Treat your blog as a way to educate yourself

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing writes this morning that the surest way to motivate yourself to do something is to increase the payoff. In the case if blogging, it’s looking at the added payoff as educating yourself.

What if you looked at content production as a way to get yourself educated?……

So, what if instead of always writing about the things you know, you chose to include writing about the things you need to or should know.

Rather than doing a blog post on something you know about, do a blog a post on something you need to learn or are in the process of learning. Stephen Covey, author of the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is spot on that the best way to learn something is to teach someone else.

When starting LexBlog I needed to know more about SEO (search engine optimization). On July 4 weekend, 2004, I picked up the book, SEO for Dummies, by Peter Kent. Rather than just reading and highlighting sections of the book, I outlined what I learned and shared it in a series of blog posts. I subsequently exchanged an email or two with Kent.

Not only were my SEO blog posts very popular, but I learned things I needed to know about to better serve my clients at LexBlog. I also learned things that I needed to know to be a credible speaker and panelist.

In addition to ‘longer term learning’ like that, use your RSS feeds as a daily learning tool.

There is no way you can blog well without listening to what is being discussed (written) in the niche you are addressing in your blog. You ought to be subscribed to leading blogs, news sites, columns, and key words/key phrases in Google News.

Open your reader, whether on your desktop or iPad, on a daily basis. It’s not only your ticket to know what to blog about and engage others, but it’s a sure fire way to educate yourself. You’ll learn what you need to learn and stay abreast of matters so you can better serve and engage clients.

I’ve always viewed this blog as my number one way of learning.

Practicing law for almost 20 years was a constant learning experience for me. I needed to learn about new matters from case to case as well as stay abreast of legal developments.

But learning outside education from case to case was tough. Reading a periodical such as the National Law Journal or Lawyers Weekly was a luxury. I skimmed through bar and section magazines as I tossed them in the garbage can. I had no systematic way of learning.

As a practicing lawyer, I’d suggest you treat your blog as a powerful learning tool. When your peers get on you about all the time you take to publish your blog, ask them how they are learning on a daily basis what they need to know about.