Serving your readers — being a guide or an expert
One of the common challenges I see many new business bloggers face is they think that they must be a subject-area expert. While I do believe you can provide excellent service to your blog readers through depth of knowledge and information, being a guru isn’t a necessity. Instead, focus your energies on doing what’s necessary to provide value to your readers (and anyone who can draw more readers to you).
Steps to creating a value-rich business blog
- Know your primary audience. If you don’t know who you’re writing/blogging for and what they want, it’s hard to provide them value.
- Know your SMARTI goals (read this post if you’re not sure if your goals are SMARTI or not). Knowing what you’re going for in terms of tangible results is critical.
- Develop a plan of action AND act on it. All the brainstorming, strategizing, and planning won’t reap rewards unless you follow through with action.
- Be curious and on the lookout for things of value to your readers. Whether you’re surfing the net, reading a book, having a conversation, or running errands, keep your eyes and ears open for information, insights, and ideas that you’re readers might enjoy.
Ways to provide exceptional value with your blog
- Share tips, techniques, and “how tos” that you’re readers likely want to know.
- Interview someone who your readers would like to learn from.
- Provide links to other sites (blogs or old-fashioned websites) with valuable information.
- Review a book, CD training program, or product that your readers might be interested in.
- Repurpose other material of your own (speeches, teleclasses, articles you’ve written, etc.) adding new thoughts if desired.
- Offer advice and suggestions about things your readers might buy, do, or see (e.g., travel info, report findings from consumers groups, etc.).
- Share surveys or polling data from groups like Gallup, Pew, USA Today.
- Answer reader questions (or post a Q&A from a client/customer if you don’t yet have questions coming from your readers.
- Fun (while still useful) things that might give your readers an emotional lift or bring a smile to their faces (definitely valuable for most of us in today’s world.
So, lighten up and don’t think that every bit of content you write on your blog needs to be original or labor-intensive. Focus on your reader and what matters to them, then be the one who guides them to the pot of gold they’ve been looking for.
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