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In today’s bustling, always-on digital world, it seems like everybody has a blog, or at least, has started one. One quick glance at the facts, and it’s clear as to why.
With 346 million readers globally, blogging is now a legitimate career option, as well as a powerful business marketing opportunity. Once you get the ball rolling, blogging can become lucrative or serve as a way to attract new clientele.
The good news is, whether you’re blogging about your worldly travels, promoting your business, or posting pictures of your dogs – the key to success with blogging remains the same.
You have to stay consistent!
Why?
Like any content-generating website, a consistently engaged audience means a happy audience.
The internet is practically overflowing with free content across a myriad of mediums.
Your audience, as loyal as you might think they are, may be quick to forget about you and your blog if the content is sparse and updates are infrequent. If you want to stay afloat and prominent in your users’ minds, consistency is king.
It also happens to be the primary challenge that every blogger faces, especially early on.
Let’s not get too dismal here, though – after all, we’re here to help! With these helpful strategies, the future of your blogging days may look brighter than ever.
Why Blog In the First Place?
Before we go any further, we’d like to make sure you’re still with us. Maybe you’re on the fence about starting a blog for yourself or your business but just can’t quite see the value in it.
After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and as we’ve said before, successful blogging requires a consistent time investment. You may have other obligations or responsibilities that make the idea of blogging – let alone consistently blogging – daunting.
No worries!
Here are a few ways blogging can provide an often astounding return on investment – whether you’re running a business or personal blog.
Build A Targeted Audience
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing about your favorite bands, or trying to promote your dog grooming services – your blog audience is out there! With blogging, you can attract your niche audience effortlessly and organically.
No advertising budget or marketing campaign needed. Your words work for you, for free – now and forever.
Share your voice and build trust
A great often overlooked advantage of a blog is the audience relationship you can develop with consistent and compelling content. There’s something about the written word that is very captivating – especially if you’re passionate about the subject at hand.
A unique and engaging written voice can help you create a unique bond with your audience, increasing the appeal of your services or products.
Even more captivating for readers is the prospect of more content, which for blogs, is obligatory. If your audience stumbles upon your blog and like what they’ve read, they might bookmark you, subscribe to your site via RSS, or perhaps sign up for your online newsletter – all in anticipation of reading more!
Keep the ball rolling, and you’ll likely see dividends as your blog picks up momentum. Remember, consistent posts mean consistent results.
An Invaluable Marketing Tool
In the social media spheres of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, talk can often seem cheap. It’s easy for your post or photo to be quickly buried amongst the infinite mass of digital content churned out every second.
Thankfully, this is where blogs get it right. By frequently posting about a variety of subjects, you’ll be drawing in readers potentially looking for your exact topic via search engines.
Imagine that you had started a blog promoting your new finance e-book, and had written a post about “saving money,” for example. Those users searching for “how to save money” might come across your post, hoping you’ve got answers for them.
Upon reading your post and determining “Hey, this guy sounds like he knows what he’s talking about,” they might be enticed to give your e-book a shot. In other words, your blog posts could be generating leads for you, long after you’ve hit publish.
Right there, you’re targeting your niche with laser focus and letting your blog posts attract new readers and new buyers passively, with no additional effort on your part. With a growing body of written work catering to different audiences and niches, you can broaden your reach substantially and widen your demographics.
This is essentially free advertising – all it requires is a little time commitment. This brings us to our next section!
Why Blogging Consistently is Crucial To Your Success
Avoid Website Stagnation
Okay, we’re going to get a little technical here, but stick with us – this is important.
According to a study, the first search result in Google receives 32% of all clicks – twice the amount of the second result, and roughly three times that of the third. Now, imagine, if you will, that this first search result was one of your blog posts.
Exciting, right? Imagine the traffic you could pull in.
This is what’s called page ranking, and your success here depends on how often you’re updating your blog with new posts.
The way search engines work – take Google, for example – is by having automated bots visit websites every so often to check in and see what’s new in a process called crawling. Google’s page ranking works by providing users with what these bots consider most relevant, and a significant contributor to your relevancy score is consistency.
The more consistent your blogging is, the higher your page ranking will likely be. In general, you should always be working to improve your rankings in order to increase visibility/reach, which is essential to growing your blog’s audience.
Post sporadically, or not at all, and your page ranking will plummet. Keep things consistent, and your page ranking will gradually rise, equating to more traffic, more readers, and depending on your blog’s purpose – more sales or general growth!
