Whether you are blogging professionally or personally, to a wide audience or to a specific group of friends, there are three critical success factors.
#1 Consistency—You have to produce content
on a regular basis or your blog is forgotten. It is true, if you don’t read
your blog, no one else will either. It helps to have a passion for what you are
sharing.
#2 Communicate Valuable Information—People read blogs for information, entertainment, education, to connect with communities of like-minded people that they can interact with online (and often anonymously), to stay up-to-date in whatever content area the blog covers. At 150-500 words, blogs are a quick read. The writing has to provide value or people won’t return to your blog, "like" it or press share.
#3 Know Why You Blog—Are you posting an
online journal? Are pushing traffic to your business or product for purchase?
Are you connecting your blog audience with your brand (are you a hairstylist,
accountant, writer, massage therapist, mom, personal trainer, financial
planner, interior designer)? Are you blogging to create passive income? Are you
blogging to establish yourself as an expert? Sharing a hobby? Following a team
or celebrity? Reviewing movies, music or books? There are as many reasons to
blog as there are individuals.#2 Communicate Valuable Information—People read blogs for information, entertainment, education, to connect with communities of like-minded people that they can interact with online (and often anonymously), to stay up-to-date in whatever content area the blog covers. At 150-500 words, blogs are a quick read. The writing has to provide value or people won’t return to your blog, "like" it or press share.
A lot of people
ask me about blogging—Why do I blog? (I love the process and it has truly
impacted my life in a positive way.) Why don’t I monetize my blog? (It’s complicated).
How much time does it take? (It depends on the post). How do I come up with
blog post ideas? (People often contact me with ideas on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Sometimes I respond or rant to stories in the news.) Do I have any help
creating blog posts? (Not really, friends-Patty J. & Patti M. and my Mom edit
posts. It is not a multi-author blog although I am open to “guest” posts. The ideas you read are my own.) What platform
do I suggest? (I use a free basic version of Blogger. In the blogosphere,
Wordpress.org seems to rule and pros customize their domain name. Just search online there are many
alternatives. There is no one right answer.)
Yes, there are
tons of people making BIG $$$ blogging. Will you be one of them? Remember
Perez Hilton? His estimated monthly blog revenue was $450,000 at one point for his
obsession with celebrities. And in 2005, Arianna Huffington started her
political blog and in 2012 it was sold to AOL for $315 million; she
reportedly pocketed about 6% in the transaction. Okay, maybe your goals are
more modest—everyone from “mommy bloggers” (naturemoms.com/blog) with 5,000
subscribers is making bank off advertisements to Jessica Quirk’s fashion blog,
(whatiwore.tumblr.com) has >10,000 Google readers and ad rates to match. 
I'm not quite sure how people make money with a blog. How does it work?
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in the post there are revenue opportunities through advertisements on your blog or banner ads. I learned through pre-market research that my target audience is turned off by pop-up ads although they would tolerate banner ads. I suggest you perform some type of research with your target audience. You can sell e-zines, products, workshops, webinars and your consulting services through your blog. Problogger.net offers products for bloggers who want to monetize their blog and there is a great community of bloggers on LinkedIn on the BlogZone and other groups. Best of success and stay in touch to let us know how it works out.
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