Some Obscure Benefits of Blogging

From Robert Phillips at CyberCa$hology

“It’s been almost one year since I made my first post on this blog on February 28, 2007. At that point my Alexa rank was measured in the millions, the number of daily visitors was a single digit, and I had no products to sell. That’s all changed in the past year. My Alexa rank is now around 85,000, I get hundreds of visitors daily, and I have created several moneymaking information products. The simple act of creating a blog and making regular posts started the ball rolling.

A blog can be the center of a successful Internet business but I procrastinated starting a blog for months if not years for lots of stupid reasons. What would I write about? That has turned out to be no problem at all. If you actually are building an Internet business and constantly testing new things, creating new products, etc. then what to write about takes care of itself. There’s so much to write about that the challenge turns out to be which topic to focus on for a particular post. Having something to write about has never been an issue.

Then there is the issue of criticism. If you’re going to post your opinions on a blog, you’re going to be criticized…period. I’ve been criticized since the beginning. Check out the comments to my first post. So what? If you’re not being criticized, then you’re doing something wrong. In fact controversy can drive a ton of traffic to your blog. I’ve seen it first hand. If you don’t have the guts to state an opinion on a blog, then you probably don’t have the guts to be an entrepreneur either.

When the traffic numbers started growing, I figured I’d better create some products to monetize the traffic so that’s exactly what I did. Some of my first specials were real stinkers and didn’t make any sales. So what? I kept experimenting with offers and it wasn’t long until I ran a special that made thousands of dollars, then another one, and another one. There still are occasional stinkers but they are less and less frequent.

All those are well-known benefits of blogging. You don’t see some of the more osbscure benefits of blogging because they happen behind the scenes and I rarely mention them on the blog. Building personal relationships is a good example. I’m not talking about building relationships with readers and customers although that is definitely a benefit of blogging too. I’m talking about real-world relationships that help your business and even extend beyond business.

I’ve been amazed by some of the people who have contacted me privately either to support me when the sh!t hits the fan or just to say they like my blog. They’re people you’ve definitely heard of but they contacted me privately for a reason and I respect their privacy so I’m not mentioning names…sorry. I’ve also had the privilege to meet people personally as I travel around the world like Tom Brownsword, Terry Dean, Steven Lohrenz, & Richard Lee recently.

They all have blogs that I read and they read my blog at least occasionally so we “know” each other in a certain sense. If I didn’t have a blog when I contacted them to have lunch, they probably would have said “Who are you? No thanks.” and I wouldn’t have blamed them. One of the things I don’t like about an Internet business is the lack of personal interaction but this is an example of how having a blog can facilitate meeting people in person and getting to know them better.

There are several others that I haven’t yet met personally but probably will someday like Ed Rivis & Fred Black. Ed was very helpful a few months ago when I was figuring out how to create DVDs and specifically with the issue of the left & right margins being cropped off the video. And Fred continues to be helpful with SEO questions. I’m no expert on SEO but Fred’s site has consistently ranked #1 or #2 for the highly comptetitve search term “internet business” for months so he obviously knows what he’s doing. That’s the kind of person who’s advice you should listen to when it comes to ranking in the search engines. Do you think I would have this type of relationship with either Ed or Fred if we didn’t get to know each other through our blogs? No way.

And it’s not all business either. Peter Murphy reads this blog and he recently helped me drastically reduce my airfare. (Peter, if you had a blog I would link to it…hint, hint!) When I went to Europe last fall I only bought a one-way ticket because I wasn’t sure when I wanted to come back. I’m American so I know most of the tricks to get low airfare but I was in for a rude awakening for my flight back. The fares were exorbitant and I’m not European so I don’t know any tricks to get low airfare from Europe to the US. But I knew Peter had recently flown from Europe to North America so I sent him an email asking if he had any tips. Within hours he replied and one of his suggestions dropped by airfare from $1,000+ to about $300. That’s why I flew through Dublin. The $700 I saved covered my two-night stay, my tour of the Guiness brewery, and much more. I never would have “met” Peter if it weren’t for my blog. Thanks Peter.

These are some of the more obscure benefits you might not be aware of…especially if you don’t have a blog. So if you don’t have a blog, why not? There are tremendous benefits to blogging and you could easily have your own customized blog up today. Where would I be today if hadn’t started this blog a year ago? Where would I be if I hadn’t procrastinated for a year and started this blog 2 years ago? Where will you be a year from now if you don’t start a blog (or at least do something related to starting an Internet business)? Will you still be dreaming? Or will you be making money online because you got off your butt and started moving in the direction of your goals? Only time will tell.”