Is your blog a time suck?

I got 20 million things to do online and blog management ain't one! For many businesses and self promoters blog management has exploded into a gargantuan task. It's a little more than content creation these days and honestly most people don't realize how much time it takes to build, manage, and grow a blog.

When it comes to marketing I wasn't always a very logical person. I often acted from sheer emotion and the lure of shiny new complexly coded websites and software.

I remember a little over two years ago I was writing content for a marketing agency. One of the pieces I worked on was a very arbitrary investment chart that illustrated how a company should expect to invest in blogging activities and how much they can expect to earn. At first I surprised myself when I discovered that for a blog to see a concrete return on investment they'd usually have to spend between 25 - 28k a year. At first I thought that can't be right and then I realized well, that makes sense since it's basically the salary of  fulltime employee who's grossly underpaid. Running a blog is a fulltime job and for many businesses blogging activities might be the cause of lost opportunities that add more value to the company.

When you think about the basic idea of blogging its function is to communicate, direct, spread, catalogue, showcase, and be found. All of which can be done on almost any platform today.

I know it's a little ironic that I'm talking about blogging being a time suck in a blog post. But if you know you'll remember that I used to spend a great deal of time running full blown cleverly crafted blogs. And while I still love blogging I found a way to do it without all the headache that comes with design and development : like using blogger, Tumblr, heck even my Facebook profile and Google+ page has become sort of a micro blog in itself. Best of all I can now spend more time adding more value to my work and clients.

Here's a challenge for you and it's a big One. Ask yourself is your blog investment earning you a positive return. I don't just mean money I'm also referring to the cost of your time. If after you ask yourself this question you realize your blog is becoming a time or money pit then let's do something about it.

It doesn't mean you have to abandon what you're doing. It simply means you should start considering how to make it work for you instead of constantly working for it.