But if you’ve set up that blog as part of your business, your brand or your identity online it does matter.

A stale, dusty or dying blog suggests that you have:

• Lost interest in your subject: what you’re writing about (or working on)
• Moved on to other lines of work
• Given up on something
• Forgotten about a project you started
• Run out of energy and inspiration

None of which are exactly positive ways to enhance your reputation.

If you think your blog might be on the way out here are 7 things you can do to rescue it:

1. Change your pace: if you’ve been blogging too frequently and are burning out try slowing it down to a more sustainable pace. If you haven’t blogged in months, try getting into a fortnightly schedule to ease back in

2. Add variety: experiment with shorter posts (or longer more thoughtful ones), adding in some photos, using quotes that have got you thinking… anything that will freshen things up and reawaken your interest

3. Brainstorm topics: if you’ve got stuck on your content, sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm ideas for one dimension only - the tighter focus will help you generate new ideas

4. Tidy it up: integrate your blog into a website - that way it won’t look so obvious if you’re not managing to update it regularly

5. Make a decision: if you know you don’t want to blog any more then take some time to tie up the loose ends - write a concluding post, turn the blog into an archive, point visitors to a place you do want them to go

6. Check your purpose: think back to your original purpose - will it still drive you forward? What words will that purpose get you to write? If it’s not working any more: what purpose will?

7: Tap into your motivation: jot down the benefits you’ll get from bringing your blog back to life. Which ones are the most compelling - make your feet start to tap or your fingers itch to write? Focus on them to get you going again

What other strategies are there for kick-starting an ailing blog? Have you ever had to give a blog the kiss of life… or made the decision to put it to rest?

Sign up for a coaching consult to help you get your blog back on track.

Photo Credit: Up, Up and Away by Darwin Bell on Flickr

You don’t need to be Hemingway to write compelling content.

But you will help yourself - and your readers - if you keep your content:

Fresh: Adding a blog to your site means you can freshen it up with news and articles

Relevant: Focus on what your readers and site visitors want to know

Simple: Don’t worry about fancy terminology or writing as if you were at college. Keep it simple: it’s easier for you to write (and easier for others to read)

Specific: Dig below the surface of platitudes and jargon to write about what you do and what you know, where you live and work, what you’re about

Conversational: Keep the tone light, conversational and friendly - you’ll draw your visitors in

Easy to read: Break up the text so it’s easy on the eye. Use really short paragraphs, with spaces inbetween

Plain: Stick to Plain English to make your web content easy to read and understand

Vivid: Add some colour by way of photos or by adding details - stories, specific points of interest - to bring your content to life

Two way: The comment function on blogs makes it easy for your readers, clients and potential clients to swap ideas or ask questions - and to give you feedback

Findable: There’s little point writing fabulous content if people can’t find you. Make sure you’ve got a site that’s search engine friendly (hint: a Wordpress blogsite will help you do just that)

What other simple tips would you add to this list?

Photo Credit: Kiss_Lips by Anyaka on Flickr

• It’s an easy and affordable way to get started
• It makes it easier for search engines to find you - and that means it’s easier for the people using the search engines (your clients and customers) to find you
• You can update your content week by week, month by month, without any additional cost, which means you thicken, develop and improve your content as you go

This is good news for coaches - whether solo practitioners or coaches working as part of a practice - when affordability matters and getting found counts.

But that’s not the only reason blogs are such a powerful way to boost your coaching practice. There are a whole lot of coaching benefits too.

The Coaching Benefits of Having A Blog

Here are some of the ways that writing a blog can help you stretch and develop as a coach - that have got nothing to do with websites or search engine optimisation.

1. Writing a blog on a regular basis encourages reflection: on what you’ve learned, how your clients have grown, how you want to develop and improve your practice

2. Writing a blog will improve your language skills: you’ll get to practice using powerful questions, language that supports change, finding the words to engage and connect with readers and potential clients

3. You’ll find new ways to describe what you do: plain English versions of coaching jargon, metaphors that resonate with readers, stories that help to convey your point

4. A blog helps you create rapport with clients: blog writing demands a conversational style, some sharing of your likes and preferences, your personality, your coaching philosophy… all of which helps future clients to get a sense of who you are and what you’re about, as a first step to a relationship of trust

5. Writing a blog enhances creativity: as you look for new ways to write about or communicate your coaching philosophy you’ll boost your creativity, tapping into new ideas for products, promotional materials, workshop topics and so on

6. Writing a blog helps you develop your ideas: helping you to refine your coaching philosophy over time, and to define and establish your niche

7. Writing a blog is an easy way to create content: that you can use again, for newsletters, articles or the raw material for that forthcoming book

Writing a blog keeps you on your toes: inventive, creative, learning, experimenting, open to new ideas, dancing in the moment. Things that will help you boost your coaching practice, and grow as a coach.

If you’re a coach with a blog please do share your experience: what kind of impact has the blog had on your coaching practice?

Find out more about getting started with a blog based website.

Photo Credit: Arch Reflections by Joanna Young on Flickr - capturing reflections in the still waters of the Water of Leith, Edinburgh

The good news is that blogs don’t need to look unfamiliar: it’s perfectly possible to integrate them into a site so the whole thing looks and feels like a conventional website to the casual or first-time visitor.

I’ve just set up a new site for Absorbing Writing - workshops I run in Sardinia - and it brought home to me the benefits of combining a blog with a website, giving you the best of both worlds.

Here are 5 of the reasons why.

1. All the information is on the front page

I’ve used the Essence Theme from iThemes, which creates a visually appealing front page. Everything a first time visitor needs is here, including drop down pages to highlight each of the workshops we’re running.

