When you think of starting a traditional business, the things you’ll need for your business are pretty obvious.
Basically, you’ll need a building, equipment and supplies, product, employees, and a marketing plan.
When it comes to starting your online business, things aren’t quite so clear.
Fortunately, you won’t need all the things that make a new brick and mortar business financially impossible for most of us.
One of the questions that comes up a lot from new online business owners is do I need a blog?
In fact, for some people the thought of having a blog can be a barrier to taking the leap into entrepreneurship.
Blog-style writing doesn’t come naturally to most people, and the worry of, “What would I write about?” causes many to resist even attempting to blog.
Happily, the answer is no, your business doesn’t have to have a blog.
The nice thing about business opportunities today is that with an internet connection and an email address, you can start most any business.
Of course it’s not ideal, but sometimes you do what you have to do!
Having told you that you don’t have to have a blog for your business, it is an easy and cheap way to build your business when you are unknown in your market and don’t have a big advertising budget.
If that describes you, or if you’re just looking for another great way to grow your business, consider these five reasons blogging is the ideal solution.
1. Establishes Credibility
Blogging is where you show your prospects that you know what you’re talking about and should be a trusted expert in your field.
When people see you blogging consistently and providing relevant information to your industry, they come to know you as a “real” business and not just a self-proclaimed expert trying to make a buck.
Blogging is really free advertising for your business, but it’s even better than traditional paid advertising because it sells your business in a non-salesy and no-pressure way.
Instead of taking out an ad that says, “my company is the best, buy from me,” you’re simply educating your prospect and letting her move herself towards a desire to work with you.
2. Builds Relationships and Tells Your Story
More and more, business is about relationships. You’ve probably heard that people buy from people, not companies, because it’s true.
When you’re consistently talking with your prospects and customers through the blog, they’ll begin to feel like they know you.
The ones that like you will grow to trust you and boom, you have a customer for life.
Building relationships with your blog goes beyond just educating people and building credibility.
Your blog is the place where you can share your stories with people, and put a human face on your business.
You decide how deep you want to go here, but sharing a personal story about your kids, your crazy life, or the backstory of your business allows people to relate to you, and can build trust quicker than anything.
3. Provides Social Media Content
Naturally your business will have some presence on social media.
We are at the point where it’s nearly literally true that everyone is on social media.
But a common struggle for business owners is not knowing what to post on social media day after day after day . . .
Blogging does you the favor of “killing two birds with one stone” (wish there was a gentler analogy to use there but you get the point).
When you write a blog post, the post itself can be shared on social media in an effort to bring in more blog readers.
Even better, because your blog posts will be longer than your social media posts generally are, you can break down one blog post into a week’s worth of content if you want to.
And your blog content can be modified to fit all your social media channels, whether it’s Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even YouTube where you can turn your content into slides.
It’s important to be consistent on social media but keeping up can be time consuming. Blogging solves 90% of that problem for you by allowing you to simply modify and post content you’ve already created.
4. Effective List Builder
Social media is great, but there’s truly nothing better than having your own email list of people who have invited you to appear in their Inbox.
In terms of actually creating sales, you’ll find your email list more responsive than your social media contacts, in most cases.
Your blog is an easy, hands-off method for list building.
On the top or sidebar of your blog and even at the end of each post you can invite your readers to sign up for your email list so they never miss a post.
You can also let them know you share content with your email list that’s your best stuff and not available to everyone else, and/or offer a relevant free gift in exchange for them signing up for your list.
Having a blog puts the offer to sign up to your list in front of your readers every time they come to your blog, which means you’ll be building a list of your biggest fans that you can email at any time.
5. Easy to Monetize
While not everyone chooses to monetize their blog, it’s easy to do and at least something to think about for the future.
There are two easy ways to monetize your blog.
First, you can recommend products within your blog posts that will pay you a commission when someone clicks the link in your blog and buys the product.
The easiest example of this is Amazon, where you could recommend a good book you’re reading, put the Amazon link in your blog post, and earn a little money for each person that follows your recommendation.
The commission you earn may not seem like a lot a first, but it can certainly add up when you continue to recommend relevant products and services to your readers.
Second, once your blog becomes popular you can start selling advertising. You’ve probably seen ads at the top and on the sidebar of some blogs you’ve visited.
You control the advertising and where it’s placed on your blog so you can make sure you’re only letting in reputable services you’d recommend to your readers.
This is a completely passive way to earn money from your blog and again, it can really add up.
Need Help Starting Your Business?
Hopefully blogging sounds good to you now, at least in theory. We love our Kids Party Character blogs and the people it’s allowed us to connect with.
If you have questions about blogging, or any other aspect of starting or growing your own business, Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs is happy to answer them and to help get you started down the road to successful entrepreneurship.
In an effort to cut down the learning curve for new and busy entrepreneurs, Cheryl’s created a membership opportunity with KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Membership gives you full business training and support from Cheryl and the Kids Party Characters team, as well as the right to use our 200+ unique costumes, an exclusive area in which to book parties, and access to our casting director and acting coach.
If you’re looking for a business that’s essentially ready to launch today, or even if you just have more questions and aren’t ready to commit to anything, schedule a no-pressure chat with Cheryl today right here, and let her walk you through what’s best for your life.
If you want to know more about KidsPartyCharacters.com and the magic we create in children’s lives, join us here on Facebook for daily updates.
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