What could I possibly learn about blogging from a photographer? That’s me (in the first sentence, not the picture) being a jerk; acting like I know it all. Of course I know I don’t know it all. But that doesn’t stop me from acting like it on a particular subject from time to time.
I was brought to my senses last night at a meeting of photographers to hear how their guest speaker, a photographer named Melissa Jill, promotes her business via her blog. But not before I sat there silently lamenting about how I’m probably wasting my valuable time listening to somebody I know more than.
And then she put up a slide showing her website traffic for the last 30 days. It was only about six times more traffic than my site gets. Cough! That’s when I opened my notebook and started taking notes.
Her advice was simple and spot-on. In fact, I’m not sure she said anything I haven’t heard before. But, and this is a big but, it resonated with me last night. Timing? Karma? It doesn’t matter why does it? What matters is it resonated and has, I assure you, resulted in a change of behavior by Captain Knowitall.
Before I share the nuggets from last night on blogging, here are the nuggets I took with me on jerkiness:
There’s an old saying that goes something like if you can learn just one thing from the talk, book, podcast, email, etc., then it’s worth your time and price of admission. And it’s an old saying because it’s true. I’ll go one step further by saying that sometimes you won’t learn anything from that talk or book or podcast at all. But if you keep reading and listening, every now and then you get something that can really help. And yes, it’s always worth your time and the price of admission.
The next time the jerk inside me rises up I’ll take a moment to check out what the person or book or talk has to offer. Because it doesn’t matter who knows more than whom, because it’s possible and even likely that you know something different than what I know about the topic we both care about. And that makes it worth my time and the price of admission.
What I learned last night about blogging; or what I will actually start acting on because of last night (I’ve been blogging for about five years):
Share yourself. Melissa made a great point. She reminded everybody that 90% of the people who hire photographers don’t know great photography from good photography. So they tend to make their decision based on how comfortable they are and how much they like the photographer. Sharing yourself in your blog gives people a chance to get to know you.
Be consistent. Anybody with a blog knows this is tough. Really tough (take it from someone who has battled consistency with his blog for a looooooong time).
Share stories. Rather than explain or talk about an idea tell a story about how it worked for one of your customers. This was especially painful for me since I preach so much about the importance of story and have for so long. Duly noted, I can assure you!
Post right away. If something happened to you or you went to an event or a new story broke, post about it right away. It’s fresh in your mind, but more importantly it’s fresh in your readers’ minds.
Make blogging a priority. Do it first.
Be generous. Give knowledge and information away.
Post often. Her goal is three to four times a week. I’ve committed to three times a week. It keeps people coming back to your site.
So there it is. A 2-Fer on jerkiness and blogging success. Have a great Friday!
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