Did you know that globally there are 164 million blogs? That’s a vast number. Did you know that most bloggers give up after only three months? The statistics are not working in your favor.
There’s a huge number of blogs that are competing for your readers, and so you need to make sure that what you are offering them is something special.
So, what steps can you take to make your blog a success?
- Identify Your Niche
The first thing you need to do is to get deep into what you are offering readers. The message that you are presenting to the online community needs to be carefully crafted and niche. The temptation is to appeal to everyone, but that is what millions of others are doing.
By identifying a niche, you will appeal to a set number of people who are searching specifically for your content. It is far easier to be a big fish in a small pond! Concentrating on a set topic allows you to build your blog as a site of authority. Your blog may not have the knowledge of the world, but when it comes to your topic? You own it.
- Who Is Your Ideal Reader?
Again, this is about homing in on your specialism and who will want to devour your content. You can’t write to appeal to every demographic, that would be impossible. So spend some time to think about who your ideal target reader is.
Go into as much detail as possible. Give them a name, a job; are they married? Do they have children? What are their likes and dislikes? You now have a personality to write your content for.
- Write For The Reader
Too often, blogs are written in a way that alienates the reader. They want facts, but they also want to build a relationship with you – that is why they are reading your personal blog. You need to engage them with the content that you write. Yes, your personality needs to shine through so that readers connect with you, but your writing needs to be written in a style that is familiar to them. For example, writing a personal friendly blog writing in a formal style. Be you, but be mindful of your audience.
- Keep Search Engines Happy
Search engines’ bots crawl websites looking for information to help them rank the website. In times gone by, keywords were excessively placed throughout a page to rank highly. The search engines are wise to this practice, and if you overstuff the keywords into your content, your blog will be penalized. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use keywords, rather keyword placement should be considerate and used naturally in your content.
- Be consistent and regular
If you post haphazardly on your blog, readers will lose trust in it. Posting consistently and regularly does not mean that you are a slave to daily publishing, it just means that you need to plan your content so that there is never a feast or famine of new content.
The content that you publish should also be consistently posted on social media platforms to further its reach. Any interactions that you have on social media platforms should be responded to consistently.
The most successful blogs have not happened overnight. It takes time to grow your readers and build your following. If you do achieve blog success, what next? You have an opportunity to turn your blog into an income stream.
However, you may want to upgrade your blog before you upgrade. This will involve you investing money into your website so that it is more appealing to readers and businesses that may want to collaborate with you.
Costs that you may incur included photographer, graphic designer, website designer, and a digital marketing agency. It’s a big step, but it’s an investment that can give you a fantastic return. Here’s an excellent article about how you can access finances to fund your upscale.
There are different ways that bloggers can monetize their sites, and most use several different methods to generate income. Here are the most popular:
- Advertising
Advertising is often the first way that bloggers earn income from their website. There are many different ways that you can implement adverts on your blog. Google Ads is an example of an easy way to get adverts placed. You have control over the type of ads that appear and the type. As your audience grows and your blog gains more visibility, it will become more attractive to advertisers, and they will pay more for the space to gain exposure.
- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you receive a fee when readers have clicked through from your website to purchase a product. The prime example being Amazon. Each purchase a reader makes adds money to your account. Affiliate marketing is the digital equivalent of earning a commission.
- Offering Services
Now that you have a successful blog, it may be the right platform for you to promote your own skills and services. Services that bloggers offer are diverse: life coaching, copywriting, graphic design and more. The benefit of promoting your services on your blog is that readers have already developed a relationship with you – you are several steps ahead of your competition.
- Selling Products
Products come in all shapes and sizes; however, there is no need to think that you are transforming your blog into an e-commerce store that requires a warehouse, stock and physical produce. eBooks and virtual learning are a popular and successful way that many bloggers generate an income.
The online world has transformed how people communicate and how people make money; but what has remained the same is the need for hard work, resilience, creativity, and patience. Have you got what it takes? Home in on your niche and keep your ideal reader in mind, and hopefully success will follow. Have you got any tips that you can share?