Blogging for Business - Joanne Dewberry

I am thrilled that the lovely talented Joanne Dewberry has written this guest blog for me and I think it's really inspiring so do please take a look and let me and Joanne know what you think...

Thanks so much Joanne and happy reading and happy blogging everyone!
Best wishes,
SamX

What stops you from writing a blog?
Joanne Dewberry

Time? Subject matter? Motivation? Or does the thought of grappling with a blog platform scare the life out of you??

Back in May 2010 I was awarded Dorset Business Mum of the Year and started writing for guest articles and business articles on Charlie Moo's. But the readership was low as my party bag audience wasn't particularly bothered what useful social media tips I had or how to market your business on a budget. I thought about starting my own blog but put it off wondering who would read it? What would I write about??

Then at a business exhibition I bought a domain name for £1 www.joannedewberry.co.uk I figured for £1 it didn't matter what I did with it. I had a free hosting package with a forum I used at the time and started playing with wordpress.org. It wasn't long before I had built a usable site. I enjoyed putting it together and really enjoyed writing. Initially I started adding copies of articles I'd written on other sites, I knew the back-link would be useful.

Then I set up a fanpage and invited everyone I knew who had a business to like it. I started posting my blog content onto the fanpage and asking questions in order to develop new content.

 Now 2 years later 366 posts and a list of other places I have written for I still love blogging!! Blogging gave me a platform in which to set myself up as a freelance writer and somewhere to show my writing style to the publishers when I first approached them with a fuzzy idea for a book – Crafting a Successful Small Business

 

Whilst heavily pregnant with Olive I decided to run a “Blogging for Business” workshop I'd anticipated having 10 small businesses attend. I doubled it 20 smiling faces eager to learn a bit about blogging. I had written a huge booklet to go with the workshop, the feedback had been really positive so I added it as an e-book to my website and didn't think much more about it. Until while doing my accounts I noticed the sheer volume of people who had bought the e-book. Spurred on by this and £300 funding from Enterprise Nation I set about with #TeamJD turning a word document into a glossy booklet, Bloggingfor Business.

So stop worrying about time, motivation, content and readers – just do it! Be the expert you know you are. No one is more knowledgeable than you about your business genre show the world what you know, make your business stand out from all the other small businesses.

Joanne Dewberry

Dorset Business Mum of the Year 2010 www.joannedewberry.co.uk & www.charliemoos.co.uk 

 

Award winning business mum to Charlie 5, Megan 3 and Olive 1. For more information about Joanne's small business help and advice or Charlie Moo's email joanne@joannedewberry.co.uk

Bloggingfor Business teaches you skills and techniques to blogging with lots of handy hints along the way.