This month marks my third anniversary as a blogger. My first entry into the blogosphere was a rant in October 2008 about the Wall Street meltdown. At the time, I had no grand plan for my blog, but merely the need to air my opinion about a cultural event that stirred me at the core. I also had no idea where blogging would lead me, but I remember how good it felt to put my opinion “out there,” even if no one actually read it.
Well, a few people did read it, and I was hooked. I have been writing online ever since, and I absolutely love it.
While there is no exact way to quantify the returns blogging yields, studies have shown that blogging does indeed increase traffic to your site, which in turn can generate more sales. For the sake of argument, let’s just say for me, it has surpassed the million dollar point. Combine the small amount of affiliate income I have generated through blogging with the huge amount of relationship capital I have accumulated (and subsequent business deals I have closed as a result of those relationships), and there you have that million dollar price tag that can’t be had any other way.
Through the years, I have been very fortunate to have crossed paths with some mighty fine individuals who are bloggers like me — entrepreneurs who believe in and understand the importance of building an online “home” filled with valuable content for our audience who agrees to stop over for a visit each time we publish a new post.
What didn’t occur to me until very recently was how powerful blogging truly is in the grand scheme of human history.
Essentially, to have a blog today is the equivalent of owning a printing press in the middle ages. The printing press revolutionized the world in the late 1400s, opening up economic and social channels never seen before through the mass production and dissemination of the printed word.
As an integral part of the Internet revolution 600 years later, blogging gives anyone with a modem and an Internet connection the ability to write and publish whatever they want, whenever they want – opening up economic and social channels never seen before through the mass production and dissemination of the digital word (or image, or video…).
Think about that: if you blog, anytime you put up a new post, you are publishing content that has the ability to change lives around the world, in any number of ways. As a blogger, you never know whose eyes will see your ideas and what may come from the interaction.
There are plenty of bloggers who do just that, and have reaped massive social and economic rewards as a result.
Given this truth, you would think everyone would be blogging, but that certainly isn’t the case. Far from it. At the very least, you would certainly think all businesses would be taking advantage of this platform to expand their reach, touch their customers, make their brand more accessible… but there is still a pretty big void in the area of corporate blogging. I understand that writing isn’t the easiest thing to do in the word, but… Really? With all that blogging can do for you, as an individual, or a small business, or a large company, why aren’t more companies blogging?
I imagine there are those who wouldn’t care if blogging gave them the ability to fly and see through concrete, they still aren’t going to do it. But I suspect there is a much greater group that just isn’t yet aware that if they have a blog, then they own their own printing press — and, when used effectively, can make things fly and crash through concrete.
To overlook blogging is to overlook tremendous social media power. Those who take advantage of the positioning blogging offers can really set themselves apart from the rest of their competition, setting the bar high for their particular business or niche.
What do you think is the reason for the overall lack of good, sustainable blogs out there? Join the conversation by leaving your comments and please don’t be shy about sharing this post with your audience!
