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5 Ways To Tap Into The Power Of Blogging

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the power of blogging

Blogging has quickly emerged as a powerful resource to make a strong income. Before 2000, if you heard the word blog, you would have no idea what someone was talking about. WordPress did not even exist, and Blogger was launched in the middle of 1999. Less than 10 years after the first few blogs were created, many people reference blogs in their conversations. Blogging has become one of the core components towards online marketers’ successes. Millions of blogs are on the web, and more people want to get a piece of the action.

Now, blogs continue to grow in number. More bloggers want a reliable way to make a full-time income from the comfort of their own homes. The phrase home sweet home now has a new meaning. However, it does not take long for new bloggers to realize that the road to success and a full-time income is a long one. Many bloggers give up before they see their traffic increase at an exponential rate.

You don’t have to be one of those bloggers who gives up in the middle of the journey. You can stick with it and make a full-time income. In fact, with the right knowledge, you can reach the goal of making a full-time income from your blog quicker than most of the successful bloggers out there. In order to tap into the power of blogging, get the traffic you want, and get that full-time income, follow these five tips:

 

#1: Be Committed    

Blogging is not an activity that you can halfheartedly do. In order to become a successful blogger, you must be committed. You must write valuable blog posts that empower your readers, and you must write those blog posts at a consistent rate. I know there are some bloggers who succeed by writing at an inconsistent rate, but new bloggers who are not making as much revenue need to nail the consistency to boost commitment.

As you get more comfortable as a writer, I encourage you to write more blog posts and even increase the length of the blog posts that you write. The best way to become a better writer is by writing often. The amount of commitment you have for blogging determines how much you accomplish in that area of your life.

 

#2: Grow A Large Social Media Audience 

One of the most powerful methods of boosting blog traffic comes from growing a large social media audience and promoting your blog posts to that audience. My Twitter audience brings in a large portion of this blog’s visitors.

Not only does Twitter directly help attract more visitors, but Twitter also indirectly attracts more visitors. I know that there are several readers who visit my blog daily. Many of those people probably heard about my blog post in a tweet. Not only do people remember me from Twitter, but one of the big factors in SEO is the social media traffic that your blog gets. If my blog’s Twitter traffic doubled, then my SEO traffic would eventually double in a few days as well.

A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections. I interact with dozens of my followers every day, and some of those interactions have turned into strong connections.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections.[/tweetthis]

 

#3: Optimize Your Blog For Getting More Subscribers

A blogger’s revenue is defined by how many people are on the email list. The most successful bloggers on the web also happen to have tens of thousands of blog subscribers. That’s not a coincidence. The difference between a blog subscriber and any other visitor is that blog subscribers can be notified about your latest blog posts through email.

I notify my blog subscribers at least once every week about my latest blog post. I don’t overwhelm them with multiple emails every day, and you don’t have to send daily emails in order to see life changing traffic. All you need to do is grow your email list larger and larger so each of the emails you send out attract larger audiences.

One great way to get more subscribers is by creating and effectively promoting a landing page that collects email addresses. Pop-ups are also great at getting more blog subscribers.

 

#4: Create Your Own Products

Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. Creating products such as books and training courses that a service automatically gives to customers will allow you to make money in your sleep. How cool would it be to wake up to an extra $200? I think that would be a great way to start off the day.

Many bloggers decide to offer consultation sessions and have ads on their blogs. I like the idea of offering consultation sessions. However, consultation sessions can only bring in so much revenue since you can only be available for your clients for so many hours. I believe consultation sessions can be used to achieve a five figure income, but a six figure income would be a bit too much (unless you charge a very high price for your consultation sessions or have numerous hours available for sessions).

Having advertisements on a blog, however, is simply not worth it. Most bloggers only make a few dollars from their ads every month. Advertisements can only provide a somewhat stable income for the big players who get hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. Even then, it would be more effective to promote your product instead of an ad. 99% of the time, a product sale leads to more revenue than an ad click. Offering multiple products also brings forth the possibility of returning customers. Who would possibly want to be a returning ad-clicker?

