It's another weekend again, and as usual most of us are relaxing and spending the weekend by engaging in one activity of the other. Some would like go to parties, clubs, take a little trip, see a movie, etc. But I would love to use this free time to try as much as possible to answer many blogging related issues most of us have been having. Especially for those who feel like there blogging career/venture isn't going so well anymore. It could be because of little engagements, which in turn leads to low traffic which leads to low sales which then leads to low to income. Because the truth is, many are into blogging to make money for themselves, anything besides that could either be for charity or fraudulent activities. And if you feel like your blog isn't going so well, this article is just for you. Fell free to drop any questions in the comment box. So now we going to get right into it without further introductions.
1. Get the Right Audience: In our world today, many people want to be heard but very few want to listen. this has been a great challenge for many people in our society today who are struggling in one way or the other to make a little earning off whatever it is they are into. Now in the blogosphere, these same challenge is not absent. There are virtually over 25,000,000 blogs and counting and all of them want to be heard, all of them wants their articles to be seen by search engines and crawler bots, all of them want their articles to be read by people, but how is that possible? The only solution is to target a specific audience.
Yes, targeting a specific audience is all you need. Blogging is all about writing and publishing what you know and what you have the passion for, find that thing and write compelling articles about it. Make that article to be seen by the very category of people who come online to search for that particular article. Many bloggers have this idea of being Jack or all trades master of none. They want to reach the world but at the end of the day, they won't reach even a small village. You can't be writing about babies, baby wears, clothing, food, and nutrients in your blog and expect an auto-mechanic guy or lady to ready it, It just won't work, your target audience should be mommy's daddy's, parents, breastfeeding or expectant moms.
You need to get the right audience for the contents of your blog, cos once you do that, you will observe that your blog performances will skyrocket. You can always use Google trends to see what different people from the different parts of the world are searching on Google on daily basis. then make an article in regards to that, then try as much as possible to answer as many questions as you can in that article. Once you see your blog as a one-stop avenue for people who are looking for answers to their questions, your post engagements, and overall blog engagements will increase organically.
2. Check Your Blog/Website Theme: There is an adage which says that the eyes eat first before the mouth. And there is another popular saying which says the first impression matters a lot. Now what I am trying to say in this 2 sentences in regards to blogging? The simplest answer is this, the design, looks, and feel of your blog matters a lot. Most internet users will leave a web page in less than 5 seconds if the website/blog design isn't good or is slow in response.
Dear, you need to use a clean and responsive website theme for your sites or templates for your blogs. In Google's blogger, you can pick any of the default templates of your choice, then search online, there are countless tutorials on how to edit and customize them by using HTML and CSS.
Like techvillz.com is running on Blogger default Awesome Inc blogger template which was customized from head to toe by me, All the tutorial can be seen on the Blogger Tutorials Section. So you can go ahead and pick any of the default templates, customize to your taste, bearing in mind 2 key points which are appearance and speed.
As for self-hosted Wordpress, you can buy a premium Wordpress template and make sure you read the reviews, comments, recommendations, and complaints of the previous users before buying. Customize the template as you like and make it to be loading fast and pretty looking.
3. Your Blog Contents: Now after starting up your blog, you've targeted the right audience, you designed a good looking attractive and responsive template for your site which fits into any device, be it mobile, tablet or PC. The next thing you need to check is your blog contents and the article you publish in it.
There is this popular saying in the blogosphere and it goes like this, Content is King. What this simply means is that you need to make sure that the articles you publish on your blog are rich in content as well as 100% original. Don't expect your blog readers to keep coming back to your blog if they keep reading on your blog what a friend or colleague sent them on WhatsApp or Facebook 3 days ago.
It is better you make 1 -3 great and long (1500 and above) content in 4 or 5 days or even a week than 10 make 100 copied contents every day. Take your time to research your articles, answer your readers questions on those articles. Give them a reason to keep coming back to read more great articles, and you will see your blog performance increase exponentially.
4. How Well is Your SEO? To be frank, the SEO is one of the shortest terms I've come across in my blogging career with the longest, widest and unending meaning. To be frank, SEO some days do sound like rocket science to me because what it entails is a lot. But in a layman's terms, SEO is all about making website search engines to be able to crawl the things you have written on your blog and make it visible to people who come to the internet to search for what you wrote.
