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The Ultimate Guide To Creating An Effective Blog Strategy

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Blog Strategy Guide

Success consists of various routes. Some people become successful by investing in stocks, singing very well, playing a sport very well, writing very well, or doing something very well that leads to a profit and meaningful, positive recognition. Success on the web also consists of various routes. Some people build their businesses around Twitter while others build their businesses around Facebook.

Although success on the web consists of various routes, 99% of all of the successes on the web have this in common—they all have successful blogs. Blogs are no longer online diaries. They allow you to build relationships with a targeted audience like never before. Blogs are now like business cards—you need them. Many people know that blogs are essential, and numerous people who visit my blog have blogs of their own.

However, having a blog does not guarantee that the blog will become successful or contribute towards your brand’s growth. Having a blog just means you have something that can potentially have a huge impact on your brand. Turning that potential into a reality is the challenge that all bloggers face at the beginning of their journeys. The most successful people who make their revenue on the web turned that potential into reality.

In order to get the same results from your blog, you must have an effective strategy in place. This effective strategy must account for various areas that all contribute towards blog growth, but in particular, it must account for traffic, SEO, social media, and subscribers.

 

Traffic

Without traffic, your blog won’t have an impact on your brand. You must come up with different methods of boosting your blog’s traffic and then implement those methods to see which methods bring forth the best results. You can use SEO, social media, and an email list to get more traffic, and I believe these three traffic-boosting methods are the most effective methods available. However, when you are first starting out, you need to generate some short-term traffic. Here are some tips that will help you generate the short-term traffic:

  1. Engage in forums based on the community guidelines. Don’t be over-promotional.
  2. Comment on viral pins. Your comment will almost always show up on the top since most pins (even the viral ones) get fewer than three comments.
  3. Encourage your friends and family to share your blog on their social networks. Social media shares will get you more blog traffic from the social networks and Google because social shares are critical factors in Google’s ranking system.
  4. Write guest posts and ask other bloggers within your niche to mention one of your top blog posts in the future.
  5. Write a lot of content. Longer blog posts rank better on Google, and updating your blog consistently also helps.

 

SEO

Once you start generating some short-term traffic, you should start learning more about SEO. My advice with SEO is to approach it with caution. There are thousands of SEO-related articles, and it is easy to get confused with the entire process of optimizing your blog for Google. It took me several years to master SEO, but part of the delay was that I spent most of my time on other things such as writing content and polishing up my writing skills. The first few blog posts I wrote were decent at best, but my writing has improved since then. Not only did I have to improve my writing, but I also had to learn how to optimize a blog to get more subscribers and to provide a noteworthy experience for first-time visitors. I read a few SEO articles every month, and now I am able to read them with greater intensity since my blog is optimized to perform well. To save you from reading countless SEO articles, I compiled a list of methods you can use to boost your blog’s SEO.

  1. Write longer blog posts. According to SEO expert Neil Patel, most of the blog posts on the first page of Google’s search results are 2,000 words or longer.
  2. Write blog posts at a consistent rate, preferably multiple blog posts per week. Google appreciates it when you update your blog consistently. No matter how good your blog is, if your blog does not get updated consistently and often, Google won’t put your blog on the first page. Google prefers to show blogs that get updated with fresh content. When was the last time you went to the first page of a Google search result and came across a blog post that was published two years ago on a now dormant blog?
  3. Use smaller pictures. Resizing a big picture into a small picture does not work here. You must choose pictures for your blog posts that are small from the start. I use Canva to create the pictures that I use for my blog posts. It is a free tool with a lot of versatility. Using small pictures makes your blog posts load faster, and speed time is another big factor of Google’s ranking system.
  4. Link back to your older blog posts. When I find it relevant, I will use a new blog post to promote an older blog post (just like this. NOTE: it’s an SEO blog post). Promoting your older blog posts will give those blog posts more traffic. A highly populated old blog post indicates evergreen content, and the search engines will promote it more often. The main function of this strategy is to decrease your blog’s bounce rate, and a low bounce rate lets search engines know that people stay on your blog for a long period of time. The search engine logic is that since people stay on your blog for a long period of time, it must be interesting. Therefore, the search engines promote your content with more intensity.
  5. Write blog posts with keywords. Although you want to avoid keyword stuffing (using the same keyword in every sentence just for the sake of SEO), you should use keywords in your blog posts often, and especially at the very beginning of your content.

It is better to apply a few methods to boost your SEO than it is to read hundreds of articles but not implement anything. Implement most or all of these tactics before you read numerous articles about SEO.

