The internet hosts about 70million new posts on WordPress blogs alone each month. Tumblr, in comparison, is home to about 450 million blogs. With all the blogging platforms combined, it’s not hard to tell that there are billions of blog posts published monthly.
All these blog posts compete for the attention of a certain number of readers. It's no wonder that most of them end up unread. Some never get to the forefront as they are unable to compete with the masses of similar other blog posts.
This brings us to the question of what you can do to enhance your success in blog writing. It's an essential question to give thought to. The death of blogging has been predicted for such a long time now.
The good news is, blogging is just evolving, not dying. It’s becoming more social and visual and adopting a unique publishing genre of its own.
Why Do People Choose to Blog?
Different people are propelled by various reasons to express their thoughts through a blog. Three types of bloggers that exist are:
1. Personal Casual Bloggers
Most have blogs about their daily personal daily experiences. Most of them use platforms like Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr. Personal blogs are easy to start and keep running.
2. Professional Bloggers
They engage in blogging to reach out to the global market, to monetize their content. Some of their blogging activities entail creating strategic business opportunities, online Webinars, and selling eBooks.
3. Business Bloggers
They’re all about spreading a brand’s influence, increasing sales, and creating leads. The benefits of business blogging include improving search engine optimization. It also positions a company as a thought leader and expert in the industry.
Whichever the type of blogging you choose to do, you must position yourself for success. Here are the keys to global blog writing success.
1. Create a Strong Foundation
With all the overwhelming statistics around blogging, you might think that you won’t get an audience for your blog. When starting, it’s best to have a winner mentality. This is the only way you’ll do all it takes to have a successful blog.
An excellent place to start is by having a WordPress blog. It sets you up for success since it's easy to scale and make changes. For the best results, ensure it is self-hosted and has your own domain.
2. Your Content Matters
In the blogging sphere, content is king. Unfortunately, many bloggers have come up with reasons why the quality of the content doesn't matter. This means that not all content comes with the quality expected of them.
The content you create should be valuable enough to change the life of anyone who reads it. Let your blog be void of filler content. Relevant content is more potent than all the other marketing strategies you could use.
When choosing the type of content to use, be sure you know how it'll impact your blogging efforts.
a) Long Posts
Many people hold the impression that long posts will make their blogs go viral. The truth is, a post doesn’t go viral because of how long it is, but because of the value it creates. A long post may go viral if the content should have been written in 3 to 4 posts.
Instead of having several short posts, you can decide to combine them into a long useful post.
When writing long posts, ensure you capture the readers’ attention. One approach to this is to make the post easy to scan through. Doing so will make it easier to read and understand.
b) List Posts
This is one type of content that tends to go viral if well written. They are known to go viral quickly if they're packed with value.
c) Pillar Content
This is the best type of content that every blogger should strive to create. Pillar content markets itself efficiently because of the value it carries. A significant characteristic of pillar content is that it remains relevant for a long time and will still be valuable years to come.
There are other types of content, but these are the most important in the blogosphere.
3. Market Your Blog
Publishing your blog is one thing, and marketing it is an entirely different thing. Marketing your blog seconds your blogging efforts by ensuring it finds its way to the relevant audiences. As a rule of thumb, spend 70% of your efforts in creating exceptional and valuable content.
The other 30% should go towards marketing the blog. However, ensure you’re spending time on effective marketing strategies. Here are some strategies you should consider:
a) Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is the most effective and produces more traction and recognition than you could imagine. Facebook today is an example of viral marketing strategy. Experts predict that it might soon overtake Google if the status quo remains.
The secret behind viral marketing is having content that sells. It's better to have one value-packed post than several that don’t help in driving traffic. Don't forget that there are factors that determine how viral your content will go.
Among them is the quality of your headline!
b) Leverage
If combined with strong, valuable content, leveraging as a marketing strategy can be very useful. It’s a marketing strategy commonly used by top bloggers, which explains why they promote each other’s blog posts.
In trying to make effective use of leverage as a marketing strategy, let your partners know what they’ll gain. Keep in mind that the approach isn't all about you but also about your network.
One easy way to gain help from other bloggers is to help them when they need it. If they see they’re gaining more than you, they’ll be more than willing to extend a helping hand.
c) Social Media
Social media marketing is becoming increasingly popular and essential. If used the right way, social media can help you get thousands of views every day.
Two main approaches to social media marketing are
i) Learning the system on your own
ii) Working with influencers who’ve walked that route before you
If you want to work with the influencers, create strong relationships with them. There's no promise that this is a straightforward approach, and it might plunge you into learning the system.
4. Choose a Unique Design
After creating compelling content, you need to showcase it through an attractive platform. The design of your blog has a lot to do with its success. Many people will tell you the number of blogs they failed to read because of the poor design.
There are several approaches to making your blog’s design great-looking. One way is to choose from among the many available premium themes available online.
Alternatively, you can have a professional designer create a custom theme for you.
5. Creativity Matters
When starting a blog, it’s highly likely that you’ll fail one or a few times. The good thing, the production costs in the digital world are low. You can hence afford to experiment with a few ideas before you make the final decision.
Incorporate several different ideas, features, and functions. With a few tries, you’ll see what works and what doesn’t.
6. Persistence and Patience
Just like with any other venture, you can’t have a blog running overnight. Patience is a trait you must nourish in your blogging space. For a long time, it’ll appear as though nothing is happening.
With persistence, patience, and ongoing effort, you’ll soon reap from your efforts.
If you have the right mindset, blogging will be both an adventure and an opportunity to enhance your business.
Remain true to yourself and remain in your course. Don't be swayed from the one subject that made you passionate about blogging.
Key Take Away
Having a successful blog isn’t a matter of overnight success. A lot goes into putting it up and making it an authority in your niche.
One place to start is to establish a strong foundation for your blog. Choose a platform that’s easy to monitor and change accordingly. It also should allow you to choose from a variety of themes that’ll make your blog outstanding.
The content of your blog matters. Your customers are looking for valuable information, and it’s only fair that you get creative with your posts. Determine your audiences first before you start creating content. Do you want to sound casual or professional?
Remember to market your blog. There’s no need to have killer content that never gets read. As you strive to scale the heights, remember to practice a lot of patience and persistence.
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