Over the years you can learn a lot from the success of others which is why it’s important to do research each time your thinking about starting something new. Blogging is no exception and much of what I’ve learned has come from people who have been in the industry for years. We are fortunate they share their experiences allowing us to streamline what we’re trying to do avoiding the pitfalls along the way. For example, starting a successful blog can be very difficult because you have so many options when it comes to hosting, marketing and writing content. Imagine the amount of time you’ll waste trying every approach before finding one which works well. That’s why it’s important to have a mentor who’ll be able to show you what works and what doesn’t allowing you to generate massive blog success.
Over the years I’ve noticed that there are around “10†quick tips which will get you moving in the right direction. Let’s look at them in order. Enjoy!
1) Start Building Email List
The amount of return visitors you can generate through an email list is enormous. It’s important you start implementing this strategy from day-1 so that you build a solid foundation of people who come back regularly. With a list, you become less dependent on external sources of traffic which are often inaccurate and expensive. Imagine spending hundreds of dollars each month to drive traffic to your blog when you can have people returning for free. Next,
With a growing email list you are increasing the chances of someone purchasing a product or sharing your content each time they come back to your blog. Setting up a list is NOT difficult as you have many options available. These platforms provide an complete solution so once you sign-up your ready to go. Aweber.com and Mailchimp.com have a growing reputation and are credible.
2) Write Down Post Ideas
One of the hardest things when growing your blog is consistently coming up with unique content ideas. People come back to your blog to find fresh new content and when they don’t it can push them away. Carry around journal or use your mobile notepad to write down ideas as they come to you. Many times you’ll think of post ideas as your walking down the side-walk or browsing online so have a handy tool ready to write them down immediately.
Be careful! If you don’t write them down immediately you might forget them, which means “1†less content idea gone down the drain.
3) Add Social Buttons
Social media can generate huge traffic so it’s important you start utilizing it right away. People love sharing unique high quality content so encourage visitors to share by adding buttons above and below your content. Did you know over 500 million people are on Facebook? Having social buttons on your blog gives you access to these people which can create enormous buzz and engagement for your content. People who visit your blog represent a massive marketing opportunity, so take advantage of this right away or you’ll miss out on viral traffic.
If you are using blogging platforms you can simply add buttons by installing a plug-in. Next, make sure you use plug-ins which give you access to all the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google +.
4) Network With Bloggers
When your blogging about a specific topic you know your going to have competition. There are two ways you can approach this situation: First, you can try to compete, but you’ll be up against some bloggers who have been in the industry for several years. Secondly, you can work with them which can help grow your blog. Your objective is to make a list of the top bloggers within your niche and start a reach-out campaign with them. Why?
The strategy is simple. You can write content for them and have them promote it to thousands of active readers. The ones I’ve seen succeed the fastest are the ones which band together and share ideas. One of the best strategies which you’ll learn later is “guest blogging†because it can drive enormous “relevant†traffic to your blog.
5) Learn SEO Basics
If your a blog owner it’s important to know the fundamentals of SEO. Knowing the basics will help you optimize your pages and content for organic rankings. It’s no secret organic traffic can be vital to a blogs success because it’s free targeted traffic which can convert to sales and leads. However, if you don’t know the fundamentals hiring someone to do the work for you can get very expensive. A good SEO company charges anywhere from $700/mo – 1000/mo which can be very expensive for someone whose just starting out.
The good news is bloggers who’ve been in the industry for years have done a great job providing free resources. If you type in “SEO basics†in Google you’ll receive thousands of search results all providing you with the information you need. Take some time and learn just the basics so you can apply it to your blog as you create pages and publish content.
6) Regular Posting Schedule
Keeping a regular posting schedule is important for growing your blog and building loyalty from your readers. One of the toughest things to overcome is the inability to consistently write fresh new content. Imagine having a visitor come to your blog, read content they enjoy and leave because no new content has been published since. Google has even added a “freshness†update to their algorithm so people who consistently publish content will enjoy higher rankings within the SERP’s. The more content produced by a blogger means more frequent indexing by search engines.
Here are some tips you can implement into your writing to produce content more frequently…
First, don’t overdo it because setting a schedule where you publish 8 times a week is unrealistic. Keep something which is simply and will allow you to publish high quality content. A good rule of thumb to follow is 3-4 times per month. Next, plan ahead so you’ll know what to expect when you sit down to write. You can create an outline and write down sub-headings to streamline your content writing.
Another great strategy is to spread out your writing so you don’t get tired writing 1500+ words in one sitting. Get in the habit of writing 400 words daily and after 4 days you’ll have 1600 words of high quality content.
7) Implement Guest Blogging
The power of guest blogging has never been questioned and it can boost your traffic in one day. The key is to find people who are in the same niche as you and have established a solid reputation over the years. It’s time to start building a list of high authority relevant blogs within your niche and contacting them about guest blogging opportunities. Keep in mind…
When submitting “guest posts†it’s important you submit only the best content. A rule of thumb is to submit the quality of content you would when publishing on your own blog. Make sure content is relevant to the blog your submitting to and perform keyword research to find “HOT†topics trending in the community.
Getting published as a guest blogger can drive enormous relevant traffic to your blog. Getting published on a blog with 50,000 visitors a month means these are all potential visitors to your blog which is important when building your brand awareness.
8) Influential Interviews
When your just starting out it can be difficult to have all the answers. There are some effective ways to grow your blog and be able to get the right answers to your visitors. It’s a popular trend to interview influential people within your niche which can be important to build popularity and grow traffic during the early stages of your blog. Start by doing a quick search in Google and create a list of top 20 relevant blogs within your niche. Next,
Do some research writing down the questions people have within your niche. For example, if your blog is about “link building†strategies then write down the common questions people have about link building. When you have 10-15 questions you can start an outreach campaign contacting influential bloggers asking them for their help. Make sure you are genuine in your approach and explain a little bit about yourself. If they agree, send them the questions and do a quick follow-up a few weeks later if you haven’t heard back from them.
9) New Posts Types
It’s important to change things up providing visitors with a twist each time you publish new content. Why? People relate to different types of content so provide them with various different formats. This helps keep more readers engaged and can increase readership and loyalty overtime. For example, it’s becoming more important to use visual aids within your content because it helps people understand your content more clearly. If you only write text then you might want to try some of these other formats…
- add images to content
- add videos to content
- use infographics
- list type post
- blogging Interviews
- product reviews
10) Do Case Studies
Case studies is a different “post format†however I didn’t include it with the above because it has a life of its own. Case studies are probably the best piece of content you can publish for your readers. These are posts which are proof that a concept works and if followed by people they can achieve the same results. With case studies you’ll start off with a mission and perform a series of steps documenting your progress along the way. You goal is to achieve your desired goal and showing people how you did it while providing proof that the concept works.
Case studies are relevant to your niche so you can attract enormous relevant traffic to your blog. For example, if your trying to rank keywords within “1†month using a new link building technique and it works your content can go viral. It’s important to choose a popular topic and conquer it making sure you achieve what you set out to do. Now remember, when doing a case study it can take months before you complete your content so get ready for a lengthy task ahead.
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