Aug

Blog Your Enthusiasm

Can I blog about anything? I mean, I enjoy blogging, so can I blog about anything? Any topic, any theme, any industry? I have been wondering about this lately as I’ve pondered corporate blogging as an effective marketing tool. The question is a really important one because it goes to the core of how productive your blogging efforts will eventually be. At the end of the day, successful blogs have passionate writers behind them. The reason for their passion varies, but the blogs I subscribe to and read on a regular basis, tend to produce content and ideas at a very rapid rate. And they’re able to do this because they enjoy their work. It’s very evident in their writing.

In many ways asking yourself what you should blog about is really an indirect way of asking yourself which topics and goals gets you excited every morning. Blogs have greatly increased in popularity lately and there are literally millions of blogs focusing on a range of topics. Not only that but, the mechanics of successful blogging and good writing is easily accessible for those who want to learn. There is no shortage of “how to blog” books and articles. This is also part of the reason why the number of blogs have exploded, the techniques presented in these articles are not difficult to master.

The plethora of available information and ease of assimilating it makes the playing field very level for anyone interested in joining the blogosphere. With such a competitive field and so many bloggers, you have to ask yourself what will separate your blog from the rest? In marketing terms, what will differentiate you to make your blog successful?

I think the answer is simple. Your passion and enthusiasm for your topic or goals at hand will drive your overall success. At the end of the day your blog is a reflection of you. You have to enjoy the topic you are writing about or the goal you are seeking to achieve and have enough energy to write about it at least three times a week. You also need to have enough of a desire that you’re willing to read what others have to say about the same topic and engage them on their blogs.

Remember, many factors can drive your passion for the topic and achieving corporate objectives can be one of them. I know when I was blogging in the financial services industry one of the main objectives was to generate sales leads. It helped that I was moderately enthusiastic about the financial services offered by the company, but more importantly, I was passionate about generating leads from the blog. This kept me on my toes and I wrote multiple times a week with the target market in mind - and it worked. It wasn’t long before the blog was driving 30-40% of sales.

Blogging takes times, resources and commitment. Its easy to be have all these things when you have a passion and excitement about the topic you’re blogging about and the goals you’re trying to achieve. Otherwise you’ll find many reasons to not blog. So, to answer my earlier question, I must say I can not blog about anything. I honestly don’t think I can get up every morning and blog about water heater installations or flower designs. But what I do enjoy blogging about I can see myself doing for a long time to come.

photo credit: Arbron