AFJ Digital

I don’t normally speak off the cuff, but August 5th is National Blogger Day, and I thought today was the perfect time to try it.

I have had an on-and-off relationship with blogging for many years. I’ve always loved to write, but I found blogging to be intimidating for a myriad of reasons.

1. Would anyone want to read what I write about?
2. Would putting my blog out there worth the time and effort?
3. Would blogging make me look boring or worse, uneducated about a subject?

These thoughts have been in my head for years, and they’re valid. Roughly 7.5 million blogs are posted each day and WordPress, which is what I use, accounts for 2.33 million of those blog posts. I didn’t want AFJ Digital to be another blog lost in these stats.

When the pandemic hit, I felt compelled to practice writing and decided to start a blog for AFJ Digital. A year later, I had a kid and that set me back for a while because the first year of a kid’s life/parenthood is rough.

Then a year ago, I felt the need to write consistently again and decided to make it a habit. I was all over the place with what I wrote at first, but I’m glad because it helped me figure out what I needed to write about and the right cadence. Did I end up deleting a lot of posts because of that? Yes. 😂

Now that I’ve been doing this for a year, I’ve understood why blogging as a business is important.

• It makes you a better writer. It’s a challenge to write about your business consistently.  I have to find new topics to write about and they have to be relevant to what’s going on right now and to what my audience wants to read. Forcing myself to do it has helped me develop my writing and business skills more than I ever thought it would.
• You learn more about your industry. When I’m writing posts about digital marketing and content marketing, it forces me to stay on top of the latest trends and statistics. Of course, I’m always trying to learn, but writing about these topics helps you deeply understand industry best practices and discover why they’ve changed.
• You get a better understanding of your audience. I’ve written a post a month for a year and based on website stats, I know which posts resonate with my audience and which ones don’t. The more I write about what my audience likes, the better engagement I get.
• You position yourself as a thought leader. Business leaders forget why it’s valuable to put their thoughts into the world. They think it’s a waste of time, but it’s that vulnerability and frankness that gets the reader’s attention. I know that putting my knowledge out there in my own words has had a positive impact on how I’ve been perceived as a business owner. What business leaders have to remember is that companies can choose to work with anybody, but they want to work with people they trust and they like. If you want to attract companies that will respect and want your insights, write openly and honestly.
• It improves your business. I am a firm supporter of inbound marketing. It’s not the quick way to generate business, but it works to build brand visibility over time. Posting blogs consistently, even if it’s monthly, has helped people remember me when they see a project that might be a fit for AFJ. Monthly is an ideal cadence to start, but every business is different and you’ll want to determine a frequency that works best for you.

I’m not writing this to say that everyone should blog. What matters is finding what works for your business, and it may be an entirely different format like podcasting, webinars, or videos.

But I do think blogging can help most businesses, and it’s much easier and less intimidating to start than other content marketing formats. You never know how much it can help your business grow.