Welcome to the fifth installment of Build Your Online Business (BYOB). Want to learn more about this entire month of June series? Start with the The Secret Ingredient To Building An Online Business.
With this provocative title I wanted to showcase the illusion that many people have about blogging. The reality is, if you want any of these things you need to work really, really hard at it. Blogging is not glamourous and it’s not a get rich quick scheme.
As Gala Darling put it, a fellow Kiwi, living in NYC with an incredibly popular blog on fashion and positivity, in her Blogging 101 eBook:
“Blogging requires tenacity. I promise you, if you do not have purpose or determination, your blog will also go the way of so many before you. In fact, this is pretty much the same as anything in life. If you want it, you have to prove that you want it, time & time again. You will be tested! But if you can stay the course, after all the trials & tribulations, misfortunes & madness, you will be rewarded.”
She’s right. The benefits of blogging are innumerable and in my mind so amazing. If you hadn’t noticed blogging is a passion of mine. It’s allowed me to travel the world, run my business and connect with so many amazing people and it’s brought me a wealth of opportunities I would never otherwise had.
Such as becoming a Forbes Woman contributor after they saw a piece I wrote back in December 2009 and published it to their blog, then approached me three months later to join them. I would not have been a founding member of the Nike Make Yourself Movement had my community not put me on their radar. Likewise the same with the Young Entrepreneur Council, Huffington Post and many more.
Since then I’ve made a full-time living out of helping others to learn how to use social media to run their business and launched and sold products and programs for my entrepreneurial community. I earn money from recommending affiliate products I trust and use myself, get paid to write business articles and gained clients purely due to the exposure my blog gives me as a platform for sharing my passion, expertise and experiences.
Most important in my mind is the tribe I’ve built who give me the momentum to keep going every day and know that what I’m doing is valued. Plus all the people I’ve met and connected with at the likes of BlogWorld where I learned how to become a Proglogger in 3 days or less and the amazing World Domination Summit.
To Blog Or Not To Blog
There have been times, especially in the early days, when I’ve wanted to jack it all in and wondered why I was putting in so much effort for seemingly no return. So I want this post in the BYOB series to be about the realities of blogging – not the how to. There are plenty of sites out there to tell you about that as well as my Social Media workout for Entrepreneurs. The two I recommend most are Problogger and Copyblogger.
I thought what would be most useful is talking about the characteristics you need if you want to become serious about blogging for your business.
Can I start by saying the MOST important thing I tell any aspiring blogger is to take yourself seriously from the beginning. I’m not talking about personal blogs here, those are for you and your own self interest. But a blog can be incredibly helpful for your business – so treat it as a business from the start.
Make sure your blog has:
- A purpose – from day one
- A goal – within the first month
- A unique message – this will develop over time so keep refining it
- A content plan – useful to start with but otherwise after 1-2 months
- A monetization strategy – after 3 months once you have a handle on how it all works
The essential characteristics a serious blogger must have:
Passion and persistence
You have to love your subject matter and what you write about every week. If you don’t, your readers will know it and you will be just another blog lacking that indefinable factor that makes people come back for more. Building a blog takes time, so you need to stay true to your passion or you’ll lose interest before your blog becomes successful – and we don’t want that to happen. Make sure you put milestones in place to track your progress and show proof that your blog is growing. It will make all that hard work worth it and you’ll go from strength to strength.
Uniqueness
According to Technorati there are 200 million blogs! While many of those are inactive, just like Twitter accounts or posted to very infrequently, the point is it’s still going to be extremely hard to get yours noticed initially. You need to stand out? How – be unique, have your own voice from day one and let your opinions be known. As I wrote about on Problogger you need to Build a thriving blog by being yourself. The best blogs have a different take on a common topic, humour, sarcasm, strong view points and a real voice with real stories. Also using a design that is different from other blog is also highly valuable.
The ability to work hard
When you first start your blog it’s highly likely the only people reading it are you and your mum. Many big name bloggers have alluded to this fact. You have to do everything in your power to bring people to your blog. Hit up all your friends via email or Facebook. Ask them to come and comment, share a post and send it on to at least 5 other people. Get out on forums, and other blogs that would likely be interested in what you’re blogging about and start commenting like crazy. Just don’t ever give up before you see some momentum. Blogging takes a huge amount of commitment, especially if you aim to write 2-4 posts per week. Get into the habit of writing every single day, even just 250 words and you’ll soon see your writing style improve and the content you can draw on for your posts building up.
Write, write, write
No you don’t need to be a writer to have a blog, but you do need to continually improve upon your style, messaging, quality and ability. You should read other blogs every week to become more knowledgeable about your topic and see what other people are writing that is resonating with their readers. Using the spell check helps and having a friend read over your post before you publish is also really helpful. Or work with a professional editor from day one to hone your skills and grammar and Create mouthwatering content for your blog on a continual basis. Finally my biggest tip is to be yourself, and let you shine through. My most well received posts have been when I’ve been vulnerable, talked about my screw-ups, failures and fear and turned that into a learning lesson for all. People need to relate to you – use your own language.
Integrity
My favourite value in the world is integrity. I will never try to be somebody I’m not. I will always aim to tell it how it is. I will never sell something I don’t believe in. I will never pretend to know more than I do. However don’t ever undermine your skills and knowledge and how important that may be to your readers. When I started out I often felt a little fraudulent when sharing my opinions on what I’d learned in business so far. Yet my small community at the time responded really well and told me they were learning new things! Don’t underestimate what is common knowledge to you that others’ don’t know and want to learn about. Also take time to write your best about page – you have to learn to promote yourself in the way in which truly reflects you and resonates with others. Use pictures, background stories, photos and videos to build your credibility, expertise and why you rock!
Social Networking Savvy
A big part of building your blog is using social media sites to help spread the word and make it easy for others to do the same. This extends beyond the right sharing functionality buttons on your blog. This is about marketing consistently to your networks via Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for a start, and engaging others to do the same. The most successful bloggers reach out to like-minded bloggers in their space and develop key relationships with them, encourage each other to comment on their blog, write guest posts, share content to their respective audiences and even create joint partnerships. It’s all about building beneficial alliances and friendships along the way.
Serve Others Always
One thing that has helped me to build a better blog is to remember who I’m writing for. It’s not about me. It’s about you. Take time to ask questions of your community and read the comments. Often the idea for your next post can be built around what your community wants to know most, what their unique challenges are. Write as if you’re talking to your best friend and remember to stick to what your blog’s goal and purpose is. If you’re writing about health and wellness it’s probably not in your best interests to publish a post on knitting one day because you feel like it. But don’t feel afraid to push your subject matter to new boundaries and test what your audience likes.
I could write a book on what I’ve learned through blogging and would love to share more with you. Just remember to have fun in all that you do and never stop learning. Then share this on your blog.