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. [/tweetthis]

 

#5: Optimize Your Blog For SEO

SEO is a powerful outlet for getting more blog traffic. Over three billion people search something on Google every day which means understanding the language of SEO will allow you to boost your blog traffic. I wrote an article about boosting SEO, but don’t stop there.

The Huffington Post wrote an article about SEO. So did Forbes. SEO is one of the most important ways to boost your blog traffic. Growing a social media audience is a reliable way to boost your SEO, and there are other methods as well.

To many new bloggers, intermediate, and even some advanced bloggers, SEO sounds very confusing. I remember when I first started blogging and struggled to understand what I needed to do to boost my blog’s SEO. Although writing valuable content is one factor towards good SEO, there are other factors that go deeper than providing valuable content. When I started on my journey, I found SEOmoz extremely helpful. Be sure to take a look at their free guide.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun activity that has the potential to bring in a large income. There are some bloggers on the web who make over $1 million from their blogs. Regardless of what you think of the idea right now, you could be the next blogger who makes a six figure income, a seven figure income, and beyond.

Blogging, and the web in general, has given our culture the unique ability for anyone to succeed despite the amount of revenue they currently make, age, and any other limiting factors. The web and blogging is filled with limitless possibilities. Utilizing these possibilities to spread your message will allow you to not only make a strong income, but also live the ideal life. I’d rather make no money at all than be at a despised $500,000/yr job that tears my family apart.

You have the option to love what you write blog posts about because you can write about anything that interests you. Frank Kerns, a very successful online marketer, started with dog training videos. His training courses he provided for dog trainers and owners got a large number of sales. No matter what you have a passion for, it can be turned into a blog and products.

Which of these tips did you like the most? Do you have any other tip you would like to add? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Make Money With A Blog

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Make Money With Blog

Although there are bloggers who are absolutely crushing it on the web, other bloggers wonder if it is even possible to make any money in the first place. When it comes to making money with their blogs, most bloggers are confused and try a variety of methods to boost their income.

Some of these bloggers fall prey to the advice of taking surveys and clicking on paid links to bring in revenue. Activities similar to those eat up a giant chunk of your time every day but don’t show much for it. Even if you make $500 every month by taking surveys (that would be a great income for a person who takes surveys), that only adds up to $6,000 every year which is not enough to support a family or amplify your message.

The solution is to implement fewer, but more powerful tactics that bring in a steady stream of income. The days of taking surveys are over. The days of making thousands of dollars in your sleep are now here. In order to make a good amount of money with your blog, utilize these five methods.

 

#1: Offer Consultation Sessions 

Offering consultation sessions is a great way to bring in more revenue and make connections at the same time. My recommendation is to start with a low price, and as you get more clients, increase your price point. Compared to the other methods, consultation sessions bring in a quick, sizable amount of money, but they do take up time and force you to constantly change your schedule so you can talk with your clients.

The goal of every consultant should be to eventually charge thousands of dollars for a few hours. That way, getting one client every month means making thousands of dollars every month, and having fewer clients will open up more time you can use to implement the other four methods for making money with a blog.

 

#2: Create Your Own Training Courses

You have knowledge that many people want. Some people have become millionaires by offering advice as practical as dog training advice. Training courses have been sold for hundreds of dollars, and the really good training courses have been sold for over $1,000 (not to say that any training course under $1,000 is sub par or not phenomenal). A basic training course with a few videos can be completed in about a week. Some training courses that didn’t even take two hours to create are now generating thousands of dollars in revenue every month. Imagine what you could do if you created multiple training courses, and they all made multiple sales every day.

 

#3: Create Your Own Membership Sites

Out of all of the methods, creating your own membership sites represents the most stable way to earn an income. While sales of products can spike and decline, once someone is a member, that person always pays a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual fee for being a member. If someone gets access to your membership site for $9.99/month, and that person sticks around, then you can always count on making $9.99/month from that one member.

