how not to write a blog

I'm doing research right now for a talk I'm giving next Monday for the Toronto Chapter of Professional Organizers in Canada. I'll be discussing inexpensive marketing techniques, including blogging.

I was just browsing for blogs on that topic when I came across a blogger.com user who has 43 (yes, that's forty-three!) blogs registered under his name. You can check out his profile and his list of blogs here:

http://www.blogger.com/profile/07219299130867293674

Now, what really bugs me about this guy is that he's obviously just used these blogs as a marketing ploy to generate web traffic. He has created as many blog titles as he could think of that relate to his business (advertising wraps on trucks - those huge print ads you see applied to buses and transport trucks). Then on each blog he's simply posted the exact same information - basically an advertisement of his business.

Why did he do this? Well, blogger.com offers their blog URLS for free. To do something similar by registering regular .com domain names would have cost a chunk of change.

But this is not blogging. He's not creating regular posts for any of these blogs. And I think his approach may turn off potential customers, once they realize what he's done...

introduction to blogging

I created my first blog in the fall of 2006, after attending a break-out session at the Professional Organizers in Canada annual conference in Toronto, Ontario. The subject of the session - led by podcasting expert Leesa Barnes - was how to use social media to inexpensively advertise your business.

(Read my very first blog entry (written the same day as the break-out session) here.)

I like inexpensive. When I started my first blog, I already had registered a domain name for my organizing business, but I couldn't afford to pay someone to build a website for me. After creating a blog and writing a few posts, I realized my dilemma was solved.

What's so great about using blogs to advertise your business? A blog is easy to set up (even if you're a total technophobe). I think my first blog took about ten minutes to create at http://www.blogger.com/.

Some blog platforms and hosting are free. (Like Blogger and LiveJournal. You can also download free software from WordPress to use with an existing website.) Those that charge money for their services are relatively inexpensive. (Look at Typepad.)

You can pick and choose from existing templates to create your blog, and if you're handy with HTML (the computer language used to create websites), you can individualize your look.

A blog is easy and cheap. But why bother creating one in the first place?

The thing I love about blogging is that I can add new, informative content to my sites as often as I choose. It's almost as easy as writing an e-mail. And when I give potential clients the web address, they can quickly:

1) Learn about me, my background, my personality, my products or services, and my business style.
2) Pick up valuable, frequently-updated tips relating to my businesses.

Many clients have found me through my blogs, and have told me that the content on my blogs was the deciding factor in choosing me (rather than someone else) for the job.