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 The Solopreneur Life | Passive Income | Home Business

What Should My Solo-Business Blog Be About?

  • By Dana Sitar
  • 01 Nov, 2012

T his is a guest post written by Dana Sitar, who is a freelance journalist and indie author.

Dana Sitar

She shares resources, tips, and tools for dreamers in search of a path at DIY Writing. She recently completed the first draft of the DIY Writing Business Plan, which will launch her into full-time solopreneurship!

You’ve started a solo business, and now everyone is telling you it’s time to start a blog. Depending on your industry, your blog could be one of the best ways to find new clients, sell your products, and grow your business.

But what should you write about?

Are you toying with the idea of launching a blog to promote your business, but you’re stuck on this very basic question? Maybe you’ve already been blogging regularly, but you’re getting little traction because you can’t make up your mind and stick with one direction. You can’t figure out exactly what your blog should be about.

Though I can’t say that any particular direction is best across industries, I can offer the pros and cons of some of the common directions professional blogs can take. If you’re having trouble deciding just what your solo business should blog about, consider these options. I recommend picking one (maybe two) and sticking with it; regardless of your topic, consistency is a vital factor in creating loyal readers.

Here are some directions you could take your blog.

Personal

Even your company blog can be “personal.” This doesn’t mean that you should blog about the details of your new tattoo if it has nothing to do with your consulting business. It means that you blog about the details of your life pertaining to your business. What struggles are you facing in getting it off the ground? What lessons have you learned since you began? What unexpected obstacles or pleasant surprises have presented themselves on your journey?

Example of a personal business blog: Alexis Grant’s The Traveling Writer strikes an awesome balance between revealing Alexis’s personal journey through solopreneurship and offering useful advice and information for readers following the same path.

Benefits to your business: Getting personal and being honest with your audience helps them to get to know you and trust you. Sharing your process with them can help get readers invested in your business and your products — and therefore more likely to buy when the time comes. It will also make your customers feel more comfortable offering feedback when you need it, making it easier for you to offer the products and services that are Just Right for them.

Drawbacks for your business: If the personal image you present doesn’t jibe with the kind of business you want to run, customers may not trust that you’re the right person to deal with in your industry. For example, revealing your fears about money may be alright if you’re a writer, but not if you’re a business consultant!

How-To

You can create a blog that offers tips and resources for readers in your niche. Offer writing tips if you’re an author, marketing tips if you’re a PR coach, step-by-step DIY projects if you’re a carpenter. This style of blog is often coupled with the personal direction, especially if you’re the sole contributor, but you can have a successful how-to blog that doesn’t deal with your personal life at all.

Example of a how-to blog: Author K.M. Weiland’s WordPlay offers novel-writing tips for writers.

Benefits to your business: Well-written how-to articles are great for SEO and could drive more traffic to your blog than personal stories alone. Once they’ve found your blog, selling readers on your products or services can be easier, because they are seeking exactly the kind of help you have to offer!

Drawbacks to your business: If your blog talks only about your industry, you can become faceless, like a robot behind the services or products you offer. Some customers don’t like to deal with someone they don’t know, especially online, and this cold approach could turn them off.

Portfolio

You may want to start a blog that displays the projects you’re working on or the ones you’ve completed in the past. More than simply an online portfolio, though, a “portfolio” blog takes readers on the journey with you, keeps them up-to-date on your creations. To give your business the best benefit, a portfolio blog is probably best coupled with another style.

Example of a Portfolio blog: Photographer Terry Richardson’s Tumblr, Terry Richardson’s Diary, is a no-nonsense collection of his unique shots.

Benefits to your business: Presenting ongoing samples of your work shows potential clients or customers exactly what you can offer. This can also be a good option if you aren’t able to commit to a regular posting schedule or don’t have the time or desire to craft traditional blog articles.

Drawbacks to your business: If your posts don’t offer your readers a clear benefit (i.e. tips or resources), getting readers to look at it can be tough. While this type of blog can be useful to link to when applying for jobs or gigs, it may not draw a lot of new clients on its own the way others could.

News

You don’t often see this for solo businesses, mostly because it can be difficult to keep up alone. But if you have an intern or two to help you out, collecting and publishing a few pieces of industry news at your blog can be a good way to draw new readers to your site consistently.

Example of a niche news site: Business Insider is focused on offering industry news and updates. While their income is likely based in ad revenue, BI does offer some products and services from the site, like its Startup Document Center and Job Board.

Benefits to your business: Sharing industry news doesn’t usually require as much labor in writing as other types of blogging, and it can be a great traffic-driver, leading tons of new eyes to your site daily.

Drawbacks to your business: If readers are coming to your site for news, rather than expertise, they may not be interested in buying your products or services. Fitting in a non-spammy plug for your business can be tricky.

Collaborative

If you have the network or resources to hire writers, you can run a company blog without relying on your own writing skills. Alternatively, you can invite regular guest bloggers from your industry or hire a staff of intern writers to produce content for the blog.

Example of a collaborative blog: Though founded and technically run by Darren Rowse, ProBlogger’s blog content is largely contributed by guest writers.

Benefits to your business: If writing isn’t your strong point, bringing in guests or hiring writers allows you to run a blog without being responsible for producing most of the content. This leaves you time to focus on the parts of the business that you do best. A collaborative blog also gives you the opportunity to bring in experts who may know areas of the industry that you’re unfamiliar with, and welcome a variety of opinions and voices to keep your readers engaged. Having more than one contributor also makes it easier to produce a lot of content, and frequent posting will often drive more traffic to the blog.

Drawbacks to your business: Having multiple writers means more people to manage, which can become time-consuming if your writers aren’t self-starters. You also have to watch that every writer is consistent with your brand, so your customers don’t get a mixed message from post to post.

Have you experienced any of these benefits or drawbacks on your blog? What direction will you take the blog for your solo business?

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