Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Grow Your Audience, Marketing Tips |
Growing Your Mom Blog’s Audience
So you have your mom blog up and running. Congratulations! You’ve passed the biggest hurdle on your blogging journey! Now comes growing your mom blog’s audience and reaching newly engaged readers for your content.
Of course, this will require a bit of learning and work on your part, but don’t despair. The three methods you’ll find below are all simple to get into and proven to work, bringing your blog the traffic it needs to become wildly successful!
Social Media
Starting our list is the simplest of the bunch; Social media! You probably already use and love social media in your everyday life and you aren’t alone. Nearly everyone is on some form of social media these days, and you can be sure you’ll find tons of people who’d love to read and experience your content. You just have to know how to reach them!
There are a variety of platforms you can explore, depending on your audience from Facebook, to Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. What you choose really depends on the type of people you think would enjoy your content.
Once you’ve decided which platform is right for your blog, all you need to do is focus your content to fit what succeeds on that service. Facebook likes clickable articles, while Twitter is a great place for impactful quotes and tidbits of information. Instagram is perfect for photobloggers, fashionistas, or culinary geniuses, while Pinterest acts as a hybrid of all three!
Once your social media strategy is in place, give it a few weeks to pick up traction! These things take time and will grow exponentially if you give them a chance to take off. Don’t rush things! If you only get a handful of followers your first week, that’s ok! So long as you keep growing slowly and steadily, you’ll be just fine.
Advertising
One of the next most popular ways to grow your mom blog’s audience is through good old advertising, but not the type you may be thinking of. Most people imagine the annoying TV commercials that interrupt their favorite shows, or the pop-ups and banners ads that litter many websites. Advertising this way doesn’t really work for most bloggers though. Instead, there’s a better way!
Much like how you used social media platforms above to generate organic, free traffic, you can also use these platforms to generate extra paid advertising traffic. Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram all have the ability to display your paid ads on their site, and since that’s where most of your users already are, it makes sense to embrace these types of ads.
One of the best strategies for maximizing your return on these social media ads is to pick from posts, articles, photos, or pins that have already done well for your organic traffic. Did you have an Instagram post that went viral or a Pinterest pin that doubled your traffic? Set those up as ads to reach even more people with an ad you have essentially already tested, for free!
Newsletters
Finally, we have a slightly unorthodox way to increase your mom blog’s audience, and that’s through your email newsletter!
While at first glance this doesn’t seem to make sense, think about it. Someone comes to your blog, likes your content, and decides to sign up for your newsletter so they don’t miss your future posts. As more and more people sign up for your newsletter, more and more people come to check out your posts when they go live thanks to the newsletter they receive. Soon you’ve built an audience that loves your work, is excited about your products or services, and wants to hear from you.
Having a loyal audience like this is one of the most vital elements of having a successful blog and something you simply can’t ignore if you want to do well in the blogging space!
Of course, it isn’t as simple as putting an email signup form and waiting for the subscribers to flow in. Many people will want some incentive or reason to sign up, and this provides you with an opportunity to provide them with more great content that will encourage them to come back for more.
Here are some ideas you can use to encourage people to join your newsletter!
- Make a free ebook about your niche
- Make a pretty checklist, planner, or calendar based on one of your posts
- Write a short email course teaching your readers skills you mentioned in one of your posts
- Offer something personalized for people who sign up
- Run a short giveaway or contest for people who join your newsletter
All of these are excellent ideas that will jumpstart your newsletter activities. Paired with social media and advertising, you’ll have a successful mom blog in no time!
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach.
Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Marketing Tips |
Grow Any Business with Blog Marketing
A blog is one of the most popular terms in business and social media today. The term generated years ago and has taken its stance as one of the most effective marketing tools around. In the beginning, blogs were viewed or used as an online diary, which gave a text account of the lives and activities of people. Bloggers were limited in numbers early on because, in order to launch a blog, it was required to build a website. A few years later, platforms were developed that made the process easier, which made it possible for almost anyone to create a blog.
