Bring The Blog Kicks Off Its 6th Year

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Editor's note : This is a consumer mortgage blog but many of my subscribers are "industry" types. Forgive the indulgence. It's a Saturday and I'd like to acknowledge a milestone. 

Bring The Blog : 5 Years Old

5 years ago, I founded Bring the Blog, a blogging service for real estate and mortgage professionals.

Conceptually, Bring the Blog is basic. Every business day, we write a new blog post and post it to our members' respective blogs. We're a daily service, covering "hot topics" in the market. The content is consistently fresh, relevant, and timely.

And we've provided it for 1,105 consecutive business days now.

I'm grateful that, after 5 years, Bring the Blog continues to exhibit tremendous growth, and deliver value to it members. In this CAN-SPAM Compliant world, Bring the Blog "works" because it gives bloggers a legitimate reason to touch clients and prospects every business day. Our posts are the "what's new in the market"-type stories to which readers can relate.

I believe our members do more sales because they use the service.

Click here to visit Bring the Blog.

Where Do Your Clients Get Their Industry News?

When Bring the Blog made its first post November 26, 2006, I wasn't sure what the market for "blog content" would be.See, in 2006, people didn't really know what blogging was so before I could ever sell Bring the Blog as a service, I had to first sell "blogging" as a marketing channel.

About the only thing I had going for me was that my personal blog was working so well that I had more than enough real-life stories and experiences to share.

My sales calls all went pretty much the same. First, I explained what blogging was. Next, I listened to the objections (and there were always a ton). Then, as if to dismiss the objection(s), I would share my personal experience as a blogger and succinctly explain why having a blog was no longer "business optional".

"You know," I would start. "We're in this business every day and we think of business in terms of cycles, don't we?  Sometimes the market is up, sometimes it's down. And we're not really focused on the day-to-day because we take a long-term outlook on our careers."

I would wait for a head nod or some form of acknowledgement before continuing. 

"Our clients, though? For the brief time that they're actually 'in the market', 'the market' is all they think about. All day, all night, and every minute in between. Our clients don't have a 'business cycle' -- they have an immediate need and that need is happening 'right this second'."

Then I would drop the line.

"You don't need a blog to attract new business," I would say. " You need a blog to protect your current business; to build a fence around your database. If you're not giving your clients new, actionable information every single day while they're 'in the market', they're just going to get it from somebody who does."

"And when that happens, you've lost the client. Period. End of story."

It wasn't a sales pitch. It was the truth. I knew from my own blogging experiences -- the more new content that I put on my site, the better I attracted and retained my book of business.

Now, at the time, I remember going to conferences and hearing the "experts" offer contrary advice to my experience; that you shouldn't update your blog every day; that once a week was fine lest you risk annoying your customer, et cetera. 

My take was this: Anyone who says you don't have to update your blog each has either (1) never tried to do it, or (2) never seen its results. I still believe this today. To get the most results from your blog or website, you have to be adding something new every single day.

Click here to visit Bring the Blog.

Do You Have 3 Hours To Write A Blog Post Today?

Looking back at those early conversations from 2006-2008, I laugh at the uphill battle I faced. I mean, on every sales call, before I could ever sell Bring the Blog as a product, I had to also sell "blogging" as a meaningful form of marketing.

Today, things are different.  It's 2012 and everyone knows why blogging matters. I don't spend nearly the same amount of time talking about why a "great web presence" matters, or the need for everyday content on your blog.

I've even been helped by a slogan, of sorts -- Content is King.

In 2012, people know why blogging is crucial to their marketing so, instead, I talk time management. I put this among Bring the Blog's greatest value propositions.

As most people know, writing blog posts takes time. Actually, a lot of time. It's the number one reason why people say they don't write new content -- they have no time, they say. And, the argument makes sense. 

For every blog post you write for your site, you have to (1) Research the post, (2) Draft, write (and re-write) the post, and (3) Create an attractive graphic to grab the reader's attention. 

The process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours if you go start-to-finish (and that's assuming you even know what to write about!). Show me a blogger and I'll show you a person who's lost time wondering where that "next post" will come from.

Bring the Blog is succeeding because we make blogging simple. Each post is a daily blog template for our members. What you do with the content is entirely up to you.

Click here to visit Bring the Blog.

Don't Be Your Blog's Journalist. Be Its Editor-In-Chief.

When Bring the Blog fills your website each day, we're serving as your source writer. We send content that's fresh and relevant, and that uses charts and graphics to grab the reader's attention. It's your blog. We're just a writer.

You, however, are your blog's Editor. As editor of your blog, you get to review the writer’s work, and make tweaks and changes as you see fit. Then, you set the article to publish. For Bring the Blog members, it’s a job that takes less than 5 minutes per day.

Now, compare that to the average 60 minutes that it takes to write a blog post.

On average, Bring the Blog members save 25 business days per year -- that's a month's worth of savings. It took me 5 years to figure it out, but this is the #1 selling point for Bring the Blog. It's time-effective to be the editor. It's time-costly to be the writer.

Click here to visit Bring the Blog.

What Can Bring The Blog Do For You?

Bring the Blog has evolved since its launch, but the core offering remains the same -- Bring the Blog writes new blog content every business day, and posts it to your blog automatically.

We have added complementary services along the way including "blog keywording", which places your local keywords (i.e. cities, states, neighborhoods) into your blog posts automatically, and "blog seeding", which pre-populates your blog with up to 12 months of blog content so you don't look so "new" to blogging. Our members love this.

They love our content, too. Click here to see the "live demo" site we use for real estate members. It's a sample of what we write each day.

If your 2012 marketing plan includes improving your blog or web presence, or if you're not sure where to start, I'll hope you'll visit the Bring the Blog website. Memberships come with a 15-day money-back guarantee but few people ever exercise that right. They start with Bring the Blog and wonder how they ever lived without it.

Plus, as an added bonus, if your existing website happens to be "blog-incompatible" or if you're not technically-agile, we have you covered! Bring the Blog builds free WordPress websites for members and will handle your blog setup on your behalf.

Thank you again for indulging me with this post. It's been 5 years and I'm proud to serve the community. I've met many wonderful people because of Bring the Blog and wish for another 5 prosperous years.

Click here to visit Bring the Blog.