As I write more and more stories for others a little piece of me is crying out to be heard. I’ve neglected you, my friend. I have put the needs of others before us and forgotten the value of a blog. I’ve all but broken up with you. And you have waited patiently.
It’s Time to Blog Again
It’s a rainy, cool, fall morning. It’s so dark I can’t see anything in my backyard. It speaks of nothing. It stares back with an emptiness.
But I’m alive.
I’m full of light and wonder, creativity and hope. I often feel this way when I’m writing, but the sparks that sputter out into words have stayed trapped on the pages of my computer. My thoughts start fresh and my mind is full of ideas. I let passion guide my fingers. The flickers of light grow into flame. A fire rumbles below the surface. But then I pause. I move on to other ideas, and when I revisit that electricity that hit the page, my mind often can’t reconnect.
Writing to Inspire
Writing blogs can be like this for me because mine have a personal tone. They aren’t instructive or calculated. They are my mind. Free, passionate, inspired, never following a system or a plan. That’s the struggle of being an empath and a writer. I want to share all those feelings with others. I want to affect change in people through my words. But when I disconnect with them I assume that connection I want the reader to feel will also be lost. So they sit on my laptop waiting for rebirth, waiting for that call from my gut that decides it’s time to share those thoughts.
A recent guest blog I wrote was fun and instructive. It was easier to piece together because it was part of my work. It had some little sparks of me in there, but was written with the confidence of my craft and not the vulnerability of my heart. But it did make me think more about my blog. Is there a mix of passion and professionalism that I can share more often? Can I approach my “small steps” mission realizing that I can take small steps towards blogging better, too? There is value in writing other material. It would create a continuity to this blog when my soul purpose isn’t ready to speak. And we all know a blog has no value if it’s not updated regularly. Or does it?
Blog for More than SEO
Blogging is something I encourage people to do even if they don’t publish. Unpublished blogs still provide these benefits:
- Blogs helps develop core message for your business
- They are a great basis for other social content
- Blogs can create the basis for a presentation or book
- They incite research, fact-checking, and creativity
- Blogs answer questions your potential clients may have
And that all builds your brain, builds your brand, and builds your belief. Once published the value of a blog certainly grows:
- develop trust with your audience
- increase your SEO
- provide new content for your website
- drive traffic to your website
- generate income through affiliate programs
- produce evergreen material
There are many more values of blogging SEO professionals cite. For me, today, I’m feeling inspired to change up my blog a bit with this discovery of business and personal blogging combined. It’s really the whole picture of my business. I use stories to connect people to the planet. But I also tell stories for others, so the combined effort in my blog will represent my whole business. It will keep my fingers flying and, maybe, just inspire some more of those passionate sparks to make their way from the safety of my computer out into the digital world.