Were you born to blog?

Do you ever go back in time to update work you previously did? That's what I am doing with this blog post, “Were you born to blog?” I have been blogging for nine years now and I completely forgot about this book review of Mark Schaefer's book, Born to Blog. When was the last time you ventured down the rabbit hole? It's amazing how life is. I got an email from eWomenNetwork about four books to take on vacation. If you know anything about me, you know I am going to read that email.

One of the four books is Return on Influence by Mark Schaefer, and the name sounded familiar, and I immediately knew that I had read and reviewed one of his books, but couldn't remember which one. I quick search gave me the answer. The updated review is below, but I wanted to add that it's very important to be curious, and sometimes you have to be like Alice in Wonderland — you have to go down the rabbit hole for a different perspective to to possibly move in another direction.

If you have been performing in a role for nine years, are you an expert? Would you know all the fundamentals? Or is there room for improvement? It is hard for me to believe, but I have been blogging at The Invisible Mentor for over nine years. With the rate at which technology is changing, it is difficult to keep up with all the information on effective blogging.

Why I Read Born to Blog

A few years ago, while I was in Indigo bookstore, I noticed Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time because the last copy was literally bent out of shape, and hanging off the shelf. It appeared as if someone had been reading the book in the store for a few hours. I purchased the battered copy of Born to Blog at a 10 percent discount, and started on a reading adventure to learn more about business blogging.

At the time when I wrote this blog post, I had never taken a course on how to blog. I learned by experimentation, reading blog posts, and attending a few webinars. I was surprised by how much I knew about blogging, but I also learned many new things from the book. What Born to Blog did for me is to provide a framework to structure my approach to blogging. Although I have a high tolerance for ambiguity, I also like working with a framework, even if it’s a loose one.

Since reading Born to Blog and writing this blog post, I have taken several courses on blogging. Here are two that I highly recommend.

Check out New Blogging Step by Step

Check out Write a Blog Post That Convert Sales

What is Born to Blog About?

Born to Blog by Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith is the kind of book that is good for people who have just started to or plan to start blogging because it includes basic information such as blogging platforms, themes and plugins. They have a fantastic blog setup checklist and a useful section on specific blog-writing skills and quality expectations. Although I have been blogging for a while now, I found lots of useful nuggets to allow me to become better at my craft. Below I highlight some of the information that I think people will find useful.

5 Skills Needed to Blog

1. Dreaming
2. Storytelling
3. Persuading
4. Teaching
5. Curating

You will be much stronger in some skills than in others and the authors provide a simple test to determine where your strengths lie. The test revealed that I am strongest in teaching; four-way tie for dreaming, storytelling, and curating; and weakest in persuading. This means that I have to write more How-to posts and work on improving the other four skills.

4 Types of Content

1. Evergreen: This content will never grow old, and the authors recommend that you can turn this type of content into slideshows, videos and email courses.
2. Identity: This content is about who you are and its purpose is to develop trust between you and your audience. Are you the solution to what keeps them up at night?
3. People: This kind of content introduces your readers to your employees and other important stakeholders. You provide an insider view into the company’s culture, important milestones and the lives of the teams.
4. Bread and Butter: This type of content is the backbone of your blog, and about 80 percent of your posts will be this kind.
   1. Instructional: Teach your customers how to get the most from your products and services. Share stories about how they can save time and money when they choose the solutions that you offer.
   2. Diagnostic: Help your readers to decide if your solution is the correct one for them. Use checklists, tests and quizzes, and case studies.
   3. Proof: These posts target prospective customers, and you demonstrate how you can eliminate their pain points. Proof posts have three parts: Describe the problem and promise a solution; solve the problem; and keep your foot in the door.

5 Ways to Attract Blog Readers

1. Give away your best: This means that you provide excellent content and encourage readers to share via social media.
2. Add your blog address to marketing materials: Include blog address on all marketing pieces such as business cards, letterheads, presentations, publications, in addition to on invoices.
3. Contribute to other publications: Guest blog, write articles for magazines, journals, industry association newsletters, and other publications that you have access to.
4. Get active on your readers’ social media channels: Post updates on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ – any place where your readers hang out. Research your audience and provide content that matters to them.
5. Search Engine Optimize: Find relevant keywords, optimize content and post title.

One of the things that the authors emphasized is to blog consistently, and that is true with any craft because you get better by doing the activity. I recommend Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time by Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith. Born to Blog was published in 2013, five years ago, the information is still relevant today. Yes technology changes, but being an effective writer and solving your readers' problems will always be relevant.

 Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business KNOWN personal branding Workbook Social Media Explained: Untangling the World’s Most Misunderstood Business Trend, Revised and Expanded Second Edition KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age

Book links are affiliate links.