Today, dear friends in the speechwriting and writing blogosphere, I have a serious question: Has your blog brought you any business?
I have been writing a blog on speechwriting for 13 months. It has been featured on a variety of Web sites, including the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Vital Speeches of the Day, Ragan Communications, “Six Minutes: Professional Speaking and Presentation Skills” and “Professionally Speaking,” among others.
Still, it has brought me not one job, one inquiry, one anything – expect nice friendships with other speechwriters and writers.
My business has come through other means – recommendations from current clients to new clients and ongoing work from past clients.
This set me to wondering how and if other speechwriters have benefitted from their blogs, especially freelance speechwriters like myself.
Has your blog brought you any business? If not, what value do you think it serves in your overall business plan?
Thanks for your honesty and willingness to share.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Cynthia:
You raise an important question. My Professionally Speaking blog is over 5 years and 500 articles old. In that time it has only generated around a half-dozen enquiries from potential clients. So in terms of an effort to reward ratio it has obviously not been a success measured in those terms.
But that’s not the reason I blog.
The benefits of my blog are:
- Establishing my professional reputation. Blog articles have led to speaking engagements at conferences.
- An archive for articles and topics I find of interest which I can easily refer potential clients, and others, to. Someone asks me for information on a topic and I can send them a quick link.
- Participation in an on-line debate on speaking and speechwriting. You mention I have featured your articles.
My blog is now one aspect of my growing social media presence, articles are linked to Twitter, Facebook and other blogs.
Without my blog I would be a far more anonymous presence.
Cindy:
I have been posting blogs for roughly the same amount of time as you, I think, and I’ve gotten about five or six paying jobs from people who receive them. But here’s the catch — none of those projects have been from those seeing the blogs on Linked-In. They all have been from people on a self-built and privately maintained e-mail list, including past and present clients, those I’ve met at local networking events, and the like. In other words, from my own homebase, for the most part.
I would have to agree with Ian, though, in that having a regular blog appearance on various Linked-In Groups has had a positive effect on building and securing my reputation as an expert on leadership communication. And that ain’t all bad, either.
All the best.
- Tim
Hi Cynthia:
My speech writing web site is much more a traditional web site rather than a blog, and is fairly static, meaning I don’t post that many articles.
That said, about 15% of my speech work comes as a direct result of my site, and 90% of my sign-ups for my online speech writing course come via the site.
While it is very true that most senior executives don’t go trolling for potential speech writers via the web, at times their communications staff do.
So the question is, is the amount of effort you put into your site/blog worth the effort in terms of the direct and indirect payoffs? The indirect ones may be more valuable in the long wrong.
The other question to consider is do you pay a price for not having a web presence? That is much tougher to answer because you would never know. And that is precisely the point.
On balance, I think having some sort of electronic presence, even a relatively static one, is a vital part of your publicity efforts. If nothing else, it provides a marketing tool for your signature lines in your emails, as well as a quick reference link for potential clients who want to see your work.
Colin
Great blog; great post! I, too, feel your frustration but I think I went into blogging with a slightly different attitude. Absolutely, it was to establish an online presence and generate leads, but more than that it was designed as more of a showcase and a place to close leads.
All my prospects want to see samples, and as a ghostwriter/ghostblogger I can’t necessarily show them 99% of my work so I had to show them something.
In that sense, blogging has given me a place to post copious amounts of sample work (plus book covers and testimonials, etc.) and, I feel, if a client is wavering between me and another ghost and they at least give my blog a cursory glance — i.e. read a post or two or three — I feel pretty confident they’ll make the right decision.
Then, too, I don’t necessarily ask them where they came from. And… they might not even know. I am online at not only my own blog but at Guru.com and Elance.com and I don’t do a ton of publicity for my blog so in that sense it is “for prospective clients only.”
At any rate, I feel your pain. I don’t update my blog that frequently but 2 or 3 times a month I sit down and think, “Do I really need to do this again? Is it helping? Is it worth it?”
In the end, I think it is. It’s hard to pinpoint where clients come from and what, specifically — exactly — makes up their mind to hire you. I can say this much with confidence: I feel in my heart I’d have a lot less work if it wasn’t for the blog, if that makes sense. Hope it does, hope this helps and keep up the great work - and keep blogging!
Yours in publishing,
Rusty
Hi Cindy - I will echo what the other fellows have said here: rather than a direct job source, I see my blog as maybe one of the best examples of my writing that I can offer publicly. The URL is listed on all my promotional materials and I know that folks read the blog as additional background material on me and my writing style, but it’s probably not their initial encounter with me. I don’t think of the blog as “showing another side of me” but rather, showing the same side of me from another angle.
I don’t post as frequently as I would like to (or think I should) but when a subject or topic resonates with me, I immediately think of the blog and how I can incorporate that into a post that’s somehow relevant to my business. It can require a stretch, but I always seem to find a way to connect the two. For example, I’ve written about my previous life as a musical theatre actress and how those skills and experiences serve me well as an executive communicator. If I can’t, then it’s really not a suitable blog topic and I’ll share it on Facebook instead.
Even beyond the label of “speechwriter”, I am a communicator before all else - and the blog is a wonderful way to highlight and finesse my communication skills free of assignment requirements or restrictions. I sometimes dread it as an “obligation” but always delight in posting once I’ve hit on one of those can’t-resist topics.
Allison