They are all things that seem easy at first, but prove to require a developed skill to be successful.
Photography:
Buy a nice camera and point it at things while pressing the button.
Easy.
Gardening:
Dig hole, place plant (or seed), replace dirt, add water, Miracle Grow® and sunshine.
Easy.
Bodybuilding:
Lift a lot of weights, eat a lot of protein, consider supplements.
Easy.
Blogging For Business:
Start blog on WordPress, type articles about real estate, publish.
Easy.
The question that irks skilled photographers more than any other: “Wow, that’s a beautiful picture, what kind of camera did you use?”
Excellent photography is not so much about the technology in the hands of the artist as it is in developing the vision and applying the expertise garnered from critical analysis of 1000’s of snapped images. You’ll need to learn all about composition, lighting, frame speed, motion, processing, aperture, and a dozen other topics that I am not an expert in. I do know that worrying about megapixels and brand of camera mean that you have a long way to go before success comes ‘easy’.
I have what I refer to as a brown thumb.
Every plant I have ever cared for has died. I go to the local nursery, look out over the acre of beautifully maintained plants and fall for it every time. 100s of dollars later, I am excited with the idea of having a back porch full of blooming happiness. Every year I am disappointed as they almost instantly look worse than when I first watered them. Every year I throw away pitiful looking plants that never lived up to my expectations.
Body building I’ve never tried, and don’t plan to. But watching some documentaries on contests, and reading about the intense dieting, training, chemistry and biology that goes into forming oneself into a formidable Atlas, it’s been revealed to me that it takes a lot more than pumping iron.
Sure, you can tone up, and even build some nice muscle with little knowledge of what you are doing at the gym but to get beyond the plateau, and really push the human body to its protein limits takes knowledge, skill, technique, discipline and hard work… lots and lots.
It is with good reason, given the amount of time, energy, commitment and focus that is normally required to develop such skills.
In the book the Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains the 10,000 hour rule (threshold) of becoming an expert in something. Want to compete with the best of the best? You need to be willing to develop your skills for thousands of hours before you are ready to even step in the ring.
But the good news is that you don’t have to develop skills over thousands of hours to be seen as one with whom we want to do business. However, it is not as easy as just typing your thoughts about real estate and hitting publish for you to break through to the threshold where people see you as the expert.
Define An Audience
Find Inspiration In Clients’ Needs
Write Headlines
Connect With Readers
Organize Content
Beautify Articles
Establish Call-To-Action
Market Your Content
Develop A Voice
Commit To Regular Publishing
Once these layers of the onion have been peeled back and you have a few dozen articles under your belt you’ll find you hit stride and the effort becomes a habit, and the learning a skill.
You will recognize potential articles in every conversation as the photographer sees the frame in every light. You will have a plentiful bank of fruitful content just as the gardener will have baskets full of delicious reward. You will publish as effortlessly as the bodybuilder plows through his daily workout.
You may, after decades, have invested 10,000 hours in developing content for your business, but you’ll be the best of the best long before that.
Most will quit after less than 20 hours because they fail to see the success quickly enough. The quitters never looked at the effort as a Discipline, but rather nothing more that a few simple steps to an expected result.
Now, with such little competition in the blogging-for-business market, once you master the above list, you’re likely to be standing without peer.
If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”
Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.
Let us do it!
If this sounds interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.
Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com