Why is blogging not bringing in more business?

Let’s be honest, the only people who really love to blog are bloggers. Most entrepreneurs who blog only do it because somebody told them it was good for business. But what do you do when your blogging isn’t bringing in business? How do you figure out what’s wrong? As an entrepreneur who blogs mainly to promote my business here are a few possible answers I can give to this very question:

You don’t have an audience. Stop me if this sounds like you: Your blog has content but there is no engagement because you lack an audience. Is it possible that your blog is completely separate from your business website and therefore non-existent to your current customers? Can people subscribe to your blog for updates? If they can subscribe, how many subscribers do you have? Are you regularly promoting your best blog content within your business and across different social media platforms? How often do people find your blog through search engines? Before your blog can drive traffic to your business, you need to ensure that you are driving traffic to your blog.

You are not selling anything. Stop me if this sounds like you: You understand that blogging is important, but you don’t want to come off as an aggressive salesman, so you focus on sharing a few posts about everything but your products and services. Everybody says content is king, so you write about a few interesting topics in your industry, maybe share a few anecdotes about your business, but you steer clear of selling anything fearing somebody is going to scream out, “Imposter! You are not a blogger; you just want me to buy your stuff!” That fear coupled with a desire to post content just for the sake of posting content usually results in the kind of inactive blog that no one reads or buys from because it lacks the authenticity and authority your audience is looking for. You need to work on creating a blog that resonates with your audience and shows that best that your business has to offer. Believe it or not you can have an engaging blog that drives traffic to your business if you are willing to learn how to create one.

You need more balance. As mentioned above, while some entrepreneurs completely avoid selling on their blogs others turn them into 24/7 pitch fests, which tends to create a different, but still undesirable result. Interesting, engaging, informative, shareable and purposeful; your blog needs to have all of the above if you want to use it as an effective brand building / marketing tool.

If your blog is lacking an audience, offers, and/or balance I would like to share my blogging for business solutions with you at She Rocks the Web, my 3 day weekend workshop for women entrepreneurs.