Why Professionals Don’t Blog? and Why they Should!

Guest Post by ZunNurain Khalid of UltraSpectra

I read ProPakistani daily, but it wasn’t until last week when I noticed a blog post on “Why Professionals Don’t Blog?” by Aamir Attaa that I decided it was time to submit a guest post.

According to that post, Aamir asked to give out the opinion on a very important question that what makes the professional having the pure knowledge of his/her domain don’t blog! Aamir’s post got some responses, from professionals too, i am summing them up and adding my thoughts to do this follow up post.

I have to say, this fact stunned me a little. Why 50,000 plus professionals in Pakistan would actually do not find any reason to have their own blog! Then the same answer that caused me to start my own blog popped up in my mind – Postponing or delaying needlessly.

Generally, people delay in fulfilling the tasks they do not like to do, for example, waking up early, going out to attend a meeting they are least interested in or even making a simple call. But most of the times they are even lazy for doing things! You may be getting my point now, but let me take you in deeper explanation of this thought.

Why Professionals Don’t Blog

I find so many reasons why professionals don’t blog but the top reasons may include:

• Mingled in “Should” and “Have To” – The most upfront reason that I personally have noticed is that people are so confused before starting a blog and just keep bouncing between the thoughts to blog or not to blog. In my opinion telling yourself you “have to” do something or “should” do something makes a lot of difference and lazy behavior creeps in. This thought makes you not want to do it at all.
• Perfectionism – Other than laziness, looking for perfectionism is always a recipe for disaster and gives them another reason not to blog. They get so worried that the blog they create won’t be perfect and then they don’t even bother starting it.
• Taking it as a burden – Most of the professionals take blogging as adding up their work load and cutting short their leisure time and then as if they there would be more work and no fun. It usually stops them getting into blogging.
• Lacking an execution plan – Suppose they think about starting a blog, so many thoughts and ideas bombard in their mind. They have to decide a domain name, purchase it, deciding a platform to blog, thinking a topic to blog on, coming up with the topics to keep writing on, determining that how often they are going to write their posts and on and on and on… In the end, they end up with so many overwhelming ideas and things to tackle with and lose confidence starting it. This is just because the lack of a proper execution strategy.
• Fear – Fear factor is another basic reason professionals don’t come up with blogging. Fears may be of unknown; fear of success, failure, not being good enough and fear of rejection are the most stand-out fears professionals often have.

  They take everything so much deeper in the prospect of their image in the market. They fear starting a blog because it might not be as good as someone else’s blog. Or they fear starting a blog that no one will read. Or they fear they don’t know enough about a particular topic to start a blog. Or they fear their blog will actually be successful and that will cause them too much stress and anxiety. This list really could go on forever.

How To Convince Professionals “Start A Blog”

Now that we know what causes professionals not to blog, we can take steps to convince professionals to start blogging.

Truth be told, starting a blog is not as difficult as they think it is. All it really requires is a domain name, a content plan and a platform and a professional’s brain!

So here are some points on which you can convince them to start their blogs:

• Remove “Should” and “Have to” from Your Vocabulary – “Should” and “Have to” are actually giving me a view that somebody is forcing you to start a blog. Whereas blogging counts on passion, self-determination and consistency of the work. I suppose instead “I should blog” and “I have to blog” one should use “I want to blog” or “I must blog”, this gives a conscious belief that you are sure and confident enough to start a blog; it’s not being forced on you.
• Give Up Perfectionism – Nothing is perfect in this world. No matter how hard you work you will never be perfect. We can just idealize it and just try our best to get closest to that ideal situation but we can’t ever get the ideal results.

  So rather than berate looking for perfection in everything just believe that life and blogging is a journey. And every journey starts with a first step! So why waiting? Start a blog now. The best way for that is to adapt “Trial and Error” method; gradually you’ll come to know your mistakes. Remember that mistakes are gifts in disguise. Because each mistake you do is like learning how to tackle it next time.

• View the Project in Pieces – It’s impossible to start a blog and have its all pieces together in one day. It takes time to get to some level step by step. You have to come up with strategies for the blog content and establishing a relationship within the niche market. So it’s all about taking one piece at a time, working on it, keep making it mature through a proper execution plan.

  It sure can’t be done overnight. Take it as a puzzle where you put every piece on its slot one after another and then you get the whole picture. Best way is to break process into steps and plan a solid strategy to execute it. For example, Choosing a domain name, then the right platform, then the content strategy, then its marketing strategy and then finding ways to make money from your blog, and so on.

• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways – You all might have heard this phrase lately but here is what I call its true implementation. Starting a blog sure is scary in a sense to put yourself out there and share your thoughts. People may accept your thoughts or may reject them as well. And your blog may not be perfect too. But by the end of the day you have to accept and understand this fact, and start you blog anyhow. Don’t compromise on what you truly want.
• Train them embedding their profession in their blogs – It’s a myth that starting a blog is like putting more weight on head. Professionals feel themselves engaged 24/7 in their work so they more likely don’t want to blog. However, believe me it’s just a myth. Blog is not at all like adding up an extra hour work in your busy schedule rather it is to help you in your work. They just need to figure a “how to” factor and there you go. Blog will act like an assistant in their work.
• Make It Fun – It was not until I started a blog myself when I figured out how much fun it actually is. So stop fearing of the unknown and start a blog!

Rewards For A Blogger (ROI)

Last but not the least. A blogger can get monitory benefits from his blog. Other than that let me tell you more of the benefits too that are counted in the same list, which are even important than money.

• Invitations For the Meet-ups – After earning though your blog the major opportunity that I count is; you get invitations for the meet ups. You can personally hangout with the people you normally talk over the internet.
• Business Opportunities – As your blog starts getting famous and more read, you can cash it. Big companies can offer you handsome deals; it may range from joint ventures to business proposals.
• Having An Edge – If you are on job and have a blog too. It will give you an edge over the other professionals around you. Being a blogger adds up to your profile and it acts more like a showcase of your own work.
• Being Followed – The footsteps of a good blogger is has always been followed by the people of the same interest and niches. It gives professional show his real work to the people and gets an opportunity of quickly been followed. Even their word of mouth starts counting and it can create impacts in the market niche.
• Personal Branding – That’s the most important reward a blogger gets, just as an example, Aamir Attaa is known for his work now, if he is interested in doing business with some company or a job, they won’t require his skills list – there are good chances they already know him.

In next post, we will describe why company blogs are important and how a company should maintain its blog.