Blogging for Entrepreneurs: 6 Tips for Non-Naturals

Every passionate entrepreneur deserves to have their voice heard. One of the most cost-effective ways to do this is to blog.

While the heady days of the early blogosphere have come and gone, the benefits of regular writing and publishing far outweigh the downsides. Entrepreneurs ought to blog a bit differently from the rest of us, though; one-size-fits-all blogging tips for beginners don’t quite cut it.

Natural or not, here’s what you need to know about business-first blogging.

1. Get Tips Straight from the Experts

As an entrepreneur, you know (or you’ll soon learn) that you excel when you listen to people with more experience than you. The same rule applies to blogging. Look for open-source tips and tricks from business owners and executives who’ve been in the blogging game for a while. Entrepreneur Magazine has a great content vertical dedicated to this very issue.

2. Blog About What You Know

Not a jack of all trades? Then don’t pretend otherwise. Blog about what you know, and do it confidently.

“The most successful entrepreneur-bloggers focus on subjects that they know very well, ideally at an expert level,” says serial investor and frequent blogger Vivek Rajkumar. “Stake out ownership of a discrete niche and defend it.”

3. Control Your Workload

Newsflash: you don’t have much time to blog. As an entrepreneur, you have a lot of other things to worry about.

“It’s tough juggling everything, wearing 20 hats, and keeping up with all the important details and deadlines,” says entrepreneur Lauren Hooker. Hooker is a passionate advocate for content scheduling — not just blog posts, but social posts, website updates, email blasts, newsletters and more. Fortunately, this is as easy as using your blogging platform’s scheduling tool.

4. Switch Up Formats and Focuses

Want to turn off your readers, fast? Blog about the exact same thing, in the exact same format, day after day after day.

Want to excite your readers and build buzz around your content portal? Do the exact opposite.

Yes, you should stay in your expertise lane. But there’s likely quite a bit of ground to cover within it: case studies, subtopics, musings and more. And don’t stop there: vary your posts’ lengths, multimedia elements (pivot to video, anyone?) and data sources too.

5. Seek Out Well-Known Guest Contributors

Scheduling blog posts in advance ensures that you have a reliable pipeline of relevant content ready to go at all times. But what if you don’t have enough time to write it all?

Guest contributors can share some of the workload. If they enjoy better name recognition than you, they can also draw potentially valuable attention to your blog. Don’t be shy about courting them.

6. Don’t Make Claims You Can’t Back Up

No, a 700-word post on an entrepreneurial blog isn’t a peer-reviewed research paper. But you’ve got a reputation to protect. Don’t make claims you can’t back up with data or facts on the ground.

Blog from the Heart

This is one piece of advice that applies to all bloggers, not just entrepreneurs looking to burnish their credentials as thought leaders or draw new prospects to their doorsteps. If you don’t believe in what you’re blogging about, it’s time to change the topic — or quit while you’re ahead.