Audience Retention
In the context of business, it can be difficult to keep the community you’ve built around your product or service continually up-to-date. This is also increasingly the case with business models built around one-time-purchases or “lifetime” services.
Once you’ve given your audience what they want, it’s important to stay in contact with them to routinely re-establish your relevance.
Blog regularly, and you’ll likely have less trouble with audience retention. This can work even more favorably with the usage of blog subscriptions, blog email newsletters, and other similar strategies.
This way, your users will never have to miss a post or update.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves!
Blog Often, Blog Better, Blog Smarter. Tips And Tricks.
Hopefully, by now, we’ve renewed your faith in blogging. Or, if you’ve already been on board the whole time – great! It’s time to strategize.
Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind as you attempt to conquer the blogosphere and make the most of your time.
Write On-The-Go
We previously mentioned how blogging can often seem daunting. Anybody can set up a new blog, fill out the “about me” section, and leave things at that.
But how do you find the time with your busy schedule to write consistently?
One solution might literally be in the palms of your hands as you read this – your smartphone!
Most blogging platforms (WordPress, Tumblr, etc.) offer a mobile app that you can use to write up posts whenever you feel the need. This is perfect for those who have morning commutes or idle time throughout their days where they can tap away at a few posts.
The next time you’ve got a few spare moments, consider spending them by drafting up some new blog entries. Don’t take this the wrong way, though – we would never advocate that you should blog and drive!
Strategically Use Reminders
Here’s another one that will put your smart phone or preferred gadget to use. Set your phone to remind you at a certain time every day (or at your convenience) to blog.
Trying to get in the habit of writing often can be a struggle, but with reminders, you may find it easier to condition yourself to block out adequate time each day.
If you’ve got an Apple iOS or Android device, you can try downloading an app called Way of Life, or something similar. With it, you can record if you’ve blogged each day and track your overall regularity. You may find it easier to get in the habit of regular blogging once you see the exact statistics on your habits and where you’ve slipped up!
Brainstorm And Save Blog Post Titles
While it might be difficult to sit down and actually write out a full-length blog post, coming up with ideas for future posts requires a lot less effort and time. For some, brainstorming might come naturally, and for others, it may prove challenging.
Regardless, the strategy is the same – write down your ideas when they come to you in a notebook or on your phone! This way, you’ll have a few prompts ready to inspire you later when you have sufficient time to make some blogging headway.
Additionally, this also works wonders for those annoying cases of writer’s block. Staring at a blank page with no clue of what to write is never enjoyable.
With this strategy though, you’ll be able to cut down on those inevitable moments of blank-page-frustration.
Let Software Be Your Editor
Maybe you’re already a blogging whiz, but can’t seem to keep up when it comes to cleaning up and editing your blog entries. After all, proof reading your own work is essential if you’re hoping to create quality blog content and keep your posts error-free.
Thankfully, modern technology works wonders. Using a service like Grammarly, you can get active feedback on your grammar, punctuation, and word choices as you type, almost as if you had an editor or teacher hovering over your shoulder (minus any potential awkwardness).
Grammarly’s app can also be integrated with your browser or with applications like Microsoft Word, so it’ll work seamlessly alongside your system’s default auto-correction – only better!
Increase Focus With The Pomodoro Technique
It can be tough to remain focused on your blog writing when the online world is abuzz with activity. Or, perhaps writing doesn’t come naturally to you, and you find it difficult to concentrate for more than an hour at a time.
No problem.
Remain attentive to the task at hand by breaking up your writing into 25-minute chunks with 5-minute breaks using a technique called Pomodoro. This way, you’ll be able to spend some time intermittently satisfying your cravings for web-surfing or other focus-sapping activities between writing feverishly.
This may seem counter-productive in theory, but typing away for hours interrupted – like anything – is a skill that may need to be developed over time. In addition, it can be intimidating to just go “cold turkey” by disconnecting and blocking all of your digital distractions in the hopes of maximizing productivity.
In this way, Pomodoro can help by allowing your mind to wander – but only for a few minutes. After that, it’s time to get back to blogging!
In additional, using a software like CTR might organically assist with your blogging skills.
There you have it. Try out some of these tactics for yourself, and you’ll be on your way to making the most of your blogging.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this post. For more on business and internet strategy, keep up with us five days a week here at Yocale.
