There – I am not sure how much more direct I can get! So you have decided that you want to blog. Good. And you have decided that you want to do it for a living. Great! But there is a small distance to be covered between dreams and success – it’s called action. But first, let us define blogging success. What does it mean to you? Blogging can be conducted for a number of reasons. To succeed at blogging, you need to be very clear about why you are blogging in the first place.
A blogger is someone who could be maintaining a blog for a certain brand or product. Or a blogger could be writing posts for various brands. Also, many bloggers out their have something to say and sell. These two things that need to be combined seamlessly for blogging success. So here are a few action oriented ways in which you can succeed as a blogger. Read on and get enlightened!
- Niche: To succeed at blogging, you will need to choose a niche. Why is this so important? To begin with, let us talk a little bit about page and website ranking. In order to reach out to your core audience and convert them into customers, you will need to target them very specifically. If this sounds like a cumbersome task in the huge world of digital marketing, you can take heart. The good news is that bloggers have a plethora of tools with which they can actually do the needful to succeed at blogging. When you choose a niche, you also get to choose specific keywords which can then be matched with various platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube and many others. This will ensure that your blog post enjoys relevance in the exact niche that it caters to.
- Content: You will find this word many times in many blog posts. The importance of good content cannot be stressed enough. If you want to succeed at blogging, the first thing to do is to create great content. Now, what really is great content – many of you may be asking. Well, if you create a unique take on a currently trending topic, and if your blog posts have a solution or information related to your niche audience, then you have a winner! Ensure that you also have keywords like long tail and short tail keywords embedded into your content. But here’s my disclaimer – only pepper, don’t stuff. Most search engines would take it as a negative SEO signal, which will bring down your page ranking. To succeed at blogging, you would do well to use keywords to answer questions. Remember – the keywords are not playing a starring role, your content is.
- Reaching Out: Do you often feel as if your blog posts are being sent out into a giant void where no one reads them? To succeed at blogging, every blogger needs to remember one thing – presence. Build a presence by reaching out on social media. Leave high quality links and contribute to discussions in relevant and niche communities. Track down other successful bloggers in your niche and find a way to get back links. All these methods will ensure that you build a presence that will be hard to ignore. Without social media sharing and back link building, you will not be able to create and measure your blogging success.
- Call for Action: You know why you are blogging – but does your audience know too? Ensure that you convert your audience into customers with a simple tool: call for action. Do not waste engagement with a message that would be lost in translation. Ensure that you have a clear call for action at the end of your blog post. This could be for building your email subscriber list or to buy your product. Make sure that it is clearly mentioned and routed for easy understanding and access.
- Build a Product: To succeed at blogging, you can also build a product or a service. Whether you are offering tutorials or answering questions; whether you are using your social media influence to talk about other brands, or you have a product to sell – there are a number of ways in which you can monetize your blogging efforts. Just ensure that you have a high quality and reasonably priced offer. Test it on people before you improvise and launch, so that you have something fool proof! Remember that above all, you are a brand and you need to create a certain image with the right kind of products and services.
- Be Giving: I will wind up with this step because it is oh so important! As a blogger, be prepared to give. Whether it is a back link or a freebie – there are many ways in which you can entice. Blogging success comes with a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of patience. While you are at it, do not forget to create an unforgettable experience for your customers. This is fuel an effective word of mouth process. But the other side of this theory is that you also need to ask for reviews and recommendations each time you make a successful conversion with your blogging efforts. Do not be shy to ask for a review and make sure you spread the same on your social media pages.
Blogging is not an easy game to crack and to succeed at blogging, you will need to put in persistent efforts to attract the attention of your audience. So create your blog, educate yourself about your niche and find the pulse of your audience. All the best!
If you liked what you read, I would urge you to leave a link to your blog in the comments, and follow this series of posts to succeed at blogging!