Then, imagine if you had 100 members like that. Now you are making $999/month which is about $12,000 every year. That’s not bad for an inexpensive membership site with only 100 members. What if the membership site had 500 members? What if you had 10 membership sites with 100 members each? What if members each paid $19.99/month instead of $9.99/month? The possibilities are endless.

The best part is that the income you generate from a membership site acts as the foundation for future months. If you get 20 members in July, and you only get 10 members in August, then you are still making more money from your membership site in August than you made in July (in August, you have a total of 30 members while in July, you had a total of 20 members). The foundation simply continues to get stronger as your membership sites accumulate more members.

 

#4: Promote Affiliate Links

Depending on the products you promote, the commission rates, and traffic, an affiliate can make anywhere from a few dollars every month to thousands of dollars every day. Some affiliate even get a recurring commission when they get someone to buy membership to a membership site with an affiliate link. Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare are four websites that offer a variety of products with affiliate links.

The only problem with affiliate sites is that typically, with great power comes great irresponsibility. You should only promote the products that you have tried for yourself and believe in. Do not grab the affiliate link for a product just because that product has a high price or promises a higher commission. Only promote the products that you can truthfully say are incredible.

When you use affiliate links, it is also important to avoid turning this method into your #1 source of income. Although some affiliate marketers make strong incomes from their links, these marketers depend on other brands and entrepreneurs to continue producing products. In addition, affiliate marketers have no control over the commission rates. If Amazon decided to cut the commission rate from 4% to 2%, then too bad for the affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make more revenue, but you need to create your own products and market them as well.

 

#5: Write Your Own Books

Writing your own books and promoting them on your blog serves two benefits. The first benefit is that writing and promoting your own books has the potential to bring in more revenue. The second benefit is that writing books allows you to become a better writer. Part of the process in getting more sales is how much a potential customer appreciates the value they get from your free content. Many customers see a paid product as an enhancement of free value. Therefore, the better your free value is, the more highly your customers will think of your products.

Writing books and making money from them is more than just writing a book, putting it on the Kindle, and hoping for the best. Ultimately, there are two main strategies you can take to writing books. The first strategy is self-publishing short books in bulk and hoping that they all bring in a few sales every day. The second strategy is to publish one major book every 1-2 years, promote it like crazy, and turn it into a bestseller.

My recommendation for new authors is to start with the first strategy. When authors are new, their audiences are not as large which means the chances of becoming a bestselling author are very slim. New authors would have a better chance of writing books in bulk and getting a few sales every day from those books. If you needed to get 16 book sales every day to make $1,000 every month, think of how much easier it would be if you wrote 16 books compared to if you only wrote two books. When you write 16 books, each book only needs to get one sale every day while if you only wrote two books, those two books have to each bring in eight daily sales. It is easier to achieve the same income goals if you have published multiple books, but if you choose this strategy, you must also ensure that your books still contain valuable content.

 

In Conclusion

There are many ways to make money with a blog. However, it does not take long for a blogger to realize that not all income opportunities are created equal. Some revenue generating activities eat up valuable time and don’t bring in a decent income.

Surveys take up a giant chunk of time but rarely bring in a good amount of income. Even if you somehow manage to make $1,000 every month from surveys (now everyone who takes surveys wants to know your secret, and you’re probably taking surveys for half of the day), taking survey after survey on topics you are not fond of is a bad way to make money on the web.

Instead, you could be making a six figure income, seven figure income, and beyond. Although most bloggers do not bring in much revenue, there is also a large group of bloggers that make six figure incomes just from their blogs.

You may not be making any money with your blog. You may be seeing progress at this stage of the game. You may even be making thousands of dollars every month. Regardless of where you are at this stage of the game, your blog can generate more revenue, and it can become your primary source of a full-time income.

What are your thoughts about making money with a blog? Which method did you like the most? Do you have any other methods you would like to share that bloggers can use to increase their revenue? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Write 10,000 Words Every Day

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Write 10,000 Words Every Day

How much would your life change if you could write 10,000 words every day? I know that may sound like a strange question, but hear me out. For a blogger, that could mean having months of blog posts scheduled in advance in just one week of work. For a self-published author, that could mean self-publishing three books every month. Self-publishing these extra books can lead to more revenue, and having all of those blog posts scheduled in advance creates more time to launch training courses and promote products.

