Business Blogging on a Budget

"It’s hard to imagine celebrating holidays without special food, decorating, gifts, and big gathering," begins an article by Money Management International. "But consider how you can enjoy the spirit of the season on a budget."

Several of the MMI tips for budgeting during the holidays relate to all that effort you put into your business blog posts. In offering business blogging assistance, I stress some of the same ideas that apply to holiday prep.

Don’t get left with leftovers.  Prepare only what you need.
The nice thing about blogs is that extra content that is too much for one blog post can be used in another.  Focus on one core idea in each post, holding those extra thoughts for another day (with blogging, "leftover" ideas can actually "hold" for another month, or even another year!) Each post should have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.  The beauty of business blog writing, though, is that you can use the other thoughts for later posts.

Speaking of putting ideas on "hold", one great corporate blog writing sustainability tip is to keep a blog idea file, online or in a little notebook or folder. Articles you cut out of newspapers or magazines, notes on ideas gleaned from a seminar, from listening to the radio, reading a blog or a book, or "the rest of the story" carried over from a blog post that was getting overly long. Your folder of "ingredients" will make your job as a blog content writer a whole lot easier.

Stick to basics.  
Even though variety is a spice blog content writers must use, stick to a few basic "leitmotifs" or themes to form the backbone of your writing.  In writing for business, your themes are beliefs you hold about your industry that you think are important to convey to readers, or specific ways you successfully serve customers and clients.

Many business owners start out strong, but months or even weeks into trying to be blog content writers, their efforts fizzle, and they have trouble maintaining the discipline of frequent, regular posting (even if they recognize blogging’s importance to their marketing strategy and tactics development).

Since business blog writing is more like a marathon than a sprint, "budgeting" your efforts will help win the race!