Blogs vs. Websites
There is a difference between a blog and a website. Other than the degree of visitor or audience engagement, blogs are typically joint forces with social media. Visitors are permitted to post comments and interact with the owners of the blog. Blogs are updated more often than websites. Once a website is developed and launched, it’s usually permanent. Information, data, and images are added to blogs on a regular schedule. Bloggers will add info that their audience wants to read about.
Contemporary and traditional entrepreneurs utilize blogs as an effective marketing tool. They use it as a source to give information to clients and potential clients as a means to attract more business. Blogs have evolved into one of the most operative marketing strategies of 2018.
Understanding Blog Marketing
Blog marketing communicates to the target audience of your business via the content of a blog. Before, many business owners kept an independent blog that was not a part of their site. Today, it is most effective to link the two for easier operation and management. This also simplifies access for visitors. Blogs and websites can be successfully managed using an engine such as the WordPress platform. The increasing popularity of blogging has created an increase in business for many website owners. When visitors land on a webpage, a blog is one of the first things tabs they look for. Once they find this, they immediately go to the blog to see its content. Therefore, it is essential to not only have a blog but to have one that contains amazing content.
Utilize Blog Marketing to Promote Services and Business
Creating a plan for blog marketing is one of the smartest moves a business owner can make. This takes a matter of minutes and with continuous management, it will bring success to the business. Marketing will take time but if incorporated properly, it will be effective and have a positive impact on the business.
Here are a few ways to approach blog marketing.
- Develop a blog marketing strategy or plan. Decide what type or genre of information you will post and share from your blog. Consider the best time of day to post and how often to do so.
- Create the blog. Choose a platform for blogging, set It up, and customize it to match the personality and size of the business. Incorporate your business logo into the blog to maintain uniformity. When utilizing free platforms, make sure that the domain name leads to the blog to allow consumers to reach the site without issue.
- Add multiple posts immediately. Don’t launch the blog until at least eight to ten blog posts have been added. Your audience doesn’t want to visit a site that has only one blog post. Once the initial batch of posts has been added, start a regular posting schedule for the blogs.
- Promote the blog. It is essential to integrate social media into the blogs, which will allow your posts to reach your followers and their friends. Remember to always add your blog to the marketing tools you use to promote your business.
- Interact with your audience. Readers will post comments, ask questions, and give their opinions on your posts. Interact with them when necessary to generate more activity on the post.
- Utilize the blog to motivate email signups. Visitors will continuously return to your blog when you offer incentives for them to give their email address. Email offers are great tools to encourage business from potential and current clients.
Blogs are a primary source for marketing because they provide fresh and informative content that readers want to know about. It encourages them to return and presents an effective way for consumers to network with the business. Blog marketing is not only effective, but it’s cost-efficient which is another reason more businesses rely on it for business growth.
This article was originally posted on Mom Marketing Coach.
Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Marketing Tips |
Maximize Your Blog Results With These Tips!
Seven days in a week and on each of those days, more than a million blog posts are created. These posts include videos, content, photos and more. Posting content that is minimal and without character will not help you achieve the results you expect as a blogger.
Business growth is inspired or motivated by quality content that engages your readers. Remember, your post is competing against millions of others that are published. While genres may vary, many readers are drawn to unfamiliar genres simply because of the quality of their content and the amazing character and appeal that the images display.
If you spend a few hours of each day, researching, developing, and writing content, you are on the fast-track to becoming a full-time blogger. Publishing weekly posts can be quite overwhelming. It is less draining if blogging is your passion, but the need to create quality content is important, along with a few other strategies.
The purpose or intent of the blog has a huge impact on the tone and pitch of it. Generation of sales, providing useful information, and encouraging interactions are a few reasons that motivate bloggers to create posts. To develop or improve sales, bloggers should post quality content more often.
