by Amanda McCormick Updated May 31, 2015 Can you really make money online with a blog? You may have asked yourself while toy...
Updated
May 31, 2015
Can
you really make
money online with a blog? You may have asked yourself while toying
with writing about your passion for iguanas or NASCAR racing.
The
answer is most affirmatively yes...as long as you are able to
connect with an appreciative audience. In this entry in a four-part
series, we look at the critically important task of building your
audience.
Know
Your Audience
Before
you can build an audience, you need to know your
audience.
If
you read the first article in this series, you know about how to set
yourself up to
target a profitable niche market.
In
essence, your blog should be guided not only by a personal passion
and expertise (though that definitely helps) but it should exist to
serve a readily definable target market, for example, Crossfitters
who follow the Paleo diet or moms of kids with autism.
You'll
want to ask yourself questions like: do I have an identifiable
target population with similar interests and needs, is the market
large enough to support my business and is my target market
currently underserved? If you want to start a food blog, great, but
realize the market is crowded.
If
you want more information on how to research your target market, be
sure to check out free
resources from your local library.
Target
the Influencers
An
"influence map" is a planning document that helps you
identify and track the audience that will help your blog grow.
Your
influence map looks at questions like:
-
What journalists or publications are important to my business?
-
Who are my competitors?
-
Who are helpful allies?
-
When my customers use social media and search Google, what sorts of terms are they using?
Give
Something Away for Free
People
love freebies, and you have a great opportunity to grow your
audience by giving something to your readers for free. What should
you give away? Well, that depends on your topic and what you have
access to, but a popular choice is exclusive
access to content that
regular people don't get. Consider making a special video or short
ebook and giving it away to readers who furnish you with their email
addresses.
Start
an Email Newsletter
Which
brings us to email marketing -- why is it so important for building
your business? It's simple. It gives you a captive audience that you
can notify anytime you have new content up on the blog. So, when you
design your blog, make sure an email sign-up is large and
prominent.
MailChimp is
an excellent email marketing platform for beginners, as it allows
you to start out with a free plan.
Craft Great
Content
Now
it's time to make
a content plan.
And don't worry, writing a great blog is about a lot more than just
staring a blank page waiting for the muse to strike.
Learn
how to make the best use of content you already have, repurpose old
content to make it better, and decide where to add new content.
Frequency
is an important concept in the blogging game. You want to make sure
you have plenty of new content flowing out to your blog. So make a
plan to blog a certain number of times a week or month.
Google
Analytics
Finally,
you need to be able to set
benchmarks and
gauge how successful you are in meeting them. Google Analytics is an
incredibly important tool for bloggers. With this tool, you'll be
able to see your general traffic patterns, but also how long people
spend on your site, what their favorite articles are, and how people
are reaching your site. Use this information to improve on your
ability to make money with your blog.
Don't
Miss These Articles on Monetizing Your Blog:
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