Most coaches, consultants and work-at-home entrepreneurs take the first step of creating their online presence by starting a business blog. Unfortunately, for many, the initial enthusiasm is short-lived because they suffer from what I call “launch and hope syndrome.”
That’s when you wait with baited breath for the world to discover your blog and beat a path to your home page. However, weeks later, you are still waiting for the traffic to roll in. What happened? Nothing, zip, nada, all you’ve got are stray visitors who have spent very little time on your blog.
How do you overcome this problem? Chalk out a strategic plan to grow your business blog and stick to it. Fine-tune your strategies if necessary but don’t abandon your game plan because of a few set backs.
Here are three strategies for profitable business blogging:
1. Post content regularly and often – your readers and search engines love fresh content. At the early stages of your business blog, I recommend you post at least 2 times a week, three to four would be even better.
Set up a posting schedule that you can follow given everything else you need to get done in your busy day.
If writing is not one of your strong suits, outsource this task and/or join a PLR (Private Label Rights) membership site in your niche. Make sure you do some basic editing to your PLR materials in order to stand out from the rest.
Automate the process as much as possible. Say you have some spare time, write 5 to 6 blog posts but don’t publish them all at once. Use the built-in publishing schedule to post automatically with a few days gap between each blog post.
2. Raise your visibility within your niche — become active in the blogging community within your niche by posting comments on relevant blogs. Add your signature with a link back to your blog site.
Don’t go overboard initially by proclaiming yourself as the “guru” in your niche. Just your name, a short description of your blog’s main focus and the link, that’s all you need. Wait until you gain some traction before trying to sell anything to your community.
Become a guest blogger on other popular blogs within your niche. Every business or blog owner needs help from time to time with content. Don’t be afraid to approach your competition as long as you are open and honest about it. You may just find yourself a profitable joint venture partner for the future.
Become active on social networking sites. This is another powerful way to brand yourself in your niche.
3. Track, review and analyze – this doesn’t have to be some complicated web analytics. Just look at your posts that are receiving the most views (you can track this easily by using Google’s free Analytics).
Another way to track popularity of your topic is by monitoring the comments you receive.
Spend a little time every week to review the data from your blog instead of guessing. It will help you gather invaluable information about your readers, their pressing issues and solutions they are willing to pay for.
You will see a measureable improvement in traffic and profitability of your business blog if you implement the above three steps.
To learn more about how to make your business blog a hub for attracting quality traffic, building deeper relationships and converting more, look at my eBook “Business Blogging Handbook.”
What strategies are you using to improve your business blog? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
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