<p>In 1997, <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html" title="Technorati Stats">Technorati</a> reported that they were seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That’s about 1.4 blogs created every second. Clearly, blogs are fast becoming a viable currency for business success, For many of us though, writing content that others will read AND that has any level of meaning feels overwhelming and intimidating. Blog coaching just might be the answer.</p>
<p>No matter where you turn, there are bloggers blogging about everything from movie reviews or recipes to highly technical or market-focused expertise. And with the advent and accessibility of Wordpress, anyone can start a blog. There is no cost, little set-up, and potentially unlimited readership. But for some of us, that’s where the problems start and anxiety sets in.</p>
<p>Writing can be daunting for a number of reasons. Maybe you are convinced you're no good at it. It only takes that one high school teacher or college professor to return your work with more red ink than black and you’ve made the once-and-for-all determination that you can never be a writer. Or maybe you love to write but are convinced that no one else would want to read your words, scribblings, or musings. You’ve journaled for years and have safeguarded as sacred those spiral-bound notebooks through moves, marriages, and more, but the idea of anyone else seeing them makes you nearly turn inside out. Either option (and many more in-between) has you running to hide at the very mention of blogging.</p>
<p>What if there was a way for you to understand the experience of blogging to be more about building community and offering your own skills and passions than showcasing amazing articulation of thought and incredible paragraph structure? What if there was a way for your own inner thoughts and processes to be offered to the world in a way that wouldn’t sacrifice your privacy, but instead, enhance your own growth and development? And, dare I say it? What if blogging wasn’t <em>just </em>about monetization and the plethora of get-rich-quick schemes out there? Maybe it has deeper potential than we’d ever imagined.</p>
<p>What if? Blog coaching might be an answer.</p>
<p>Blog coaching is not a widespread discipline, at least not in the form I’m talking about. In its more common form, those who offer such services are helping clients with the fundamentals – from choosing a domain name to setting up the site itself. What I mean by blog coaching is something far different. It’s a combination of therapy, reflective/creative writing, technical skills, personal branding, and professional development; a hybrid that will have you creating great, relevant content for your readers, but far more, will impact you personally, professionally, and relationally.</p>
<p>Perhaps most closely aligned with writing therapy, this form of blog coaching invites you to a regular schedule of writing (or posting) and then, through conversational sessions, ushers you into provocative discussion about your chosen topic, how (or if) you’ve used your voice, what you’ve said (and left unsaid), and far more. Particular coaching sessions might also include creating a list of possible topics/posts to work from in the weeks ahead that provides both idea-generation and resourcing to make that happen, paying attention to the discipline of blogging and offering both advocacy and accountability, and considering the personal-growth elements of writing itself and what occurs in you (and in others) through your words. And, of course, there is also room and context for some of the more technical aspects of blogging like setting up your site in the first place, writing posts together, and connecting with viable social media options.</p>
<p>You have something unique to say that can only come from you: your expertise, your history, your passion, your life. But as long as you keep all of that inside, neither you nor the rest of us can benefit! Blog coaching might just be worth considering – an individualized, unique “package” that helps you get over your own fears about writing, but more, helps you develop an amazing blog <em>and </em>an even more amazing self!</p>
2009-08-27T21:54:24Z
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2009-08-30T11:50:31Z
2009-08-30T15:52:21Z
Blogs are fast becoming a viable currency for business success, For many, though, writing content that others will read AND that has any level of meaning feels overwhelming and intimidating. Blog coaching might be the answer.
Growing Your Business (and Yourself) through Blogging
1
2009-08-30T15:52:21Z