Want to start a seasoned, engaging, and highly visited blog like Nomadic Mat?
The idea is great, but starting may be painstaking.
This article will share tips on making a compelling blog for your brand, fighting your blocks, and finally making money from your investment.
Contents
1. The first thing is money
Like it or not, the final aim of a brand blog is money.
Whatever your aim is: attracting new audiences, spreading the word of wisdom, or selling car tires, the end of your journey is ROI.
The most successful bloggers in the world earn mind-blowing money by merely posting unique and relevant information or something dirty. For example, the Perez Hilton blog makes a stunning 7 million USD annually by publishing news and gossip about celebs.
Yet, you won’t get riсh overnight. Blogging is a long-term undertaking. So, before you start a blog, the first thing to think about is monetization. Here are several ways:
- Sell products and services through the blog
- Attract affiliates
- Allow sponsored content
- Post ads
Monetization strategies determine your content type, schedule, frames, and formulas. Once you’ve set with them, you may think of the audience.
2. Target your audience wisely (read: narrowly)
In this step, you should identify people you resonate with, and the best thing to do is to go to social media.
Social media is generally a powerful tool to keep your blog alive. There you learn what messages are moving around people you want to talk to. And there you tell them about any new developments in your business. 90% of bloggers worldwide promote their blogs through social media.
It is the easiest way to chase down your audience’s pains and troubles and get across your solution.
Tip: Take your time and effort. Target people that resonate with your business idea and care less about those who don’t. Big audiences are great for big brands. As a starter, select wisely.
Once you learn your audience’s pains and craft a solution that may be interesting to them, start building an e-mail list. There are numerous ways to get people to share their e-mails with you: from offering deals or free materials to using enhanced lead nurturing tools, like Tim Snykes, an author of Personal Finance Blog, making 15 mln. USD a year from his blog only. Tim combines highly relevant content and advanced lead-nurturing techniques.
Also, as you come to the point when you have a beautiful blog page set, and great content posted, how will you get your blog across to people? Here’s what others do:
- 90% of bloggers use social media to spread the word about their blog
- 68% employ SEO techniques
- 62% also rely on e-mail marketing
- 13% use paid services
- 10% address influencers
3. Offer a fresh idea
You must offer something precious for your readers to spend five minutes of their free time on your blog.
For example, John Lee Dumas, the owner of Entrepreneurs on Fire, developed the idea of his million-worth blog when listening to podcasts on his way to work. He loved stories of successful entrepreneurs but noticed podcasts interviewing them only occasionally. So, he decided to start one of his own.
That was far in 2012. The blog field is far more crowded today. Yet, people are always lacking something, and if you find what, you’ll be on top.
Tip: Your blog articles will reflect your brand’s offer. But even within this limit, you can create something offering fresh value. For example, if you work for a software testing outsourcing company, think of the most effective testing techniques to be in use the next year or interview a tech specialist from your staff, sharing how to go through bottlenecks.
4. Develop a unique writing style
Good writing differentiates between a successful blog and one that gets lost in an ocean of similar offers.
Example: The author of Smart Blogger, Jon Morrow, won the first audience as a writer for Copy Blogger. His stories were so powerful, and his style was so recognizable that the audience of Copy Blogger expanded thanks to his articles. In 2012, he started his blog, which now has an audience of 4 million readers and brings over one mln. USD a year.
For your luck, there is an abundance of free material online to help you decide on your tone, writing formulas, and wording. You may pay attention to Jerry Jenkin’s writer guides or get tips from Coppyblogger, another successful blog that makes over 35 million USD a year.
When writing a blog, pay attention to tried-and-trusted copywriting formulas. They will help keep your readers engaged even if you don’t have a huge writing background.
5. Become a thought leader
You can only build trust with customers if you prove effective. The best way to do this is to paint your blog as an ideal resource where your clients find help.
The main idea of this type of content is simple: selling coffee machines or offering digital marketing courses, whatever your niche is, shows ultimate professionalism.
There are several ways to position yourself as an authority:
- How-to tips or step-by-step instructions
- Market predictions based on your experience
- In-depth break-out on a specific content or trend
- Market Insights
So, how to become a thought leader?
Start small. Brian Clarke, the founder of Coppyblogger, started as a one-person entertainment, sharing tips he learned from his previous job. By gradually ramping up, he turned his blog into a multi-million enterprise. Yet, they have used thought-leader content till now. For example, on their blog, you can find a lot of predictions, like tips to be a trendy writer in 2023.
Final words
We may sum up everything written over in two simple words: start small. Every form of the top successful companies with huge profits made their way from a simple but bright idea and grew into successful money funnels, gaining huge traffics to their brand sites.
Author’s bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev, a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting.
