Many who started to blog a few years ago have failed. The proof is that they have quit and have completely forgotten about the activity.
Maybe you are on the verge of leaving blogging behind too. Don’t yet. I’ve got to share with you some guiding tips to keep you going.
You’ve got to listen to me because I created my first article on the 12th of August 2012 (About 8 years ago). My first blog was set up the day before. It wasn’t an easy ride at all. But it’s been a continuous learning process and today, I’m able to share with you from my experience what is sure to work for you.
There may be tons of things to do but I’m going to sum these up into 5 very powerful points and here we go:
1 – Train yourself as the blogger
One of the things I tell my coaching students is that in blogging, there are two main entities:
- The blog
- The blogger
There is no successful blogger without a successful blog and every successful blog is powered by a successful blogger. Your blog is simply a representation of your value. If you have nothing from your inside, there is no way you can come up and publish valuable content.
It heavily lies on how much you have in you. Your blog is just the platform to share what you have. This is why it’s so important you add value to yourself through training.
Man is never too old to learn. As time goes on, there are lots of new things surfacing in every industry. If you are a blogger who doesn’t learn the new things, your community will soon go saturated and move to your competitors who are working hard and creating new values for their readers.
2 – Get the right blogging tools
The first blogging tool you should get is of course your blogging platform. Many of these are bound and for the most part, WordPress is mentioned. I do not know which you are using right now but this in my opinion is the most flexible and user-friendly.
This level of blogging tool helps with the creation and publishing of your content. Anyone with an Internet connection can have a blog in the next few minutes. This probably is one of the deceptive reasons folks have believed blogging is easy.
Just with a couple of clicks, you are able to put up a professionally looking and excellent blog. But this would mean a big failure if all you do is create the skeleton. You will obviously need more tools to turn this skeletal structure into a full-fleshed business platform.
You need content marketing tools that help you conquer social media, search engines, etc, and stand out in a way no one will be able to ignore.
Many other tools are available to help with the security (hack prevention, backups & recovery, etc) of your blog, community building, and networking, etc.
3 – Content that stands out
We’ve been tool several times that content is king. That means you have to give it the kingly value it deserves.
Competition has made this part of blogging a really tough one. Gone are those days to easily rank on Google with a 400-word article having keywords placed here and there. Your content has to be outstanding and value-packed.
While you may want to pick a piece of existing content and add value to it following Backlinko’s Brian’s Skyscraper Technique, there are lots of new ideas popping up here and there. Do your research and be one of the first few (or the very first) to create content and publish on new ideas.
I personally recommend focusing on evergreen content. This is content that is always relevant. Seasonal content will die out as soon as the season is over.
4 – Market your content
It makes no sense if you and grandma are the only consumers of your content. At the same time, it’s not the average guy’s job to market your content with results.
Content marketing has grown to become complex. Like I mentioned above, you’ll need these marketing tool to help with getting your content out to the right readers.
There are a couple of marketing channels I’ll recommend you focus on:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social Media
- Email List
As a matter of fact, these are not always free as you may need to spend on tools to get satisfactory results. There are tons of free email marketing tools, free SEO tools, free Social Media tools, etc but how much results do you get from these tools?
Every consistent and successful blogger has an active marketing plan. They pay considerable attention to the selling of their content.
If after hitting the publish button, the next thing you think about is starting another article, you may be getting it wrong. You have to come up with a marketing strategy that allows you to promote every new blog post on your blog.
5 – Get motivated
Many of those who have dropped have suffered from loss of motivation. This is generally caused by a disappointing experience due to the lack of expected results.
Many get into blogging to make money. Yes, that’s possible. I make money blogging but that was not my motivation. Thousands of bloggers make lots of money daily and that keeps them highly encouraged. But what happens if there is a sudden Google update and your traffic drops considerably?
If this happens to many of us and the money flows stops, chances are that the motivation will cease. If your motivation is tied to income, make sure you develop your business in a way your source of motivation should be consistent.
Wrapping up
Blogging is beautiful and I enjoy the freedom, connections, income, and the learning aspects of it. So I make sure to keep blogging as long as the Internet exists and by sharing these tips with you, I believe you will be encouraged to keep the activity going.
Good luck!
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community
(50)