Were you “born to blog?”

Born to Blog came along at a critical point for me. Last week, I was seriously considering shuttering my own blog, weighed down by a perceived lack of traffic, unclear purpose, and minimal comments.

But then I picked up this book, and read:

“It takes time to find your voice, to connect with your audience, to learn how to appropriately build and promote your blog, and to write in a manner that connects with busy readers.”

It was the little bit of encouragement I needed to hear at that moment, and now instead of throwing in the towel, I’m going to refocus and keep going.

Born to Blog is a pithy little book co-written by two blogging powerhouses–Stanford Smith of Pushing Social and Mark Schaefer of {grow} blog. It’s written in a similar easy-to-grasp style as Schaefer’s previous hit, The Tao of Twitter.

You’ll find tips on the why and the how of blogging, both for business and pleasure. It’s a fun read, formatted with stories from both Mark and Stanford, and punctuated by “take action” highlights.

I strongly recommend it for blogging beginners as well as blogging veterans who want a quick refresher.

Key takeaways:

• Let your business blog be an adventure story for your potential customers. Bring them along on your journey.
• Start with the “minimum viable blog,” the content and platform that will get you to your goals the fastest.
• Seek out the passionate learners to be your potential blog contributors.
• “A blog’s strength flows from reader respect and trust.” Be honest and transparent if you’re planning to monetize the blog.
• Invest time in analyzing and evaluating what is going right and what’s going wrong so that you can do course correction.
• Personal blogs are different from business blogs; they need a different approach and strategy.
• You never know when your words are having an impact!

Were you born to blog?

Note: I was not given a review copy of this book; my review is unsolicited and from the heart.