 

Social Media

The best way to strengthen your SEO in the beginning is to grow your social media audience and have that audience engage with your blog content. Getting more social shares from your social media audience will lead to an increased search engine ranking, and since you are growing a social media audience, you will get more traffic from your own social media accounts. When I started to get hundreds of daily visitors from Twitter, my SEO traffic increased to the same level, and the ratio of my Twitter traffic to SEO traffic is very close to 1:1.

Not only does social media provide you with more traffic and a better SEO rank, but you also get to interact with more people. Social media has allowed me to interact with thousands of people interested in my niche who now visit my blog and buy my products. Here are some tips to help you get started on social media:

  1. Focus on one social network in the beginning. Many people like to use them all and master them all in one go, but social media mastery does not work that way. Social media mastery works in the same way as trying to master multiple languages. You would not learn multiple languages at the same time because that would be confusing, and you would most likely end up being mediocre at a few languages but fluent in none of them. If you focus all of your time on one language, then it will be easier for you to become fluent in that language. In the same way, if you focus on learning one social network, then it will become easier for you to master that one social network. Moreover, once you master a social network, it will become easier for you to master a second social network, and each time you master another social network, it becomes easier for you to master the next social network that you attempt to master.
  2. Post consistently. The only way your followers will remember who you are is if they see you often. You can use a scheduling tool like HootSuite to schedule social media posts throughout the day.
  3. Interact with your audience. Interaction allows relationships to build, and some of the people you interact with will take you and your content more seriously after the interaction takes place. It will definitely be easier for these people to remember you and your brand.
  4. Grow a targeted audience. An audience consists of people. A targeted audience consists of people interested in your niche. There is a big difference between building an audience and building a targeted audience. When you interact with other people, look for the people who engage with the leaders in your niche. The people who engage with the leaders in your niche are targeted individuals who are interested in your niche. You want these types of followers to form your social media audience.
  5. Follow other people. The biggest mistake I made in the beginning of my Twitter journey was assuming I could get 100,000 followers and only follow a few dozen people. Although those numbers are possible, my account grew at a slow pace and got stuck at around 1,667 followers for an extended period of time. In short, this mindset did not work well for my social media audience. When I started following other people, and in particular, highly targeted individuals likely to follow back, my audience grew dramatically.

 

Subscribers

As the saying goes, “The money is in the list.” This powerful saying has encouraged thousands of bloggers to take their email lists more seriously. It is this saying that eventually led to my landing pages and optimizing my blog to grow my email list. You want to convert as many of your blog visitors as possible into subscribers because subscribers will buy your products and become returning visitors.

However, subscribers only engage with what you do if you interact with them often. You must send out at least one email blast every week to the people on your list so they constantly see your name in their inboxes. Although you don’t want to excessively send out email blasts, you must also send the email blast even if you lose subscribers. The reality about most email marketing efforts is that you will lose some subscribers every time you send an email blast, but if you never send an email blast, then you don’t get to tap into the goldmine that is your email list. Here are some tips to help you grow your email list:

  1. Get landing pages on your blog. Landing pages are optimized to collect email addresses. They typically offer a free prize that can only be received when someone enters his/her email address into a form. I use Optimize Press for my landing pages. The lowest price for Optimize Press is $97, but it is the best investment you can make as a WordPress.org blogger.
  2. Have a pop-up. Pop-ups work surprisingly well at getting more email subscribers. I was a bit skeptical to use a pop-up, but after I used Pop-Up Domination, my email list grew dramatically. Some technical problems prevented me from using the Pop-Up Domination plugin, and I saw a decline in the average number of subscribers I gained per day. If you buy a pop-up plugin, or any plugin for that matter, make sure that plugin comes with excellent support.
  3. Continue to get more traffic. At this point, this guide may sound like a yo-yo, and it should. The beauty of all four of these essential components of an effective blog strategy is that they all complement each other. More traffic leads to subscribers, and more subscribers leads to more traffic. Just get the cycle started, increase the power of that cycle, and then the cycle will continue itself as long as you continue writing blog posts and sending email blasts.
  4. Include a subscription form at the bottom of every blog post. I include a subscription form below my blog posts so that they people who enjoyed my blog post have easy access to a free resource that I offer in exchange for an email address. People who read through an entire blog post and appreciate the value will be more likely to subscribe, but no one will subscribe without a call-to-action. Including a subscription box or link to a landing page at the bottom of every blog post provides that consistent call-to-action.
  5. Use a paid emailing service. If you are not using a service like iContact, Aweber, or MailChimp, then you are not getting the best from your email marketing efforts. Many tools like Optimize Press work best with a paid emailing service, and these emailing services provide their users with functionality that free services don’t provide. Most of the paid emailing services provide their users with the ability to create autoresponders, segments, and send your own custom messages just to name a few of the available options.

