My Blog Was Headed In The Wrong Direction

Have I ever told you the story of my first year of blogging?

I'd moved to St. Louis from a small town in Ohio, and had started up my own Internet Marketing company. 

It was an exciting time, and I was anxious to begin helping businesses and potential clients with their marketing and online presence. 

So I started to blog.

While I had written a lot in High School and College, I hadn't done much creative writing professionally until that point. And it showed.

I didn't bother to study how to blog, I just started writing and publishing.

And I wrote about whatever occurred to me. Whatever I thought my audience might be interested in.

But of course, since I hadn't studied, I also hadn't taken the time to really think about who my audience actually was.

Which meant that most of my content was missing the mark.

Instead of writing about topics that actual, potential customers might be interested in, articles that might actually lead those readers into becoming subscribers and leads, I wrote about anything business-related.

• Email Signatures
• Office Furniture
• Offline Marketing
• Business Technology

I even live-blogged several Apple Keynotes!

While fun to write, there was absolutely no business purpose to that content. After years of zero value, those articles were eventually purged from my site forever.

Why am I sharing this with you now?

Because this is a mistake you and anyone else who wants to start a blog can avoid. Even if you've been blogging for a while, it's not too late to evaluate your target audience and selected topic and make a life-altering change.

I recently wrote an article for Social Quant that touched on this topic, and more. "7 Easy Steps To Create An Amazingly Successful Blog." I think you'll pull several takeaways from it, and I'd love to hear what you think and what other questions you have.

Of course, if you're looking for a more in-depth guide to getting started, I've written that for you here: How To Start A Blog: The Ultimate Guide

Now, some of you have asked me why I spend so much time talking about Blogging instead of Social Media. This is The Social Media Hat after all. And the answer is simple:

For most businesses, a successful social media presence is predicated upon having a successful content strategy.

Or, in other words, you need to have someplace for those social posts to link to!

I recently did a webinar with Alisa Meredith, Content Manager for Tailwind, on how blogging helps to fuel a great Pinterest presence. You can watch the replay and read the write-up here, and just remember that, for the most part, what we discussed applies to Facebook, Twitter and other networks as well.

As we rush toward the new year, I think it's more important than ever that we focus on the activities that bring us the most joy and greatest rewards. Which means working to get rid of distractions and misdirections. A lot of the articles and information I will be sharing in the coming weeks will resonate with that theme, so keep an eye out!

To your continued good fortune, and a blessed holiday season!

Mike

Mike Allton is a Content Marketing Practitioner, award-winning Blogger and Author in St. Louis, and the Chief Marketing Officer at SiteSell. He has been working with websites and the Internet since the early '90's, and is active on all of the major social networks. Mike teaches a holistic approach to content marketing that leverages blog content, social media and SEO to drive traffic, generate leads, and convert those leads into sales.

Mike is the author of, "The Unofficial Book On HootSuite: The #1 Tool for Social Media Management", "The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect LinkedIn Profile.", and "Blog Promotionology, The Art & Science of Blog Promotion."