Do You Really Want to Blog?

Someone told you it would be good to start a blog. You’ll sell more, you’ll be rich, people will flock to your web site – and you’ll end up on the cover of TIME Magazine. It’s not about selling anymore. Nope, community, that’s what it’s all about – community.

So, how do you go about doing your own blog? In an effort to give you the straight scoop that none of the other articles entitled “How Do You Do Your Own How Do You Do Blog” will ever tell you, here is our step by stumbling step guide – for beginners (and experts alike).

The first stop is Blogger.com – it belongs to Google (as does most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere) and it’s a great place to get your feet wet. The techie types will tell you that you can create your blog in just minutes. What they mean is that they can create a blog in just minutes. It will take you until 2008, but hey, that’s a lot better than designing your own web site, which will take into the next millennium. You get the picture, though. It’s pretty easy, even for those of us who still long for the rotary dial.

Start by reading other blogs. This will deflate and enervate you – and perhaps make you think longingly of suicide. Why? Because there are so many millions of blogs filled with so much inane, ungrammatical writing devoid of any interest, content or direction (well, let’s be honest, even if it was “nane” and grammatical it would still be devoid of any interest, content or direction).

I’d put in some actual blogging examples, but I’d get sued and then I’d have to stop blogging. Suffice it to say that one of the biggest sales lead generation gurus in the country can’t write a single grammatical sentence and one of the best salesman in the country can’t seem to spell. Who cares? It’s just a blog. Well, I don’t know why, but I care.

The big watchword in blogging is “Community.” The reason you blog is to get your customers to comment on your blog and thus they’ll be “involved” with you. Take just a moment, if you will, to consider the odds of them finding you in the first place. Right at this moment there are (if I count right, keep your hand up please) 7,396,448 blogs in the United States alone. Tomorrow there will be 13,386,336. The odds of anyone finding your blog are astronomical. The odds of someone selling you a blogging boot camp or one-day writing class, however, are much better. This is why the people who are making money are the ones who are teaching you to blog – not the ones who are blogging. Are you starting to get it?

Now, suppose someone did find your blog. Who is going to have the time to write something on your blog? How much time does the average person have these days? Not enough time to talk to their spouse; not enough time to play with their kids; not even enough time to watch all the good videos on Youtube. When, exactly, are they going to write back to you? When George Mason University made the Final Four in Basketball this year an interactive web site was set up for fan involvement and comments. One writer bemoaned that even after several days – “barely a dozen fans had taken advantage of being a lasting part of history.” And that’s a Final Four team! People have no time to be interacting with your blog. Figure it out, how many blogs do you interact with? (And, if you’ve gotten this far, please, please, interact with our blog by leaving a nice message. Thank you).

Now, finally, are you ready for this? Blog Spam. Yes, it’s unbelievable, but for every entry offered to your blog by a sentient being, you will receive 30 from people who want to sell you’re their Nigerian grandmother or help you increase the size of your….. well, web site. So, you, good blogmaster, will have to edit out those hundreds of non-entries, or the blog about “your really important topic” will begin to look like the bulletin board at your local supermarket.

Blogging, it’s what’s for dinner. Blogging, it’s not just for breakfast anymore. Blogging, it’s the real thing. Go for it – you’re going to, anyway. No matter what we say. Heck, we did, and you read it all the way to the end. Maybe there’s something to this blogging stuff after all!