For me, having the ability to write 10,000 words every day allows me to write books at a fast pace and have blog posts scheduled in advance. I utilized this ability to completely systematize the writing part of my business for a few months so I could focus on creating more Udemy courses, membership sites, and other big product ideas that I come up with (you’ll be seeing a bunch of them very soon).

One of the best tips I could give to write more words every day is to create outlines for the content you plan on writing. I write down all of the key points I want to discuss in a blog post before I actually go and write that blog post. When I am writing a book, I always plan out the book’s structure before I start writing it.

Writing 10,000 words every day also requires that you spend a good portion of your time writing. Many people give themselves big goals but do not give themselves a sufficient amount of time to accomplish those goals. Many people want to write 10,000 words every day, but most people only give themselves 1-2 hours to accomplish this goal.

Even if you give yourself two hours to write 10,000 words, that’s 5,000 words every hour. Do you have enough concentration and ideas laid out for you to write 83 words every minute (more than one word every second)? If you look away for a few seconds, it takes a few seconds for the computer to show what you typed, scratch at an itch, or you made a mistake and want to rephrase a sentence at any point in those two hours, then you are falling behind. That sounds really harsh, but that is the standard people create for themselves when they don’t give themselves enough time to write the content.

When I write 10,000 words every day, I typically give myself 5-6 hour to get the job done (since I don’t work for someone else, I can do that). That means I am writing at most 2,000 words every hour. This adds up to a more flexible 33 words per minute. At this writing rate, you can scratch an itch or rephrase a sentence in peace while ensuring that you reach your goal. If you want to accomplish a big goal, you have to put in a large amount of time and effort towards that goal.

Finally, you must write about something you enjoy. If your fingers are not flying across the keyboard, and you are not passionate about the topics you choose to write about, then writing will become more of a chore than a fun activity. The most successful writers see writing as a fun activity primarily because they have full control over what they write about. The same writers who write New York Times bestselling books would feel uncomfortable writing about topics that they knew nothing about or despised. Find your niche, and write about it. When you decide to expand your niche, only expand your writing to the topics you have a passion for.

 

In Conclusion

Writing 10,000 words every day is a challenging task, but it is not impossible. You can write more words each day by applying the tactics in this blog posts. The most important tactic in this blog post is to write about the topics you are passionate about. Without the passion for the topic, none of the other tips can fall into place.

What were your thoughts on these writing tips? Do you have any other writing tips for us? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Three Most Debated Blogging Practices

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Blogging Practices

Millions of blogs now dominate the web, and over 150,000 blogs are created every day. Throughout this strong run blogging has had over the years, thousands of tips, books, and training courses have been created to empower people with the knowledge they need to become successful bloggers.

However, some of the advice in products and articles about blogging contradict each other. In many cases, contradictions occur because both sides of the argument can lead to better results. These contradictions have led debate around a bunch of blogging practices for several years. In this article, I am going to discuss my thoughts on the three most debated blogging practices.

 

#1: Blogging Frequency

I could probably write an entire book on this one blogging practice. Many people say you should blog consistently while a few people say you should blog inconsistently. People have mixed opinions about whether to publish daily, weekly, or at a frequency in between. Few bloggers suggest only publishing one blog post every month, but some bloggers succeed by writing at that frequency. Few bloggers suggest publishing multiple blog posts every day, but some bloggers publish new content at that rate, and get phenomenal results from it.

My blogging frequency has been around all of those spectrums. My Red Sox Blog was updated inconsistently. Sometimes, I would update it every day. At other times, I would update it every week or month, but never in a consistent pattern. That blog was basically my crash course to blogging in general.

