Great, popular blogs don’t happen overnight. It’s not like getting an idea for a “pet rock” or a hula hoop and having an overnight sensation. Blogs become popular and thus profitable through lots of hard work, know-how, great content writing/promotion, and the use of the tools of technology that are “out there,” most of which are free for the asking. If you are really serious about blogging, whether you are looking to make money on individual blog posts or are going to set up you own “go to” blog, there are two aspects of making yourself successful, and you cannot “fudge” on either.
Aspect #1 – Finding and Maintaining/Growing an Audience
1. You have to promote yourself and your brand, and you have to use a lot of techniques to do this.Focus on great content. You have to be a creative writer; you have to give your audience something other than the same dull boring stuff that it is reading every day. If you do not have something new to say and a new way of saying it, you will never get anyone to read and share what you write. All of the tech tools in the world will not make your stuff more exciting. Knowing how to write a good blog post is most assuredly your first step.
- Tell a great story
- Use compelling media – infographics, pictures, how-to videos
- Share startling information and facts
- Provide education to your readers
- Write about related niches, not just your own
2. Find out where your target audience is and go there! If you are in the business of real estate, where are people gathering that have an interest in all aspects of real estate? There are “communities” out there on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Join these communities, read and listen and insert yourself gradually into the conversations, having respect for the audience members. Do not start dropping links or “trolling;” you’ll become a pariah immediately! Share information and expertise where and when you can, because blog promotion begins indirectly!
3. Use all of social media to share your posts. Get two accounts – one personal and one business, so that you can share content in two ways on each site. If your content is exciting, entertaining, and instructive, it will be shared. The goal is to go viral. For more hints and tips on this, see guideline to creating viral longposts.
Aspect #2 – Using the Right Tools – And A lot of Them are Free!
Technology is not standing still, and you can bet that your competitors are not either! So, here are some great tools that you can start using right away to promote your blog and/or your posts.
- Google AdWords: Here you will find lists of keywords that will help boost your ranking, but, as well, some good ideas for posts as you study those keywords.
- Xmind: This is free software that is really a mind-mapping tool You can begin with a single concept and add ideas in a number of diagram formats – getting out of your left-brain linear thinking and into your right-brain creativity using a more holistic and visual approach. It’s a great stimulator for fresh ideas – remember, you don’t want to “sound” like everyone else!
- Get a Google+ Account: Here you can share a great, enticing visual or a quick entertaining video, along with a call to action for viewers to visit our blog or to read your post on a specific site. If you can promote your blog with “teasers” that are compelling, you’ll get the readers!
- Download WordPress and get all of the plug-ins. WordPress is free; some of the plug-ins entail a nominal fee. No platform is better for “walking” you through construction of a great post. It will track your keyword use, the efficacy of your meta-description, and will provide a checklist for SEO, even giving you suggestions for improving it. Plug-ins will allow you to immediately share your post on any or all of your social media accounts, and to solicit responses and conversations. While other blogging platforms are good, WordPress just has more to offer.
- Pixabay: If you are stuck for images and/or illustrations or are worried about copyright infringement, this is your gold mine. This site has over 380,000 pictures, photos and illustrations that are free, and they can be dropped right into your WordPress document. Even better – they are top quality! You should never post a blog without a visual, and Pixabay takes care of that.
- Use GoogleDocs, so that you can share your content and posts with others before you actually publish them. You can get friends and colleagues to read, review, and edit them, providing suggestions that may really make a post much more appealing. A lot of bloggers who do not have much of a creative “bent” have a friend or two with whom they can share their posts, and those friends can come up with the catchy phrasing, titles, headings, etc. that just give the content more pizazz.
- Use Hootsuite for your publishing schedule. You can schedule individual posts for publishing hours apart or write several posts in advance and schedule their publishing dates and times – one more of those detail tasks that technology has now taken over for you!
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1dfhMuz via web design pricing guide
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1B8C6mh
No comments:
Post a Comment