photo credit: Evil Erin

If you pay attention even the teeniest bit online, I suspect you no longer need to be made aware of the benefits of blogging. If you’re not blogging, I bet the reason is that the whole idea, from choosing the right platform to figuring out what to blog about and everything in between, is just overwhelming. Multiply that by 100 if you don’t consider yourself a ‘technical’ type of person.

The good news is, you really, truly do not have to be a ‘technical’ person to be a blogger. Once your blog is set up, blogging is more about communicating than technology. True enough, there are many decisions to be made in the process of setting up a blog, and this is where having the guidance of a ‘technical’ person becomes a real asset. But once you’re set up, blogging can be as simple as emailing – it’s just that your reach is far greater and you don’t have to fool with SPAM issues.

A blog gives people a taste of who you are and build trust and familiarity among your site visitors. You’ll have a much easier time moving them from visitor to client because they have an opportunity to get to know, like and trust you!

Whether you’re avoiding starting a blog, or you have one but it’s just sitting there, what’s keeping you from blogging?

• “I don’t write well.”
• “There’s already too much competition.”
• “I already do article marketing.”
• “I don’t have the time.” or “It takes too long to get results.”

You may not consider yourself a writer, and that’s ok. You don’t have to love writing to make blogging work for you. One way is to write like you’re telling someone about your topic. Be relaxed and conversational. (This usually makes for better blog posts, anyway.) The more you do it, the better you get at it. And don’t forget, spell-check has your back. Another way is to create a podcast (that’s an audio blog) and speak your way there!

You have no competition: There is no other you out there. Use your blog to let what’s unique about you and what you have to offer become known to the world.

If you’re already writing articles, then you really should be blogging! All those articles would serve you better as blog posts. Drive traffic to your own site, not an article directory site!

As for the issue of time – it’s time for a reality check. Like anything else worth doing, blogging is an investment that builds over time. Fortunately for you, it doesn’t have to take a long time. Done well, blogging delivers some of the best bang for your marketing/PR/platform building buck. Bottom line, if you’re willing to invest the effort to create a blog that’s worth the time it takes to read, your readers will make it worth your time to blog. It’s reciprocal like that.

So, tell me – what are some of your challenges where blogging is concerned?

Next weekend (August 7-9) in Tulsa is a tax-free shopping weekend, something “they” do every year in August, just before school starts again. In the 20 minutes I stood in line at the bank (don’t EVEN get me started about that!) I heard no less than 5 people comment about the upcoming shopping event.

I don’t get it.

But then…a mall is about the last place I’d go voluntarily.

What intrigues me, though, is that 3 of the people also mentioned they’d been “saving up” to do all their back-to-school shopping that weekend. Saving up? For an 8.5% sale? You’re kidding me, right?

Oh, no. These people were not kidding. They were dead serious. Why?

Great marketing. Seriously.

You see, if all the local stores were to advertise the fact that you’ll save 8.5% during this event, no one would be all that impressed. I mean, really…would you actually “save up” for an 8.5% sale?

Like adding insult to injury, we’re all kind of stuck going back-to-school shopping in one form or another. Most of our kids have grown since school let out, and we can’t send them back naked. Then there are the school supplies, the back packs, the endless list of must-haves that gets longer each year. So yeah, we’re kinda strapped in…feeling stuck…forced to spend money, which feels really bad if you don’t have it sticking out your ears.

Someone, somewhere, in a brilliant flash of insight, realized that suspending the sales tax for a short period would go a long way toward easing the pain of parting with our money by focusing our attention on the freedom from taxes, which feels really good.

I got a postcard in the mail Saturday from a school uniform shop touting a tax-free WEEK at their store. Oh yeah, baby – and I quote:

“The tax-free weekend is officially August 7-9, but we will be extending these savings to our customers for the entire week!”

So, of course, they’re the best place to buy your kid’s school uniforms because they are freeing you from taxes all. week. long.

Get it? It’s not the piddly 8.5% sale that had those people at the bank all excited. It was the freedom from the bondage and tyranny of taxes! And that feels really good – particularly in a down economy. It’s the Boston Tea Party all over again! Woo-hoo!

There will be (the retailers hope) a lot of happy shoppers in the stores on the weekend with their “saved up” funds flowing freely, shopping like they’ve lost their natural minds. And I guarantee you it won’t be the 8 1/2 cents they’re saving on every dollar that lured them there.

So how can you divert your customers’ attention from the money you want them to spend with you (that they think they don’t have or don’t want to part with because doing so feels really bad) and focus it, instead, on a way or a reason to spend money with you that makes them feel really good?

I’m interested to hear your ideas, because, at the end of the day, making the sale is hardly ever about the money.