In short:

• You CAN monetize your blog
• You CAN build an audience
• You CAN create standout content

Many write about the same exact thing. 

And yet some of them are looked at as successful bloggers, while others get some particularly obsessive thoughts that have haunted them for a few days out there and then their online voices fizzle out. 

The latter ain’t blogging.  If you’ve been waiting for someone to cut to the chase and say this already, there you have it. 

Blogging is a business. It could have the look of a journal, or the feel of your own personal platform that’s not a social media option, or be the space in which you like to do storytelling every once in a while; but successful blogging is a business. And if it’s not yet, you certainly want it to be. 

There’s no shame in admitting to yourself that you’d like to monetize your wacky points of view and flawless writing skills. Why get stuck in the annoying your friends with your verbosity phase? Get out there and start a blog. You have the ideas, you have the words, and for the right prices, you’ll polish your discipline. 

Who reads my blog?

Why would anyone choose my blog over another? I heard you already, alright. 

Although it could be a bit of a downer, this is a necessary question to ask. The sooner the better actually. It sets you on the exact path you need to be on as a blogger if you just think like your potential reader for a minute. 

Realistically, and depending on which blogging stage you find yourself in when this dilemma finally pops up (yes, it takes others quite a few posts before they’re ready to confront this question head-on), there are only about 3 reasons anyone would come back to your blog after they took a look one time:

Scenario no. 1

You told them something they didn’t know before – people are always looking for solutions for their problems. 

I mean have you seen the amount of “How to” and “Ways to Do X, Y, Z” kind of content that gets the clicks out there every day? 

Scenario no. 2

You entertain them – you tickle their metaphorical funny bone, your anecdotes show them you share similar life experiences, your interests overlap. 

You diss the incompetent Karen at the office in ways they wish they did were they not such nice people. You do it for them, so they stick around.

Scenario no. 3

Your personality appeals to them – this implies that you’d already built an image for your audience and joining the blogging sphere would allow for a deeper look at your person. 

The simplest example here is every Insta model that’s built a following and then they started writing about various topics ranging from energy drinks, clothes, makeup, hair products – you know, whatever the sponsor sent their way. No shade, respect the hustle.

This is all good to know but what’s it got to do with you getting an answer to why anyone should follow your blog when there are so many options. Sorry to tell you that you’re on your own on that discovery quest. 

But until you reach the point in which you can comfortably pinpoint the value you bring to the blogging community, here’s the blog maintenance work you absolutely need to do:

Have a blogging plan

• I’m sure the words will just come to me. 

That might be true sometimes, but if you want to run a successful blog you need to work with every time scenarios.

• Karen pissed me off yesterday and I’ll unload it on the blog. 

That only works if you’re the blogger from scenario no. 3 and people care about your personal drama. Otherwise such an approach stands very low chances of adding any value to a piece. What company is going to pay you to use their platform to rant about your feelings? Not many.

• I’ll wait for something cool to happen. 

How about you tell your audience about something in a cool way instead? This really is a way to stretch your creativity and engage with them regularly rather than only do it when something you deem cool happens. By that time, they might have left you for a more committed blogger. 

TAKEAWAY: Pin headlines in your calendar and do the steady work. 

Write targeted posts

Blog writing and SEO practices go hand in hand. This means that whatever good or bad approach you have regarding one of them will directly influence the other. 

Why focus on targeted posts? To help out your SEO strategy without which your posts don’t stand a chance in bringing in readership. 

Since good search engine optimization is supported by the use of precise keywords, your content should follow the same rule i.e. address a topic in a specific way. 

After all, how is the overall look of your post going to be if you sprinkle in a few very specific keywords in an otherwise overly generic piece? Questionable at best. And questionable doesn’t retain readership.

But isn’t casting a wide net the way to go to get the attention of many? 

It’s a lousy effort and it understandably doesn’t bring much in return. Imagine every blogger did that. In a sea of content, the last thing you want to do is disorient the readers with some generalities that make no impression. Use targeted keywords to give them the exact pathway to your space. 

TAKEAWAY: Keep your blogs and SEO patterns in sync.

Word count matters

Delete any and all words that don’t need to be there. 

Unfortunately, some spoken ramblings we all have had to sit through depending on the circumstances but written ones are definitely easier to dismiss. 

You’re feeling inspired and all these ideas are flocking to you? The best thing to do is to put them all in a draft but only choose about 3 of them to present in a post. 

Ensure that your audience is able to keep up with you, otherwise, you’ve done this less for them and more for yourself. And just like that your relatability score goes down. 

Think your long-form content from the reader’s P.O.V. Split your long sentences and paragraphs, and if you have more ideas on the same topic, introduce a series to your audience:

The Day Karen Was Finally Defeated (Part 1)

The Day Karen Was Finally Defeated (Part 2)

This way you get everything you want to say out there, while both properly taking the time to explore the richness of your ideas and keeping them digestible. It doesn’t hurt that series type of content is what audiences want these days. 

TAKEAWAY: Don’t underplay the length and density of your blog post.

So how about giving your blog a better chance?

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