What To Do If You Hate Writing Blogs, But Need To For Your Business

If time is the ultimate commodity, then marketing your business can feel like a drain on your resources. Even the most essential strategies require consistency and the investment of precious time. And none more so than blogging. You may have no time to spare. You may swear you’re not a writer. And you may just downright hate writing blogs.

But — as you wipe the sweat from your brow — write you must.

You probably weren’t counting on a rehashing of sentence diagramming when you were inventing that millions-making doohickey thing you sell. Engineering, patenting, manufacturing, business plans — you’ve been head-down in the work of invention, not wordsmithing. And now…blogging?

If you hate writing, blogs can register as the skull-and-crossbones on your weekly calendar. But the task really doesn’t need to be so difficult or dreaded. If you can redirect that grumbling to the passion that made you start your business in the first place, your perspective might change.

Remember, blogging is your way of connecting with your audience. It’s your way of drawing the curtains open on the window of your expertise.

There are so many reasons why writing blogs will grow your business. If you can pair your enthusiasm for those reasons with the helpful hints below, you will quickly find your blogging groove.

Here are some hacks to take the drudgery out of blogging for your business:

• Write about your areas of interest and expertise.

You wouldn’t have laid your life on the line for your business if you didn’t know a thing or two about it. Chances are you have created a product or service that meets a public need and fulfills a sense of personal purpose.

Embrace that awareness and use it to build a relationship with your audience. Everyone loves talking about his/her personal interests and accomplishments. It’s second nature.

So find out what your target audience is looking for and be at the ready with the answers they seek.

• Write to your bucket list.

Well, in a manner of speaking. Buckets are simply categories or themes that help you group and schedule your blogs. Even a handful of subtopics to your main blog theme will help you create a rhythm that provides both variety and predictability.

Maintain the order and timing of your buckets so your audience and Google keep you on their radar.

• Create an outline.

Even professional writers come up against paper-crumbling, floor-pacing mental blocks. But, if you hate writing blogs, that blank screen can be especially daunting. And you know the words won’t write themselves.

So create an outline of your most salient points to give your post direction and keep you on track. Then take a break and come back to fill it all in.

This is especially easy if you are creating a listicle like the article you are reading now.

• Write your intro last.

Sometimes it helps to start from the middle and work your way out. By getting into the meat of your article right away, that pithy, watch-how-I-tie-it-all-together intro will often write itself at the end.

• Use a variety of formats.

Not every blog post has to be an exercise in prose writing. You can use a list in one post, a story format in another, and a step-by-step how-to in the next.
Mixing it up keeps you and your audience from getting bored. And it gives you the freedom to present material in the most engaging, digestible way.

• Research your topic to see what’s already out there.

Chances are you’re not reinventing the wheel with your business, so get online and see what others are saying.

While plagiarism is never the objective, staying aware of your competition and trending info is imperative. By reading other articles and viewing YouTube videos, you can get a little mental jog-for-your-blog.

• Record yourself.

When multi-tasking rules your life, and long bouts of scholastic thinking are a luxury of the past, hit record. Using an audio recording app to help you talk out your post will speed up the blogging process. It will also help your post sound more natural and conversational.

Here are some of the best voice recorder apps for Android and for iPhone.

• Encourage guest posts.

You certainly don’t want to devote your blog space to guest posts. But the occasional guest can be a welcome reprieve for both you and your audience.
Remember why you are blogging in the first place. You are there to provide something useful and authoritative to your target audience. And sometimes that means bringing in some other experts. Trust me, there’s enough expertise to go around.

And, by bringing in someone reputable, you show your readers that you are looking out for their best interests. You also get a piggy-back ride on the back of someone who may rank higher than you in Google.

• Upcycle old blog posts.

Not every post is going to be Pulitzer-worthy. Some may not even be Google-worthy. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes a little wizardry on that article you wrote while the kids were screaming and the roof was leaking can transfigure the whole piece.

Add a few fresh points. Remove any outdated references. Embed your latest freebie offer. Add links to a current post. Update the SEO. Rework the headline while keeping the old URL. Add some new graphics. Change the publish date. Hit publish. And voila!

• Vlog and podcast as blogging alternatives.

If you hate writing blogs, pick up the camera or microphone.

Vlogging and podcasting do have their pros and cons. First the pros.

Vlogging is a wonderfully creative way to express yourself and your expertise. And it provides an exceptional platform for building relationships with your audience. It’s more personal and diary-like, so it becomes something that you, too, can enjoy returning to.

Podcasts are another creative way to engage with your audience. As long as you keep the audio files coming, your followers can tune in to what you have to say without staring at a screen. And, now that cars are being built with internet connectivity, podcasts are becoming the new books-on-tape.

The downside to these formats is that Google can’t (yet) read video or audio files in order to rank them. But fear not! There’s a way over that hurdle, too….

• Create show notes for videos and podcasts.

By transcribing your videos and podcasts or simply summarizing their highlights in a blog, you can recapture Google’s attention.

• Hire someone to write for you.

If you simply hate writing blogs too much to bother with them, there is another option. You can have someone do the work for you.

You can hire a freelancer or content marketing company to do your SEO research and write your articles with a specified range of words. This surrogate will also work with you to ensure your voice is accurately represented in your articles.

Writing blogs for business doesn’t have to equate to drudgery. Once you establish your purpose and voice, the creative options for communicating them will be waiting for you.

And your audience will be waiting to hear what you have to say.

Need help blogging for your business? We can help. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your needs with one of the KJ Content Marketing experts.