The #1 Reason People Don’t Blog.

At this point in the evolution of blogging, we are over the hump explaining why blogging makes sense for business. There are many companies out there driving tremendous revenue through their blogs. Individuals are providing information on specialized issues and becoming authorities on those issues. Customers, clients and prospects who need information on those issues are finding those blogs and contacting the blog author and sponsor for more information. Those contacts are resulting in new customers and more revenue.

At my law firm, fifty percent of our business comes off of the internet. In 2007, we could do a half a million dollars or more in web business.

CEOs are starting to blog in order to influence markets, establish closer relationships with their employees and their customers and to show their expertise. But there are many people who still say, "I don’t have time to blog." This excuse is by far and away the number one reason why people don’t start blogging, even people who understand the value that it can bring. Personally, I don’t understand the logic. Sales and marketing is part of any business model. If you don’t have customers, you don’t have revenue. If you don’t have revenue, you don’t have a business. If these same people who say that they don’t have time to blog can take folks out to lunch, participate in preparing marketing materials and similar activities, they should be able to find time to blog. But I am not discounting their excuse completely. Many executives don’t type that well. Blogging can be time consuming.

We have been able to generate as much or more blog content than virtually anyone else out there, because I dictate my blog post. I can generate content at a rate 10 to 20 times faster than most people can because I can talk 10 to 20 times faster than I can type. More importantly, I don’t have to log on to TypePad and click through to the post screen so that I can start typing. Even more importantly, I can dictate from anywhere. This means that I am not losing any of my productive time at work. I typically dictate my blog post from the car, the beach or during some other activity which would normally not be devoted to customers and clients. This "downtime" exists everywhere. In fact, much of our day filled with downtime. And most of our best thoughts are had during this downtime. But those thoughts slip away because you’re not at work.

I can’t say enough about digital dictation. It has changed so much about our own business model and has made blogging possible at a level beyond anything else which would have been practical under the circumstances.

There is one new company out there that is working to solve the "I don’t have time to blog" problem. The blogger simply dictates their blog posts which are put online by the Ublog Company. For one penny per word, business people can now find that time to blog which doesn’t interfere with business. People with expertise and niche markets can show the world that expertise. Anyone with an email address and a computer can dictate their posts and outsource the typing and posting of the content. To me, this makes great sense and may increase the number of bloggers who are putting great content online.