Don’t Have Time to Blog? Write a Book.

Starting a new business blog can be intimidating. With its accusatory “New Post” blank form fields, its glaringly empty “Previous Posts” tab, and the general sense that it is directly depositing your vulnerable thoughts and beliefs into a judgmental abyss, it’s easy to see why so many business blogs are started and then abandoned.
But before you write off the idea (ahem) of creating a blog for your business, consider this completely wacky-yet-witty solution: Write an ebook before you blog.
Sound insane? Here are five reasons why writing an ebook will help you fuel your business blog, your online presence – and your own creative spark:

1. Writing a book will help you to discover, develop and support your point of view. By committing to writing an ebook about a topic or point-of-view that differentiates your business or brand, you will be forced to create a smart, thorough narrative while ensuring that your ideas hold weight and resonate with your audience. Selecting the topic and crafting the outline for your ebook can also provide a good opportunity to revisit your original brand positioning. Does it still work for your business today? Does it need to be refined? The act of writing may uncover communication needs that run deeper than your content marketing initiatives.
We created some super helpful exercises to help you get started, so go ahead and grab our free workbook.

2. You will make a name for yourself and your business. By attaching your name to something you believe in and letting it loose in the world, you are immediately joining the conversation about a topic that is meaningful to your brand and your clients. You are making your opinion known and putting a stake in the ground. You are also creating an opportunity to be seen as a thought leader in your industry. Use your ebook as a platform to pitch yourself as a guest blogger or an industry speaker to gain more prominence in the topic’s arena.
3. You will have something of value to offer current and potential clients. Once you complete your ebook, it’s time to give it away … for a name, email address, or other action that will help you generate leads. Ebooks have an amazing appeal online. (Just think about if you went into Barnes and Noble and someone offered you a free book about your topic of interest. Sweet!) You can also have your ebook (gasp!) printed. You know, on paper? Your ebook would be a great leave behind for clients and potential clients.
4. Your will be building your ultimate content resource. Investing your time and resources into creating an ebook is an investment in your future content bank. Once you have written your book, use it to create new pieces of content. Turn each chapter into a category on your blog. Break that chapter in multiple blog posts, video commentaries or a SlideShare presentation. Are you using statistics? Create an infographic. Images, charts and graphs can also be used as separate blog posts or offers. If you’ve done primary research and are including it in your book, you could create a follow-up white paper or blog series. And be sure to link each new piece of content to a landing page that offers your original ebook for download.

5. You will be inspired. Writing is a magical thing. When you write down your opinion, your idea, your vision, it becomes real. You realize how much you know, and how much you don’t know. Writing makes you think through the details, pull out the weeds, nurture seeds of inspiration. You’ll be drawn to other writers … and be amazed, inspired, encouraged and driven insanely jealous by reading their words. And you’ll absorb the shared creative energy, and get stronger, and be driven to write more. You just need the courage to start.

Ready to put fingers to keyboard? Here are some great resources:

• Hubspot has developed a helpful action plan to guide you through writing your ebook.
• For a fun and challenging way to stay motivated during the writing process, join November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a program that pushes participants to write a complete book starting on November 1 and finishing by midnight on November 30. While it’s a novel-writing program, there’s no reason you can’t use the same guidelines to write your business ebook in one month.
• Jon Winokur’s @AdviceToWriters Twitter account is brimming with inspiration and information to keep the words flowing.
• Learn about the future of ebooks and how they may soon become “the ultimate niche social networks” in this Fast Company article.
• Grab our free workbook and get those ideas flowing:

Other words of wisdom or writerly inspiration to share? Comment below, or contact me to discuss.