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Does researching, writing and editing images for blog posts three to five times per week seem like too daunting a time investment to make? Instead of pointing my finger and giving you a lecture about the importance of investing time and money in your business’s success I thought I would pass along a few tips to make the idea of blogging a bit more approachable. My lecture will come later (smile).

Don’t Kill Yourself

Blogging and social media are cornerstone tactics for building the necessary buyer trust that leads to sales and below are some shortcuts you can use to publish quality content and avoid killing yourself in the process.

1. Partner: Don’t do it all yourself! Invite a couple of good writers who cover topics that compliment your own to blog with you. Allow each partner to promote their interest on a blogger profile page and let them add links to their website or blog at the beginning or end of each post.
2. Hire an assistant: Hiring a virtual assistant can significantly ease the burden of researching post topics. If you find a savvy VA he or she might be able to further assist by editing images for your articles and help promote your posts on Twitter, FaceBook and other online communities.
3. Schedule:  Commit to a realistic schedule that works for you.  I get up early in the morning and write my posts while I workout and edit them soon after. By the time my kids are on the bus I am finished blogging and ready to move on to other things.
4. Use idle time: I blog or brainstorm post ideas while waiting on movies to begin, at auto service appointments or during any “dead” space in my schedule.

It is a fact that there is no ROI without “I”, so to make your business work you have to commit time and money towards its success.  Blogging is one of the most effective tools available to attract prospective customers (and Google) to your site and more importantly to engage visitors is an ongoing dialog that turns the casual browser into a willing buyer.

What is Your Blog Process?

Introducing your website visitors to helpful tools they can immediately put to use in their businesses and in their lives is a powerful way to build trust and liking in the minds of your prospects.  Just in case you didn’t know people do business with those they like and trust; so if you have adopted the strategy of offering useful content, the best way to accelerate your success is to show your prospects how to use the tools you uncover instead of simply pointing them out.

A quick break to make a point

Avoid the “now what” syndrome…

By stopping at simply identifying the resource you lose the game because anyone can do this and quite frankly you leave your prospects thinking, “That’s interesting, so now what?” For instance I can tell you that Feedly is a great gizmo for organizing the content from all of the blogs you read but if I walk you through the steps it takes to use Feedly to build strong alliances with influential people in your networks, this can have a bottom line impact on your business and is far more useful.

Always remain relevant…

Now replace that dead, lifeless page of resource links with a valuable blog or article database that teaches your site visitors to become master users of the resources you dig up. Finding resources, great….making them work for others, priceless.

How do you use resources on your site?

My company recently donated the development of a new website to a local non-profit and while explaining the workings of the new system to the founder I blurted out, “how do you plan to let people know about your new site?”  After several seconds of silence and head scratching, I shared these thoughts below.

1. Notify your mailing list:  Send an email announcement to your mailing list asking subscribers to visit the new site and forward the url to contacts they feel could use your services.  This works particularly well if your site is filled with useful “Ah-Ha” moment, educational content instead of pushy sales pitches.
2. Send a Press release:   Send a press release to your local media announcing the site launch.  Remember the media does not care about your business, so make your site launch pitch relevant to the publication’s audience. If you are pitching your story to the newspaper’s business section try an angle like, “Local firm beats recession using new web strategy…” Nowadays papers are always interested in recession beating stories.
3. Reach out to hot prospects:  Send a website launch announcement to any hot prospective clients currently in your sales funnel. Again, make it relevant to your contacts, many of whom really don’t care that you have a new website but they might be interested in new features that would benefit them as a client.
4. Tap online, social networks:  Spend a bit of your social capitol and partner with Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn fans on a meaningful announcement to their online spheres of influence.

Okay, I have “talked” enough…What is your experience?