I always tell my clients that they should be updating their website’s blog at least once a week. That an active blog means their page isn’t static and it gives customers, clients, their community, a reason to come back to their site, and it gives google a reason to crawl it. I also tell them that if they have something new they need to post it! Yes I am terrible at taking my own advice. When I start working for a client I am only thinking about their needs, so my page often goes without updates.
Like most advice in life, it’s often not followed by the one that gives it.
Truth of the matter is that you get busy, and sure, I know the best tricks to handle that. Write a bunch of blog posts ahead of time and let the auto schedule publish them at the right time. Again, not followed. Heck, I have designed and redesigned a bunch of sites over the summer and haven’t even put them in the portfolio let alone made a post about them.
It’s hard to remember to promote yourself when you’re running around busy actually working, and when it’s a one woman shop you can’t delegate these small tasks on someone else. Most of your life you have been raised not to brag, and when you post about yourself or your product it can feel like bragging.
Still, these tasks need to be done. When a new customer comes to your site and sees you haven’t posted anything new in a year they get the impression that you’re not an active business. They have no way of knowing you’ve been busily attending to your customers because they only see your inactive site.
What’s the solution? Well it isn’t going back to business as usual. It’s time to try something new, create a new routine for yourself to get you back into blogging and updating your site. Perhaps give yourself a reward each time you complete a post? It sounds simply and possibly silly, but we as humans respond well to positive rewards. Find something small that you value and reward yourself with it, something as small as a relaxing bath, or playing your favorite game on facebook, an extra hour of TV, a muffin, you name it! Find something to reward yourself for good work.
Besides, if you blog/brag about the good work you’re doing, you will likely start feeling even better about what you do.