 

In Conclusion

Creating an effective blog strategy requires you to focus on traffic, SEO, social media, and your email list. All four of these areas of blog growth complement each other well, and if you get a large enough audience through one of these methods (especially the email list), you can easily create a cycle in which people find you on social media, visit your blog, share it on social media (the social media visit and social share help SEO), and then these people may subscribe to your blog after reading one of your blog posts. Finally, these subscribers may decide to visit your blog and visit one of your social media accounts that you have on your blog’s sidebar. Then, the cycle continues. Continuing this cycle allows you to master blogging.

Which part of the effective blog strategy do you think is the most important? Do you have any tips to boost any of the four areas of the effective blog strategy? Do you think there is another essential factor to an effective blog strategy? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

9 Ways To Strengthen The Bond Between You And Your Readers

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Better Blogging Experience For Visitors

A blog is more than just a bunch of blog posts put together. A blog provides you with a method to build a bond between yourself and the people who visit your blog…your readers. Building these bonds with numerous readers results in returning visitors who may share your blog posts on their social networks and tell others about you.

Many bloggers who go viral end up going viral because of their own work and the help from others. Going at it alone won’t help your chances of standing out, going viral, and making a full-time income on the web. The readers you know well are the ones who will help make your content go viral. Building the bond between you and your readers requires the usage of multiple platforms and interaction methods. Here are nine of the ways you can strengthen the bond between you and your readers.

 

#1: Start Conversations On Their Social Media Posts

Some of the people you know well on Twitter (when I say well, I am referring to a reader who may be in a different continent but you have interacted before in a meaningful way) may tweet links to valuable articles on the web. Since the average Twitter user has a little under 500 followers, most Twitter users, and social media users in general, are not a part of many conversations. These people often use social media as a broadcasting platform without taking the time to respond to or start conversations.

What I have noticed is that if you start a conversation with these people in a meaningful way, they will most likely respond to you. Just repeat the process and have numerous conversations with the same people, and that bond between you and those followers will grow. Some of them may decide to interact on your social media posts and share your content. This strategy is not exclusive to Twitter because social networks were primarily created to make socializing much easier. Use social media as a broadcasting tool, but also use it for its main purpose.

 

#2: Thank Your Followers For Sharing Your Content

Each time someone shares one of my blog posts on a social network, I make it a point to thank that person for sharing my blog post. This is something that few people do, and it is a great way to stand out and build the bond between you and the person who shared your content. Thanking your followers works because your followers will realize that you care when they share your content and that you are deeply appreciative of them sharing your content.

Regardless of whether someone has 10 followers or 10,000 followers, I thank the person all the same. With billions of articles on the web to choose from, someone choosing to share your article on their social platform is a big honor. When I see someone sharing my content, I understand that plenty of options exist, but the person choose my content. When this thought enters my mind, even if it’s midnight and I want to go to bed, I ask myself how I could possibly sit back and not thank someone for sharing my blog post. These people will most likely reply, a conversation will ensue, and the bond will be strengthened.

 

#3: Reply To Their Comments

On this blog, I make it a point to reply to every comment I get. Of course, if a comment appropriately ends up in the spam folder, I won’t respond, but for the comments that relate to my blog post, I’ll respond to them. This requires more time on my part because I can’t click “Approve Comment” and go on my way. I have to take the time to formulate a response. While most of these responses take less than a minute to write, others can take 5-10 minutes.

Replying to your readers’ comments will encourage them to ask questions and interact with you more. Once they interact with you often, they will trust you more, and almost to the level of a very reliable friend.

Not only does replying to comments allow you to build the bond between you and your readers, but replying to comments also allows new bonds to begin. Some of your new readers will scroll down to the comments section and see that you reply to every comment. These readers may leave a comment to test whether you respond or not, or they may comment with a question and come back waiting for the answer.

 

#4: Email Your Readers

When a reader comments on your blog, once piece of information you get is the reader’s email address. An email address is very valuable because conversations that take place through email are the most meaningful conversations you can have other than the oldie but goodie face-to-face conversation.

The conversations you have with your readers are only meaningful if you email your reader in the proper manner. The best way to have the first conversation through email is to send an email with a brief introduction of yourself and thanking the person for going on your blog. You want the first interaction to be short, sweet, and to the point because people don’t have much time on their hands. We are constantly going from one thing to the next, and a five sentence email is much quicker to read than a five paragraph email.

Sending a short, sweet, and to the point email is a great way to start the conversation, but when you have someone’s email address, you also have a huge responsibility. That simple responsibility is to avoid being irresponsible with what you have. Some marketers in an attempt to grow their email lists may look at past blog comments and copy and paste the email addresses into the list. You never want to put an email address onto a list that your reader never subscribed to because that will effectively hurt the relationship between you and the reader. Some of your readers may appreciate getting the emails, but it is always good to ask the reader first before you use their email address in any way. My recommendation is to guide and hint your readers to the process (“get this free product by entering your email address on the landing page” instead of “can I put your email address on my email list so you get more emails from me”).