Then, I wrote a Lego blog that got updated every week or two depending on how many other obligations I had. Then, I wrote a blog called Yugioh Philosophy that got updated every day. Once this blog you are reading surpassed the Yugioh Philosophy Blog in traffic and my overall passion went to digital marketing, I decided it was time to focus all of my efforts on this blog. In a few months, I went from daily posts to one blog post every 12 hours. Now, I only update this blog three times every week.

Here are the five reasons I decided to update my blog only three times every week:

  1. If you write longer blog posts, readers stay on your blog for a longer period of time. This is great for SEO.
  2. Longer blog posts tend to get shared the most, and most of the articles on Page 1 of Google are over 2,000 words long.
  3. Writing fewer blog posts makes writer’s block less likely because I only have to think about three ideas every week instead of 14 (writer’s block was a commonplace back then).
  4. I can go more in depth on the topics I choose to write about.
  5. It is less time consuming. Writing longer blog posts is less time consuming than writing shorter blog posts but spend most of the time struggling to think of the next sentence.

My recommendation is to write one blog post every day to get a feel for blogging, and once you become a passionate blogger, write three lengthy blog posts every week.

 

#2: Blog Post Length

I touched upon this debated blogging practice earlier, so I’ll be more brief than before. Seth Godin is one of the few people who gets away with short blog posts (that’s because he has a powerful influence over millions of people). However, the blog posts on QuickSprout (QuickSprout gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors) indicate that longer blog posts are the ones that become popular on the search engines and get shared more often.

Typically, the longer blog post gets more traffic than the shorter one. Search engines detect more keywords (but don’t overstuff your blog posts with keywords since that hurts SEO), and people read the longer blog posts for a longer period of time (this results in more engagement and subscribers). Just by writing longer blog posts, I almost doubled the amount of time people spend on my blog.

 

#3: Pop-Ups and Advertisements

One thing I am against is putting advertisements on a blog. Many people see advertisements as distractions that don’t bring in enough money (if you’re getting paid $1 a day for advertisements on your blog, then that’s more than most people). Instead of promoting ads on your blog, you should promote your products and subscription box so you can build valuable relationships that turn into more revenue than a pesky ad that brings in a few pennies per click.

At first glance, pop-ups look like giant ads. Pop-ups used to annoy me, but I have come to appreciate them. In fact, I use a pop-up on this blog to promote my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter (you can grab your free copy here). In fact, if you haven’t seen it already, you may see it soon enough. Pop-ups are not giant ads; they are giant calls to action. Pop-ups allow your readers to know in a nutshell what they get for entering their name and email address. If you are looking for a reliable pop-up, then look no farther than Pop-Up Domination. I used Pop-Up Domination to create my own pop-up, and the entire process of creating your own pop-up and connecting your email service is simple and straightforward.

 

In Conclusion

Out of all of the blogging practices I have implemented and seen others implement, these are the three practices that have received the most debate. I myself have debated these very issues multiple times throughout various blog posts, and as I continued to write blog post after blog post, my views of these topics slowly changed.

I used to believe in short and simple daily blog posts, but now I only write three long, information-packed blog posts every week. I used to think that pop-ups were evil, but now I run them on my blog (and they increase subscribers quite nicely). I knew right from the start that advertising was evil, and I can never imagine a day when a pesky ad finds its way on my blog. I do use Adsense for my YouTube videos, but putting those ads on my blog would be too much for me to bear.

In the end, your views on these blogging practices will change based on how you implement these blogging practices and how your needs change. You may never implement advertisements, but you may realize it’s time to put a pop-up on your blog.

What are your thoughts on these three blogging practices? Do you have any other blogging practices that you would like to open for debate? Please share your thoughts and other blogging practices below.

7 Ways To Get Your Blog Visitors To Engage With You

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Blog Visitors Engaging

Are you writing valuable blog posts, but you wish more people would leave comments? Do you wish some of your visitors would share your blog posts more often?

The most successful blogs are the ones that get readers to engage with the content. The more readers engage with the content by reading and sharing it, the more likely those readers are to come back, view more of your content, and eventually buy your products. However, the majority of blogs on the web are not getting the amount of engagement they deserve.

