Estate Planning Blogs: Don't Be A Train Wreck!

I monitor a lot of blogs, it's my job. I follow other marketers and thought leaders in the industry, and I also monitor the individual blogs of many of your colleagues -- perhaps even yours!

Through the years, I have watched more than a few blogs explode into total train wrecks. I wanted to call the blog writers and say, "Drop your mouse now, and Move. Away .From. The. Keyboard."

But, you know, it's hard to turn away from a train wreck, and I found myself hypnotized by the sheer magnitude of the disasters unfolding.

To avoid that kind of public humiliation on your own blog, follow these rules:

1. Manage your distribution feeds. If you do not understand how a Facebook application works, do not install it! If you are not careful, your blog post will appear multiple times -- and this is more than just annoying to your "friends!" These multiple re-posts scream out to everyone that you have no clue what you are doing, they make you look foolish and unprofessional. They also tell Google that you don't know what you're doing, raise a red flag that you might be a robotic spammer, can get your WEBSITE (yes, your WEBSITE, not just your blog) knocked off of Google's index, and get your Facebook account permanently disabled. There's no shame in not knowing what you're doing -- but there is abundant shame in forging ahead anyway and sending the same blog post 3 or 4 times to the same people on the same day. If you can't figure it out, get help.
2. Post to your blog once a day -- not 12 times! When I see several posts from the same author, day after day, I get the impression that someone thought, "If a little does a little good, a lot will do a lot of good!" I don't care how brilliantly you blog, I do not want to hear from you more than once -- or at most twice -- per day. Please stop. Also -- you cannot make up for the fact that you didn't post at all for the first half of the year by posting three or four times a day this month. Again, you will irritate your "friends," people will start to UNLIKE you, Google will think you are a spammer, and you will send your website into Google's oblivion ... and perhaps get your Facebook account disabled if you try this little stunt. Do not do it. Post once per day. A little does a lot of good. A lot is just too much.
3. Do not re-post articles that you find on the web, verbatim. This, my friends, is plagiarism, also known as copyright infringement. Reading articles on the web that relate to estate planning is great, and using those articles to spark ideas for your own blog is terrific, giving attribution to the original author with a short quote and a link is even better. But copying word-for-word? Come on! They told you that was cheating in high school. Your blog is supposed to ENHANCE your professionalism, not destroy it!
4. Finally, have a plan. Don't post to your blog in a haphazard fashion ... one day writing about gun control and the next day about estate planning, and then about global warming. People expect your blog to have an organized theme of some sort. Your plan should include providing valuable information to your readers, and -- when appropriate -- directing them back to your website to learn more. Your blog should drive traffic to your website where you can extend the relationship, and eventually those blog readers should be motivated to become new clients. Those disaster blogs? They made no sense. They were not cohesive. I really have no clue as to why those people were blogging. I suspect they read an article on marketing that advocated blogging, and they got the idea that throwing a bunch of junk onto their blog would somehow magically help their business. It won't. It didn't. Have a plan. Or get a plan.

I know that business blogging is hard work. But honestly, if you don't know what to do, or how to do it, get some help. You know those poor souls who show up for American Idol tryouts, and then wind up on television for public humiliation? Haven't you thought that some of those poor folks should have just stayed home? You don't want to be like them. The world wide web is a public place, try to get your act in order before you take it public!

By the way, we offer a cohesive, integrated blog marketing plan as part of The Essential Solution®. Our plan includes professionally-written, marketing-oriented blog content delivered to you for every single work day of the month (one per day), along with blog customization, optimization and monthly training. To find out more, call James (1-877-352-2021, ext. 0)-- he will be more than happy to show you how an integrated marketing system will grow practice, and avoid these kinds of public humiliations!