Businesses may see a vast improvement in sales if the quality of the content is above average. There are many other bloggers that are breaking stride by creating blogs that everyone wants to read. What makes their posts better? What causes people to navigate towards other blogs and away from yours? What are you missing or doing wrong? The answers to these questions will vary among bloggers. There is not a single formula to help you get it right with every post. Changes in marketing and social media engagement occur from day to day, and it’s easy to lose track of what works and what doesn’t.
Here are a few tips to help maximize the results yielded by your blog posts and help your posts to shine among the millions of others that are published daily.
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Create a Strategy
Treat your blog like you would a business, especially if your plan is to generate income. Therefore, you should document your strategy by writing it down and following it as planned. It is essential for any successful business to create an outline of their goals, plans, marketing strategy, and projected outcome. Blogs require a similar effort and the concept is similar.
Bloggers should have an objective from which they can develop a mission statement. This statement is the foundation for completing things such as social media posts, outreach content, emails, and more. Content strategy and documentation are important tools for effective marketing of your blog.
Documentation of the following is ideal for building a successful blog:
- Plan your topics – prepare a month ahead by creating a plan for the type and topics of the content you will post. At times your brain will be cloudy. You will have vague ideas by may be unable to bring them to the surface. There are blog idea generators available to assist with ideas for blog topics. Utilize these tools to create interesting and eye-catching topics that appeal to readers. Organize a list of 10-15 topics for the month and add them to the calendar on the scheduled dates to post.
- Add to Google Calendar – add a topic to your calendar and work to ensure that it is out by that date. Abide by this schedule. Treat it like a deadline for an exam or academic paper. It is important to create a strict process of documenting important to-dos, as it is easy to allow other tasks to side-track you and get you off schedule. Schedule daily writing totals according to the number of posts you have scheduled each month. Remain consistent in your writing and always commit to complete the daily requirement.
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Create Content that is Long-Form
Once you’ve documented and scheduled your posts, it’s time to begin writing. Be creative, consistent, and diligent in your writing. Short posts will not deliver the quality and informative content that readers look for in blogs. Write, read, rewrite, and read the post again. Make sure that you are pleased with the content and confident that others will find it engaging and informative.
When creating long-tail content, don’t lose the reader by adding fluff throughout the piece. Doing so diminishes the quality of the content and is not informative to readers. Most potential readers will not finish the piece and in many cases, never attempt to read your blog again. Create a blog post that performs and calls for action when necessary. Performance data and information that guides can rarely be written in less than 2,000 words. Research suggests that longer and more detailed blogs generate almost ten times more leads than short-form posts. Consider this for an example, posts that hold the 10th position in rankings of internet searches are longer than 1,500 words. You can’t afford to write less than this and expect to compete with high-performance blog posts.
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Implement Video into the Post
Online and social media video enhances a blog post tremendously. YouTube content is a prime example with more than a billion viewers logging in to view uploaded content. There is more than an hour of content viewed by each viewer daily. This is a key indicator that images and videos are positive additions to your blogs. Create a YouTube channel and use it to filter traffic through to your blog. The addition of videos is a primary method for increasing engagement and holding the interest of viewers longer. Remember to utilize a call-to-action in video posts and you will notice an increase in shares of your content.
These are just a few tips to help you reorganize or enhance your blogging strategy. There are many additional strategies that should be implemented with the above tips to successfully reach your maximum blogging potential.
This article was originally posted on Mom Marketing Coach
Copyright: niroworld / 123RF Stock Photo
Blogging, Blogging Success, Marketing Tips |
You’ve been blogging for a while now, but where are your followers? Let’s find the answer to the question many bloggers ask at the start of their blog career.
If we were to do a poll of every blogger that started their blog and quit before they succeeded, you would be shocked. The easiest part of running a blog is saying the word, “BLOG”, the more you say it, the easier it becomes. That’s sort of how blogging works. The more you blog, the easier it is to do so.
