blogging

The Time it takes to Blog
Now if you include the time it takes me to write each week and multiply that over the year – well, how can you put a value on that.

Let’s leave it at this: right now the main reason I blog is …. because I like it. I don’t suggest taking up blogging unless you like it. If you like to write, like to learn new things, and like to figure things out – Blogging is a great way to help your business.

Have You Made Any Money Bogging?
Has blogging helped with business? Let’s face it, a lot of people are thinking of blogging to help improve their business. Even though you are a yoga teacher, you still have to eat and pay rent. You may want to know – Have you made any money through blogging?

There have been business benefits. Blogging has helped me with:

• Finding a Niche: by opening the conversations with others with the same interest in Kids and Yoga
• market research: find out what others are thinking, what they want, their complaints, their visions, which is otherwise achieved in focus groups and ,
• Sharpening my skills as an entrepreneur: by clarifying my thinking by writing posts and commenting on others blogs,
• Copywriting: becoming a better writer takes practice and copywriter plays a big role in business,
• Strategic Panning: set a course for my business and decide on what to offer based on the above information

Blogging Increased Enrolment in Live Classes
Where Blogging has helped most is through people coming to my Workshops, Classes, and Teaching Kids Yoga training courses. About 5 people in my last course found me through my blog. (A big shout out to everyone from Ontario reading! I’ll post the next course dates soon.)

My blog increased my ranking in the Google searches. This helped people find my courses.

Why did I start blogging?
I think many bloggers love to write. I blog because I like to write, but even more I love to talk. Even more than that, I love to talk about what I know. I like talking about yoga, kids, business, meditation, and what I’ve learned. I like sharing what I know.

When I was in grade one, my report cards said I was “shy.” But I’ve outgrown “shy.” Blogging is not for people who are really shy. It will help your blog if you can talk about yourself, give opinions, and comment on other people’s blogs. If that sounds hard for you – then you may not like blogging.

Blogging is perfect for me because blogs are written in a conversational style. It’s almost like talking to your computer about what interests you. I no longer have to bore my non-yoga friends with my stories – I can bore you with them ; – )

The Ups and Downs of Comments
At first it seemed that most of my posts went un-noticed, like a beautiful orchid hidden in the middle of the rain forest. No matter how good or bad the writing is, if no-one knows about it then it just sits unnoticed.

For a long time my posts had very few comments. Many times I wondered if anyone was reading. Then the feedback slowly tricked in. Then I learned one way to see if anyone is reading (Feedburner – but I also hear Google is good). I found out I have 103 people who have signed up to receive my blog through mail and about 280 who read it in feeds (I think this is what the numbers mean). Some say the magic number to reach for real blogging success is 1,000 True Fans. Maybe someone who had a thousand subscribers can comment on this.

But I still haven’t figured out how to write in a way that people feel comfortable commenting a lot. Maybe it’s a numbers thing or is it all style? Right now it is a mystery for me to figure out. Here’s an article link on Comments with some tips.

But what would life be with no mysteries to solve. As yogis we’ve got to stretch ourselves off the mat too.

Blogging is not without its ups and downs.
The great thing about our times is you can give blogging a shot without spending a penny and see how it goes. With blogging you only have to answer to yourself, you decide when to start, stop, when to post, when to quit or when to expand. With blogging, like with your yoga business, you create your failure or your success.

Blogging is for business only if you want it to be. With blogging you are your own boss.

What’s your opinion? Leave a comment below on your blogging experience.

Question:
I was wondering if you could share your experience, how did you get into blogging and reviewing DVDs? I have my own fitness business and I want to start a fitness article & product review blog. I just don’t know where to begin 🙂 How did you find companies willing to send you their products to review? Thanks in advance for your time 🙂

Pam Nixon

The World is Your Audience
I first started blogging about a year and a half ago when I took a business development class that was taught by one of the associates of my Teacher, Tulshi Sen. It was about the nuts and bolts of building an on-line business. It also inspired me to see the opportunities that are opening up across the world. We were encouraged to set up a free blog and practice writing and dream of ways we could do business on-line.

In the Summer of 2007, I started and ended about 3 different blogs until I decided on my topic – Teaching Kids Yoga. My posts were infrequent at the beginning but my mission was to give A LOT of free information about this niche topic in Yoga. Finding a Niche is highly recommended for new bloggers. If you are interested in reviewing products you may try to narrow down to a niche of only certain products. Plus when you find a niche that is really interesting to you, it is easier to write the content with authority and passion.

1. Pro-Blogger: this writer from Australia and his guest bloggers give tips on blogging. Check out this eye-opening post: How Much Money Do Bloggers Make Blogging?
2. Yoga City NYC :  This is a good blog on how to write your whole yoga site as a yoga teacher.

Once again I have to give credit to the original course I took through Tulshi Sen. I learned about the power of Visioning what you want and holding the vision. Visioning, simply put, is thinking of what you want and not what you don’t want.
I know I go on and on about this book, but what can I say except that this is how I learned visioning which led to the products to review. To see more about Visioning get: Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World, it has helped me develop my business using spiritual principles and practices I am proud of.

My Blog Vision 
What I feel is important to keep in mind is that people are reading blogs are from all over the world. Big cities, small towns, well known countries and mysterious lands (to me). With a world population of 6.7 billion there’s bound to be somebody out there who wants to hear what we have to say.

If you want to get started blogging, there finally comes a point when you put down the books, stop reading other blogs, and just start writing. If you really want to blog … you have to become a writer. Even before you decide on a name or a platform to host your blog on, start writing articles. Start a file of unposted articles. Start lists of topics you could write about. And write, write, write.

When it comes to blogging, writing is never a waste of time. It will come in very handy later when your blog is up and running and you’re thinking your readers are wondering where you are.

Thanks again for the question Pam. I’d love to see a link to your blog if you decide it is something you want to go ahead with.

Now a Question to everyone reading – do you have a blog? Is your blog part of your business? How has blogging helped your business? Why do you blog?