When asked about business blogs, most entrepreneurs seem to fall into one of three categories. The first are the avid bloggers– people who enjoy the process of blogging and do it regularly. The second group are those who have a blog, but rarely update it. These people started the blog with good intentions, but somehow just never got traction with posting regularly. The third group don’t have a blog, but are possibly considering starting one.

So this post is really for those of you in groups 2 and 3. If you have a blog that you regularly update, you already know good reasons to blog- or you have your own reasons for doing so. But, for the rest of you- who could perhaps use some motivation or encouragement, here are 10 reasons to get back to blogging if you used to- and to start blogging if you haven’t yet done so.

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Blogging, done well, is a powerful method for building your online business. I like of my blog posts (590 at least count) each acting like a tireless ambassador for my business- they work for me 24/7/365- without fail. Of course, not every blog post is a runaway success, and there are some posts that apparently only I thought were a good idea 🙂  – but, for the most part, I find that the more I blog, the more opportunities I create.

So why blog?

1) To tell the story of your brand.

Blogging is a wonderful way to share about your company- how you got started, what you stand for, what you do, and what you hope for next. You can make an emotional connection with your audience through what you share on your blog.

2) To develop and express your thought leadership.

There are likely many other entrepreneurs offering services like yours and promising results like yours. Blogging can help you stand out from the crowd, and can be a way for you to build distinctiveness – and thought leader status- within your chosen audience.

3) To attract new clients.

People want to know what you can do- and blogging about your business case studies, client successes, and the results of what you do can help you attract new clients. Equally important is the educational aspects of your marketing- a blog is a great vehicle to teach your future clients why they need to work with you.

4) To improve your search engine optimization.

As an SEO expert, this one is near and dear to my heart. <3 Blogging is one of the best ways to improve your business search engine optimization, as it gives you a deeper foundation of keywords and concepts that will enable you to attract more visitors. Blogging also helps you improve usability of your website- increasing important metrics like time on site, number of pageviews, and reduction of bounce rate. These usability factors are becoming increasingly important in gaining high search engine rankings.

5) To connect with and engage your audience.

Ideally, blogs offer a two way vehicle for communicating with your audience. Though not all blogs receive a lot of comments (mine doesn’t, proportional to how many people read it), there is, at least, always the possibility of creating a conversation about your latest blog post. And you never know what impact you have had on someone who visits your blog, even if they never let you know.

6) To gauge interest in new ideas or new trends.

If you have a business idea or a new business paradigm, you can use your blog to start sharing your ideas and gauging interest in them. Whole books have been created from blog posts written in this way. You simply start talking about a topic, developing it more and more deeply, and build a readership around this topic. Done well, you have a large audience to read the book you publish from your collected blog posts.

7) To position yourself as an expert.

Blogging enables you to directly share your expertise, of course, and that’s the obvious expert positioning. And I think there is a second, more subtle one at work too. The secondary expert positioning is that you are so knowledgeable that you can share your information, for free, regularly, and you don’t fear running out of things to say. So it’s not just what you say, but also that you share it freely. Both work together to position you as an expert.

8) To create long-lasting marketing assets.

I referenced this at the beginning of this post, but blogging is one of the best ways to create long-term marketing assets for your business. Even though email marketing is important, the fact is that most people delete their emails after a period of time. The time-span of email newsletters is therefore limited. Yet a blog post can remain online for years, and if the topic is evergreen, could continually accrue more and more visitors, especially if you have a way of regularly sharing your evergreen content again and again.

9) To develop your ideas and capacity to articulate them.

Writing is inherently a creative process. If you write blog posts regularly, you will find that you naturally become better at developing your ideas and explaining them. Working with words enables us to be more active and fluid with connecting ideas together. We create an opening for greater creativity. This can only help when we are trying to develop our ideas for, perhaps, a business vision or marketing strategy.

10) To create a foundation for future products and services.

I’ve recently taken up silversmithing (you can see some of my recent pieces here: Handmade Silver Jewelry) and what I find, as I visit different metal-smithing blogs on the internet is that one metal artist tries a new technique, shares it on his or her blog, and then their readers want something more- samples, an instructional video, or step-by-step instructions. For not too much effort, a person who has created a technique or strategy like this could package their information and offer it for sale. They could, if they wanted, even take a step further and offer instructions and a starter kit. The same applies to other businesses too. If I share of a new strategy that I’ve implemented with success, there is a high chance that someone will step forward to ask for more information or clarification. This can help you take the “pulse” of your market and help you innovate new products and services.

So there you have it- my 10 reasons to consider blogging.
Do you have other reasons you enjoy blogging or think it’s a good idea for entrepreneurs? I’d love to hear them in the comments!