One of the top search marketing bloggers “Michael Grey” recently made a video cast telling new SEO bloggers to “step away from the keyboard.” Going on to rant on about if you can’t add something unique or different to the conversation then why bother. Well for one even if your blog doesn’t have a lot of subscribers it can be extremely valuable for your customers, yourself, and search engine rankings (Google loves fresh content and so should you).
Blog are exploding online and A-listers are taking notice (positively and negatively). For awhile now, a select few controlled the linking structure of the internet. These were the geeks, the techno nerds, the avid content producers online. In a funny post at seomoz, rand (one of the authors) refers to them as the linkarati. It’s a funny title, but it’s true. Blogs and the explosion of content production aims to change all that. You have a say in the sites that rank and the sites you consider relevant. Your links matter and you can promote the articles, sites, content or whatever else you want yourself, without any permission. It’s a great way to get your voice heard and connect with an audience, which could include your peers, future customers or anybody else.
More importantly, blogging is a form self expression; just because some people may not have the ability to reach a large audience and contribute some amazingly new information doesn’t mean they should stop blogging (as Michael Grey suggested).
I think they should blog more.
Writing, organizing your thoughts and becoming more effective at broadcasting your passion takes a lot of practice. Many of the people that are “natural” bloggers spent years in other writing related professions / hobbies. Honing a distinct voice and building up an audience base does not happen overnight. Blogging is in its infancy (for most professions). A new blog or site can get traffic almost immediately and as you blog more and add more information you can build and grow your online presence, your audience, your influence, and your pocket book.
The feedback and interactive conversations that blogs spark are valuable to almost anyone. Blogging is also a great way to develop strong argumentative and debating skills.
Michael Grey’s stunt sparked an interesting war in the blogosphere and two creative ways of getting use out of the current conversation popped up that are worth noting. Marketing Pilgrim (another search marketing blogger syndicated by Murdok) asked for any search marketing blogger to leave their feed in his comments with a promise that he’d subscribe for at least two weeks and then continue on if you had something valuable to say. Very cool, nice way to promote blogging and capitalize on a current blogosphere conversation (hey he got a link from me; see how simple this is?)
The other was a cool videocast response by search Anyway Keep Blogging — Why Michael Gray is Wrong
So keep on blogging !
