Bloggers tend to be insecure people. We worry about who is reading our posts or if anyone is reading them. We obsess on how many comments a post gets. Does a post get retweeted?

Guy Kawasaki in his book, Reality Check, says that a blog is valuable even if only your dog reads it. He’s right, and I’ve had some recent experiences to prove it.

One of the most obvious uses for a blog is material for books. I’m working on compiling some of my themed posts into a series of e-books. That’s in addition to the fiction ebooks I wrote about last week. I’m soon going to have a ton of ebooks for sale.

Back to my post on writing and selling short fiction. I considered that almost a throw-way post. I was tired and needed something to write quickly. Well, recently I was meeting with someone who has a friend who wants to get a book published. She asked if I could coach her friend through the process. I said I thought I could and suggested she send her friend a link to my post. Not bad for a throw-away, desperation post!

I used a post as a way to get a referral for a contact. Remember my post on the guy who was such an awesome networker? I used a link to that post in an email to a contact he wants an introduction to. If I liked someone enough to write a post about him, that should be a compelling reason to agree to an introduction.

Finally, last week, I was at a networking event, and a financial planner was talking to me about bringing me in for a lunch and learn in her office. I sent her a link to my post on Social Media and Regulated Industries. That post establishes my credibility as someone who can speak on the topic and gives a nice teaser.

So your blog posts have value beyond who read them (or didn’t) or who commented on them (or didn’t). Be creative and find other ways to make them work for you.

Anyone other bloggers have a good story to share in the comments?

Tags: blogging, Referrals, reputation, sales

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 8:28 am and is filed under social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.