 

#5: Make Them A Part Of Your Next Blog Post Or Product Decision

Giving your readers influence in your own decisions is a powerful strategy to build the bond and get more exposure at the same time. When you make your readers a part of a big decision, and you reach a conclusion based on data from a poll or survey, you will have to entice the majority of your readers when you create your next product or write your next blog post.

Enticing the majority is important because that majority will feel as if it had a direct impact on your product or blog post. These people that form the majority of your readers will be more likely to buy your product, so you have more sales right then and there. They will also promote your product or blog post that you published to their friends because they influenced the decision. If they didn’t vote, maybe a different product or blog post would have been published instead. Get your readers involved in what you do.

 

#6: Shout Out Some Of Your Readers

Shouting out readers is a great way to build the bond between you and individual readers. I don’t always shout out readers, but I will retweet some of their tweets that I believe my followers could get value from. In other words, my shout outs look nothing like this:

“Shout out to my boy @username for being awesome. #ff”

My shout outs are random, and I rarely do them. Many people ask me for shout outs, but I’ll only shout out the people I believe match my audience’s interests. Just don’t get into the habit of doing too many shout outs because then people will beg you for them, and there is a big problem with asking for shout outs.

 

#7: Continue Showing Up

You can have a strong bond between you and your readers, but the moment you stop showing up, that bond gets weaker. If you are like most people, you look at your inbox every day expecting an email from the same person every day, and you enjoy reading this person’s emails. Then, imagine if that person suddenly stopped sending emails for an entire week. An entire month. An entire YEAR!

Most people would forget who that person was within a year. Since so many options exist on the web, it will be easy for people to find a substitute. Once the bond between you and your readers gets disconnected, your readers will look for another blogger to bond with.

Not only is it important to continue showing up in your readers’ inboxes, but it is also important to continue showing up on their social networks. I send over 100 tweets every day which makes me hard to miss. By showing up often on social media, your followers will share your content which exposes your content to more people who may be seeing it for the first time. Once you commit to a niche, never stop showing up, but when you show up, provide value. It is possible to run and take shortcuts. It is also possible to run and complete the entire workout from start to finish. There is a distinct difference between showing up and providing value each time you show up.

 

#8: Assess The Current Bond

Regardless of whether you get dozens of daily visitors or thousands of daily visitors to your blog, there is a bond building between you and your readers. One way to strengthen the bond is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the bond. Where are you lacking? Can those areas be improved in an efficient manner? Where are your strengths? How can you easily but effectively make those strengths stronger?

How is it possible to improve at anything if you don’t know where you currently are?

 

#9: Play Nice

If you wanted to make some friends at the playground, then you had to play nice. Many people gravitate towards the nice people, and that makes sense. Would you rather live with an angry person or a nice person every day?

When you build the bond between you and your readers, some of these readers will pay more attention to the way you interact with others. As you continue growing your audience, you will face criticism. Criticism is an inevitable part of life, and how you react to criticism will impact the bond between you and your readers. If you respond to criticism in a controlled manner, then your readers will respect you all the more for it. However, if you lose control when responding to critics, then the bond between you and your readers gets hurt.

Your reputation is the most important part of the bond that develops between you and your readers.

 

In Conclusion

Building the bond between you and your readers is essential for success as a blogger. Strong bonds entice readers to come back to your blog, promote your content, and buy your products along the way. With a bad reputation, the entire bond will fall apart, so you must preserve your good reputation and always look for ways to strengthen it.

What are your thoughts on building a bond between you and your readers? Do you have any additional tips for building that bond? Which of these methods was your favorite? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

When To Take A Break From Blogging

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Blogging break

At some point this year, I took a month off from writing blog posts. My blog still got updated three times each week, and I responded to blog comments and tweets. Basically, it was an invisible, unnoticed absence that did not require me to sacrifice my consistency.

I pulled it off by scheduling numerous blog posts in advance because of my policy of always having one month’s worth of blog posts scheduled in advance. Having this many blog posts scheduled allows me to focus more of my time on writing the content and less time stressing about the deadline. I had over two months to write this blog post, but I still wrote it well before the deadline. If I wrote this blog post on the day before the deadline, I would have stressed, and the quality of my work would have suffered. When I take a break from writing blog posts, I make sure it is possible without the risk of me losing my audience or publishing subpar content.

 

Why I Took My 1 Month Break

The break I took from blogging was used to reassess my strategy and see what I could do differently to reach more people and generate more revenue. Part of the strategy was to take Udemy seriously again. After the first two months of creating my Udemy account, I created two training courses that did well. For some odd reason, I stopped creating training courses and didn’t update my old ones, and I lost a lot of ground.

