Blogging Every Day Does Not Make You Successful

The pressure on businesses to blog as frequently as possible has reached a new high. There are scads of statistics showing the value of daily blogging, but I’m not sure the cost makes it worthwhile. A heavy focus on quantity can often lead to ignoring quality, which makes everyone suffer.

Numbers don’t tell the whole story

The web is filled with “30 day blog challenges” and success stories of those who tried them.

• Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors
• 92% of companies who blog multiple times a day gain a customer through their blog
• Customers who write three to four blog posts per month have 60 more Twitter followers and 50 more Facebook Likes

We share this data so often because it’s evidence that blogging has the potential to benefit your bottom line — what most people never talk about is how challenging it truly is.

Blogging is hard

It’s easier for a company with dozens of contributors to create good content daily — the smaller your company gets, the harder this becomes.

Small business employees wear many hats, and sometimes they must choose between writing a blog post and paying bills or meeting with a new customer or any of the other two dozen things they need to do that day.

Even when you’re passionate about your topic, the blogging process can feel like a grind. Brainstorming topics, writing, editing, finding photos, and promoting the content takes a long time.

And it’s never finished.

Blogging routinely and well is even harder

I can pump out a halfway decent blog post in about an hour, but we’re not interested in halfway decent content— and our potential customers aren’t interested in reading it.

No one at Digett has the time to create daily the great content for which we strive to produce — and I bet most of you reading this are in the same boat.

For many companies, the effort it takes and the stress incurred blogging more frequently than is ideal for them may not be worth the increase in visits or sales.

Don’t try to blog every day

Or at whatever rate the latest “expert” says is best. You have to take on what’s best for you.

If you are able to blog every single day, that’s fantastic! And there’s plenty of evidence that doing so grows your business (assuming you do it right).

But if you can’t, you just can’t. Trying to force yourself to results in frustration and sub-par content.

(Warning: Just because you can blog every day, doesn’t mean you should. In other words, don’t just grow rapidly for growth’s sake. A recent Inc. study found that, “...the only statistically significant predictor of a company’s future success is steady growth; short- and even long-term bursts mean almost nothing.”)

What should I do instead?

Before you breathe too heavy a sigh of relief, remember that blogging once a week or once every two weeks is only marginally easier than blogging daily.

Knowing your audience and their needs helps you focus your efforts and make your less-frequent content go farther.

Do your research

• What questions does your audience have that you can answer?
• With which keywords are they searching?

Answering these and other strategy-related questions are important, but don’t be afraid to experiment. Your strategy bends with audience and industry changes — don’t wait til that’s “done” to start creating content.

Set up an editorial calendar

Creating an editorial calendar may not save your life, but it certainly preserves your sanity.

Plan your blog articles as far out as possible, and stick to your plan!

It’s slow going at first, but the more you step through your routine, the easier the work becomes. Speaking of which…

Practice makes perfect

Write every day, even if it’s not something you plan to post.

You say you’re not a writer? You write a lot more than you think — for example, the average number of words you send via email alone every year is over 40,000.

If you can read, you can write. It takes practice to get into the flow of brainstorming, writing, and editing.

It doesn’t come easy — and you can never be too good at it — but persistence pays.

Stop comparing yourself to the “big boys”

There are companies out there right now producing multiple articles per day. They’re constantly putting out new whitepapers and case studies.

They’ve got 15 employees whose main job — day in and day out — is writing; of course they’re able to create more content.

You’re not those companies, and why should you want to be? You get to be you!

Stop comparing yourself to the big boys; instead, focus on creating the content your audience wants to read at a frequency you can handle.

Consider hiring outside help

If you’re having trouble creating content routinely, consider whether it could be a good use of your resources to find outside assistance.

You can hire a content agency or a freelance writer, but keep in mind that outsourcing content creation isn’t any easier than writing it yourself.

Need help creating content?

The value of frequently posting helpful, well-written content is enormous and challenging.

If you need help creating a content strategy, editorial calendar, or your content itself, we’re here to help. Get in touch with us to learn how our team can help you grow your business with content marketing.

Contact Digett

[Image: Kabedi Fernando, cropped/resized]