A Tale of 2 WAHMs

I may be preaching to the choir here. Almost everyone has a blog and you all probably know how important blogs are to your success. However, simply just owning a blog is not enough.

In order to get the max benefit from your blog, you need to POST on a regular basis. A blog that’s only posted to once a month isn’t going to do you much good. On the other hand, a blog that’s posted to daily is going to reap some heavy benefits.

Now I’m not saying you absolutely need to post daily, but you do need to post several times a week. At least posting 2 or 3 times a week is going to make a big difference.

Yes we tend to slack around here some weeks, but for the most part you’ll notice we do in fact make several posts a week. Another blog I own gets posted to twice a day most of the time. Even when I slack off I post at least 5 posts a week. Can you guess which blog updates faster and gets more visitors? Of course the one that gets posted to more often.

Now posting on a regular basis seems like a scary idea. You may have problems coming up with topics to write about, or think it’s just not possible. Well obviously it is, because we do it.

This blog is posted to on a regular basis, and so is another I own as I stated before. Sure this is a business blog so hot topics are always available, but that doesn’t mean you can’t post on a regular basis to a blog focused on your business. Don’t limit your blog to posting only industry news and specials. In fact, your blog is probably not going to get that good of a response if you think of it as an advertising tool. Instead, use it as a chance for your customers to get to know you and the specific uses of your product.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you sell handmade bath products. You of course use your own products on a regular basis, so tell your customers about it. Tell them what scent of soap you are using now, or what lotion is currently in your purse. Blog about what a friend said about your latest product, or how people were reacting at home parties. Make your blog interesting to read and the customers will constantly want details.

There’s other ways you can constantly add content to your blog by sharing industry-related information. For example, if you are a Watkins rep, share some recipes! Use tools like WordTracker to find keyword phrases for blog posts to gain traffic. Include links to your site for specific products to use in the recipe. You get the idea.

If nothing else, be sure you participate in blog tag games to bump up the number of posts your blog has. You can even go so far as to post about a friend’s site you found interesting. Remember, every post counts!

I thought it would be fun to share the best after Christmas sales you did, or ones that caught your eye the most. There wasn’t a whole lot that caught my eye online, nor in the stores either. I went shopping offline yesterday expecting to see things like calendars and decorations on sale, but was pretty disappointed.

This year we did the same as we always do, and updated our “discount shelf” at Prairie Soy Candles. After it was “stocked”, I sent out a notice to affiliate and our own newsletter. It’s pulled several sales so far, so I was pretty happy with the results.

The main focus of our sale was to not only clear out the holiday specific scents, but other candles we have sitting in stock right now as well. Of course they are all discounted since we are trying to clear them out. But to me that’s the idea behind after holiday sales. If you want the holiday specific item at a really good price, you buy it after the holiday. Why other stores aren’t making a big deal about this I don’t know. They could be getting my business along with many others that shop this way too.

So what did you do directly after Christmas, and how did it go? Did you spot any good deals that really jumped out to you?

So here we are officially back from Christmas vacation. The last 2 weeks have been an absolute mess, and I did a horrible job of keeping up with things online. On the plus side the house is mostly put back together from Christmas, with all new toys in the places they should be. I expected company on New Years, but that didn’t pan out so I’m lucky there wasn’t a mess from that to clean up.

Now that the kids are back in school, I feel like I can fully get back into the swing of things. Before Christmas I had made some goals and outlines for the new year, so that helps. But I’m still lacking motivation and that needs to be changed.

My main focus for the last several months has been Idea Queen, and that’s going to continue for the next several months. When I was setting goals, I went through stats and rankings of each page, deciding which pages needed more individual promotion. So at least I have that list right in front of me. The blog also needs attention, since I didn’t post too much on it over Christmas vacation. I usually  post to it twice a day.

I won’t dive too deep into my specific goals and deadlines, because it doesn’t mean much to anyone else but me. But I will tell you my main goal is a set amount which will be achieved by getting certain tasks done on the site by certain dates (which I may share in posts later on).

On a side note, I’ve made some personal goals for the new year that include working harder and keeping my focus. After all, focus is one of the key ingredients to success!