For instance, someone who wants to buy an Infinix phone but is afraid of being scammed with the fake ones, can open up Google and search for terms like how to know the fake Infinix phone, or how to Know original infix phone, etc. Now, if you as a blogger have previously written an article on your blog on how to know or identify a fake Infinix phone from the original, that person who is looking for ways to identify the fake Infinix phone from the original will be directed to your blog. He or she will read your article, will love it if you answered their question correctly, and will be compelled to share that article on 1, 2 or more social media thereby increasing your audience.
It doesn't end at that, if you have written such a great content, he/she will be tempted to keep coming back to your blog, either for more tutorials or for acquiring of general knowledge. But if you have written a crappy plagiarized article, the reader will only come once, won't finish the article to the end and will never visit again because they didn't get the answer they were looking for. So now you see the great importance of making a rich and original content and making sure your blog and blog posts are SEO optimized.
5. Be Your Own Ambassador/Supporter and Promote Your Blog: It doesn't end at making a great, rich content. You need to go beyond that and promote your blog and blog contents digitally and manually. You can digitally promote your blog contents by runnings paid promotions on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Or you can manually promote your blog contents by telling people about it. You can do little flyers and cards with a little description of what your blog and it's contents are all about.
Go to beach, cyber-cafe, coffee shop, restaurants, schools, viewing centers. Anyplace you are is full of potential audience, and they might know about what you do if no one told them about it. unless you have a fortune 500 marketing budget, manually promoting your blog and its contents is your best alternative. Twitter, Google Plus, Triberr, Pinterest, Facebook, etc are good social media to start with.
6. Try to Become in Blogging Everday And Be Patient: For a regular (personal) blog/website that is being managed by 1 person who is the designer, author, publisher, marketer, promoter etc. I can be very tough and depressing especially if you follow the rules and still don't get the results (earning/sales) you are seeking hoping for and expecting. Trust me, I know first hand exactly how that feels, but this is the part where I tell you not to be discouraged by the unexpected, undesired low turnouts and earnings.
Keep practicing, keep trying new methods, keep making great, rich and informative contents. Try as much as possible to answer as many questions as possible which will arise from your readers. Try different ways of promoting your blog posts to reach many people. Join and participate in several forums and groups that talk about things that are related to what you are writing and publishing on your blog. Don't do the same thing over and over again and expect the same result.
Blogging takes a great deal of time to develop readership ( the relationship between you and your many readers). Don't expect the miracle or magic to happen overnight because neither Jesus nor Houdini figured that part out. So you have to be patient and keep working hard, smart, stay positive and believe you're going to get there.
Other Points to Consider and put in Mind.
1. In blogging, it is easy to feel bad and depressed when you write a content and publish it on the internet, then 20 people out of over 4 billion Internet users read it. Don't be discouraged, take your time to plan your articles. Always visit blogs and websites who are in the same niche with you. Read their articles, gain knowledge from it, learn before you earn.
2. You can also request to do an article for them, and if they are in the market of accepting guest posts, then they will allow you to do an article, send it to their mail, they will have it published on their site with your name on the byline with your blog/website link attached to it.
3. Giveaways are also good ways to grow your blog audience but I wouldn't advise it. Because as a newbie blogger, you can't keep giving people gift items as a way of encouraging them to keep visiting your blog. What happens when you run out of gift items that you will give your readers? What happens when after 1 year, 2 or 3 years and you haven't made any money either from selling products/affiliates or from Ads?
4. Blog Commenting is also a great way of promoting your blog and increasing your audience. Participate on other people's blog, leave meaningful and constructive comments or reviews on their articles and then people will do the same for you. Blog commenting doesn't only expose your blog to lots of potential audiences, it will also give you backlinks to your blog especially if those backlinks are coming from websites with high rankings.
5. Be mindful of the kind of place/websites where you leave your blog/website links. Never leave your website link in places that promote pornography, fraud, gambling, etc. only leave your blog links at trusted websites that don't promote any sort of illegal or immoral activity.
Final Words
Blogging, just as in every other work of life, it is quite very easy to feel bad, depressed and jealous if your peers are getting paid every month and you are not. I am sorry if that is your experience, but instead of hating and feeling jealous, put that strength into learning why they are making it, getting paid and you aren't. To go those bloggers and website owners whom you know have made it, humble yourself and ask the right questions.
However, you shouldn't expect them to answer all your queries because a good number of them are stingy with information. Make an in-depth research on that particular thing about blogging that you want to know and be good at. Bear in mind that there have been people where you are and they've passed the same problem in blogging and they triumphed.
I wish you all the very best of luck in your blogging career, and just like me, I wish you make it someday and start getting paid for doing what you love.
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