What else to do while listening to a load of pretentious lyrics, set to a folksy tune at a music festival, than wonder how to turn the experience into a blog post? After all, you’re never getting that time back, so you may as well try and get some use out of it! But then, what’s this, they’re inviting a well known, quality musician onto the stage. And, reluctantly, he’s accepted the invitation! And so the band turns it’s favour, and we’re enjoying the music: hooray! The band have redeemed themselves: maybe they’re not so bad after all? Perhaps it was just those first few songs. The benefit of the doubt is awarded and the crowd is predisposed to enjoy the rest of their set. Then the musician leaves the stage, and the band continue on. We’re determined to enjoy it, but halfway through the second song, we’re forced to admit defeat: if anything it’s worse than before; now that we’ve heard what a talented musician sounds like.
So what does that have to do with anything? Well, it made me think of guest blogging. Now I have nothing against guest blogging, per se: it’s a great way to get your own blog noticed when you have posts published on other people’s blogs. It’s a well known way to add value to someone else’s blog, drive traffic to your blog, and bring traffic to the blog you’re a guest of. Win, win, right? Mostly.
The problem with guest blogging comes when you invite so many people to guest blog that you rarely write a blog post yourself. This can have two detrimental effects: firstly, your readers stop looking at what you sell, they’re only interested in what the guest poster offers; and secondly, your blogging doesn’t get any better, because you aren’t blogging. Nobody’s a great writer when they first start to write, it comes with practice. The more you write, the better you get. So if your blog’s full of other people’s writing, chances are you’re not getting the practice in. The worst time to fall into this trap of filling your blog with other people’s material, is when you’re just starting out. That’s when your writing most needs the practice, and when your blog is the least viewed it will be. And if nobody apart from your mum’s reading it, you don’t need to worry how good it is. It just needs to be. I cringe when I read some of my earliest blog posts. Which means I’ve got better: awesome! So keep the faith and keep writing. And remember, practice makes better; and better gets you guest post slots on other people’s blogs, which drives new traffic to your site, who’re interested in what you’re selling. Which is definitely win, win! 🙂
*If you want to fall in love with your blog, the Business Blogging Toolkit can help you. Check it out 🙂 *