Now, I update my training courses often, and I have plans for several training courses. I have created a course about productivity and several about social media success. I also devised a plan for publishing books in a more effective manner to get more sales and publish them in bulk. I will publish several books by the end of the year, and I have already published a couple of books in 2015.

I did my research in the same manner I started my research a few years ago to discover how I could get more Twitter followers. I read dozens of articles about getting more Udemy sales and even took several courses where successful Udemy instructors discussed how they got more sales.

Basically, my one month break was not one of those breaks where I avoided my computer and stopped working like an entrepreneur. I put in more work during this month than I put in most of the previous months. This one month break helped me catapult forward when I continued writing blog posts and started to take Udemy seriously again.

 

Was It A Complete Break?

I did not write a blog post for an entire month, but that doesn’t mean I did nothing for my blog. I outlined some of the blog posts that I knew I would write after the month was over. I wrote a list of key points I would write about. That way, I gave myself a foundation for when I wrote blog posts again. Creating an outline for a blog post takes as little as five minutes, but it saves you from a lot of thinking while you are writing the actual blog post.

It takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to write a blog post, so only taking five minutes to create an outline saved me a massive amount of time. I used this extra time to do my research.

 

Would I Ever Take A Break Just For Fun?

I consider writing blog posts a fun activity, so I wouldn’t take a break just for the fun of it. The only two reasons I would take a break form blogging would be if I need to do extensive research on something or if I am on a vacation. When I am on a two week vacation, I like to embrace the vacation, and my productivity dips for obvious reasons. I can’t do any videos since I don’t bring the massive desktop with me (I don’t know the exact dimensions, but it is bigger than my suitcase, and it is fragile) and my microphone equipment is at home. That’s okay, and I don’t mind. I bring my Mac Book Pro with me to interact with people on social media, but that’s just about it. If I am at my house, then I am always doing something for my business.

 

You Never Know When You Need The Break

Some events may pop up, and you may not feel like writing blog posts for an extended period of time. It happens, but you have to be ready. Scheduling blog posts for at least one month in advance will allow you to take those unexpected breaks without sacrificing the consistency of your blogging. You may burn out one day and want to take the week off. Those small burn outs occasionally happen. Having blog posts scheduled in advance will allow you to take a break during the small burn outs without you worrying about your blog getting updated.

 

In Conclusion

There comes a point when writer’s block takes the joy out of blogging and a time when we must shift our attention to other things. We must be prepared at any moment to not write blog posts for an extended period of time. That is why I schedule numerous blog posts in advance. As I mentioned before, I always have over one month’s worth of blog posts scheduled. However, I also have a bunch of blog posts that I already wrote but did not schedule. In some cases, I could have as much as three month’s worth of blog posts scheduled at one time.

Having the blog posts scheduled in advance allows you to take a break without sacrificing the consistency of publishing a certain number of blog posts every week. Many dedicated bloggers may view taking a break from writing blog posts as sacrificing the commitment needed to become a successful blogger. However, if you write blog post outlines and make the transition back to a blogger (which is easy if you write blog posts often), then that won’t be a problem for you.

In some cases, the break you take from blogging can be more beneficial than if you were to continue blogging. When I did research to learn more about Udemy, I learned an entirely new method to generate revenue, and now Udemy is emerging as my top revenue source. I learned valuable lessons from taking the small break that I would not have learned if I was blogging at my rapid pace. Sometimes, especially in our busy world, a break every once in a while can be a good thing. With automation, you can take a break, and your audience still gets the content as if you never left.

How To Build An Authority On The Web

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Build Authority On The Web

Ever wonder how to build an authority on the web? I’m talking about the type of authority that allows you to become a credible leader in your niche, generate a full-time income, and help others. When you build an authority on the web, you become a beacon of excellence for others to follow. Building an authority on the web takes time, but a good portion of that time is spent searching for the blueprint. How can you do something if you don’t know how? You can’t solve a Rubik’s Cube unless you know the necessary steps. On the same token, you can’t become an authority on the web unless you know what it takes to become one. No more guessing. I’m showing you the blueprint.

 

#1: Provide Free Value

Providing value is essential for the success of your business and what you stand for. Many people understand this principle. However, some people have a natural tendency to skip over the word “free.” Some people believe they must only provide value in their products and that they can get away with haphazardly putting together the free stuff.

