7 Business Blogging Myths, Debunked.

Every company should have a business blog, but many brands and businesses have certain stereotypes about blogging. It can be an intimidating step to take because even though blogging has moved into the mainstream in recent years, it’s surprising how little people know about the mechanics of blogging.

It is now a common term in most board rooms and with marketing teams but there is still a huge amount of ignorance out there as to the benefits of blogging for business and the mechanics of how it works. I hear the same questions over and over again so here are some of the most popular misconceptions around business blogging.

1. Isn’t it just other bloggers who read blogs?

There is no doubt that other bloggers read blogs because that is what they are passionate about and it’s a tight knit community but a huge amount of people read blogs who have never written a word online in their lives. Blogs rank especially well in search engines because Google bots likes fresh content so people often find blogs first when they search for products or reviews. More commercial blogs are attracting larger amounts of traffic, so no, it is not just other bloggers who read blogs, far from it actually.

2. It’s somewhere for your press releases

If I do convince people to start blogging the first thing they usually say is what a great place it will be to share their press releases and all their latest award wins. In other words, another traditional channel used to broadcast messages that they expect people will be interested in. 99.9% of people don’t care about press releases in their current format so putting them on your blog is not going to change anything. People read blogs because there is something in it for them and not as a marketing channel. So once you do take the step to create a blog don’t just treat it as another marketing channel.

3. My brand will come under attack

It depends. If you do silly things and treat your customers with disrespect then yes of course it will just as it would on any other platform. Just because you start a blog doesn’t mean that some online mob is going to pop up and start attacking. People are already online talking about your brand in places like Twitter, Facebook and on other blogs. By having your own platform and engaging with people via a blog you have a place to give your side of the story. All comments on blogs are moderated so even in the highly unlikely event that people do start attacking you don’t have to publish unmoderated comments.

4. It will take lots of resources

Depends what sort of blog you write. If you want to publish at least two posts per day then yes it will take lots of resources. But it is possible to have a very engaging company blog that takes 1 hour to write a week. Blogging has never been easier and there are even sites like Tumblr and Posterous that let you create content in a matter of seconds. Having a good business blog does not take lots of resources.

5. Nobody will be interested in what I have to say

Not true. Find your niche and write about it and no matter how narrow that niche is you will find an audience. You’ll have to work at making your content interesting and to stand out from the crowd. Tap into the passion that people have within your niche and more importantly show your own passion and people will come flocking to your blog.

6. I’ll make lots of money from my blog

So many people set up a blog with the intention of making money directly from ads or trying to monetize their blog from day 1. This almost never works. You might make money from your blog in terms of business leads or by positioning yourself as the expert in your niche but there are huge blogs out there already who have far more traffic than you ever will and even they are not making much money from blogging.

7. It’s Too Technical For Me

People always think blogging is some sort of complicated technical challenge that should only be attempted by developers. The software has moved onto a level where if you use something like WordPress (like this blog is built on) it could not be easier to use and you need very limited technical knowledge. I always say that it’s as easy as logging into your email and creating a word document. You will probably need a developer to set it up on your own domain name at the start and host your blog etc., but once that is done any old technophobe could be blogging away with little technical knowledge.