It’s entirely possible that your website simply sucks.

As you can tell from the title of this post, today I’m challenging you to look at who you’re writing for on your blog. It could be that you’re writing for your peers, and if so, no client is going to read your blog because it’s not written for them in any fashion at all.

I don’t really expect my WordPress development clients to read this blog, though I know some do. This site is entirely focused towards my coaching/training business where I interact with freelancers and business owners wanting to run an awesome business.

I write for my clients over at SFNdesign where they find content about which eCommerce system to choose or the ongoing costs of running an eCommerce site.

You let yourself off the hook

Yes, I know when you’re talking to your clients you tell them about the importance of blogging and that they should be writing at least once a week to build long-term traffic to their site.

But do you then turn around and let yourself off the hook when it comes to generating content? Maybe you feel that writing is not your thing, or it takes hours to write 500 words and they still sound terrible.

Maybe you’re just too busy getting project work done for clients and you can’t get to writing.

Your clients have the same ‘issues’ coming up (the same excuses) yet you tell them to write anyway and it will get easier. If you know they’ll never set aside the time needed to write, maybe you advise them to hire someone to generate content for their site.

Don’t let yourself off the hook. Do as you tell your clients to do — either set aside the time to write or hire someone to write content for you.

Getting Started

I’ll talk about my full writing workflow later this week so you can try it on for size. For now, just sit down at Word or directly in your site editor and start writing something. Maybe your first posts won’t be as awesome as what I write, but that’s okay — I’ve been at it longer. I write four posts a week and have a backlog of over 1,000 posts so I’ve got more time/experience under my belt (not to mention an editor that helps me sound awesome).

At one point I sounded extra stupid and I just kept writing. Like Dory says in Finding Nemo:

Just keep swimming.

Idea

Most people I talk to say their biggest stumbling block when it comes to blogging is that they have no idea what to write about.

Here’s a tip for you: Next time you’re on the phone with a client write down every question they ask you as you answer it. If one client is asking the question then you can be sure many other clients have the same question and simply don’t ask. Or, it could be they don’t call you because you don’t answer their questions on your site — leaving them to assume you don’t have solutions to their problems.

Turn each of those questions into a blog post. This gives you practice answering the questions (do some research if you need to), and potentially draws other prospects to your site as they research someone to solve their problems. The more answers you have on your site, the better the chance prospects will come to you instead of going to another service provider.

Need some ideas to get started? Here are a bunch.

For Branding Specialist

• Why do you need a brand?
• What are the components of a strong brand?
• What questions do I need to ask myself to develop my brand?
• What are the top five branding mistakes people make?
• What type of work should I be doing to ‘keep up’ my brand?

For Site Design Specialists

• Does a responsive site matter?
• How big do my images need to be?
• How do I provide effective design feedback?
• What are the components of an effective site design?

For Development Specialists

• Why code quality matters.
• How to evaluate a developer.
• How should bugs be dealt with during a project?

For eCommerce Specialists

• Which eCommerce platform should I use?
• What are the ongoing costs of running an eCommerce site?
• What are some key ideas to make more sales on a store?
• How does email marketing tie into a good online store plan?

For Everyone

• What’s your process for doing business?
• What are your top five tips for running an awesome project?
• Why did you choose to start your business? What’s your WHY? (Here’s what I wrote.)
• What’s your billing/payment policy?
• Here is a description of our ideal client.

Even more ideas

Want even more ideas? Here are some great ones from Chris Lema:
– Forty Blog Topics for Entrepreneurs
– Forty Blog Topics for Freelancers

Now fire up your writing tool of choice (just start with whatever is currently installed on your computer) and get blogging. No more excuses.

photo credit: pedrovezini cc