I’ve really enjoyed sharing in the past few posts some new ideas and perspectives for profitable blogging. When you think about all that has been covered, it really comes down to a couple of things.

Great Content:

  As a blogger, you aren’t going to get anywhere with substandard content. That’s no secret and I doubt that’s a problem for many people here. 

There are so many great bloggers and they are publishing awesome content and engaging their audiences meaningfully, wherever they can.

It’s the next two pieces that are sometimes problematic.

Wise Marketing:

  Never rest on thinking you’ve done enough to promote your blog because you’ve written great content, responded to your comments and posted an update to social media.

It takes more than this.

You have to be active in your marketing. Get out there and reach and retain new audiences.

You grow them through advertising, making new connections and writing for other publications. You retain them by growing your mailing list and RSS subscribers. These are all important keys to the puzzle.

Monetization Plan:

  Of course, you also need to monetize your blog. It doesn’t matter if you sell advertising, sell ebooks on Kindle or make crafts on Etsy…you have to work it all into your blogging. You need to find advertisers, you need to optimize the placement of ads, you need to create products and you need to tell your audience about them.

All in all, profitable blogging does take work, but it’s more enjoyable and, in the long run, easier than any 9 to 5 job. Put the work in now to enjoy the benefits for a long time to come.

Good luck to you on your blogging journey…wherever it may take you and thank you for taking the time to listen.
 

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I’ve talked about guest blogging before. In fact, I think it’s quite obvious that being a guest blogger can be a tremendous benefit to you and your business. Guest blogging allows you to reach new audiences and establish your expertise further. Add to that, it allows you to forge new personal relationships with fellow bloggers and that is always a good thing.

There are a few things to keep in mind when participating in guest blogger opportunities.

– High traffic is good, but not always necessary.

Obviously, guest blogging on a high traffic blog is likely to give you the most exposure, but there is often competition to get posted. In addition, there are plenty of highly targeted smaller traffic blogs that can provide good exposure.

– Learn about the blog’s audience and write specifically for them.

While you may write about the same topics, no two blogs are exactly the same. Learn what makes the blog you’re writing for unique and keep in mind what their audience wants to hear.

– Always read the submission guidelines carefully.

Look for what types of topics they want, what formatting you should use or any other specifics they are looking for. Don’t get rejected just because you make a silly little mistake.

– Promote an opt-in, not a link to your home page or a product.

You’ll get the best results with your guest post if you make a free offer to their readers. Linking to your home page may bring in plenty of traffic, but what happens when they click away, never to return? You want them to opt-in to your list, so that you can bring them back to your blog later, make product recommendations and keep in touch with them for months and years to come.

– Engage the audience and respond.

Just like with your own blog, readily ask your readers questions and respond to their comments. Consider this your opportunity to forge new relationships with those interested in your topic area.

– Write for the same blog again.

Let the audience really get to know you and look forward to your posts. While you can see benefit from just one guest blog post, the benefits multiple as you come back and become a more familiar face to the readers.

Make guest blogging a regular part of your promotion plan and you’ll start to see which opportunities are worthwhile and which are not. You can also use your contributions to certain blogs as leverage to get the opportunity to write for even bigger audiences.

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Just about every blogger would love to have a larger following. A bigger audience means we can get our message out to more people and ultimately, we can achieve more profit from our work. But when it comes to growing your following, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.

The good news is, it’s not that difficult to grow your following.

The bad news is, it’s going to take time and work, but if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, it will be well worth it.

A lot of bloggers are so focused on the writing part of blogging; they neglect the work they need to grow their blog’s audience. While writing great content is a definite way to attract traffic and grow your word-of-mouth, it’s rarely enough. Make sure you dedicate time, effort and even some cash to growing your following.

A few ways to get more eyeballs on your blog:

– Make your RSS feed readily available and encourage visitors to sign up. You can have the obligatory RSS button in your side bar, but also encourage visitors to sign up in your posts and remind them directly how to sign up.

– Build your mailing list. We’ll be talking about list building next as it is very important; probably even more important than your RSS feed. Unless you serve a real techie audience, more of your readers will email than use RSS, so make sure to ask your visitors to sign up every chance you get.

– Make friends with others in your niche. Here’s another people never seem to take the time to do. Make meaningful friendship with other bloggers, product sellers and website owners in your niche. This means more than liking someone’s status on Facebook. It means talking directly with people and developing friendships.

And why should you make friends? Well, it’s very simple. Friends are more likely to share your blog URL, your content and your products. So make lots of friends and do the same for them.

– Use social media to supplement your following. It’s a sign of the times, but social media is often the focal point of many people’s web experiences, particularly younger generations. They go to Facebook or go to Twitter and they read blog posts, find news and other information there. You definitely want to be seen in social media, so there are a couple of things you can do:

– Include sharing buttons on all your posts. That way your readers can pass your content onto their social media connections.

– Get involved in a few strategic networks where you can reach a large part of your potential audience.

– Buy ads. Sometimes buying traffic is the quickest way to growing your following. You can buy ads in newsletters, on other websites, on Facebook and even through Google Adwords. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money to make a lot.

– Guest blogging and other content contributions. Contribute content to other people’s blogs, podcasts, reports and websites wherever you can. It’s an easy, free and effective way to reach new audiences and establish your credibility. Seek out opportunities that will give you a lot of exposure, but don’t turn your nose up at opportunities that allow you to reach small, but very targeted activities.

As you can see, becoming a successful blogger isn’t just about blogging. It would be nice if we could just write and things fell into place, but it’s not how it works. Carve out time in every single work day to build your following.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.
Visit our website for information at  strategizeyoursuccess.com.

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