Since the beginning of Decisive Minds, I have been preaching the idea of Blogging as a great way to build your business.  You create valuable content, people read it, and all is good, right?  And it used to be that blogging, by itself, was an amazing way to build your business.  If you wrote it, you would find readers and those readers would become buyers.  It just worked. But what about now? Is blogging dead?

Is Blogging Dead?

Blogging just for the sake of blogging is not effective.  Many bloggers simply put up a post, pick a keyword, and wait for the magic to happen. For these bloggers, blogging is dead because that doesn't work.

Blogging As Your Secret Weapon.

Blogging becomes your secret weapon when you have a focused strategy.

1. Why are you blogging?

It doesn't matter what you are doing in your business, you should always begin with the end in mind. So, why are you blogging? Are you using your blog to drive traffic to your website? Are you using your blog to build your reputation? Are you selling your products and services through your blog? Each of these desires requires a different strategy so be careful which you choose.

2. Creating a successful blog post.

Once you have decided why you are blogging and designed a plan which includes how often you will blog, what topics you will blog about, and who you are writing the blog post for, there are four things to focus on.

1. The Headline – Your blog post will never be read if you don't know how to write the perfect headlines. Learn more on my blog post => How to Create Powerful Headlines.
2. The Image – Never underestimate the power of an image. According to MDG Marketing, articles with images get 94% more views.
3. The Content – Don't be scared to give away your best stuff in your blog posts. The average blog post is between 400 and 600 words. Oh and guess what – blog posts do not have to be written. Learn more on my blog post => 3 Greatest Ways to Create Blog Content Without Writing a Word
4. The Call to Action – Every and I mean every blog post should have a call to action. Your call to action should be in alignment with what your goal for your blog is. It could be a link to a class you are teaching, a link to a product you are selling, a link to an affiliate product you are promoting, a link to connect with you on social media or ask a question and tell them to leave a comment.

3. Promoting Your Blog.

It is your responsibility to promote your blog – not their responsibility to find it.

Promoting your blog should include posting on social media multiple times, sending it to your email list, and linking to it from other blog posts. If you find it difficult to promote, I recommend you use a program like CoSchedule that will automatically post them to your social media accounts. Check out this blog post about How I Use CoSchedule.

Here is a gift from me. If you have a blog post that will benefit business owners – feel free to post a link to it with a short description in the comments below. (Did you notice the call to action?)