20 Lessons from a 10-Year Sales Blogger

When my COO, John Pattison, had an excited look on his face, I thought he had a great new idea for a product enhancement.  Instead, he said, “Did you know that this week is the 10th Anniversary of your Blog?”  I didn’t.  He also pointed out that I had written and posted 1,236 articles, generated more than 562,000 views directly on my blog and perhaps double or triple that number when you include syndication.  So what have I learned about blogging and how can that help you?

1. The Blog is a lead generating machine!
2. Readers are loyal and some are likely to become clients after reading for a while.
3. For every reader that becomes a client, there are 100 more that consume all the free content I can generate.
4. My better articles (my perspective) get fewer views and shares while some of my less worthy articles (again, my perspective), like this one, get shared and viewed more than they deserve.
5. Readers enjoy my real world analogies. Whether about baseball, kids, weather, food or music, they seem to resonate.
6. Views are higher when I follow a predictable posting schedule.
7. When articles have lots of links to other articles or sites, those links are far less likely to get clicked than when they have one or two links.
8. My primary audience is a CEO, President, VP Sales or Sales Manager.  When I write a general sales article, those are more widely read than when I write for my primary audience.
9. I usually write about something recently experienced or witnessed.  I don’t need to get creative because the analogy, case history, example or lesson is usually right in front of me.
10. It only takes about 20 minutes to write an article like this.
11. When I write about sales tools, secrets, or tips, it’s more likely that someone will click a call-to-action.
12. When I write about sales force evaluations, sales candidate assessments, or sales process, it’s less likely that someone will click a call-to-action.
13. I enjoy writing my Blog because it’s therapeutic.
14. Others can’t fathom my seemingly limitless volume of content.
15. I usually have as many as 8-10 future article titles and concepts ready to go at any given time.
16. It seemed to take forever – 5 years or so – before I had a visible, viable Blog with a strong readership.
17. People don’t comment as much as they used to.
18. People are more likely to tweet an article or share it on LinkedIn and comment in their tweet or share.
19. When I try to write to get a specific outcome (i.e. views, shares, CTA’s or comments), I am certain to fail.  When I simply write what’s on my mind, it works really well.
20. My 20 minutes are up!

Blogging can help you get found, build an audience of followers, and a source of new customers or clients.  With a million new Blog posts a day, it’s harder than ever to get readership for a new one, but if you’re original, entertaining and enjoyable, your early readers will share it with others and help you build an audience of future customers.