Good question.

Some people cringe at hearing this word which has in fact become a buzz word around the net.

Ok, so why blog? I’ll tell you why. Because it works. But it works when done right, and it’s the doing it right that’s the tricky part; otherwise, you’re just spinning your wheels. How to do it right is a huge subject. For now, I just want to look at some of the excuses people use NOT to blog. Once you get over that mental hurdle, we can talk about how to do it right in another article.

Excuse #1: There are already too many blogs out there

Well that’s quite true. There are lots of blogs out there, but that’s no excuse. That’s just like saying, “there are already too many websites out there, so why should my company have a website?”. If there are lots of blogs out there, that means that there’s a big market out there too, which means that your job is to specialize, find a niche, and create a really great service for that niche.

People are reluctant to join a new service because they are overwhelmed. They receive too much information as is. They’re not interested in more info. But people are interested in specific information related to the few things they’re focused in a given period (whatever those few things maybe be). You’re job as a blogger then is to figure out what your target audience is interested in, and feed them that critical info.

Think about this scenario. You come home from work. You’re tired and hungry. You park, and check your mail box. You roll your eyes at all the junk mail stuffed into it. But that last pizza deal catches your eye because you don’t feel like cooking. At that moment you need that service and information. Even though you rolled your eyes at all the other (poorly targeted) stuff, you put that pizza one aside. What separated that flyer in your mind from all the other junk mail? Nothing more than the fact that you had a perception that you needed it at that particular moment in your life.

The internet has one advantage over conventional marketing. You can specifying your target market almost down to a science, thanks to webstats. That means you can always reach hungry pizza lovers at the right moment of their hunger.

As an other example, a bride about to get married has wedding planning on her mind. During the lead up to the wedding, wedding related services will always catch her attention.

The point to be made here is that the existence of many blogs doesn’t mean that you can’t catch someone’s attention. All it takes is a good service with the right marketing plan. People are always looking for quality information that will assist them, based on their interests at a given time or phase in their life.

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