Some bloggers are writing valuable content, but that valuable content does not have any comments or social shares to show for it. Even though some of these blog posts may be getting traffic, conversations are not developing, and visitors are not sharing them enough. In order to boost engagement in your blog posts so more people comment and share them, follow these seven methods.

 

#1: Have A Good Headline

Many people read a blog post’s headline to determine whether that blog post is good to read or not. Visitors who get confused by the headline don’t bother reading the rest of the content. It is the catchy, informative, hilarious, stunning, and headlines with numbers/statistics/case studies that bring forth attention. You can either focus on one of those elements or combine multiple elements together. It is possible to write an informative blog post headline with some numbers included. It is also possible to write a blog post headline that indicates a hilarious case study.

One of the easier ways to write better headlines is by looking at how the top people in your niche write their headlines. What are the common patterns that the top people in your niche use? Once you identify top patterns, see how you can replicate these top patterns while putting in your own personal touch.

 

#2: Ask Questions In Your Blog Post

Did you know that asking questions is a great way to perk up a reader’s interest in your content? Asking questions throughout your blog posts, especially at the beginning, adds the conversation component to your blog posts.

Many bloggers write their blog posts like one-sided conversations that basically say, “Do this. Do these other things. Here’s a nice summary of what I said. You’ll do fine.” Some blog posts forget the 4th part because the typical blogger is so focused on providing value. The 4th part is having a conversation with your reader.

Asking questions allows the sense of having a conversation to return to our writing. When you have a conversation with a reader through your writing, that reader will be more likely to continue the conversation by leaving a comment. Maybe the reader enjoyed the conversation so much that the reader will share your blog post on one of her social networks.

 

#3: Encourage Comments In The Final Paragraph

Ask, and you will receive more times than not. Why not give it a try? That’s what I thought when I added a final paragraph that encouraged comments, and I have been pleased with the results. In this final paragraph, you can simply summarize the blog post, ask a few questions, and then ask your readers for their opinion about your article or if they would like to contribute (does the reader have another tip that she would like to share?).

 

#4: Respond To Comments

Asking questions in your blog posts brings back that sense of having a conversation. Commenting allows your readers to continue that conversation. However, many bloggers make the mistake of turning the comments section into a one-sided conversation. These bloggers simply approve each comment they get without responding.

Some of your readers want to have conversations on the web, and if you have a big audience and great credentials, people will enjoy having a conversation with you. There are a group of people with incredible credentials that we would all want to have a conversation with. The people in this group differ for every individual, but we have that group of people who we would like to talk with. Some of your most devoted readers will regard you with such high esteem that, for the reader, you may fall into that special category. When you respond to all of the comments you get, there is a chance that you respond to a reader who greatly appreciates what you do.

You may notice that I make it a point to respond to every comment I get. Responding to comments allows me to build stronger connections with my readers, know who visits often, and even have long conversations with one person about one blog post. Having a conversation with your reader is like giving them the free prize they didn’t expect. Many of them will come back, read your blog often, and comment on other blog posts that you write (and therefore have more conversations with you).

Some readers may feel encouraged to comment because they know I will respond to them. Responding to comments also doubles the total number of comments my blog posts have. If 10 different people comment on one of my blog posts, the blog post actually shows up with 20 comments because I respond to all of the comments.

The higher number builds social proof (a blog post with 20 comments must be getting more attention than a blog post with 10 comments) that leads to more people reading that particular blog post and then leaving their own comments as well.

 

#5: Post Valuable Content

No matter how many questions you ask in your blog post, readers are only going to read a blog post from start to finish if that blog post provides value. The value is ultimately what makes readers read entire blog posts and want to comment at the end. You have no control over whether the reader comments on your blog post or not. The only way your reader is going to comment is if that reader wants to leave a comment.

Valuable content will encourage the reader to leave a comment, often out of gratitude. Then, follow through by responding to the comment, and you may end up having a long conversation with one of your readers. These long conversations are good because some readers who have long conversations with you may feel inclined to buy your products.

