In my last post I outlined six great reasons why you should be blogging consistently and regularly and also gave you my recommendation for the best blogging app for the iPad.
For the author-entrepreneur, blogging should be as easy as falling off the proverbial log because…
all blogging is simply writing.
Unfortunately, I see many people, some of them my friends and colleagues, who are forgetting this simple truth.
Now don’t get me wrong. Many of these hard-working entrepreneurs are spending a lot of time writing a quality article every week and putting it out in a newsletter to their list like clockwork.
Some of them include their entire article in their newsletter and others choose to place a portion of that article in the newsletter and then send the reader over to their blog to get the “rest of the story.”
The first group (those who put the whole article in their newsletter) then have to write additional content for their blogs, if they blog at all. And those in the second group (the ones who send visitors over to their blogs for the rest of the article) are too busy thinking about their next newsletter issue and all the other things that must be done in their businesses every week to work up much enthusiasm for additional blogging.
I am arguing that if you produce a weekly or even bi-monthly newsletter, you probably don’t post on your blog as much as you know you should or worse yet, you don’t blog at all, regardless of how much you like to write.
This is exactly what happened to me over the past year.
I had committed myself to producing Zen Minutes, our content rich, graphically beautiful newsletter every single week with each issue containing multiple sections including a note, a couple of different calendars, recommendations section, personal reflections and a portion of a quality article which would then send readers over to my blog for the rest of the article where they would (hopefully) leave comments.
But late last year, I started to look at the return on all the time each week that I invested in my newsletter.
Was the newsletter attractive? Check.
Graphically rich? Check.
Delivered great content? Check.
Was I getting a great open rate? Not so much.
Was I making sales and getting clients from the newsletter? Not nearly as many as I would have liked.
Was it time to kill the newsletter? Hmmmm….
At first I balked. After all, we had put a lot of time and energy into the production of Zen Minutes and I loved the look of it. What I didn’t love was all the time involved and the pressure of the weekly production schedule but most of all, I didn’t like the return I was getting on my time and effort.
My friend and colleague, businesswoman Sue Painter, alerted me to a quote from former piano student, Ellen Gibson in an article from the January issue of O Magazine: “we sometimes stick with a doomed endeavor longer than we should in order to justify our original decision and the time, money, or effort we’ve already put into it…psychologists call the phenomenon ‘escalation of commitment to a failing course of action‘…”
And then realization hit me like a thunderbolt…
here I was doing something which required tons of work and time, which was producing negligible results for me and to top it off, it was preventing me from blogging regularly, which would be much more likely to produce the tangible results I wanted. In fact, a summary of new research in this article from Social Media Examiner found “There is a strong correlation between how frequently a blog posts and the amount of traffic generated. In fact, businesses that post daily will generate 5 times more traffic than those that post weekly or less.”
Not to mention that business blogging maven Denise Wakeman has been telling me this for years!
But instead of giving up Zen Minutes entirely, I decided to keep my favorite part, the very section on which we had gotten the most favorable feedback from our readers…
the Note from Ellen…
Here’s how the Note works: each week I feature a photograph of a plant; a flower, a tree or perhaps an herb, that has a special affinity for the Southern United States. After all, I’m a native Southerner, was a biology major in college and my parents ran a commercial greenhouse in Georgia, so I know a thing or two about Southern flowers. My business partner, Carol Brizzi, is a accomplished photographer and often supplies the images.
I then talk about that week’s flower a bit and relate some characteristic of the plant to an aspect of marketing. After all, most of us learn best through story and metaphor.
Then, in addition, I bring my readers just the information they need that week to stay on top of what’s going on.
For example, in this week’s Zen Minutes, I’m featuring a photo of a red geranium that I brought indoors to overwinter, as here south of Atlanta, the gorgeous red blooms and succulent spicy scented leaves would have long been decimated by now. You can see how I used the image of the red geranium to talk about business by taking a look at this week’s Zen Minutes here.
I love writing the Note from Ellen and Carol loves the photography part. Our readers have already told us they love the Southern flowers business metaphors. Time commitment is minimal and we can also deliver the one piece of information I believe our readers need to have in their hands.
And, I’m no longer bogged down by a time consuming, low return on investment task just because I had previously made the decision to produce a weekly newsletter.
As a result, my blogging productivity has soared…
effortlessly.
I’ve also been inspired by The Business Goddess, Laura West, who produces a lovely brief communication she sends out to her readers each week.
Of course, if your newsletter is working for you, then by all means retain it. That’s not the point…
The question to ask yourself is this:
What time consuming, low return on investment activity in my business do I need to kill off before the day is out?
