Folk’s let’s face it, blogging can be difficult and I don’t just mean the writing part of it or the building of a blog. I mean the emotional side of blogging is hard too. Even if you are blogging about lawn care or surgery it can be such an uncomfortable thing to decide how much sharing is too much sharing.
When I decided upon this topic I went to the internet to see if anyone else was talking about the topic specifically and I did not find anything like what I was really looking for. Of course this made me doubt myself (hello uncomfortable feeling) but I did not want to let that stop me. After all, if that feeling stopped me then it would go against everything that I believe in and am trying to do here.
A list of uncomfortable blogging feelings and thoughts.
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- Am I giving away too much information?
- Will people read this and just do it themselves and not hire me?
- What if I get a tip or idea wrong?
- Will I come across as a pompous jerk?
- But other people have more experience than me.
- I am ashamed at my lack of an extensive vocabulary.
- What if I make a fool of myself.
- I don’t want to do this.
- I think that blogging is stupid.
- I am uncomfortable blogging about my business because it will give competitors an idea of what I am doing.
- I don’t understand SEO and so I think that I will just make things worse.
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Have I hit any sore spots with that list? Have you ever felt any of these things before? It turns out that these are all normal feelings of insecurity. It is far more comfortable to not stretch out of our comfort zone. It is far more comfortable to say to ourselves that our work shows for itself and there is no need for such a type of marketing. Sorry to tell you all but that is crap and here is why. If you add value and provide good tips for people they will trust you more. If you add value and provide good tips for people they will share those tips with their friends. Now your business has been exposed to new people and it is easy for people to share these things online. There is another hard truth here and that is if you don’t do this your competitor will and they will have an advantage over you. So you must do what is uncomfortable even if it is not blogging.
As you will see in my quick and not all that thorough search I only found two that even came close on this topic. Below are two blog posts that I found on this topic.
Uncomfortable Feeling With More Than One Blog
http://diaryofdennis.com/2014/02/13/uncomfortable-feeling-with-more-than-one-blog/
In this blog post the author talks about feeling weird about having more than one blog. It is extremely, easy to have these types of feelings. There is a time and place for a random topics blog and a business blog.
Can a person have more than one blog?
Many successful bloggers have multiple blogs and I think it is a great idea to have as many blogs as you can handle. I am managing several blogs myself. For me these multiples are about experiments and tests and well just for fun.
Darren Rowse runs one of the most popular blogs about blogging and a successful blog about photography.
http://digital-photography-school.com/
http://www.problogger.net/
3 Uncomfortable Truths About Blogging
http://onabookbender.com/2013/09/13/uncomfortable-truths-book-blogging/
This blog post is about having too high of expectations and thinking a bit to0 much of yourself. I believe this happens to bloggers as a defense mechanism. The point that the blogger makes about having to out and get readers is a darn good one. Just because you hit publish does not mean that anyone cares that you hit publish. Heck, it does not even mean that anyone knows that you hit publish. You have to go out there and find people that will care and then do all that you can to make them care. As I say often, writing a blog post can actually turn out to be the easiest part of blogging.
[notification type=”info”]Side note: Almost all Google searches are quick and not that thorough. This means that your content has to perfectly match the right person at the right moment. That may seem like a lot of pressure but it should be a relief more than anything. There are a lot of people searching Google at any given moment so if you are specific enough in what you are doing your odds go up of being the one that gets clicked on. This is a great and inspiring thought for me and it should be for you too.[/notification]
So what is my point?
Basically, it is that you have no choice but to fight through all of those feelings and blog. Feelings get in the way of productivity and so we have to push them aside and do the best that we can. The best that we can do is to provide what we believe to be good solid tidbits of information. The goal with your business blog should be to add value. If you are a professional blogger and your goal is to be humorous or share art or whatever, those things still add value. In the end no matter what the topic it has the potential to add value.
Do what freaks you out. Do what makes you uncomfortable. Do what you wish you didn’t have to do. Whatever you do just keep blogging!
What makes you uncomfortable about blogging? What freaks you out about content marketing?
As you can see by looking at my blog it is not what most people would see as a ‘serious’ blog. However, that said, I had 150 views today. I am debating with myself about adding advertising to bring in revenue, but feel VERY uncomfortable about that. Any suggestions?