Jay Leonard
Okay, so you want to be a “blogger.” I just want to let you know you are up to a tremendous task. There are over 2 million blog posts written every 24 hours!
That is a ton of competition for any industry in the blogging sphere. Whether you’re a mom blogger, a digital marketer, or the local plumber, getting out there and making awesome content isn’t easy.
And, promoting your content is even more challenging! It is arguably more important than creating the best content.
Think about this, who gets more traffic and by proxy more money? The blogger who makes the best content, or the blogger who gets more eyes on their content? The guy who gets more eyes 9 times out of 10!
The best bloggers make great content and promote it like crazy. So here is what I have learned from my experience of blogging.
Make The Best Content:
Okay, I hear you, everyone has said this but what does it mean? The best content explains a subject in an interesting way using stories, analogies, data, and pictures. Your job is to explain a complex subject to someone who doesn’t understand it.
The only way to create the best content is to tell a story as if you were writing for your audience, or buyer persona.
Remove all industry jargon and focus on speaking in a tone that is conversational for your audience.
Before you start writing, ask yourself,
“How can I explain this better than anyone else?”
“Can I take a concept and explain it in more detail, give more resources away and simplify the concept?”
“Can I explain this subject so it aligns with my audience’s realm of experience and understanding?”
Collaborate For Success:
Collaboration is the secret to growing your blog online. Let’s pretend we are Vulcan for a minute and go completely logical. If you have a team of people working to achieve a goal rather than just yourself, chances are you will attain your goal faster.
More people bring in different resources. In every blog post I create, I have 5-8 people reviewing the post for content, flow, spelling, design, formatting, and grammar. I am always looking for feedback to create the best content I possibly can.
Collaboration can also give your website traffic a boost. Imagine having 10 people always sharing your content. How about 25, 50, 100…the more you collaborate with others the more they will share your content. That’s how videos and the like go viral.
Here are some great resources for collaborating:
Focus On The 3 S’s Of Blogging: Search, Social, And Subject.
Search engines and social media allow people to discover you. If you want to grow your audience, then you should invest time and energy into maximizing those platforms.
Create content around how people think. This means thinking about what people search for and writing a blog article exactly how they would type it into a search engine. Here are some title or search examples that you would write an article around:
*How to start blogging
*Easiest ways to make money online
*Tips to losing weight
*How to fix a headlight on a 2004 ford focus
Social Media is a tool to create one-on-one networking opportunities. It is about building relationships with your customers, influencers, and promoters. Social media is not a channel to “push your content.” Instead use it as a way to attract and pull in your audience.
Subject headlines are the top factor to convert eyes into readers. Statistically eight out of every 10 people only read the headline. That means two people will click on your link, go to your site, and read your article.
By creating stronger headlines and measuring how they perform you can increase visibility. It’s like advertising on a budget.
Formatting And Design:
I’m sure you’ve already heard to use images to break up text. Images also help you create more visibility in search engines, and social media. Make sure you have a captivating blog header image to attract people into your article.
What most people forget to realize is to format the text for readability.
Big blocks of text are intimidating to read, and these sections are often skimmed through or skipped over.
Yet.
By creating short sentences.
Lots of white space.
Allows you to communicate the message.
To the reader in an easy,
And efficient manner.
…see what I did there?
Take On Goliath!
There is a debate in the world of content, more or higher quality. The resounding answer is both of course, but that is not always feasible.
As an entrepreneur you have at least 500 things to do every day. Besides having to create two to three new pieces of content a day, that are 3000 percent better than the “pros” is daunting.
Instead of giving yourself that herculean task, take on one subject and dive in deep. I mean Mariana’s Trench type deep.
Create one piece of content a month to start, but have it be at least 1500+ words. Take a subject, rip it apart, and put it together for the reader step by step.
It’s better to create one piece of outstanding content rather than 10 mediocre pieces of content.
For example, I created a piece of outstanding content.