 

#6: Make Your Visitors Stay On Your Blog For A Longer Period Of Time

Some of the visitors who stumble across your blog may decide that the first blog post they read is not the right one for them. If a reader interested in Twitter advice first stumbles across about Instagram advice, then the Instagram blog post is not the right one for that particular reader. Many readers who feel as if the content is not the right content for them will look for something else to read (either another article on your blog or someone else’s blog).

It is at this point when many readers click on the back button. On blogs that are optimized to solve this issue, readers who initially did not find what they were looking for don’t click the back button. Instead, they find a desirable article on your blog before clicking the back button. These optimized blogs make it easy for visitors to view categories, popular articles, and the archives. The more organized your blog is, the longer people will stick around.

Another factor that will make people stick around for a longer period of time is the length of your blog posts. Longer blog posts get people to stick around for a longer period of time. In less than one month after writing longer blog posts, I was able to get my visitors to stay on my blog from an average of one minute and 20 seconds to an average of two minutes and 10 seconds. That is a dramatic increase in the blogging industry. Readers who read your content for a longer period of time will be more likely to comment on your articles.

 

#7: Make Visitors Appreciate You

I believe this method is one of the most forgotten methods to get more comments on blog posts. There are some readers who comment on certain blogs because they like the blogger. This is one of the best ways to get more comments on your blog because it establishes a powerful connection between you and the reader. These are the types of connections that lead to returning visitors, subscribers, customers, and opportunities.

 

In Conclusion

Getting more people to comment on your blog posts no longer has to be impossible. Although implementing these tactics may not bring forth overnight results, these methods will help your blog posts get more engagement over the long-term. This engagement is crucial towards strengthening the relationship between you and your readers. You can tell who your most devoted readers are based on the number of comments they have left in the past.

How did you like this blog post? Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for us to boost the engagement we get from our blog posts? Please share below.

How To Make Your Blog Hit A Tipping Point

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Blog Tipping Point

The tipping point is one of the most desired points to hit for any blogger. The tipping point represents a giant surge of traffic that increases beyond expectations. It is the type of traffic that takes a blog from a few hundred visitors every month to thousands of daily visitors in a relatively short period of time.

When my blog hit its tipping point, it originally got 500 views every month. Then, month by month, my viewership doubled until this blog got to 25,000 monthly views. It only took a few months to make that big transition. While this transition was taking place, I was utilizing many tools and resources to grow my presence, but I did not know everything that I know now. In order to make your blog hit a tipping point, these are the six things you need to focus on:

 

#1: Provide Valuable Content

Promoting your content only goes so far. One thing that determines your success as a blogger is how many people promote your content. Few people are capable of making content go viral on their own.  Only the Oprah types can accomplish such a feat. 99% of the time, content goes viral when the people in your audience share that content with their friends, and those friends share the content with their friends. Repeat the process a dozen times with each friend, and then you have viral content.

However, people are not going to talk about your content just because it is there. People primarily talk about extremely poor or valuable content. The poor content gets bashed while the valuable content gets praised. Valuable content is the content that wins on the web and gets shared the most. Valuable content results in more returning visitors and stronger relationships between you and your readers. Don’t be afraid to provide free value on your blog. In many cases, it is the free value that encourages the sale. So you’ll make more money anyway.

 

#2: Grow Your Email List

You have to listen to me on this one. I started focusing on my email list a few years after creating this blog. That was by far, undoubtably, without question the biggest mistake I made with this blog (I’m emphasizing this for a reason). Out of the first 100,000 visitors who visited this blog, I didn’t even get 300 subscribers because my blog was poorly optimized to get more subscribers. Your email list is so important because it gives you an easy way to communicate with your subscribers, and the click through rates are incredible. Even if you only get a 5% click through for your emails, that is a much higher statistic than the percentage of click throughs you would get on social media (almost always under 1%).

