If you have been blogging for any length of time you can probably look back through all the articles you have published and find a common thread running throughout all of them. Well, you might not be able to see it, but it is definitely visible to others. That common thread tying all your posts together are your intentions.
Your intentions in blogging are what guide you to do the things that you do with your blog. Whatever your goals and intentions from blogging are, your blog will do an excellent job of projecting them.
You may have started a blog with every intention of using it to promote your business by providing relevant content and interacting with your readers. If those are your intentions, then you will instinctively be operating your blog in a manner consistent with your desires. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is!
But it’s not so easy to fake your intentions through blogging. If you post consistently, then eventually your intentions through blogging are going to become visible to others. A person can only “fake it” so long with blogging.
For example, I used to work for an online wholesaler, and they used blogging to help promote their business. Just recently I noticed that they started a new blog, but it was not focused on their company; it was put in place to provide information on all wholesale companies. I have kept tabs on this blog and have noticed that about a third of the posts published on this blog have links and information pointing to their business. What would you say their intentions are?
So what I’m saying is that no matter what your intentions are with blogging, your blog will eventually reflect those desires. If you want to connect with your customers, your blog will show this. If you’re just after backlinks, then this will also be apparent.
What are your intentions with blogging? Do you state one thing but have alterior motives? If you do not want to risk your alterior motives being discovered then I would suggest changing your intentions before your blog calls you out!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Right on, brother! It really comes down to two things: 1) Knowing your key subject matter and sticking to it; and 2) Being transparent in everything you do. Your readers will have expectations about both.
Glenn Murray’s last blog post..Dead scribe a-thinkin’: How Missy Elliot’s hips cured my writer’s block
That is so true. Transparency is the key to trust, and if your honorable intentions are laid out on the table for your readers then you will succeed so much faster.