Do prospective clients care that you blog?

Do your prospective clients or website visitors care if you’ve got a blog instead of a static site (conventional website)? Probably not. Readers are looking for helpful information about ADR, good advice about how to navigate conflict, how you work, how to choose a mediator, and the like. The platform you use to deliver it doesn’t matter to them…but the quality of the information and the timeliness of it do. That might give blog-based sites an edge, because they’re easier to update.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has written an excellent post on this topic, Do You Think of Your Blog as a Blog or a Website?

If you decide to build a blog-based site instead of a conventional website that you update periodically, keep these tips in mind:

• Forget about blogging in its original sense, online journaling. With rare exception, online journaling sends the message that the blog is about you. If you’re writing for prospective and current clients, then your blog should be about them and their needs. This doesn’t mean you should never mention yourself or your life, but it should tie in with something your reader cares about.
• On a related note, make sure your blog focuses on the benefits of your services instead of the features of your services. It’s a common marketing mistake to think that telling prospective clients about your great services will entice them to buy from you. If you’re new to the “benefits vs. features” idea, I recommend this Entrepreneur.com article, Marketing Features vs. Benefits.
• While hardcore bloggers post daily, and often multiple times in a day, there’s no rule that you need to do the same. There’s no rule that you need to do anything that pro bloggers do, especially now that blogging is hitting the mainstream and folks like you and me are stretching its use for our own needs. Do what makes sense for you and the readers in the market you’re trying to reach. While there is evidence that regular posting of some kind (weekly, for instance) helps build readership and search engine rankings, to blog successfully you’re going to need to find the right rhythm for you and your readers.
• Read other blogs. Find other independent service professionals who blog to build business and see what they do and how they do it. Read regularly and diversify your reading content. You’ll become a better blogger by widening your sense of the great possibilities blogging offers you and your market. You can search for blogs on Google Blog Search.