Should Business Bloggers Be Treadmill Walkers or Toshers?

If we freelance content writers were living back in the 18th century, we might be making our living as toshers or treadmill walkers, both common occupations at the time, rather than by blogging for business.

Reading Mental Floss Magazine’s latest issue, I learned that treadmill walkers trudged all day to mill grain, while toshers wandered through sewers looking for trinkets.

Considering the sheer discipline needed to maintain an SEO marketing blog week after week, month after month, ex-treadmillers might actually be very well suited for corporate blog writing.  “What qualities make for a great ghost blogger? Drill sergeant discipline, for one,” I wrote five years ago, explaining that web rankings are based at least partially on frequency of posting new content.

But same-old, same-old isn’t going to go any further than treadmills (not even in terms of attracting readers through search engine optimization, as the now more sophisticated search engine algorithms judge content by relevance and response along with recency).

Of course, sheer repetition of what-we-sell, what-we-do, what-we-know content won’t go very far in terms of engaging the interest of any who do land on a business’ or practice’s blog page, I’d recommend bloggers focus on “toshing” their way to the top.

“Trinkets” likely to be of business blogging help include:

• interesting pieces of information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer,  related to the client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, so much the better.
   
• “startling statistics” are important in blogging for business, because that information helps engage online readers’ interest.
   
• anecdotes relating to the business owners and hardships they overcame in establishing the business

Back in the 18th century, the trick to being a top-notch tosher was sifting out or shloshing out the garbage and rescuing the treasure.  A successful blog marketing strategy involves much sifting and sorting as well.  Then, it’s crucial for writers to create a clear thought path – from those fascinating tidbits in your business blog writing to the benefits online readers stand to gain.