The problem with that approach is that customers nowadays look for the free value before they buy anything you sell. People are not visiting your blog or YouTube channel for the first time, eager to buy your product. They are looking for free value. Many of the people who buy my books read my blog posts first.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1Oja7M0″]Customers nowadays look for the free value before they buy what you sell.[/tweetthis]

The free value you provide is so important because one of the beliefs many customers have is that the paid product is better than the free product. Another belief shared by many customers is that if the free content and videos are duds, then that person’s paid products can’t be that good either. Providing free value in your blog posts and your YouTube videos allows them to spread, reach more people, make your products look better, and ultimately lead to more revenue. Think of the most successful blogger you know, and ask yourself whether that blogger’s free content is valuable or not. I read Seth Godin’s blog posts for a year or two before I decided to buy most of his books and training courses.

 

#2: Build Relationships

Providing free value is critical towards building healthy relationships with the people in your audience, but starting the relationships requires more than just valuable content. Building relationships means emailing people, interacting with people on social media, and responding to comments on your blog. If you look through the comments on my blog, you will notice that I respond to them. I respond to comments to encourage more conversation, build relationships with my readers, and let everyone know that I am a person who responds.

What many successful people tend to do is ignore others. Many people in high positions look at their email and don’t always address the newbie asking a few questions. I make it a point to respond to them. Taking the time to leave a quick response allows you to help others, and the people you help will see you as a role model of excellence. In the first welcome email I send, I let people know that I respond to the emails they send me. Of course, if I see an irrelevant email or comment, I won’t respond, but that rarely happens.

On social media, the relationship starts when you follow someone and that person follows you back. The relationship continues when you both interact with one another. After interacting with each other over a long period of time on social media, these people may email you and have conversations with you one email at a time. As the relationships continue to build, these people may eventually buy your products, but the relationships don’t stop there. They keep building, gaining momentum, and leading to the symbiosis of you and the people you interact with.

 

#3: Create Products

When it comes to building an authority on the web, affiliate marketing only goes so far. Having your own product, being able to call yourself an author, and creating more products along the way will establish yourself as an expert and create a nice revenue for yourself at the same time. I have experimented with numerous revenue generating methods. I have done anything from social media ads to being an eBay affiliate. Creating your own products and effectively marketing them is by far the best and most reliable way to make money on the web.

Creating a product also gives you more respect in your niche. If you write a 100 page book or create a five hour training course, your audience will look at those products and realize that you knew enough about your niche to create those lengthy products. At this point, the products just have to be packed with value, and you must continue learning more about your niche. The products you create reflect how much you knew at the time, but learning more will allow you to create better, more successful products in the future. Better yet, you can update your products to reflect the new things you learn about your niche. Updating your products allows you to over-deliver to your current customers and provide a better experience for your new customers.

 

#4: Grow Your Audience 

Once you implement the first three methods, all you have to do now is get more people to know about you. When you grow your audience, you can build relationships with more people that eventually lead to customers and opportunities for more growth.

The most effective tool on the web to grow your audience is social media. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or another social network, you must use social media. If you want to grow a massive social media audience, then you must take on one social network at a time. Imagine trying to learn five different languages at the same time. That’s what we do when we try to master Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+ at the same time. I recognized this trap and committed all of my time to Twitter. Once I mastered Twitter, I started to master other social networks.

One thing to know about social media mastery is that all social networks follow similar patterns. If you master Twitter, it becomes easier for you to master Pinterest. If you master Pinterest, it becomes easier for you to master Instagram. Each time you master one social network, it is easier for you to master all of the others. If you master five social networks and have tens of thousands of followers on each of them, then mastering a 6th social network would be simple.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1Oja7M0″]The more social networks you master, the easier it is to master others. However, master one social network at a time.[/tweetthis]

Growing your social media audience is an effective way to build an authority on the web, but where you lead your social media audience is just as important. You must lead your social media audience to your blog, and in particular, your landing page. You want as many people to subscribe to your email list as possible because that’s where the money is. I make more money sending emails to my email list than through any other method because communicating with the people on your email list and occasionally promoting products works very well.

 

In Conclusion

Building an authority on the web is only as difficult as we think it is. What initially looks impossible at first glance is quite possible, and the more work you put in, the easier it will become. If you want to view building an authority on the web as an easy endeavor, then you must take rapid action. Many things look scary because we don’t take immediate action. There are many things in life that don’t look as scary once we do them. Take the time to build your authority on the web, stick with it, and who knows, you may become the next success story others aspire to become.

How do you view building an authority on the web? Do you have any other tips for us? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Get Back Into The Writing Flow

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Get Out Of Writer's Block

One benefit of scheduling dozens of blog posts in advance is that if I don’t write a blog post for an entire month, no one would ever know. While investing the time to create more Udemy courses and add more value to my older courses, I decided to write fewer blog posts. I only wrote three blog posts in one month, but if you look at my archives, you won’t see any three week absence.

