Blogging is hard; making money from blogging is doubly tricky. Yet, every day several thousands of blogs are started by individuals with hopes of hitting it big. Unfortunately, many of them get burned, while others fall by the roadside.
In spite of how challenging blogging is, individuals and businesses are succeeding with it. So, the question becomes, what are they doing right a newbie blogger can replicate to achieve the same results?
That’s the aim of this article, to answer that question while also providing a guide that will help new bloggers develop the right mindset and strategy to crush their blogging goals.
The basics
Most high-flying bloggers when starting a new blog whether it’s a business or personal blog do the following things first;
- They define in clear terms what they hope to achieve with their blog: it’s simple actually, without a crystal clear goal, it’s practically impossible to know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. So, first, set a clear end goal.
- Get a domain name and host: depending on the niche and the purpose of the blog, selecting a blog name could be quite tricky except maybe when it’s a business blog – simple use the business name as the domain name. However, if it says a niche or personal blog, then researching and choosing an SEO optimized site would be appropriate here.
- They Install WordPress as their content management system: WordPress powers over 25 percent of the websites on the internet today. The reason for this is not far-fetched, WordPress is the most versatile and SEO friendly CMS out there today. So leveraging this content management machine means, playing in the league as these top earning bloggers.
Another thing going for this CMS is that it’s easy to optimize for search engines; hence, contents are readily discovered thereby boosting traffic and ultimately revenue.
- Integrate an Opt-in form: Every successful blogger knows the money is on the list, that’s why once their website is up, the add an opt-in form to start building their list right away.
So, those points listed above are literally the foundation on which successful blogs are built.
Deciding on the nature of contents to create
Blogging is about creating contents. It’s the gas that powers the engine of online marketing. It’s essential therefore to determine the kind of content to produce before creating a blog.
Of course, we understand that new bloggers find it quite tricky deciding which kind of content to create. Also from experience and by watching other top blogs, we’ve listed those things every new blogger can leverage to develop epic contents their audience will thank them for:
- First, they understood their audience: It doesn’t make sense producing contents nobody wants to read. These top blogs realized this; hence they researched their audience. They uncovered the pain points of their readers then offered contents that provide solutions to them.
To really make their blogs take off, new bloggers should take the pain to truly understand what their audience needs, only then can they provide value to them through their contents.
- They know what format to produce contents: The format content is delivered in impacts massively on the engagement rate. In deciding the content strategy to pursue, it’s important to understand what format the audience prefers contents to be served.
o Do they like to read long-form contents or do they prefer it short and sweet?
o Are they lazy to read but enjoy watch video contents?
o Do Infographic and images perform better with this audience?
Answering these questions honestly and with as many details as possible positions the blogger to provide massive value to their readers while also growing their authority, influence, and income.
Determining the distribution channels
The final piece of the puzzle of massive blogging success is figuring out the best channels to distribute, create awareness and buzz for every content created. Fortunately, there’re several tools available, bloggers can leverage to create the initial buzz for their blog.
Tools like the social media, running ads to drive traffic and other social bookmarking sites come in handy here.
Wrapping things up
Creating a blog could be the beginning of an exciting career for most individuals, however, to succeed all the moving parts most fall into place. We believe this article provides the best guide to getting those moving parts working.
