I’ve been a fan of Blog Energizer for quite a while now, so I was thrilled when their team leader, Lynette Chandler, offered to answer a few questions for Your Organizing Business.

How often should a professional organizer (or other service provider) blog to effectively promote his or her services?

You’ll probably not get the same response for every person you ask and I’ve also heard recommendations all across the board. Here’s what my personal choice is. If the blog is brand new, it can really benefit from more regular updates like 4 – 7 posts a week. As it matures and you start building steady traffic, you might get away with a more relaxed schedule. I aim for 2-3 a week though some weeks there’s only 1-2 which to me is bare minimum. But remember, substance is more important than quantity.

Also, cultivate the habit of batching and take advantage of scheduling features. 4-7 or even 2-3 a week sounds like so much content but when you do them all at once, and schedule them over the month, it really is a lot easier and doesn’t seem like you’re having to write every other day and that can get old really fast.

Is blogging a good way for professional organizers to generate passive income?

To me, a blog is no different than any other website. It is just easier to maintain. So that would really depend what you set the blog up for. If your goal is to build business for your services then use a large portion of your blog to do that. Yes, there is a place for passive income definitely. Like me, I write reviews and put up recommendations that do bring me passive income but that has been happening even before I put a blog on the site. It is a good way to supplement your income and it plays a role in your marketing mix, certainly not the only avenue. I like to view my blog as just one piece of the big marketing puzzle.

Is Blog Energizer suitable for business bloggers, or is it more geared towards “mommy” bloggers?

It depends what you mean by business bloggers – if you are in the business of blogging to make money then the topic doesn’t always have to be business related.

We always encourage people to think laterally. When we suggest an item you can put on your blog, that’s a suggestion. You can always put your spin on it to make it relevant. For example, August 10th was Smores Day. Hardly something ‘business’ like right? But maybe you can use ‘smores’ in your blog title about something else, maybe “XYZ software as good as smores’ or maybe you can write about good old fashioned values and product matching that go together like graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate.

Is it possible to have too many guest bloggers?

I don’t think so. If you look at many of the large blogs, they are written by a slew of different people. Especially if you are in this for a business, more people make a blog very interesting. Plus, if the owner itself is not so prominent, it makes it easier to exit that business if the owner chooses to in the future. A lot of people tell us that people buy from those they like, and because we are used to being individuals, we think people have to like us the person, but I think if you are running a serious business, you should be working on getting people to like your brand. Your blog is either the brand or an extension of the brand. When you are working on the brand itself, it really doesn’t matter if others are writing for the brand.

As long as the guest bloggers put forth quality and relevant content for the brand, I don’t see that as a problem at all. It might be a good idea to put pictures of authors on the post though so there is no confusion.

What are your thoughts on using a ghost blogger?

Everybody has their comfort level with this. I think a good ghost blogger who can copy your voice, your tone and style is very hard to find and if you do find him/her, you should hang on to them. I’ve hired bloggers before but have requested that they write or sign off under their own name or a pen name, not mine. So yeah, they were not ghost bloggers. It is not so much the control thing but there’s always something I would have chosen to word differently. Of course. They aren’t me and I’m not them.

I do not want to be caught in a situation where something was written, and be used to nitpick against me when they weren’t my words to begin with. The only exception to that is when I ask someone to write very factual posts that leave very little or no room for grey areas like a tutorial or posting up a deal/special offer.