Putting Your Toes in the Water

By on September 26, 2006 in Blog Coach, Blogging, Conversations with 3 Comments

Toes_1Ready to launch a blog for your company? Have you Put your Ear to the Blogosphere? Next step – Put Your Toes in the Water.

Dancers rehearse, ballplayers take batting practice, and business leaders practice their porch pitch (shorter than an elevator ride). I think those new to blogging should follow suit.

Before I begin a coaching agreement with a prospect, I will usually counsel the potential blogger to set up a TypePad Pro account and use the free 30-day trial to build up some blogging muscles. You can keep the blog out of the public eye while you’re practicing.

This does a few things for you – and one for your blog coach:

  1. Write About Anything – Just Write. You don’t have to worry about hitting a home run during practice. This is to create the habit of posting often.
  2. Get Your Timing Down. Bring a kitchen timer if you need one, but whittle your writing down to 20-30 minutes.
  3. Develop Questions and Ideas. During the practice, you’ll develop some great questions – and great ideas. Ideas for Categories, Themes, and other Purpose Driven Blogging answers.

And the one thing you’ll do for your blog coach:

  1. Prove You’re Serious. I ask prospects to do this to save them money, save me time, and save us both the headache of an experiment gone bad. At the end of the 30-day trial, if you haven’t practiced – you don’t play. Cancel the account, keep your credit card in your pocket.

So why TypePad and not Blogger? Why TypePad Pro and not Basic? Again, it’s to prove you’re serious. The things a business can do on TypePad Pro are greater than the alternatives.

Who knows, you may not even need a coach. If that’s the case – I’ll cheer you on from the stands. Now – go get your feet wet.

Photo at Flickr by massdistraction

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  • http://managetochange.typepad.com ann michael

    Wow Mike, 20-30 minutes??? I’m a complete failure! After almost 9 months of blogging I would say that less than 10% of my posts (maybe one every two weeks) were written in 30 minutes or less. What’s wrong with me?
    Maybe someone writing a blog for their company has more “newsy” material than I do.
    (Well, at least I use TypePad Pro!)

  • http://www.converstations.com Mike Sansone

    Ann, for me it’s 20-30 minutes – but I don’t write the great stuff you do!
    I think most business owners should shoot for short posts – though various lengths has value. The 20-30 minute mark also acts as a trigger to avoid the “perfection” crutch many face.

  • Pingback: Getting Started Blogging: Why Typepad? | ConverStations

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