Who Took The Fun Out Of Blogging?
Who Took The Fun Out Of Blogging?
By Teresa Boardman
In my last Tomato post, Jim counted my questions and there were 21 of them. He answered them in 9 words. “Find your focus, Write your articles, Go to bed” Not a bad answer but he left out an idea that I think is important: Have fun! Jim is an all around fun kind of guy so I am sure it was an oversight on his part. One wild and crazy Tomato . . . .
There are several words I could use to describe the missing idea, the word Joy comes to mind, because that is what I feel while I am working, but I’ll use passion instead because it sounds more business like. Either way it all leads to fun, which is where this is going.
If you love your business, and have a business blog, it will be fun and relatively easy to write. It does involve staying focused and there is a time commitment but the payoff is huge.
I love what I do and where I live, and enjoy taking pictures, and writing blog posts. It is the easiest when I disengage my brain and just let my thoughts go right to my keyboard. Thinking can really mess up a good idea, story or impression, but doesn’t seem to hurt the photos. My blog has taken on a life of its own, my blog is my business, or maybe my business is my blog, either way they have become inseparable.
Experts explain all the complicated stuff that goes along with having a blog and talk about the latest tools, widgets and plug-ins, they talk about SEO, pay-per-click and web site optimization. They debate the merits of one platform verse another and talk about being innovative and thinking outside the box. They can suck the joy out of blogs in a hurry. They know more than I do, but I smile because I am having fun.
SEO experts are so busy SEO-ing that they have forgotten that the blog readers don’t know anything about SEO either. People use the internet to find information and search engines help them. Google uses an algorithm. Don’t worry about understanding it. Speak to the person sitting at the key board using Google. Throw in a little viral marketing, and try using HitTail and listen your readers.
Don’t sweat the details; someone will figure it out and write a blog post about it, just wait and read. Focus on what is uniquely yours and share it with the world, call it content. Dare to be different and write about what you know instead of what everyone else is writing about.
How will people find your blog?
It is words that bring people to blogs, through search engines, but it is how they are arranged that brings them back. Spend less time thinking, follow your instincts, use your imagination and have fun.
My favorite day of the week on St. Paul Real Estate Blog is Friday because I run a weekly post called “Fridays are for fun”. I started it because it was something I wanted to do to blow off a little energy and have some fun, I do work very hard. I was advised to be careful with off topic posts, because they can hurt SEO. It’s only once a week but that one little post is generating a lot of activity on my blog that is translating into business.
The more fun I have, the more business I get. They read it; laugh and then they pick up the phone. Blog writers from other fields have linked to these posts and I recently started entering them in non-real estate carnivals as a way to meet and network with more business blog writers.
Take Jim’s nine words of advice and add two more, have fun, to make it 11 words. Please have fun out there and remember not to take yourself or your blog too seriously. Honestly, life it too short. If it was fun to write it will probably be fun to read. Surround yourself with fun people and feel the joy, if you can’t feel it, stop what you are doing and go out and find it.
Good Night, Jim
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G’night Teresa.
Teresa Boardman is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the St. Paul, Minnesota area.
Her website: www.TBoardman.com
Her blog: www.StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603
