Enstine Muki July 30, 2021 
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Your blog is mainly for publishing articles and driving traffic but if you’re like me, you’ll implement ways to convert the traffic to subscribers and then clients. Many of us blog to make money which is not a bad idea.
In this post, I want to share with you two ideas to add to your blog and make it a busy zone. This may not be for everyone in the blogging business but if you make just a little effort, you’ll definitely see some improvement on your blog.
Before implementing these 2 business ideas
I need to raise your attention to the fact that blogging is becoming so competitive across different industries. As it’s mainly about content production and marketing, your content must be above average to stand the competition in the market.
Don’t just throw a couple of pages online and think you are going to hit page 1 of Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). SEO has become so complex that it takes more than publishing on your blog. From OnPage to Off-Page SEO, you will need a combination of tools and tips to make it in the current market.
Here are some few questions to help you restructure and stabilise your blog:
1 – What is unique about my blog?
If your blog (from design to content) is just like everything else online, then you need to rethink your blogging. If there is nothing that makes you stand out in your industry, you haven’t hit that spot that will propel you to a leadership position.
2 – If I don’t publish for the next 3 months, will I still have readers?
One of the things you should do is to publish evergreen content. Seasonal content is good but will soon dry out and leave you with nothing. The more evergreen topics you cover in your blog, the more your chances to still have readers even in your days of absence.
3 – What works well for me on my blog?
When I started blogging, I covered just everything that related to my core topic. But that was an error for a solo-blogger. Few years into it, I was still dangling between different categories until I began to dig deep to find out what really works for my audience. I wanted to discover my ideal reader.
With the help of heatmap tools, polls and surveys, I was able to streamline my business, increase traffic and income by dropping some irrelevant topics and focusing on what works best.
4 – If Social Media platforms close my accounts, will I still have traffic?
I personally think it’s not a good idea to heavily rely on social media platforms for exposure. If you’ve been around for 5 or more years now, you’ll agree with me that Facebook, Twitter and the rest are not what they used to be. Changes in their scripts and terms of use have kept many businesses closed. Diversify your traffic channels stretching to list building, search engines, etc
5 – Will Google penalize me in the near future?
For many of us, Google is the main source of natural traffic but the search giant can be so unreliable especially if we try to mess up with SEO. Each time there is a major Google algorithm update, businesses are impacted, leaving some with massive losses. What I mean is that you should make sure you always try to keep up with what Google recommends and stay away from every blackhat SEO technic
2 excellent ideas to take your blog to the next level
Now, let’s look at how to give your blog a new phase to keep your visitors coming back. They may not be returning to read your content but for these extras.
1 – Add a service
There are powerful service ideas out there to attach to your blog and keep your readers busy. One of these ideas is a job board. Generally, we have full-blown job portals that have their blogs attached to them. But you can turn this around and add a mini, niche-targeted job board to your website.
A good example is the ProBlogger Job board for content marketers:
Thousands of content creators and brands visit this site not for the content of the blog but for job opportunities and the high possibility to recruit qualified digital labor.
You may not add a job board in your case. I believe if you search around in your industry, you will find a suitable mini service to add to your blog to keep visitors coming. The job board however is great as it can fit into any industry.
If you are a health blogger, you may add a mini platform where health experts can signup and market their services. What about adding a mini forum for niche-based questions and answers? These are just a few ideas for you to ponder on and probably develop any of them into a profitable extra on your blog.
2 – Add a tool
Digital tools abound online but adding one to your blog may turn it into a busy corner on the Internet. A quick example is Neil Patel’s SEO tool:
This tool is completely hosted on his blog website. No one clicks the tool without visiting his domain. As many bloggers write about the tool and link to it, it increases backlinks and natural traffic to the domain.
Note that both tools are not hosted on sub domains (https://tool.domainname.com). They are hosted on main domain names (https://domainname.com/tool) which increases link juice and impacts the root domain’s SEO metrics.
Bigger platforms have given opportunities to smaller sites to embed their tools. I have seen the SEMrush keyword search tool on some blogs.
Now, these are just a few I can point out in my industry. I’m so convinced that such tools and services are available for you in your blogging industry. I will recommend (for the sake of results) that you don’t add any tool or service that won’t be of benefit to your audience. The more useful the extra service or tool, the more your blog is going to attract and keep readers.
Conclusion
At this point, you should be thinking about an extra service to add to your blog and make it a more busy place. The advantages (from SEO to marketing and business expansion) are numerous. Begin with a small idea and then take it to a higher level.
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