Why Nobody Is Reading Your Business' Blog (and How to Fix It)

The Internet is full of wonderful, terrifying, messy, and just plain weird personal blogs.

The caring for and feeding of pet earthworms, things to do in Bangor, Maine when it’s raining, endless (and surprisingly erotic) "Saved by the Bell" fan fiction—in short, anything and everything you can imagine. A lot of it is risky and deeply personal. And all of the good stuff comes from a place of authentic (and sometimes horrifying) passion.

And then there are the business blogs. Millions of monotone voices offering harmless, flavorless, opinion-less, empty posts reaffirming that all businesses everywhere are a) growing, b) available to do more of the same work they always do, and c) have great—no, really, the best—clients/customers in the world. It’s bad stuff.

Here are the top 5 reasons your business blog is awful and what you can do about it:

1. Cutting and pasting from press releases. Blogs are different than press releases. They aren’t supposed to be formal writing and they certainly shouldn’t include a dateline, a canned quote or, God help us, your boilerplate business description. A blog is its own unique place that can tell a story in a way none of your other platforms can. Stop using the same content for everything and write original posts for the blog.

2. Blogging once, going dark for three months, then uploading six posts in a big weird clump. Most business blogs, but especially the little guys, create content at really odd times. If you only blog during flight delays, or when the weather is bad on the weekend, your audience will have a hard time growing accustomed to your voice or getting into the habit of checking on you.

3. All text, all the time. One reason this whole “Internet” thing seems to be taking off is because it offers a lot of different experiences and ways to engage with content. People like photos and videos. Give them what they like.

4. All you ever talk about is your product or service. Yes, it’s a business website. Yes, it needs to help people understand what you do. But more importantly, the blog should help people understand why you do it. Help us see who you really are and let us get to know the faces and personalities of your team.

5. The utter absence of a human voice. Readers can tell the difference between a real person and a cutting and pasting committee. In the interest of safety and predictability, many businesses take all of the personality of the blog. Fight the boring by assigning the blog to a real person and encouraging them to write like one. If you don't have someone to assign it to, guess what? It's you. 

Now get out there and feed the beast—that blog won’t write itself.