Be ruthless…
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the mention, Ellen. I also have wondered about the time and effort it takes to produce my weekly e-zine. Definitely we err if we don’t take a hard look at the CURRENT reasons why for anything we do as biz owners.
Thanks for the shout-out, Ellen. Another reason to focus on your blog is that you’ll benefit from search engine traffic. Most people who publish an e-newsletter don’t ever archive the newsletter on the web. That means the only people who ever will see it are those who open their email. Since it’s not on the web, no one will find it by searching. Now, when are you going to add an email subscription form to your blog so we can easily get updates when you publish new posts?
[note: only a small percentage of readers use or know what RSS is.]
Great post, Ellen. I had a similar realization last month, when I decided to stop writing blog posts (I curate a multi-author Expert blog) and start writing articles. I was writing blog posts every week but no one was commenting…and it felt like drudgery. Meanwhile, I wasn’t finding time to write articles, something I know helps my business! So I decided instead to choose to highlight one of my authors’ blog posts each week, and add my comments to it instead. Now my weekly job is easier and although I haven’t gotten around to writing articles yet, it’s around the corner!
Ellen – you know I relate! Like you I have a passion-based business, I truly love what I do. But when producing my newsletter became sheer agony (really!) then I knew it was time to try something new.
Since so much is shifting in the internet and marketing world I decided I would be try out new ideas. What if…..I did a short note…personal with my own tools or sharing a great resource? What if I shared my Monday Miracle Audios with my list instead of just my clients so everyone could get a little audio Laura Infusion! The results: I get more positive feedback, more quick notes from my readers, more shares, and I have fun creating it! Best of all worlds!
I am one of those entrepreneurs that faithfully produces an ezine and produce a full length article to insert in it. However, here is what I do.
I always add a link to my blog with the note “If you prefer to read this article on my blog, go to…”
And I have the article posted there at the same time my newsletter goes out. There are always people who click on the link and read the article on my blog, and any other posts they may have missed. Sometimes, if my note from Daphne is inspiring enough, I will create an additional blog post around it.
I tried putting only a portion of the article in the ezine and the click through rate was atrocious. I do get regular compliments on the content of my newsletter.
Am I making too much work for myself?
It’s like you’re peeking inside my head Ellen! After writing a weekly ezine with a full article and all those sections since 2003, I pulled the plug mid-October without really announcing it. something in me just didn’t have anything to say at the moment.
And guess what, the world didnt stop turning. I wondered how many of my almost 20,000 even noticed or cared. Like you, I put a lot of effort I to my ezine.
Friday I announced I was shutting down my Infusion account and my merchant account, going out of business. It just felt right. I’ve asked people to follow me on my fan page. I promised to be more active. I’m sure I will be.
Like you said, more time to blog with no ezine, and do social media.
Sue, thanks for the extra dose of inspiration with that quote!
And Terri, I love how you are using this to make your work easier and more enjoyable and that you so clearly understand what is the most valuable use of your time.
Demise, I’ll add SEO benefits to my list…and yes, a blog subscription box is definitely in order. Will get on that one pronto…thanks!
Lynne, thank you so much for taking time to comment. I’ve been on your list for years and saw your recent announcement. Yes, it’s nice to know I’m not alone in thinking this way and I applaud your taking this step…I’ll follow your “next thing” with interest!
Laura, I am so with you…things in my business have to be fun…at least those things I do on a repetitive basis. And I agree also that when it’s more fun for me, it’s going to show up in how I come across to my readers.
And Daphne, I think you have to look at your ROI…what is it that you get that makes the time you put into your newsletter worthwhile? For me, I finally realized that all that weekly effort was keeping me from blogging more than once a week…
When I tore down my blog on Turkey, people swamped me with the “whys.” I felt released and renewed. I still can’t help but think I should start another blog, but since there’s so much quality content on publishing and online visibility, I wonder if it would be worth my efforts. Everything has changed so much and sometimes keeping up with all the changes and technology brings inertia as well. Sometimes, I think I’m just a learning junkie and would like to merely share what I’m learning and the newest tools I find beneficial and not worry about if it’s connected to my business. Sometimes, like Lynn, I think I want to close up shop and either start something new or go to work for Target.
Bea, I appreciate your transparency. I know that tech advances can seem overwhelming at times, but blogging remains one of the simplest, easiest and most powerful ways to get visible in whatever niche you choose.
And yes, there so absolutely nothing wrong with starting a blog based solely on your passions and interests, and that is completely unrelated to your business.
{ 1 trackback }