Information Sells

Border Collie At Work

Blogs, like working dogs, need a job.

If a herding or hunting dog doesn’t have a task, they’ll assign themselves one. And it may not be a job you particularly want them to perform. A bright, hyper-responsible shepherd might drag everything you own – including underwear – out onto the lawn in order to keep an eye on it while you’re gone. A bored lab might rip apart the sofa, just to have something to carry around. It might make you want to scream, but they are just doing what they live to do – a good day’s work.

Does your blog have a job it was born to do?

Is it selling your services? Advertising your store? Educating your clients? Delighting your readers with helpful tips?

Or is it telling the world that:

• You’re too busy to care about your customers needs (rarely updated)
• You’re too scattered and undisciplined to trust with a project (no focus)
• You’re just dragging yourself through another day at the office (no spark)

Your Blog Wants To Work For You

Hello, World! Want Some Help?

Like an inquisitive border collie who wants to meet the world head on, greet every task with a yelp of anticipation, and give you 110%  effort, your blog is working all day, every day. It can answer questions, outline procedures, offer contact information. Every post can teach, inform, delight, invite, respond, request, refer.

Have you given your blog a mission?

Would you read your blog if you just stumbled across it? Will new readers find a reason to come back?

If you find that blogging is a chore, or you are stuck and don’t know why you even started the damn thing, it may be time to take a deep breath, clear your head, step back and ask yourself, what one thing should your blog accomplish each week?

• If you want to make money blogging – can you do a better job positioning AdSense ads?
• If you want to drive traffic to your web site – are you writing about things your customers want to know or are you just posting inventory lists?
• If you want to find students for your classes – are you teaching on the blog, so readers can form a bond with you even before they sign up for a class, or are you posting a calendar and turning away?

You don’t have to be a prize winning author to be a good blogger, although you do have to communicate clearly. Taking the time to proofread and correct mistakes shows respect for your readers.

When your blog has a purpose, you’ll discover another trait it has in common with the border collie: the spontaneous leap for joy to celebrate the satisfaction of a job well done.

Photos:
Border Collie & Sheep by statico
Released under Creative Commons License

Border Collie (sheepdog) peeking through Fence by imjustcreative
Released under Creative Commons License

Similar Posts:

• Is Your Blog Reader Friendly?
• Why Your Business Needs A Blog
• Why Your Business Needs A Blog Part 2

Tags: blogs