I knew that no matter how many blog posts I scheduled at one time, I must continue writing blog posts or else this blog would eventually get outdated. After all of the time I committed to writing content for this blog, I wouldn’t want to see that happen, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint my visitors.

I never had any intent on giving up blogging. I just needed more time to create training courses. So, when I decided to return to writing blog posts at a consistent rate, I started off rusty. I wrote a few draft blog posts that I eventually proofread and got them back to my original standard. It was at this point when I asked myself how I could possibly get back into the writing flow so I could easily write blog posts and effortlessly provide value to my visitors. Here are the five things that will allow you to get into the writing flow.

 

#1: Create Outlines

Without question, this is the best way to get back into the writing flow. You must create outlines for your blog posts before you start writing them. When you create an outline for your blog post, the days of staring at your computer screen struggling to think of the next sentence will be over. I know that is a big promise, but I encourage you to give it a try. The more detailed my blog post’s outline is, the easier it is for me to write the entire blog post without stopping. If you know exactly what you are going to write about from start to finish, it will be easier for you to think of ways to enhance your content (instead of thinking about the content itself, you will think, “How can I make it better?”).

 

#2: Write Without Proofreading

When I write a draft, I never proofread it. When I am writing a blog post, I am in the moment, and proofreading while writing would dramatically slow down my level of productivity. By writing without stopping, I can think of ideas at a faster rate and not forget about any of the ideas I was thinking about. If I had to allocate some of my time towards proofreading as I wrote my blog posts, I would constantly forget the idea that I needed to write a blog post about. Of course, I never publish the draft as is. I proofread all of my blog posts at least once and will proofread some of them twice if I have some time left over. I only take the time to proofread my blog posts once I know I won’t be writing anything else for the rest of the day.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1DJHLni”]Don’t proofread your #blog posts while you write them. Proofread them when you are done writing them.[/tweetthis]

#3: Write As Much As You Possibly Can

The more you do something, the better you get at it. Writing is no exception. It took me a while to get from struggling to write a 250 word blog post to easily writing a 1,000 word blog post. As you write more content, it will be easier for you to formulate your thoughts while you write. When I write a blog post, I don’t have a script in front of me that shows me what to write word for word. When I start to write blog posts that I properly outlined in advance, the rest of the words I type are on the fly. Just keep writing what you think about, but make sure it’s related to your blog post’s content. Don’t suddenly go on a rant about animals when your blog post is supposed to be about home design (unless you can connect the two together and talking about animals would be relevant).

 

#4: Read Books That You Enjoy

I know some people will feel some enthusiasm when they read this tip. Others will think, “Oh no, not books. I have to stay away from those.”

I believe that the people who don’t like reading books are the ones who haven’t read a good story in a while. There is a book out there for every person to read, regardless of how much a person claims that books are boring. When you read books that you enjoy, you get impacted on a mental level, and when you read books related to your niche, you learn more about that niche. More knowledge means more valuable blog posts which ultimately leads to returning visitors eager to buy your future products. If you are not willing to learn more about your niche by reading books, reading articles, and/or watching videos, then stop now. I know that sounds harsh, but the most successful individuals are the dedicated student-teachers. You better believe that the successful marketers making six-figure incomes from their training courses are reading book, reading articles, and watching videos to learn more about their respective niches.

You can only move so far with the knowledge you currently have, and to move further, you need to acquire more knowledge. All of this knowledge is also helpful for staying in the writing flow.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1DJHLni”]The more you know about something, the easier it is for you to write #blog posts about it.[/tweetthis]

#5: Write In The Morning

Undoubtedly, the most productive time of my day is the morning, and that’s the same for most people on the planet. In the morning, I can write five blog posts (over 1,000 words each) without stopping. In the evening, it is difficult for me to write a single blog post. Part of the reason is that I run every day anywhere from 6-12 miles (if I run six miles or fewer, it’s in intervals, which aren’t easy either).

One day I came home from school at 6 pm, and I had to write a blog post. I also had homework to complete, and after completing the homework, I was too tired to write the blog post. Writing a blog post isn’t much of a physical activity (other than moving fingers across a keyboard), but when I feel tired after a workout, there are plenty of things I would want to do other than blogging. In the morning, I can effortlessly write blog posts, and not just because I didn’t run yet. The morning is a time when our willpower is at the highest and there are fewer distractions. Think of all of the things you do at 6 am compared to all of the things you do at 6 pm. Some people aren’t morning people, and if you fit that bracket, then create a routine that sticks with you, and then follow that routine. However, I believe there is a morning person inside of us all, so I encourage you to try waking up earlier and writing blog posts in the morning for a few days.