Some marketers go as far to say that the size of your email list indicates your income. Most of the successful bloggers who make six figure incomes have over 10,000 subscribers (although having 10,000 subscribers does not guarantee a six figure income, having that many subscribers is very helpful). These blogs get a surge in traffic when an email blast gets sent to subscribers promoting the latest article. Imagine having a list of 10,000 email addresses, and 7% of those people clicked on the link. That’s an extra 700 visitors just from that one email. Some of those visitors may decide to share the blog post on social media (very helpful for SEO) or write a blog post about your blog post. Most of the blog posts that I promote on this blog (that aren’t mine) are blog posts written by Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his emails every day for over two years. That’s not a coincidence. I typically share links to blog posts that I read in my inbox first.

Don’t make the same mistake I made. Build your email list now. It is your number one priority for turning blogging into a full-time income.

 

#3: Grow Your Social Media Audience

Once you write valuable content and have landing pages set up to collect email addresses, those pages need visibility. The web is a noisy place with millions of blogs. Someone finding your blog (or anyone’s blog for that matter) is like finding the needle in the haystack. Some needles in the haystack get found more often than others. In order for your needle (blog) to be found in the haystack (the web) more often, you need to promote your content on social media.

Not only is building your social media audience a great way to promote your content, but it is essential towards establishing your authority on the web. Having a large social media audience gives you better social proof. Think about it this way. Would you rather buy the Twitter guide from the person with 100 followers or the person with 100,000 followers? Would you rather take the Facebook course from the trainer with 1,000 Facebook likes or the trainer with 1 million Facebook likes. When you grow your social media audience, you can use the social proof to boost your credibility.

No matter what you do, never resort to buying fake followers. Not only does it hurt your credibility, but the fake followers will never engage with you. They will also make your real followers feel uncomfortable. Here is an interesting case study from Social Media Today about someone who bought 50,000 Twitter followers (and was disgusted by the results).

 

#4: Boost Your Blog’s SEO

To many bloggers, SEO is still confusing. The main reason SEO seems confusing is because there are so many factors that go into a search engine’s ranking system. Some search engine tactics such as adding alt tags do not necessarily improve the value of your blog posts. Those types of search engine improvements are the ones that get done behind the scenes so search engines can understand what your blog is about.

My recommendation is to only learn a few SEO methods at a time and implement them one by one. Focus on improving your blog’s bounce rate, linking to your other blog posts, including alt tags in your pictures, growing your social media audience (that helps with SEO) and writing longer blog posts (while keeping the value). My recommendation is to master one of these tips at a time and then move on to a new set of tips. You can start with any five tips you desire. I wrote a blog post that contains a few more tips about boosting your blog’s SEO.

 

#5: Put In More Work Than You Already Are

If you want to make it to the next level in anything, then you have to put in the next level of work. The more time you commit to blogging, the farther you will go. If you spend twice as much time researching different tactics you can use to boost SEO, get more subscribers, and grow your social media audience, then you will have twice as much knowledge in those areas. If you spend twice as much time writing content, then that content will probably be longer and more valuable.

It is possible to reach a tipping point for your blog, but reaching that tipping point (or anything important and worth the time) is not an easy task. I wrote blog posts every day even when I knew no one would see them. It was the process of writing every day that allowed me to get better, learn new tricks, and turn my blog into what it is today.

 

#6: Persistence

A blogger’s journey is one of persistence. For the average blogger, it takes a few years before his efforts turn into a full-time income. Every blogger, even the most successful ones, started out with no audiences of their own. Successful bloggers had to fight their way through the noise as they grew their email lists and social media audiences. It takes months of research to master SEO and a few weeks of research to learn what happens when Google comes out with a major search engine update.

If you are persistent, and you learn new techniques along the way, then you will become a successful blogger. Be patient, continue to put in the work, and success will greet you on the other side.

 

In Conclusion

Tipping points take a lot of work to pull off, but any blogger can experience a tipping point, the moment when traffic soars more than ever before. Even the most successful bloggers experience tipping points in their social media audiences, blog traffic, and the number of subscribers they get.

The key to becoming a successful blogger is by being persistent and learning new techniques along the way. Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for bloggers who want to reach their tipping points? Please share your thoughts and advice below.