An eye-opening experience for me was explaining blogging to someone with no internet access. Because explaining blogging to a family member that doesn’t know what blogging is changed how I sell the value of what I do.

Explaining blogging to those who have no experience with it, forces me to confront the biggest frustration I face in my industry.

In other words, the process of explaining blogging and its value can be broken down into three schools of thought:

• Blogging is a magic pill solution to everything. And if you put up one post and hope for the best the right people will find it. FYI: it’s not. It takes time for results. And if you don’t have a strategic plan it will be a waste of time.
• Blogging won’t accomplish anything. The school of thought that makes me go: “what about your customers? Do they read blogs? Do they regularly share and talk about blog posts on their social media platforms?”
• My school of thought: blogging only works if you have a really good plan in place, and you know that your target audience pays attention to blogs.

In fact, the first two schools of thought led to occasional inquiries from people who assume they “have to” blog. Although my target audience’s openness to the idea of blogging often makes me money over the long-term, I openly admit that it’s only sometimes a good idea.

So, the first question I always ask the businesses that express interest in working with me is why they want to start a blog. 

If you’re trying to sell the value of blogging to your colleagues, there’s a lot that can be learned from my key takeaways of explaining blogging to someone without internet access. 

1) Above all, when explaining blogging to others, never assume they’re an expert

Because I live in a city where peoples’ professional lives are the core of their identity, the first thing people always ask is:

“What do you do?”

As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining the focus of my business to people I meet at social events.

However, I’m used to dealing with a lot of head scratching. But at this point, I have a workaround, where I focus on a simplified version of what I do for my clients.

So, when I describe blogging, I focus on the revenue people can earn because of it. Then I talk about what this can look like on a weekly basis if done effectively.

 2) If you can’t explain it at a level a 5-year old can understand, you’ve got work to do…

For example, I’ll always remember the first time my 90-year old grandmother said:

“What is blogging?”

This is a great example of this because, for the longest time, she didn’t understand why the internet is so popular. Yet, my explanation triggered her openness to learn more.

Because, a few months after I explained blogging to my grandmother, she listened in on a Facebook Live I was leading with an open mind. And it was one of the most productive conversations we’ve ever had about my professional life.

3) If you can’t convince yourself why you are blogging, you won’t convince anyone else

Since so many people I cared about didn’t believe my business was going to last when I first started out, I believed it too.

Because, at the time, I was a recent college grad and I felt like my skills were far too similar to my peers.

So, I would say things like:

“I’m an aspiring writer.”

Then, people would sense my lack of confidence and assume that it was just a hobby. Because recent accomplishments include helping a lot of people and being involved in a lot of emotionally stimulating projects, I no longer feel this way.

Since I believe in the value of what I do, other people believe in it as well.

The moral of the story?

Before you start blogging, you need to figure out why it’s something you want to do. Because an expert recommendation isn’t a good reason to dedicate time to blogging. In fact, it’s such a time-consuming activity that you have to be up for the challenge.

Although I mentioned the revenue aspect is a great selling point, you need to have your own reasons for blogging as well.

Because chances are you’ll need to convince other people as well. So, you need to know exactly what you’re trying to get out of it before anyone else does. Consequently, coming up with ideas for new posts will be a lot more challenging than it needs to be.

There’s a lot that can be learned from those who have no familiarity whatsoever with blogging

But the most important lesson is this: if you want to create a blog that’s not just a hobby, don’t just create content because it’s something you want to write about. Otherwise, no one will want to read it.

Instead, before you start writing ask yourself why this will strengthen your message.

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Please add a comment below if you'd like to discuss this topic. – Rosie