 

In Conclusion

Many people associate writer’s block with writing too much and then hitting a dead end, but you also encounter writer’s block if you don’t write for a long period of time. It is more difficult to formulate your thoughts and write in an effective manner. The best way to attack this problem is to attack it head on. Immediate action always solves a problem quicker than passively watching the problem grow worse.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any other tips for getting back into the writing flow? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Ways To Connect With Successful Bloggers

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Connect with successful bloggers

Connecting with successful bloggers and building relationships with those bloggers can lead to long-term benefits. Some of these bloggers may decide to go on a joint venture with you that allows your products and ideas to be seen by more people. Others may leave a testimonial for your product. Testimonials from successful bloggers boost the credibility of you and your product.

How do these connections happen? How do successful bloggers connect with other successful bloggers? How do up-and-rising bloggers make connections with the top bloggers? First off, you should only try to connect with successful bloggers in your niche. The successful bloggers in your niche would be the most open to promoting your products and sharing your expertise with other people. With that established, here are the seven ways to connect with successful bloggers.

 

#1: Go To Business Events That They Are Speaking At

Going to businesses events that successful bloggers speak at is the easiest way to start connecting with those bloggers. At the end of the blogger’s presentation, you can interact with that person and start the connection. Hand the blogger your business card. Don’t ask for a joint venture or for the blogger to promote you right away. Relationships need to build before they reach that point.

 

#2: Email Them

If you saw these bloggers at speaking events, email them to continue the relationship. If you decide to email a successful blogger who you did not see at a speaking event first, then go for it. Send the email. The worst thing that can happen is that the blogger does not respond. When you email successful bloggers, make the emails human. You can thank the blogger for providing valuable content instead of doing a product pitch.

 

#3: Interact With Them On Social Media

Successful bloggers have a few things in common. One of the things they all share is ownership of their own social media accounts. Many of these bloggers use Twitter to promote their content and interact with their audiences. If you see a successful blogger interacting with his/her followers, then that successful blogger is someone who would probably interact with you if you take the initiative to start a conversation.

You can interact with a successful blogger by thanking them for writing a particular article or asking them a good question related to the niche you both are in. I would start a social media conversation with a successful blogger once every week, and as the blogger responds to more of your conversations over a period of a month, have one conversation every five days. Every month, increase the frequency of conversations you have with this blogger until you eventually have one conversation with this blogger on social media every other day. The time it will take for a blogger to respond to you is dependent on how active this person is on social media, so choose to implement this method with the bloggers who are on social media often.

 

#4: Know More People

Our world is more connected than ever, but it is also smaller than we realize. Some people you interact with may be friends with the successful blogger you are trying to interact with. It is a small world after all, and you never know who knows who. It is entirely possible that the person you recently talked to on social media knows a successful blogger in your niche and can arrange for you to have a quick conversation with that blogger. I use social media to reach out to more people. You never know what types of opportunities will come your way.

 

#5: Subscribe To Their Email Lists

When you subscribe to a successful blogger’s email list, you get all of their latest emails. Plenty of those emails will contain valuable content that can help you get better at your niche. One thing few people know is that you can reply to most of the emails a blogger sends, and that blogger will see your email. I use iContact to send emails to my subscribers, and if a subscriber respond to an email I send, I get to see the response. I also have the ability to reply to an email that a subscriber sends me. Many services are set up in this manner. If a blogger sees you in her inbox often, that blogger may respond to you, but only if you send emails to the blogger in the same manner you would have an in-person conversation with your friend.

 

#6: Talk About Them On The Web

Some bloggers choose to get notified every time they get promoted on someone else’s website. Other bloggers check their notifications tab to see who mentioned them on social media. There are also a handful of bloggers who do both. By linking to these bloggers’ blogs and mentioning them on social media as you share their content, these bloggers will notice. Some may reply to you.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1b36yrn”]Promoting successful bloggers on social media may lead to you getting a response.[/tweetthis]

#7: Comment On Their Blog Posts

Some bloggers make it a point to respond to every comment their blogs get. If you go through the comments section for my blog posts, you will see that I respond to everyone’s comment. It’s simply the right thing to do. If you leave a meaningful comment on a blogger’s blog post, that blogger may respond to you. You should leave a comment regardless of whether the blogger responds or not, but if you want to know the chances of getting a response, look at the blogger’s past blog post comments and see how many comments the blogger responded to.

 

In Conclusion

Building a strong relationship between you and a successful blogger starts with the first interaction. This is your first appearance—the only thing a blogger knows you for during your first encounter. Once the first interaction is done, you must continue interacting with that blogger, but only in a meaningful way. Remember that successful bloggers are people with emotions just as we are. They want to be treated respectfully, and starting a conversation just to ask for more exposure doesn’t fit in that category. Promote the blogger’s content and social media posts. Ask good questions and leave thoughtful comments on the blogger’s blog posts.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for interacting with successful bloggers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.