Making Connections, Sharing Stories: Five Points On How And Why I Blog

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”

–Brian Clark

I started my blog in 2011.  At the time I was working on my Masters degree, and knew I wanted to start writing for my target audience—women in the second half of life.  More specifically, I want to write for midlife women coming back into their creativity.

I did one blog a week back then, and decided to keep going, and growing.  Right now I’m doing three blogs a week for my Aging Schmaging, one a month for the Old Hwy 61 Coalition, and I’ve been asked to do a series of six guest blogs for a group called Aging But Dangerous. 

In some ways blogging has stayed the same, and in other ways things have changed quite a bit since 2011.  I thought I’d go over 5 quick points as they relate to me and my blogging, and a couple of areas of confusion.  If there’s enough time I’ll show you my website and blog, but if we run short I hope you will visit aging schmaging and let me know what you think.

So this first point is all about SEO, or search engine optimization.

I’m still not great at this as far as making sure I get enough keywords in my blogs, but not too many, blah, blah, blah.  For me the bottom line is that I’m not writing for an algorithm,  I am writing for people, and that is my priority.  However, from what I understand, just getting new content out there boosts your SEO, which means your potentially boosting your traffic.

Converting traffic into leads.

A wondrous goal!  What those who know these things recommend is a call to action at some point during the blog.  Perhaps you have seen blogs that have a call to action at the beginning, middle, and end, or all three!   I don’t write my blog under the pretense of developing a relationship while scheming for you to buy things.  That’s just not me.  I sincerely care about my audience and write from the heart.  I do have two “call to action” options on my website.  The first is a monthly chance to win a silk scarf.  The women send me their email and then at the end of the month I have my husband pick a name from a bowl.  For example, one woman, Chali, was April’s winner and lives in Florida.  She sent me a lovely note saying she has been going through a rough patch and winning the scarf brightened her mood.  I love that!  Another recent winner is from England, so that’s pretty cool!  The other call to action I offer is a free downloadable coloring book. It has nice designs and positive quotes about creativity.

Blogging, with good content, helps establish you as an authority.  

I had to laugh recently because I was doing a series of blogs on hysteria and the history of vibrators.  Baby Boomer women talk about these things.  So I was at North Folk Winery in Stark, MN, for Ladies Night Out—it’s a wonderful place to go if you haven’t been there yet—and this woman I barely know said, “I love Gail’s blog!  It’s always about sex.”  No, it’s not always about sex, but it made me happy that she was following me and thought I had interesting credible things to say.

The long-term gains surprised me a bit.  

You know they say to be careful what you put out there because it will never go away.  And to be honest, sometimes it feels like I’m in a vacuum.  I’ll spend hours pulling together a blog, post it, and crickets chirp.  Then, months later I’ll have someone comment on that blog.  Maybe it’s been pinging around the cloud like some mystical game of pong, and then landed on this person’s computer.  I don’t know, but it seems to indeed be the case.

Time is a resource I take seriously.  

My business is pretty much me.  My husband, also affectionately called my minion, helps out a lot, but still.  I was worried that if I started mucking around in every social platform out there I wouldn’t have time for anything else.  Right now, after I post the blogs on my website, I also send a blurb to my Facebook page, Google+, and Twitter.  I’ve been told I should include Pinterest and Instagram, but I just need to draw the line.  Maybe this is wrong, but for now it is what it is.  That said, I know I’ve gained followers by posting to other social media sites.  As much as I don’t like it, the reality is I need to be where my target audience hangs out.  From what I can tell, a lot of Baby Boomer women are on Facebook.  I would encourage you to find out where your audience goes and make sure you are there too.

Okay, so here’s the confusion part:

As you know, when Facebook started it was for college students and high school students.  Now I’ve heard it’s mostly middle-aged folks who use it.  Technology changes quickly.  When I started blogging WordPress was the best platform, and the one I still use.  Now there are others out there that might be a better fit for your business.  My point is that things evolve quickly and it’s worth keeping up if you want to be where your audience is.

Jon Morrow, a blogging god I follow, says you should put a minimum of ten hours into a blog, and that it should not be shorter that 1,000 to 1,200 words of good content.  The Aging But Dangerous blogs I’m doing are to be 500 words.  So, again, what resonates with your core audience?  Long in-depth blogs or short nibbles?  Whatever it is do more of that!

In the last month I’ve had at least three people I respect tell me I need to start adding video to my blogging.  I’m an introvert and really have no need to see me up on the screen.  However, it might be a nice vehicle to display my photos for the Old Hwy 61 Coalition, so maybe.  But, as a writer, I love words.

It has been said you should always include photos with your blog.  I naturally love doing that because I’m a photographer.  If you aren’t, I realize this gets a bit trickier. Just be sure to give credit where credit is due should you borrow from the internet.

I hope this helps if you are thinking about starting a blog of your own. Just be you…that’s who people want to get to know.