking that your site isn’t cute enough, modern-enough, or one of the other “enoughs” to start a blog and send traffic to it. Guess what? You need to get over that. Starting a blog takes nothing more than a handful of ideas and a dedication to sharing those ideas with your followers. The pretty site will come in time, but if you truly have a message to share, that is more important than the color scheme of your links.
2. If you, like me were worried about being creative enough to generate regular content, then guess what…I’m going to tell you to get over it. If you are already creating weekly posts on your social media page, then take an hour to write one blog post for each of those social photos. The idea is already there, but with a blog, you can take that idea and expand upon it. In my case, I was already creating weekly social posts and themed live video trainings on Facebook. All I needed to do was repurpose those topics into a written format for my blog, and the idea generating (and stress associated with it) was already done. OR if you aren’t at that stage of social media content generation, you can sit down and just brainstorm a huge list of potential topics and pull from that whenever you are feeling a creative drought. Trust me, there is so much potential inside you and your business that people would love to know more about. Share profiles of your employees, show a photo timeline of a project you were working on, take frequently asked client questions and answer them over a series of weeks, etc. Think about what you do day-in and day-out and analyze how you can share that with an audience.
3. If you, like me were worried about finding time to write a blog, then I can tell you blogging does take time, but you need to get out of your own damn way and just commit to doing the work. I found 30-45 minutes each week to write this blog, and while it may come out in stream-of-consciousness format with typos from time-to-time, that’s all I’ve got to work with. Done is better than perfect. I only give myself these 30-45 minutes because I don’t want to have hours to grammatically proof every sentence or obsess over whether or not I have Google’s recommended word count. If you get too caught up in the details, you’ll never click the “publish” button. So find a dedicated amount of time each week, stick to that time, and click the big blue button.
4. If you, like me, didn’t see the purpose of having a blog, let me share with you some facts from Forbes: 88% of people trust online recommendations as much as personal recommendations from family and friends AND sales reps who use social media (including blogging) in their sales strategies outsell competitors by 78%. When you write a blog, you are putting your knowledge, expertise, and experience out there for everyone to see, and that will demonstrate your competence when someone researches you for potential business. Not only will a blog prove your knowledge, but regularly updating your website and freshening up your content also improves your Google score which then helps you appear higher on search engine rankings. AND it helps you come up with shareable content for your social media platforms. It’s really a win-win-win-win situation.

In Summary

Do you need to start a blog today? NO.

Before putting pen to paper or placing your fingers on the Macbook keys, I would recommend getting very clear on the purpose of your blog and determining what kind of messaging you wish to share with your audience. Be sure there is a market for your message and that there is room for you to enter that market.

Take some time developing this message and honing in on your specific, unique purpose and start thinking about all the ways you can come at that purpose through written content, photos, videos, and tutorials.

Then get to the business of doing the work. I REPEAT, sit down and get writing and creating.

Hop on the blogging bandwagon, girl!

For a tutorial of the blogging concept visit this link, or get the show notes with even more tips and tricks here.