I don't often share this part of Gloriam's origin story...but I actually started out in the online world as a blogger.

Now, when I say blogger, I think I had maybe 60-some followers, but hey, I was homeschooled, so that was a lot of people to me! 😂

I blogged about my church work, especially youth ministry, random reflections from my day, all the kinds of lovely, reflection-y things you used to see in blog posts.

Ah, the good ol' days of blogging.

Those days are dead, my friend.

Now I know someone is about to reply and say "But Emily, this blogger still has 32,000 followers and monetizes...!"

Totally. Blogging itself isn't dead...but the way we blog is.

Because if we want to get to know people better or see behind the scenes, we go to their social media.

With the rise of social media, all of those lovely blog reflections...they're just taking up space on your server.

Because now, the #1 purpose of blogs is about driving traffic to your site. And sadly, no one probably Googled "Reader's thoughts about today's Gospel."

But what they DID Google is "how to do _____" or "top books on _____" or "review of ______."

Now, I'm not saying get rid of the reflections. Your people want to get to know you better! They want to hear your thoughts and commentary.

But the people reading your blog are not your people yet. Those reflections are much better suited in a marketing channel meant for building relationships — like a Substack, email list, social media, etc. —not a searchable channel building brand awareness, like a blog.

(There's nothing wrong with hosting your reflection-type posts on your blog too, but just know you'll need to send those out to people for them to be seen! People won't just stumble across them, and without a way to remind them, they probably won't keep refreshing your site to see when you post again.)

Ideally, your blog would focus on things people would be searching on with a focus on education and brand awareness and a goal of converting them to become followers (email, social, etc.), and your social media and email list would build the relationship from there.

But here's the actual reason for this rant: I think bloggers make the best marketers. All you have to do is translate that storytelling skill to your emails or social media posts.

Because what did we bloggers always do? We'd tell a story and then make a connection to our overall topic at the end.

We found a niche — the topic of our blog — and talked about it.

We knew how to write a really intriguing headline and drop people into a story and help them to picture it in their heads.

We got strangers to care about what we were doing and thinking.

We'd find random connections throughout our day, and connect the dots for people in our blog.

I think we sometimes overcomplicate the relationship-building piece of marketing. Getting people to discover you (brand awareness) does require a lot of strategy, thoughtful copy and design, some technical know-how, and a multi-channel approach.

But once they're in your world? We still need all of those things, especially a strategy, but that strategy is so much more effective when you're just yourself. When you speak from the heart and just help people to see you as a friend who cares about them and truly believes what you do will help them.

THAT'S what sells. THAT'S what drives action.

So if you're a former blogger, don't sell yourself short as a marketer. You've got all the skills you need to be successful from your blogger days. Make your ongoing marketing more blog-like, and I bet you'll see a lot more success (and a lot less stress!) when you do so!

For His greater glory,

Emily