Starting a blog has its own challenges but keeping a blog going in this era of competition for attention in the digital space isn’t easy…especially if you want your content to be relevant, hitting the sweet spot blog after blog.
Every blogger, including this one, wants to ensure readers keep coming back for more, and, that takes a big effort.
These tips may not be fool proof, but, rest assured that if you follow through and are disciplined, you will see considerable results.
Decide what to speak about
Find a need and fill it. What need is your blog filling? Is it worthwhile for people to spend time reading? Does it provide insight or help make their lives better? Is it sustainable? Finding a need and creating content that speaks to that need, will draw interest and attraction to your blog. Readers will end up becoming your most efficient marketing tool when their very real needs are being met by the content you’re creating.
Figure out who your content speaks to
You need to understand that your blog is not and cannot be for everyone 100% of the time, even if everyone loved you. Employing market research and insight techniques, are key to developing a profile of your target audience. While you try to gain deeper insight on who needs your content, you need to explicitly develop a profile of who your blog isn’t for. If you write, say on real estate trends in an upscale part of town, your primary target profile is unlikely to include university students or low-income earners. Taking time to create a profile of who you don’t want helps to ensure you have a more engaged reader base.
Once you are clear on who you’re writing to, you can zone in better on what to say and how best to say it. It helps simplify the content creation process and allows you to tailor your blog posts to their specific needs, wants, behaviors, and values.
Keep them engaged and get to know them better
Final tip: Go beyond creating content and interact with readers. Don’t just put content out there and go MIA till your next post. When users comment on blogs, make sure you’re right there to respond to them and make them feel valued. Make sure you’re responding to your most loyal commenters and not just diffusing negative ones. It’s also a great idea if you can create and nurture a community on social media made up of your blog readers. That has the potential to help you expand your reach and rope in new readers and hopefully, subscribers as well. You can also use your social media community to get input from your readers and let them know you value their opinions.
Get this right: churning out content is great but it’s not enough. If you’re not building a community on your blog, people may grow detached from you and your content.
In conclusion…
Building a blog and getting it right is not an easy task but these 3 simple tips should set you on your way. Commit yourself to get the fundamentals right and it will be easier to build on for greater success in the future. All the best and let us know when these tips bear fruit for you!
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Want to take your blog to the next level? Does your company need help to get your blog going? Talk to us, your ‘take-me-to-the-next-level’ digital marketing experts, and let the Genie do the magic!
Jonathan is a self-proclaimed “words and numbers guy” with a degree in Engineering and masters in Development Finance. Mix that with his word play and that’s what he applies to demystify products for consumers while providing insights to businesses.