Does your blog have legs?

I was recently asked how much I would charge to write a regular blog post for a local business’s website, and when I gave the business owner my price, she was pleasantly surprised. I've since put my prices up. Only joking! It was the conversation that followed where I described how else she could use her blogs and what they would be worth to her business, that really gave her a light bulb moment.

You see, if your blog subjects are carefully selected and of interest and value to your chosen audience (which they should be) and if they are well written (which they also should be, especially if I’m writing them!), then your blogs will have legs. Lovely long legs. All you need to do is to find some avenues for them to trot off down to help you promote your business.

Does your blog journey have marketing potential?

One such avenue (and it’s a very leafy one with a lot of marketing potential), is to find a regular spot where you can guest blog. It might be a column in a local or industry paper or magazine, or in a newsletter produced by an organisation which offers a complementary service. Likewise, industry websites or trade organisations might welcome a regular feature from an authoritative source. When it comes to pitching blogs to local editors, I’ve written some tips for you here. 

Do you have a blog marathon on your hands?

Of course, when you have produced a collection of blogs, then life can get very exciting because you will have a blog marathon on your hands. That’s because once you have a collection of blogs, you have material for a newsletter. Newsletters are an incredibly powerful way to reach out to existing clients and potential customers to promote your business. You can choose to drip feed your blogs in regular e-newsletters like this one, or you can hold onto them until you’ve got enough for a proper coffee-table read. In true Blue Peter style – here’s a blog I wrote earlier about the benefits of newsletters. It's called Newsletter Schmoozeletter.

If you’ve been really clever and planned your subject material carefully you might even have the makings for a blog ultra-marathon – in other words, an e-book. But that’s another blog for another day! This little blogs’s legs are tired and I wouldn’t want to push him too hard.