2. It works for all readers

The home page with tabbed menu at the top is a conventional lay out, and one that’s very easy to navigate. No ’special knowledge’ of blogs and how they work is required. (Blog savvy readers meanwhile can easily find the page with news, articles and updates because they know that’s what they’re looking for.)

3. The news is to the side

We needed a place to provide news, articles and updates - and that’s where the blog comes into its own - but that’s not the primary purpose for the site. It’s not likely to be the first thing our visitors and clients are looking for. This blog that looks like a website allows you to put the blog to the side, with pride of place going to the most important information: the services that you’re offering.

4. There’s an easy way to post updates

Once the site is up and running it’s easy to add updates. It runs like a blog which means you just write the article, hit publish and your new, up to the minute information is there for all to see. Easy, simple, no extra cost and entirely within your own control.

5. There’s room for visitors to connect

Some readers and visitors just want to get the information and go again (and that’s the benefit of having a traditional looking site). But others will want to comment, to sign up for updates, to be prompted to come back when there’s some new information or a new product on offer. Setting up the site with blog software makes that a doddle: things like an RSS feed and comment functions come ready made with the system, and provide an easy way for visitors to provide feedback and ask questions.

Stand alone blogs work for some purposes - but don’t or can’t meet every business need. A website without a blog will limit what you can do: it becomes out of date very quickly, and chances are you’ll find it tricky (or expensive) to keep it fresh, topical, interesting and relevant. Combining the two together and you’ve got an extremely heady mix… and the best of both worlds.

How about you? Do you enjoy reading, visiting or maybe writing at a blog, a static website, or a combination of both?

Powerful Web Content provides you with not just the site but the training, skills and support so you can manage and update you site with confidence.

Find out more about getting started with a blog based website.

But there’s something else you can do to make those pictures more interesting, powerful and engaging. To make for a more irresistible point of connection with your readers. To help make your story vivid, personal and real. It’s simple: use your own photos.

Start Taking Your Own Photos

Now if you’re like most people you might be protesting at this point that your pictures aren’t good enough, you don’t know how to use a digital camera, etc etc (excuses excuses). Get a camera and give it a go: it’s a lot easier than you think. Modern technology makes it easy to point and shoot (and edit later).

Share Your Photos On Flickr

Flickr, the photo sharing site, makes it easier again. You can upload photos, share with them friends and colleagues, and then learn from their feedback and comments. You can watch how they do things and pick up tips, try out new things, experiment with a different way of taking photos.

Help People Find You

There are many other benefits to sharing your (public, not private and personal) photos online. You can tag your photos by area, topic, issue, idea. People who are searching a photo on that might find you, your group or your business through your flickr stream… before they get anywhere near your website or your blog.

Photos Add Colour And Share Your Story

Adding photos to your blog, website or social media sites adds colour and depth to your content. It helps to bring it life: makes it more personal, human, vivid, real. It provides an entry point, a point of connection for your readers and customers: something that makes you different, that helps you stand out from the crowd.

Let me say it again: your photos don’t have to be great. I know mine aren’t, but they’re good enough, and they’re getting better as I share and practice through participation and sharing of my material on flickr. Here’s a collage I made from pictures I took in central Edinburgh: different views of the nearby Union Canal.

There’s nothing special about them but they help to fix my business or my story, at a place, a point in time. It helps you to get some idea of the things I find interesting (reflections, over and again; the wildlife on the water). It helps to make me ‘real’: more than just a website, but a person who’s creating it. Adding some of her self to the content.

And that’s what gives it the power.

Blogging software provides you with:

• An easy way to update your content, week by week and month by month. You don’t have to pay for updates, or send them to someone else to do for you
• An affordable solution: setting up a professional looking blog based site will cost you £100s not £1,000s
• Ease of access: you can set up a new blog in minutes. Many blogging options are low cost or free, easy to use and ready to go within minutes
• Flexibility: you can use the software in so many different ways, based on your personal or business needs
• Control: you have the dashboard, you have the keys. Adding in new material, changing things you don’t want or don’t need any more is all within your control

It’s also a medium that helps you to:

• Establish your online brand and identity: by writing about things that reflect your work, your approach,your values
• Make connections: it’s a social medium, creating the opportunity for conversation and connection with readers and customers
• Build confidence: the more you blog, the more you write and publish online the more you’ll come to ‘know’ your own stuff and trust your own voice

But how do you get started? Well, it’s easier than you might think.

With the Getting Started service we’ll provide you with a simple, affordable and professional looking site: your platform for writing and publishing your own material on the web. And we’ll give you the training, skills and support so you can start writing, blogging, editing, managing and publishing with confidence.

It’s also more affordable than you might think: just £300 to get you up and running with your own site. Find out more about getting started with an affordable web site.

Here are 5 ways that blogging can turbo charge your confidence:

Feedback: positive feedback from readers and customers about what they find interesting and valuable is a powerful motivator to write more

Affirmation: the more you write about the things that are important to you, the more vivid they become. It’s a positive reinforcer, emphasising what matters to you.

Control: blogging puts you in the driving seat. You get to choose what goes in and what stays out. To write, edit and then publish the end result.

Experimentation: blogging is like a virtual sandpit. Even within the parameters of a business blog you get to experiment a bit, to play around with different styles, to find what works for you, and your readers. That’s liberating.

Creativity: every time you write a post and publish it on line, you’re creating something new. Creativity isn’t just about being artistic: it’s about you expressing things from your perspective, your experience, your point of view. Adding some of your personal power.

Writing a blog isn’t just about publishing your own content or being found easily on the web.

It’s a way to get clear on who you are and what you’re about, to focus on the purpose of your business or organisation, to clarify and reinforce your values and beliefs… and to move forward with confidence.

Powerful Web Content provides you with not just the site but the training, skills and support to get you started.

Find out more about how you can get started with an affordable web site