Does Blogging Work? (Second hand fridge anyone?)

For around 7 years now I have been hard at it, blogging away each day on all the different sites that I have, and I have taught around 40 companies to blog for themselves. The question is does it work and is there any money in blogging?

If you want to rant about politics or the latest pop stars or even second hand fridges for sale in Thailand, yeah sure you can get a lot of people reading your blogs, but sadly, like the politicians and pop stars you will soon become tomorrow’s junk. If you want to brand your business it’s a long drawn out process but if you are consistent it can work very well for you.

One thing I know about entrepreneurs is that they have left the relative safety of a regular salary to start out on their own and they will at all costs, shape a self-employed career to do what they enjoy, now and again they will follow the money, but it’s usually temporary, and they will all eventually get back to what it is they love doing, and somehow, one way or the other, make that pay.

Recent research tells us that money was only a deciding factor for 55% of entrepreneurs, it’s the adage of:

 ‘Do what you love and you will never have a job’

That keeps us motivated and getting up each day to sit at the desk without a boss.

For me, blogging is a way of life and a way to get a business branded. The endless information that we receive each day regarding SEO (Search engine Optimisation) has probably made most people give up a few years ago, when it became a full time career rather than a side-line that marketing people should know about.

You have got to love what you do, and it’s the different mind-sets I find fascinating. In my initial meeting with a business who wants to know what my online marketing training in Bangkok will cost to get to the top rankings of search engines, I always stress the point:

You will never get to the top or anywhere near the top without regular, well written content on your site, I can teach you how to do it all over two days but after that you must get busy or you will fail.

Some people probe deeper:

 “What do you mean by regular content, how long will this take?”

Some have almost fainted on the spot:

“What me blogging, I don’t get 5 minutes for a toilet break??!”

The crux point is also that, even if you blog every single day and share to all the top social media sites, you will see very little for around 3-6 months work, depending on the strength of the key phrase you want to dominate, for example, I reckon I could write a couple of blogs about selling a second hand fridge in Thailand and get that high up very quickly, let’s see, shall we, I will use it as a keyword in this blog, sorry if you found this blog because you are looking for a second hand fridge, I would like one too!

If, however you are a UK motor Insurance Company I would definitely think about buying a really comfortable leather desk chair, because it will be looking tired by the time you see your site on page one of search engines, even by blogging great stuff every day.

In entrepreneurship we are taught to concentrate on the real emotion behind a goal.

Many times in an open forum discussions I ask my audience what is they want and one lady said:

“Top of Google”

“Really?” I replied

“Surely you just want to sell your business and retire to the Maldives?”

“Well of course but we have to sell the business first”

“Please go on” I asked her

“Well to get to the Maldives, I have to sell my business, before that I have to make it profitable, before that I have to get more leads, and to get that I have to be top spot on search engines that’s why I am here”

“Concentrate on the Maldives every single day, believe that you have already booked the ticket, and the rest will come” I advised her.

Blogging for me has worked, but as a Caveat it will take a while, branding is more a part of it because although many times your analytics will tell you a story, you can’t really tell what kind of an effect you are having till someone says:

“Hey I saw that post you did the other day” and you know your blogs are being seen and read and people are noticing what it is you do. So then, when the time comes, you are ingrained in their memory, and they will ask to see you.

I returned to Thailand in January 2013 after two years in the UK, to concentrate on business here I already owned two fantastic domains so my aim was to take over the market here for the key phrases:

No not: Buy a second hand fridge in Thailand

Business directory Thailand | Second hand fridge in Thailand

<29/12/14 I followed up this blog and did a search on Google for   ‘Second hand fridge in Thailand’ and there we were: on page 2 after 18 months!>

but:

Social media marketing Thailand

Free business directory Thailand

B2B Leads Thailand

Are all top of Google, which is great for us because that is what we do!

 From these results I receive around 5-8 good warm leads each month asking about training or web sites.

So what would 5-8 fresh new leads each month mean to your business?

To begin branding your business across the Internet speak to the guys who not just talk the talk but walk the walk also:

Contact Netmedia Thailand