I was recently talking to a business owner here in Cape Town who showed a hint of interest in a business blog which grew and grew during our chat, until he finally said, “I can totally see the benefit of a business blog for our business (business consultancy) but how do I get started?”.

Good question…and I basically told him to work on a strategy for the blog before investing the time, effort and money in setting one up.

Most of the blogs I have, I started on a whim; enthused and excited about writing on a new topic and sharing the information I wanted to share. None of them have, until the last few months, had any kind of decent strategy which you’d expect to have if you were running a blog as a business.

That’s been changing though over the past few months – particularly once I realised quite how much time and energy I was putting into my blogs – none of which were generating much of an income at the time (didn’t care – that wasn’t the point!). Whilst I still wouldn’t class any of them as cash cows, there is a much more coherent strategy for the blogs we have in our network now and earning an income is not one of the main goals for any of them (except one).

So how does a business that’s similar to ours (i.e. sells a service) use a blog for business?

This is our strategy (I debated whether to share this purely because our strategies are usually for ‘internal eyes’ only – but what the heck! It’s not like I’m giving away any trade secrets here)…

#1 This blog – Success Rocks! At LeaWoodward.com – is my personal blog designed to promote my personal ‘brand’ – who is Lea Woodward? What does she have to say for herself? What kind of person is she? Do I trust her? Do I like her? Could I work with her? Hopefully this blog helps answer some of those questions. It’s a warts-and-all view inside my head, where I make mistakes, occasionally have a rant and very, very occasionally share rare insights which are worth listening to ;-)

#2 The LIP blog – is a showcase blog; it started off as (and largely still is) a hobby, somewhere that we could share our experiences of living a location independent life as modern nomads but as it’s grown in popularity and subscriber numbers, it’s a great example of how blogging can work to sell a product (my book), build a community and demonstrate we walk the walk i.e. blog about what we know and have done, rather than what we’ve just researched elsewhere in the blogosphere.

#3 The PW Insights blog – a fairly new blog designed to share specific, industry-relevant insights and articles on marketing, branding and blogging for business. Used in tight conjunction with the ezine, Business Success Secrets, this is our ‘official’ business blog.

#4 The Business Headstart blog – this is a client-only blog (or online publication, as we position it) which basically functions as a means of providing additional support to PW clients in the form of video tutorials, additional resources and other insights – and generates a steady, recurring income for the business from the subscriber membership fees, once a client’s complimentary 1 month membership is over.

#5 The Wandering Woodwards blog – our personal travel blog which is often neglected in favour of the others and doesn’t have a strategy!

So each blog has a purpose or mission – and for each one we’ve set targets & goals which we track on a weekly basis. We also have a loose topic list & schedule for each blog (apart from this one – I just wing it here) so we know what we’re writing and when it’s being published. This is especially important for the co-ordination and integration between the Insights blog and our monthly ezine.

As our business is one which promotes blogs as a valuable business tool, I believe it’s important that we demonstrate just how blogs can be used effectively by ‘real’ businesses – not just bloggers. And it’s important that we walk the walk and practice what we preach…to me it’s about integrity, honesty and being able to deliver real value to the people we help.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, it’s not necessary to have quite as many blogs as we have for your business (in fact I usually wouldn’t advise it) – this is just a description of the different ways in which our business uses blogs – one or more of which may be suitable for you.

P.P.S. And we specifically direct different people to the blog that is most relevant for them…in case you were wondering whether people get confused!

In fact it pains me in some respects to even bring this up but I just can’t keep it in and for my own sanity and health, it’s far better out than in…

In this age of blogging, a free and easy platform for your voice and with the rise of the amateurs, does experience and authenticity count for nothing?

Why do I say this?

I’ve noticed a really, really disturbing trend recently…popular and well-respected bloggers writing about and advising their readers on things they’ve never done nor experienced themselves.

Am I alone in wondering just how effective their advice is, if they’ve never achieved nor experienced the goal they’re writing about?

I mean seriously, how can you authentically write about and advise others on how to do something that you’ve never done yourself? Am I missing the point?

I wouldn’t dream of writing about anything that I haven’t done or tried myself…for starters, I just wouldn’t have the knowledge despite googling the topic.

That’s why I don’t write about writing prose or poetry; it’s why I don’t write about how to earn money from adsense (although I have done this); and it’s why I don’t write about things I’m a relative novice at.

Perhaps I’m missing a trick here but isn’t the rise of this type of advice – from smart people who really should know better – a little irresponsible, if not downright dangerous in some instances?

I know that it’s good practice to reference out to things you mention but sometimes it feels a little bit like either…

(a) You really don’t want me to stay and read your post by providing all sorts of other things to read instead which might just lead me on a post trail and make me forget where it all started and to come back and read your post (and I’m sure that’s not really what you want)

or…

(b) You’re linking out to some of the external links in the hope that they’ll notice you and ideally link back to you.

Whatever the reason, before you go littering your posts with links to other posts, ask yourself this: Is this really and truly adding to the value and content a reader will get or is it just distracting?

On another note, I’ve just got my writing sample brief for the Lonely Planet…aaaaagh, now it means I actually have to do it! Perhaps it’s a good job we’ve been tripping the light fantastic, eating out and sampling the Dubai delights with my brother…it’s all in the name of “research”!!!

I haven’t yet read Andrew Keen’s book, “The Cult of the Amateur” and I don’t doubt that I’d probably disagree with a lot of his supposed attacks on the internet as a medium, but even reading the title, I feel some affinity for the sentiment.

When it comes to blogging, it’s really easy to put yourself forward as an “expert” – just look at the plethora of “social media experts” who’re currently out there trying to teach us all how to get the best out of the social networks.

I keep coming across the odd article from prominent bloggers who are all giving advice on how to do things, that I doubt they’ve actually ever done themselves. I may be wrong, but if you read through more of their posts you can tell when they’re writing about something they’ve done themselves versus something they haven’t – and they’re stretching.

I don’t have a particular problem with people writing about what they don’t really know, especially if they’ve researched the subject and received advice, feedback and input from those who have done ‘it’ but I personally believe that to talk/write about something authoritatively and to be able to advise others on how to do something, you should really have done it yourself.

Maybe it’s just me…but wouldn’t you rather learn how to do something from someone who’s done it, rather than someone who hasn’t?