One of the biggest dilemmas most bloggers encounter is difficulty in acquiring followers. It has a little to do with the misconception that “if you blog, followers will come”. This isn’t exactly true. The partial truth is that if you’re consistent with it, eventually you will gain followers. How long will it take? How many will you get? How long will they stay? These are all questions that many new bloggers ask. The answer is simple. Diligence, quality, and patience! These are the ingredients for gaining followers for your blog.
Dare to be Diligent
Starting your blog is the easy part, it’s the work that goes into maintaining it that will prove challenging. Create content that has good quality and relates to your intended audience. Make regular posts and don’t forget to share on your social media pages. Be mindful of the type of content you post to personal pages. Many people will base their decision to follow your blog on the feeling they get from your personal posts. Posting inappropriate images, profanity and other rude comments could destroy your image in the blog world, unless this is the type of audience you want to attract. Here are a few tips:
- Network/connect with other bloggers
- Expand your relationships to include bloggers of all genres
- Treat blogging as a new business instead of a hobby
The Quality Connection
Connect with quality people and create quality content. Don’t attempt to lure followers in by posting click baits or material that lacks quality. People appreciate the good information and they will keep coming back for more of it. Most importantly, they’ll tell their friends about your blog and those friends will tell their friends and before you know it, your blog will be the talk of blogger nation. Research the information before you post it and talk about those things that interest you most. It’s easy to write about things you have a genuine interest in and not a forced interest. If you like to eat, write about food. Like to drink? Blog about the coolest drink recipes. There are always others out there that want to learn more about the things you’re blogging about. Here are a few tips to extract quality and add it to your blog:
- Share posts from other bloggers
- Utilize social media scheduling tools
- Publish quality images and tasteful memes
Practice Patience
So, you started your blog three days ago and are freaking out because you haven’t gained 10,000 followers. Stop! Reverse right there and pick up a load of patience, because you will need it. As mentioned in the beginning, many bloggers have started and quit, due to not gaining the followers they felt they should within a certain amount of time. There is no formula to deliver followers. There is the option to buy them, but we don’t even want to entertain that idea (that’s another post for another time). Blogging takes a great deal of patience. Once you’ve executed the diligent approach, applied the quality content, you must be equipped and fully-loaded with patience. Sometimes, it takes an overflow of it. Allow your blog time to blossom into the platform you desire it to me. Don’t overextend yourself or your efforts to the point of becoming fatigued and wanting to give up. Here are a few tips to remember:
- Learn from your mistakes
- Listen to other more experienced bloggers
- Don’t obsess over your blog; break away to do other things
Apply these simple techniques to your blogging journey and the followers will develop at a healthy rate. It’s important to understand that your blog isn’t for everyone. But for every person that doesn’t read it, there are two to three more who will. Be prepared for the take-off, as it will require much more of your time once the followers grow. Keep pushing, don’t quit and enjoy life as a blogger!
Originally posted on Mom Marketing Coach
Blog Tips, Blogging, Marketing Tips |
Types of Bloggers
Blogs! Blogs! Blogs! Everyone is talking about them. Every media station or platform seems to follow the trendiest blogs. Even analysts get a large portion of their data or insight from blog reports. There must be something pretty special about these things. What’s even more interesting, everybody seems to be blogging these days! Well, maybe not everyone but almost everyone with a laptop and a voice.
The thing is, people, relate to bloggers because many give a personal perspective on their topic. It’s pretty cool because almost every genre has a blog following. Food blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, medical blogs and so many more are among the many in existence. If you’re in an industry or business and don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on some of the biggest opportunities and possibly clients in your industry.
