Your blog isn’t as important as you think.
Justin McHood
I know, I know — there are plenty of people speaking at BlogWorld about how to develop the best blog in the world. You know, one that is engaging, interactive, informative and possibly even (do I dare say it?) profitable.
But unless you are going to have a blog about bacon, starting a blog about something that could potentially lead to profits (either online or offline) just seems like a lot of work to me.
So if you are going to start a blog about mortgages (or anything else), get ready to turn it into a labor of love.
Spend your free time learning CSS, obsessing over what kinds of calls-to-action you could possibly have to get more of your readers to join your subscription list and spend so much time thinking about your blog that you actually run the risk of becoming addicted to improving your blog.
Or…
Take a short cut.
Go find someone with a great blog who has an interest or profession that is similar to yours and ask them if you can be a contributor.
If you can put a 4 paragraph essay together that is at least half-way engaging and informative, chances are that the blog owner will at least give you a shot.
How do I know this?
Shhh. I am going to tell you a little secret.
I just agreed to a deal with Zillow.com to be their National Mortgage Commentator to just that — go and provide valuable, mortgage-related content to Real Estate sites. Where the blog owners are most likely addicted to their blogs but they just can’t get enough (or any) mortgage content.
And the deal was only possible because someone here locally that happened to be into Phoenix Real Estate started letting me put my mortgage commentary on his blog.
And I get business from providing that content.
So when you come to BlogWorld in October and you see someone stand up to the microphone and ask the question: “how do I generate business from blogging?”
Consider the possibility of an answer to that question being:
Go ask someone if you can be their guest blogger.
Justin is a nationally published mortgage expert and is constantly looking for someone to listen to him talk about mortgages. If you are addicted to your Real Estate blog and can’t find a loan officer who can put together mortgage information that is intelligent, informative and engaging you are not alone. He claims many other Real Estate sites are reporting the same problem. The solution? Talk with Justin. It’s free.
Twitter: @jmchood
Website: justinmchood.com
Wow, talk about the counterintuitive approach. I did NOT expect to read this at BlogWorld.
You make a great case though, I’ll have to give it some thought. I suppose it really comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish with a blog.
My guess is most people really don’t know. I know I don’t.
Congrats Justin, Zillow is lucky to have you. I am glad I knew you when…
@Siddartha – Depending on what you want to accomplish from blogging, it may be a helpful approach. I know it might not work for everyone – but in the right situation…
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
@Nick – Thanks!
Justin
@Siddartha – thanks for stopping by and commenting! I don’t know if this approach will work in every situation, but my goal was to give a new idea of how you can make blogging work by thinking outside of the box a little.
@Nick – Thanks! And thanks for being a great example and helping me all along the way.
Justin