It's hard to believe that I have been blogging here at Indie Business Blog for 15 years. Here is my first Indie Business Blog post. By the time I published that post, I had been blogging elsewhere for five years. I maintained a “journal” at IBN's first website, before the term “blog” even existed. Afterward, I blogged at a now-defunct DonnaMaria.com site (which will be re-launched in the near future), and at a site I established specifically to support IBN's legal and regulatory advocacy work.
When I established this blog in 2007, I knew it would be a permanent media outlet for the Indie Business Network. As of this post, I have published 1,934 posts here in about a dozen categories, including: Leadership, Social Media, Success, and the Indie Business Podcast.
Now that I've been blogging here for well over a decade, I am setting the ambitious goal of publishing a total of 2,000 articles here by December 31, 2017. As I prepare to make this happen, I wanted to share some of the things I have learned in my 15 years of blogging. I hope this information encourages you to embrace the power of blogging and make it a regular part of your successful marketing process.
What I Have Learned in 15 Years of Blogging
- Blogging has drastically reduced my marketing costs. Other than time and energy, a blog costs me nothing. While my time and energy do have a cost, the return on investing them in Indie Business Blog far outweighs those costs.
- Blogging has helped to establish community around the Indie Business Network brand. The more I blog, the more I connect people in my target audience. The more that happens, the stronger the Indie Business Network community becomes. It's a beautiful thing, and the same thing will happen in your business if you blog consistently.
- Blogging has helped me clarify and execute a very specific vision and path for the Indie Business Network. The more I blog, the more I test my assumptions. The more I test my assumptions, the better I am at creating and tweaking the future direction of IBN. The positive benefits are felt daily by our members.
- Blogging has improved my leadership skills. Blogging has forced me to put myself out there as the leader of an organization serving thousands of people around the globe. A blog that includes the consistent and purposeful use social media is one of the best personal development tools in the world.
- Blogging has allowed me to embed a powerful and permanent business legacy on the Internet. No matter what the future holds, as long as the hosting fees are paid on this site, the world will have continuous access to the great things IBN members are doing, and what IBN is doing to diligently serve its members.
- Blogging has made it easier for me to sell things. With a blog, I can introduce a new product or program and have instant access to millions of people via the Internet generally. By integrating social media, IBN's weekly member updates and a weekly newsletter, I am able to focus specifically on IBN members and prospective members.
- Blogging has helped me clarify my thoughts. My ability to think things through is an important part of the long-term success of the Indie Business Network, and blogging consistently has helped me do this over the years. The result is new ideas that help my members make more money and have more fun in their own lives and businesses.
- Blogging has helped to establish me as an expert in my field. I write consistently and predictably about specific topics that my target audience of Makers and Artisan Entrepreneurs cares about. As a result, I am known to have a great deal of expertise in those areas, and am frequently invited to share that expertise in the media and at events and conferences and so forth.
- Blogging provides a wonderful home for my Indie Business Podcast. I have hosted a podcast since 2005. It's a powerful marketing tool which attracts new traffic to this site every day.
- Blogging has made leading my business more fun. My definition of “fun” is doing what I love to do every day. Blogging attracts new members, and I have a lot of fun serving my members.
- Blogging continuously optimizes this site for search engines. The more you feed the Internet, the more the Internet feeds you.
- Blogging provides something new for my readers to enjoy on a regular basis. The more I share meaningful ideas, the more my readers enjoy investing their valuable time on this website.
- Blogging has helped to attract meaningful and valuable collaborative opportunities. This blog makes it easier to reflect IBN as a credible organization with a credible leader, and this attracts more meaningful collaborative opportunities. Everyone wins.
I love a good challenge! I hope you'll join me on my journey to publish 2,000 total articles here by December 31, 2017.
