Blogging in the Bath!

One of  the most popular excuses that I’ve heard from business owners when I’ve recommended writing blogs every month is that they can’t find time to blog. Considering the importance that blogs have in increasing your website’s ranking on Google and other popular search engines, it’s definitely always a good idea to ensure that you are putting one out at least once per month.

So how can you find time to write a blog?

Write Blogs When You Are In The Bath!

All you need to begin is simply a smartphone, which every single business person I know has, and Google docs for that totally free auto saving software you can rely on. The quality of the dictation mode on your hardware is generally dictated by its price. I personally like my iPads for dictation, as they are the device I use most of all to do dictation with, but when water is involved, I stick with my smartphone. You can use just about any type of smartphone for this.

Then it’s just a matter of starting a new document, hitting the microphone and speaking using dictation mode. 

Guess Where I Am Right Now!

You guessed it! I’m in the bath surrounded by soapy bubbly water it’s nice, warm, it’s relaxing and I’m able to just sit here and talk and my phone will pick up all of the information and then relay it to Google docs and boom! I have a blog! This is fantastic technology and everybody should be using it but very few people seem to be aware of its existence.

All I do is hold my phone, press the microphone key and talk into it. Occasionally the device may require me to hit the microphone again, and usually if I keep talking, it’s seldom a problem. Be careful if you are using an iPad for this as they are not waterproof, and I recommend keeping a spare towel handy to keep your hand dry. Sometimes I like to live dangerously, but I never recommend others to take these kinds of risks.

So What Do I Blog About?

There are lots of things to blog about when running your business. You can blog about how your business is doing, the products you sell and use the services which you provide, you can talk about different things that you’re doing locally as well, such as charities you work with or support. This will help localise your blog, keep it relevant and generally ensure you are pumping out content.

Why Is Blogging Important?

Google likes fresh new content as do many search engines. Google in particular uses a piece of software called a crawler in order to crawl your website. This crawler checks your website to see if your content is updated to see that you’re putting out new things and keeping your content relevant. 

Blogging is one of the best ways to ensure that you have new content constantly going up on your website. In order to keep things nice and fresh and keeping Google’s good books as a site that is constantly being published to, rather than allowing it to fall behind in a state of stagnancy, it is always best to consider blogging as an option.

Even if you only write one blog per month you will still be making a massive difference to your website in terms of its ability to rank. Just having a custom or template designed website that is finished and has decent onsite SEO but never releases new content will ultimately end up in your website losing ground and having to rely on people linking back to you. Websites that are built then ignored tend to end up being relegated by search engines, with more relevant and up to date sites taking priority.

One of the most useful aspects of blogging is that sometimes people will find your blogs and link back to your website. When they do this, these backlinks can be beneficial to your website as they help to endorse the material that you’re writing about, adding value to your site.

Edit Your Blogs!

Dictation mode is great and very useful, but it’s important to always proofread and edit your blog. Whilst it’s a useful tool, it misses punctuation occasionally, and you will sometimes need to touch blogs up afterwards. Make sure you take a few minutes to read and edit your blog afterwards before publishing.

Ok, But Writing In The Bath Does Sound Stupid…

About 10 of the blogs I write for different companies per month are written, or rather dictated in the bath. Having a good understanding of the businesses I work for makes blog writing this way absolutely easy. The resulting blogs bring people to my customer’s websites and earn me and them money. As someone who runs your company, it’s unlikely any blogger will know as much about your business as you. You are in the best place you could possibly be to write as well, as it’s a more relaxing situation than sitting at a cold, hard desk. Let your imagination flow as water from the tap! If it sounds silly to you, try it and see how much time it saves!

Important things to remember…

• Don’t drop your device in the bath. Most devices aren’t trained to swim.
• Keep a towel handy to dry your hand so you can prod the microphone button when needed…
• Don’t forget to bring a rubber duck. A blogger is never alone with a rubber duck.