When you are first getting into blogging, identifying your ideal reader is important. It will affect the type of content you produce in the site. However, most of the time when people start their blogs, they rarely have a clue about the specific customer they are targeting. They just start blogging away hoping that people will get to learn of the blog. The worst thing is that content produced one week on a particular topic might be derailed entirely the following week because there is no direction guiding the production of the content. Chances are very high that you could wind up losing valuable readers because they assume you have lost the plot and are not receptive to the content they want posted. To avoid this, it is important to know who your ideal reader is and come up with content that resonates with the circumstances in the niche they are experiencing. By doing this, your consumer feels like you are reading their mind and will be brimming with anticipation looking forward to the next post and the next one.
Another thing you should do is be consistent with when you post your content. Many blogs had died out completely because its owners were the ‘spur of the moment’ writers who only produced content when they felt like it. They did not care whether or not their audience needed to hear from them. As far as they are concerned, that blog is theirs to do with as they please. This selfish attitude will almost certainly reflect in the work produced. When the posts are produced, they will probably be laced with contemptuous undertones that the reader will subtly pick up on. Eventually, the readers will move away from the blog completely because of it. On the other hand, the content might be good, even better in some instances, but far too inconsistent when posted. If you run a blogging business, you should be consistent in producing the goods i.e. the content you are selling to your adoring audience. Whether weekly, daily or monthly, just be consistent in the time and day of week, or date that you post the blog. In doing so, you will have created a loyal following who will wait on what you post with an almost religious fervor.
Write from an expert’s point of view to establish credibility. After settling on a niche, you should immerse yourself into it completely. It is not enough to simply just have cursory or little knowledge about it. If you create a blog post whose thoughts are not backed up by rigorous research, you come off as being a faker. Nobody will give the time of day to someone who cheats them that they know what they are saying. Even the quality of their work will come out all wrong and the audience will not extract any nuggets of useful information from the post. When you are starting out, you must position yourself as person who knows what they are saying and can always back it up.
Readers today have access to a lot of information and if they do not agree with you about something, they will search for more information about the subject. More often than not, they go for people who are confident in and know what they are writing about. After all, who can doubt the word of an expert who puts their thoughts in clear and complete manner, backing up their thoughts in thorough research? No one! Once you get into a niche, you need to keep up with the new knowledge in the field. Your aim as a blogger is to provide your audience with information that they can use currently. Relying on antiquated information is a recipe for disaster because you tend to hold on to views about the niche so rigidly that you come across as a relic. Keep tabs on the latest research on that field so that you can provide information that will be useful to your target audience.
Thirdly, promote your blog far and wide. Utilize the different spaces that the Internet has to offer. Today, people have access to multiple means of sharing information. When you write a blog post always have a share button at the end of the post as well. Over the last couple of years, most of the popular blog posts that have received a million shares and above would have remained relatively anonymous were it not for share capabilities provided for on the site. At the end of every post, you should encourage your readers to share or visit the main page of the blog for other posts as well. When you encourage them to share the posts far and wide in social networks and email, you increase your reach and capitalize on a kind of word-of-mouth advertising that will translate into new business in the form of new readers on your site.
Visit other blogs and post reminders for readers to join your blog on the site if they have not. Most people tend to shy away from promoting themselves on the comment sections of other people’s blogs. Do not be ashamed! Just seek out blogs that deal in the niche you are in so that they can see the links in your site.
Host other blogs that host you as a kind gesture. Just because a niche is competitive, it does not mean that there is not enough business to be had by all.
Curate the content on the comments section to be left with the comments that are related to the topic you have dealt with. This will prevent spammers and individuals who are stuck on irrelevant issues.
Finally, you should respond to the queries and comments in the comments section. This is a good way of making your readers feel engaged in the discussion and make them feel as though they are special to you.
By ensuring that you know your reader and set up the blog accordingly, you will start the journey of building your blog. You should not settle because building a brand takes time and very concerted effort on your part.