I posted it on Linkedin Pulse. It generated 2,000 social shares, had 17,000 views over 100 comments and generated many leads.
That piece of content was the 10th iteration of the concept I wanted to cover, and took over 8 hours to write.
I would say it was well worth the time.
So, don’t get discourage by the time commitment.
Promotion, Promotion, Promotion:
Did I mention you need to promote your content? For every hour I write a blog article, I spend 3 hours promoting the content. (It takes some time.)
This is what I do for every piece of content. Feel free to steal these ideas…
#1 I pitch each new article to a top blog site.
Sites like Business2Community, Small Business Trends, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur are all accept guest blog submissions. They have more readers and more eyes than you or I have. They’ve taken the time to build the traffic, so use it to your advantage. If my article is picked up by one of those sites, I generate loads of traffic to my site via internal links and links in my bio. (Traffic = sales)
#2 I use online communities to generate a buzz.
Famous YouTube video marketer Derral Eves says that 75 percent of his views on YouTube come from outside sources. Blog articles are no different. We must find where our community is residing and engage with them at that location.
There are many sites online that help generate awareness. Triberr.com for example, viralcontentbuzz.com, justretweet.com, groups on social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Google Plus.
#3 I email my list informing them of the new blog post.
Sending out email newsletters to a list of people that have already pre-subscribed to my content is one of my highest sources of traffic.
#4 I share on social medias.
I have spent the time on social media to build a following of loyal engaged awesome people. (You guys rock!) I share it and they read it. They give feedback, and I love it!
#5 I run Facebook Advertising.
If you have spent time building any sort of following on Facebook, this method is an inexpensive yet effective form of traffic. Promoting to people who liked your Facebook page, and their friends drives a ton of traffic.
You can also promote the article to a specific type of person most apt to read it.
#6 I reproduce the content on Linkedin Pulse, and Medium.
Both of these sites have internal feedback loops. If lots of people enjoy the post, the moderators on Pulse and Medium can pick up the article and feature it on the main page. This can generate a ton of new eyes onto the article.
#7 I email the first 100+ hits on Google for the keyword of phrase.
This is an especially powerful form of traffic if you have original research or information.
I send them all emails informing them of this original information, and ask them to write an article with a link back to my content.
Plan Your Content For Dominance:
Most bloggers will come up with a great idea, write about it and publish it, with no rhyme or reason.
If you seriously want to dominate, plan a series of articles, each interlinking to the other articles. This allows you to build more authority in Google because your readers will go from one article on your site to another. Staying longer, engaging more, and sharing more.
You become an authority in that subject, and Google likes that! This gets you more awareness to your blog or your business.
It also helps your reader understand the complex subjects of your industry.
Spend Time With The Numbers:
If you were to watch any champion athlete in their off time you will see the same thing. They are watching recordings of their previous game, or their opponents game. Analyzing their moves and tactics frame-by-frame.
The best bloggers do the same thing but instead of watching videos of sports games, they are in the various analytics tools.
• Tracking what articles generate the most traffic.
• Tracking what articles convert the highest.
• Tracking what articles need new headlines.
• Tracking what last weeks tweaks have caused.
I use analytics as a verification tool. My business decisions come from a gut feeling. The analytics become a way to see if my decision was right or wrong.
Find Your Voice:
With over 2,000,000 blog posts written per day, chances are, your subject has been covered. covered about 100x over, from all angles, and in more depth than you can imagine.
As Tony Robbins says “we are drowning in information, but starving for wisdom.”
Wisdom can only be obtained through experience. What makes a top blog article is real life examples, personal experience, and context.
Context is the difference between regurgitating a statement such as “Facebook Dark Posts are the best ROI for your marketing dollars” to “My last video had 3 cents a view because of Facebook Dark Posts”
Respect Your Readers
Give them context to chew on, it builds trust.
One last tip before I go…
Practice, Practice, Practice. Like anything else in life it doesn’t matter how good you are. If you do something 100 times you will become great.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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