Failure Is Aways An Option Part 2: Losing A Year

Last week I had written that this blog had been a failure.  So why did this blog fail?

 

It failed for one of the principle reasons most blogs fail: I did not update it for over a year.

 

If you look at the number of comments left on most posts and the syndication compared to similar blogs, then this blog is a colossal failure.

 

A blog thrives on constant content being posted.  Fresh ideas, information, and positions keep the readers alive and wanting to interact.  This in turn builds an audience that promotes and grows your readership.  This will lead to a greater impact and draw the desired clients to a business.   At least that is what all the famous content marketing gurus tell you.

 

They are right, if you are using the blog to generate content to improve SEO.

 

I did not generate content for a year.  So, technically speaking, my blog was and is a failure.

 

I work with many small businesses that cannot afford a content marketing staff or task an employee to be their social media marketers.  In my consultations with them, time is always the key factor.  There just is not enough time to do everything, so something has to give.  If they choose to fail, then they will choose to fail at something that will cost them the least in time lost and money.   For most they choose to fail at consistently updating their social media presence.

 

I too made this choice a year ago when I had a client that needed my undivided attention.  I chose to let this blog fail.

 

Did it hurt my business?  Yes and no.

 

The yes part was that I did see a decline in subscribers of about 10%, which limited my reach.  It bled over into my other social media profiles since my interest was focused on my customer.  I know I missed opportunities; I just cannot quantify how much it cost me.  As a business owner I need to be willing to live with that.

 

The no part is that it allowed me to honestly speak with small businesses about the obstacles of using social media and blogging in particular.  I can work with owners in determining what is the best use of their time.  Blogs build content that can help SEO, but what they should be is a position, almost like white papers, for a business to take that demonstrates what they do.  Most small businesses that I work with do want the SEO content and not the latter.  If that is the case, then there are better ways to build content we work on that together.

 

This blog has a hundred visitors or more a day.  I know compared to some that is small numbers.  These visits stay and dig through the blog for more than five minutes.   I convert five to ten percent of those visits into leads.  Again, not huge numbers, but those that do convert usually result into a business relationship because what I have written has inspired them to act.

 

The reason why this blog has visitors while not being updated is because the subjects I write about are sought after.  Those subjects are on leadership, sales, and influencing peers.

 

So, this blog is a failure.  In that failure I have learned valuable lessons that I have been able to transfer to my clients successfully because I can identify with their obstacles.

 

In this case, failure as an option worked.

 

What failures have you learned from?