Over the past few months I’ve gotten several questions about ‘how to blog.’ How to get started, where does your traffic come from, how do I compete? These are all great questions and the world of blogging has changed since I started and there are many theories and strategies. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be able to give you all the available information in one or even a whole slew of articles. The purpose of this writing is just to help aspiring writers a little hand in getting going…and getting going is the most important thing.
This article is a reprint of a guest article I wrote for www.howtomakemyblogblog by Marko Saric who I learn a lot from still. So with that in mind, it’s not pest specific but a general idea of what helped me climb the traffic ladder in the beginning days of my writing. It seemed to help a few folks back then & I’m hoping it will do the same for you.
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The days grow shorter, it’s only 5:30 and the darkness is all but settled on the driveway. A crisp chill is in the air & it reminds our determined entrepreneur that another harsh period of time is upon him and his precariously perched business. Unable to see through his own shadow he fumbles in the pocket door of his truck for the socket wrench he keeps stashed for just this occasion, which unfortunately comes all too often. He knows every square inch of his truck by heart and easily finds his tool without aid of his trusty mini mag lite. He sees his wife’s silhouette in the light of the garage door and knows dinner awaits him but he has to fix the pull rope on his rig or tomorrows promise of a decent payday will be all but a bust. With little room to work it’s all he can do not to cuss out loud and throw his wrench across the yard as he smacks his knuckles for the 3rd time against the cold aluminum frame of his rig. ….
It’s hard to believe that www.pestcemetery.com is 7 years old. First off I can’t believe I haven’t even come close to running out of things to write about but what’s more incredible is, that I actually have people who read what I write. That’s pretty humbling.
Everyone says that “word of mouth is the greatest advertising.” Yet so few people take it much further than this. If indeed it truly is the greatest–why don’t we at least take the time to consider more about it? Why don’t we take the time to learn how to maximize this “greatest” asset to our business. The answer?….I don’t know, and, perhaps you don’t either. BUT,,, let’s not let that stop us from starting to at least explore just a little bit about referrals. 
I have stated for years that there are 3 things that have contributed greatly to the great advancement of mankind. #1- Advances in the medical field, #2, Plumbing and #3, Pest Control. Yes that’s right! I said ‘pest control.”
Long before I donned a suit and tie and hit the road as a wildly successful, –eh hem – cough cough,—-Commercial Salesman later to become a National Accounts rep, I was a simple and happy residential pest control salesman. (money doesn’t buy you happiness right?)
Your pest control business, your baby. You started this thing from just an idea. And through all the hard times and the great break throughs– it was you who saw it through. You nurtured it through the infant stages, chased fleeting leads across one end of town to the other. Ignored the nay sayers even when all the evidence said “they were right and you are wrong, you were just spinning your wheels.” Oh and the dark times, ah yes the dark times. There were so many of those you at times almost believed that the sun had set on your dream never to rise again. Like a final black curtain on an act cut short before it could ever really shine. 
One thing I hate to see on my daily route sheet is a large collections bill that isn’t accompanied by a service receipt. What this full page bill complete with red and/or yellow colors tells me is that somewhere along my day– I’m going to come face to face with a delinquent account. 
It’s 4:15 am on Wednesday and just like last week and the week before, I’m running late. With my defrost blasting and my windshield wipers doing what an ice scraper should have done, I careen down Reisterstown road heading for the beltway. “I can’t be late again” I blurt out to myself as I blast through a long yellow light. Old lady Robinson isn’t a woman I want to test. When I finally make the beltway I know I have 15 minutes no matter how fast I go till I get to my destination. While Baltimore is quasi known as a city that doesn’t sleep-there’s nobody else on the 6 lanes of hell that circles the city and my little trucks speedometer is tapped out.
So the decisions been made. It’s been an idea brewing up in the back of your head for quite some time and now you’re ready to take the plunge. You of course have thought about this, ran the numbers, calculated everything to a tee…–well, you have yourself making a million by year two but hey if everything goes right why not?? You spoke with some buddies and even a select customer or two who all say– “you’re so great at killing bugs, you should open up your own business- it’s a slam dunk.” You’ve run the idea past your wife a hundred times and she’s, well, uh, coming round–yea yea she’s on board.
I often think what it might be like if I could nix what I have and just begin again. I have many ideas of how a perfect business should be and in all honesty, mine is far from it.
Football Question; Who caught Green Bay Packers long time quarterback Brett Favre’s first NFL pass? 
