Web Secret #89: Blog Power

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In a recent post, I stated that 90% of bloggers have no business blogging.

But if you are one of the lucky souls who can respond “YES” to the following 4 questions…

1. Can I write?
2. Can I write something clever, useful or witty?
3. Can I write something clever, useful or witty, at least once a week?
4. Can I write something clever, useful or witty, at least once a week - for an indefinite period of time?

… blogging can be a great idea.

I agree with Jeff Bulla that while it takes effort, time and commitment, a blog

“… along with your website is the foundation for your content and social media strategy that will be read for years and will help you establish you as a “thought leader” that will get people coming back again and again.”

In his post Jeff stated there are 20 reasons why you should blog before you twitter. While I don’t agree with everything he wrote, I do believe that:

1. A blog can be a core branding and content anchor. If you are creating and distributing unique and valuable content that helps companies or individuals solve problems and provide answers, it will spread and be used as a valuable resource. Your blog will be quoted.
   
2. Having your own blog remains the strongest platform, if you’re serious about sharing ideas and having a continued dialogue with the world.
   
3. Blogging demonstrates true commitment and passion to your industry. Most won’t be able to sustain it over long periods of time with frequency, but those who do are rewarded in spades and stand out from the crowd.
   
4. Old posts are valuable and are still read years later, given infinite life by search engines like Google.
   
5. Most of Twitter is just linking to blogs and content on the open web. It is always better to be the end product people are actually interested in. Your ideas will be studied carefully. A blog is the perfect place to build an interested community.
   
6. You own your work in a self-hosted blog and are in total control of how it is presented. You can customize, customize, customize a blog.
   
7. You get cumulative results over time from blogging, each post incrementally adds value to your site as a whole.
   
8. You can use full analytics with a blog. How many people come to your blog? Where do they come from? How long do they visit? Which posts do they prefer? Etc.

I think therefore I blog.