5 Reasons Why Creative Entrepreneurs Should Blog

{Print from MadeByGirl on Etsy}

Successful blogging takes work, patience, practice, determination, and persistence. It’d be easier to solely concentrate on building your online shop than to add regular blogging to your to-do list.

Before I tell you why I believe creative entrepreneurs should blog even though there aren’t many short-term rewards and it takes away time from creating, I want to make one thing clear: blogging isn’t for everyone.

Blogging can increase your business success, but that doesn’t mean that you should blog. In my honest opinion, if you’re not going to treat your business blog as an extension of your business and put effort into to it, it’s not worth starting. In fact, I think a crappy blog could actually hurt your business. I know I make impressions about a person’s business from her blog, and if the impression isn’t good, then I’m less likely to buy.

If you know that blogging will become a thorn in your side and you won’t enjoy it at all, don’t do it. Your readers and customers won’t enjoy your posts if you don’t enjoy writing them. And, it’ll probably just end up being a waste of time.

Now that I’ve gotten that out, let me share why creative entrepreneurs should blog:

1. It gives your customers a way to get know, like, and trust you.

People buy from people and businesses that they know, like, and trust. That’s why you buy the name brand cereal instead of the cheaper store brand. That’s why you ask your neighbor for a referral for a dry cleaner and you turn to a trusted friend for a referral to a local vet.

When you blog, you give your potential and current customers an inside look into your business and personality. It gives them an opportunity to get to know you better which then leads them to like and trust you. And, that leads to more sales.

2. You can build a community for your readers, customers, and fans.

People like to feel that they are a part of something. If you build a community for your fans to interact with you and other fans, they’ll feel that they’re a part of your business. This will make them more likely to become repeat customers.

Building relationships can seriously skyrocket your business success. For real.

3. You separate yourself from your competition.

If you sell your products through an online handmade marketplace like Etsy, you’re competing for views and traffic with thousands of other sellers. For instance, if someone searches for knitted baby booties on Etsy, there’s a lot to choose from—and the chances of that person picking your products out of all of them depends on how recently you listed or renewed that item and how she compares your product to the others.

But, if she reads your tips for new mommies blog on a regular basis and knows that you sell baby booties, she might not even consider the other sellers. Instead, she’ll probably click from your blog to your Etsy shop—not search the entire site.

4. You’re doing more than a lot of your competition.

How many creative entrepreneurs put the time and effort into building a successful blog? Not enough. Why? Because, it takes a lot of time and effort, and people don’t want to do it. There are plenty of blogs, but the key isn’t blogging. The key is to have a useful, entertaining, personality-filled blog.

If you put the time and effort to post one or two useful blog posts per week, you’ll be doing more than most of your competition. Potential customers will notice.

5. It’s inexpensive marketing.

Even if you buy your domain name and pay for web hosting {which I highly recommend}, it doesn’t cost much. I constantly talk to creative entrepreneurs who want ideas on how to market their businesses for next to nothing, and this is the best option.

You get to decide on the content, how often you publish, what you’re going to promote, how it’s going to look, and so much more. If you provide your target market with useful content, they’ll link to it, retweet it, and send it to their friends. Basically, if you do it right, you’ll target market will start to market your stuff for you.