Building a Successful Blog: Writing is Only the Beginning
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Contrary to the dreams of many a new blogger, great content isn't enough to ensure a successful blog. There are some truly amazing writers out there who are never read simply because they don't know how to properly market themselves. Building a successful blog does require phenomenal content, but it also requires planning, social media connections, and increasing your visibility.
Planning
It takes planning, constant monitoring, and the willingness to revise your plans to build a successful blog. Serious planning, not just a blog calendar and some cursory keyword research. You need to track how many visitors you are receiving, from where, and why they are clicking through to you.
Social Media
Where do you feel most comfortable? The answer to that question is where you should start exploring social media. You could look at a list that ranks social media sites by the number of users, but how does that help you if they aren't the type of people who you connect with? If you aren't naturally drawn to the site, and the way people interact with one another on it, then you will probably have more difficulty utilizing it to maximum effect.
While Facebook is easily the biggest social media site today with more than 1.5 billion users each month, the site has made it increasingly difficult for businesses to reach new followers.
Smaller platforms may be more responsive and allow free contact with new followers. The most important thing to keep in mind about choosing social media platforms: Fish where the fish are.
Visibility
There are many ways you can increase the visibility of your blog. You can become a guest blogger, publish on independent sites, and you can place ads. Deciding how you want to increase your visibility is much like deciding what social media sites you want to invest your time in, go with what feels most authentic to you.
If you are interested in guest blogging you will need to be ready to put your research hat on. First, you need to find sites that fit your personality, point of view, and niche. Then you need to make sure they are interested in hosting guest bloggers. After all of that, it will be time to get to work. When you make a commitment to blog for another site, you need to bring your best material. Don't look at this as free advertising and an opportunity to fill space with links and your second cut writing. It as an opportunity to meet new readers and inspire them to follow you back to your blog. Write the best thing you've ever written and prove you're there to entertain, educate, and engage.
Another great way to get your writing noticed by more people is to publish to a site like Medium. This helps build a portfolio on a site that has been making huge gains in popularity. Smaller publications have begun turning to this site, and others like it, because it is easier to reach an established audience than to build one from the ground up. This is what makes it a great opportunity for new bloggers, or bloggers who are interested in taking their blog to the next level. Provide an established base of readers with phenomenal content in a style they find enjoyable and the success of your blog will grow exponentially.
Now that we've discussed building visibility with your own words strategically scattered amidst those of other writers, let's talk about ads. Paid promotions aren't something all bloggers are comfortable investing in. It can be difficult to spend money on a venture you were hoping to earn money from, but for many it is an excellent way to gain the visibility they so desperately need.
As with everything else you do to promote and run your blog, planning is essential. Find your target audience and focus there, keep track of how well it works, and reevaluate after a trial run with individual advertising strategies to see which works best for you.
Remember when planning was mentioned as a huge part of building a successful blog? In case you haven't noticed, that was a deceptively small subheading. To be completely honest, that's because the key to building a successful blog is entirely about planning. Every aspect from the writing process, guest blogging, social media, choosing and placing ads, and looking for new places to publish will only be successful if you plan every step of the way. As Benjamin Franklin said, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."
