Thoughts on “The Science of Blogging”

I get a lot of emails promoting webinars. Every once in awhile, I’ll learn about one that seems worth my while. So I sign up, mark it in my calendar … and then inevitably miss it because I have too much work to do that day.

Such was the case with “The Science of Blogging,” a webinar that HubSpot social media scientist (cool job title alert!) Dan Zarrella hosted awhile back. I finally got around to viewing the presentation today, and I’m glad I did.

Dan conducted a survey that had 1,400 respondents. Two findings stuck out for me:

1) He asked respondents how much blogs affect their purchasing decisions:

“71% of respondents said that blogs affect their purchasing decisions somewhat or very much. That tells me you should definitely be blogging because if you’re selling anything, many people are preceding purchasing decisions with blogging research.”

2) He asked respondents how often they read blogs:

“Over 80% said viagra they read blogs at least once a day. … The takeaway here is that if you’re not blogging and you’re a marketer or small business owner, you’re doing something wrong. You’re not doing everything you can possibly be doing.”

What does it all mean?

The implications of Dan’s survey are clear: If you don’t have a blog (or you have a crappy one), you better get your act together fast.

Of course, many business people don’t have time to write a blog. And of these folks, many aren’t willing to pay much to someone else to write professional-grade copy. (I think of the prospective client who offered me $10 a blog post.)

So for the time- or budget-challenged among us, content creation for blogs is going to be a major headache that only gets worse moving forward. Reality check: Either write it yourself or find someone good to do it for you.