7 Big Myths That Stop You From Having A Business Blog

It seems that small business owners are allowing a series of fears and myths that prevent them from having a blog for their business.

The fact is, a blog should be a major piece of your overall marketing plan, with its job being to communicate the personality and soul of your business. Of course, there's no escaping the fact that blogging does need your attention and time to update it, and to keep it happy, fresh, and healthy.

The question is, how can a busy small business owner overcome the apparent hurdles of maintaining a blog to help them acquire new clients, keep the ones they have, and make more sales?

As it turns out, it's a lot easier than you might think!

Meeting The Challenge Of Blogging For Business

One of the big problems, of course, is that there's already a lot of things happening in a business on a day-to-day basis that it can be difficult to find the time to work on a blog it seems like just one more thing to add to the list of chores.

Beyond that, we encounter a few challenges surrounding the actual process of blogging.
Mention the word blogging to a group of busy small business owners and Im sure you'll hear responses such as:

•I'm no writer how can I write a blog!
•I already tried! I started to write a blog but then the ideas ran out
•The search engine optimization part is just too hard
•Im very busy you know how can I find the time for blogging?
•I didn't think anyone even read blogs anymore
•Why would I need to have a blog when I have Facebook?
•Blogging really sounds like too much hard work

No doubt, several of these roadblocks are at the forefront of your mind as you read this, but that's quite all right – As you'll see, Ill show you how to easily get around them!

Myth 1: I’m No Writer!

This is the most common myth of all, which is why it's number one on the list. However, there's a big secret out there in the world of blogging, one that all the really successful bloggers neglected to pass on to everyone else, which is that you don't actually need to be a writer (at least not in the traditional sense that we might remember from the way we were taught to write at school).

As it happens, formal writing methods can serve only to make blogging even more of a challenge for us because the blog is really a conversation, not a research paper, a novel, or a collection of articles written in hard-to-understand business terminology.

So, being a true writer can only get in the way of the important part of blogging, which is the conversation!

Myth 2: I Tried But The Ideas Ran Out

Our second myth of blogging is that we're all going to somehow exhaust the supply of topics to write about, or that we'll be afflicted with a bad case of writer's block that will prevent us from producing anything for the blog.

However, we needn't worry so much about this as there are plenty of ideas and subjects to produce new content about that its unlikely you’ll actually run out of ideas any time soon.
But I tried all this, and I really did run out of ideas!

Yes, I know, and we all feel like this at one time or another, but the solution is quite a simple one. Just try to think more like your audience, and consider the topics they're interested in. You can also get clues from social media, by listening to their conversations online, watching for those common topics that come up again and again.

Your email inbox, the questions people ask you about what you do, is also another good source of ideas for blog posts, not to mention special features about certain clients or alliances with other businesses.

You see, it isn’t only about showcasing that new product, latest event, big sale, or special offer!

Myth 3: The SEO is Too Technical For Me

Search engine optimization (SEO) can present a challenge for most small businesses, but that challenge is actually smaller than it looks.

Because SEO has long been in the realm of the more technically-minded Internet geeks, many folks make the assumption that SEO is very difficult, requires a great deal of technical know-how, and is restricted to those who are privileged to know the inner workings of Google.

The truth is that basic search engine optimization can be accomplished by just about anyone.
In fact, there are only a few important tasks needed for any specific blog page or post, and they are all very simple and mostly non-technical in nature.

There is really no valid excuse for failing to understand the simple basics of SEO – if you have a pretty good idea of what your clients and prospects are actually looking for, the SEO can almost be the easiest part of the blogging process!

Myth 4: I’m Busy! How Can I Possibly Find The Time?

This is a common excuse for failing to do a lot of things we really should be doing, but were all given the same 24 hours in a day, no more and no less, so we must fit in whatever we can, yet still find the time for us to spend with our family, to eat, sleep, and relax.

If were to accomplish more in our lives we must therefore become more efficient at the things we do, such as managing our small business blog. The very best way for us to do that is with an easy-to-follow strategy and plan that we can quickly go through each and every time we create some new content for the blog.

There’s really no need to spend many hours doing this – once you become proficient at it, you can actually accomplish all of your blogging tasks and SEO in just a couple of hours each week.

But I heard that I have to post new stuff every day if my blog is going to get noticed!"

That’s actually another myth right there!

Posting new content every day might be about the worst mistake you can make on your blog, with the exception of not failing to have a small business blog to begin with!

Instead, work on promoting the content you already have and then post something new about once per week.

Myth 5: I Didn’t Think People Still Read Blogs!

If this were true then you probably wouldn't be here, reading this particular blog, would you?
The fact is, if you produce content that your ideal market and potential clients are interested in, and you do everything you can to promote it and let them know it exists, then they will visit your blog to consume it!

As time goes on, and your blog expands, the number of regular readers will grow as well and, at the same time, you will also be building a firm foundation of SEO for your business.

Myth 6: Why Do I Need A Blog When I’ve Got Facebook?

Social media, and especially Facebook, has made a huge impact on the way we use the Internet but, as much as some people might like to think so, Facebook and social media were not created with the purpose of replacing blogs.

Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Google+, and Facebook, are totally different to blogs and have a very different function they are social sites (as indeed some blogs are), but a blog can make a much more personal connection with the audience than the fleeting social interaction of a like or tweet.

You can look at your business blog as being the soul at the heart of your business. Just like a passionate and enthusiastic salesperson, your blog can create a spirited and detailed conversation with your potential clients to encourage them to get to know, like, and trust you.

On the other hand, social media helps to spread the word to your target market in much smaller chunks, hopefully leading them to your website and blog where they can become involved in a more personal interaction with your brand.

Myth 7: Blogging Sounds Like It’s Just Too Much Hard Work

Sadly, if you really feel that working to promote your business is too much work, then there isn’t very much I can do about that! You must be willing and able to put in at least some effort to help the growth of your business.

There’s really no escaping the fact that there are some things about running a business that require us to put in more work and effort, and that it isn't just about doing the few things that we’re the most passionate about.

There are also jobs and roles we must take on that really aren’t as exciting as the work we do producing the end product, but do them we must if we are to be successful.

It makes sense then, that we might as well become as efficient as we possibly can at those tasks we don’t enjoy quite so much, in order to be able to spend more of our time working on the stuff we do enjoy.

I’ll leave you with this final thought. A blog for your business is very much like anything else in life We can’t get out of it what we don’t put into it to begin with!