100 days ago I entered a B-A-D challenge. It was recommended by my coach who initiated the challenge. I didn’t enter to win; I just wanted to see if I could blog for 100 days straight. I could not. After day 14, finding the time to blog was my biggest challenge as work demands began to mount. When I started up again, my ideas seemed stale but I kept moving forward. I soon discovered that blogging has enormous benefits.
Got A Great Idea? Write It Down Immediately.
It was quite enlightening (and disturbing) to realize that some of my most profound and brilliant ideas would dissipate if not noted. As cautioned by Steven Pressfield in his masterpiece, The War of Art, “…those guys in the basement don’t hang around for too long.”
What helped keep me blogging after a dry spell of not blogging, was being able to go back to my “brilliant ideas” that were noted in the Post section of my WordPress website. When ideas came to me I would jot down a working title and include a brief outline before saving it as a draft.
Do You Know How Many Times Google Has Indexed Your Site?
About half-way through the B-A-D challenge I attended the Geek Girls Tech Conference in Plymouth, MA. It was there I discovered that all the blogging I had been doing was having positive effect on my search ranking in Google.
For the past two years I had been hearing about the benefits of having a content strategy in place. A content strategy is simply scheduling time to add new content to your site, and sticking to it. Why new content? Because search engine robots are always hunting for “new,” and “new” raises your visibility on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!. You can add new content to your existing pages, or even add new pages to your navigation menu, but the easiest way to add new content on a regular basis is to blog.
I learned that by typing in “site:fieldsgraphicdesign.com” into the Google search results page, I could see how many times Google had indexed my site. It was astonishing to see every new post indexed at least once, as well as each of my website pages.
Other lessons learned
- I actually enjoy writing.
- Writing about my business helps keep me focused on my business…and my customer.
- Early morning is the most productive time to write, but I never hit the Publish button until later in the day, after a read-though with fresh eyes.
- Writing helps my public speaking, which I do every Wednesday morning at my BNI meeting.
- The more I write, the easier it gets.
Ugh! I Hate Blogs
That was a response told to me over two years ago by a client who was looking for ways to attract more business. She thought it was an intrusion, as well as an annoyance to blog. She didn’t even like to read others’ blogs. Too bad. She had so much to offer. Unfortunately her business has since withered on the vine.
Be A Winner
Our uniqueness is what others hunger for. As highlighted at the recent Authority Intensive, the Internet doesn’t need another Wikipedia, it needs originality, passion and authenticity.
We’re all unique. It’s time to let it shine brightly.
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