A new blog, a new commitment

Welcome to the Worldwide Editing blog. Or, I should say, the Worldwide Editing blog redux.

In transitioning to this website from my original, static site, I created a blog site. I was never pleased with the look and feel of that site and then committed a cardinal blog sin. I didn’t post on a regular basis.

Now I have a new site and a new commitment. Post regularly. It’s what I tell clients to do when they ask me to edit their blogs. When I tell them that’s not as easy as it sounds, I get skeptical looks.

For one thing, life happens. Probably the bigger obstacle, I think, is that people, especially entrepreneurs, and under-capitalized entrepreneurs in particular, don’t associate blogs with revenue. Consequently, they tend to put more obvious revenue-generating actions ahead of their blogs. Blogs then start appearing less and less frequently, potential followers don’t follow, or those that began following stop coming back, and the whole effort implodes.

To keep that from happening, I advise blogging clients to think of blogs as branding. Offer information, I tell them, that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and in your market.

If you are a blogger, a way to accomplish this is to think of your blog as a digital version of Ray Kinsella’s cornfield. Write it and he will come. He, not being Shoeless Joe Jackson in this case, but he being a euphemism for clients for service providers or customers for those who manufacture products. When you provide value on a regular basis, you will develop a following that will grow your business.

This time, I’ll follow my own advice. Blog regularly. I’m not going to limit my thoughts to being posted on a specific day or at a pre-determined time of the week, though. I don’t think creative minds work that way. I know mine doesn’t.

Instead, look for the Worldwide Editing blog several times a week at various times during the day. The exact timing, I think, is less important than what they say. And what they say, I hope, will bring value that will help business people improve written communications that will have a positive impact on their bottom line, bring understanding of the importance of the environment and sustainability to maintaining the health of communities and the planet, and take away the pain for those who find writing painful.

I look forward to getting started and to your feedback.