Blogging Basics
Bloggers are not only business building professionals. Many of us are simply people with something important to share or discuss with other like individuals. Everyone doesn’t blog for the same reason. Whatever your reason, you should feel invigorated about the chance to share your insight or platform with others. What are you gaining from your blog? Is it personal gratification, supplementary income, industry contribution or something different? Bloggers dominate a significant portion of content that individuals read daily. People rely on bloggers to keep them up to date on the newest trends, best tasting foods, new music, celebrity gossip, parenting tips, and the list goes on. There are some bloggers who had no idea they were blogging until they were deep into the game. You’re wondering how that could possibly happen, right? Let’s see what everyone is blogging about. Keep reading.
Incidental Bloggers
I’m sure you’ve encountered a life-altering event or traumatic occurrence in life that changed you forever. No matter how hard you tried or how much time had passed, you just couldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened. The only outlet you could trust was between you and a pen or laptop. You started to express your frustrations, anger or sadness through words and before you knew it, you were blogging. Sharing small excerpts from your writing on social media was how it started. People begin to respond and relate to your circumstances. You honestly had no idea that so many others had experienced situations similar to yours. As time passed, people begin to look to you to share more about your story. You became an overnight inspiration to others through no intent of your own. In fact, you were seeking an emotional outlet and ended up being an incidental power source for others. Mom, you are now a blogger! That’s right. Everyone clings to your words and an entire community of like individuals eagerly await your next post.
Business Bloggers
As an entrepreneur, you constantly seek ways to grow your business. Marketing experts suggest that all businesses, especially small businesses should blog. This is how you stumbled upon life as a blogger and it’s been a straight and narrow path since you started. Businesses build success and increased clientele through blogs. People rely on certain businesses to give them insightful information about things going on or changing in the industry. As a business owner, talk to your clients to find out what topics interest them, what questions they have and what motivates them. Take their answers and blog about them. This adds a personal touch to your business and helps to depict the personality behind the CEO or company owner. Blogs help to generate more traffic to your business websites and could potentially increase your revenue.
Travel Bloggers
The travel industry has become quite lucrative. There is a rise in the number of independent travel agents and not to mention, families that travel. This also means that more and more people are hitting the road, friendly skies, ocean waves or train tracks to reach their destinations. What’s one of the first things people do when they travel? Snap that selfie to say so long and post it to social media. Some people post pics of every event, food spot and hotel they visit. Eventually, a simple trip has become a travel blog. Frequent travelers who like to share their journey are often coined as travel bloggers. They give an up-close look at other cities, states and countries are like. Many people rely on the information and pictures of travel bloggers to choose their vacation spots.
Wedding Bloggers
Décor, flowers, colors, bridal gowns, grooms attire, and everything wedding is on your list of favorite things to do. This leads you to one of the most exciting journeys of all, wedding blogging. Brides, planners, and consultants turn to blogs to get their ideas and inspiration. It’s an exciting and rewarding blogging opportunity. Social media, brides and wedding sites are constantly seeking info regarding the biggest wedding trends of each year. Wedding bloggers provide this information from a neutral place. They update their blogs with the best pictures, centerpiece ideas and much more. It’s the passion for weddings or happily ever after that inspires most wedding bloggers.
So, there you have it. People are blogging about almost any topic imaginable these days. The best part of it all is that others are reading it and they want more! Blog about what makes you happy. It’s even okay to blog about the sad points in your life. Blogging can be a career, therapy, a passion or just something to do in your spare time. But most importantly, it should be rewarding and give you a feeling of excitement.
What do you like to blog about?
This article was originally posted on Mom Marketing Coach.com
Photo Copyright: grinvalds / 123RF Stock Photo
Blog Tips, Blogging Success, Marketing Tips |
Moms Finding Success as a Blogger
To clear the smoke screen before it develops, there’s no other way to be a mom than doing it full-time. It’s what we eat, breathe, sleep and most of all, it’s what we love. There are other areas in life that bring us fulfillment and perhaps helps us to become even better mothers.
Most mommy bloggers have found this to be a tool of emotional, personal and professional completion. The benefits can be small or enormous, but for most, it is somewhat rewarding. A celebratory moment for many bloggers is the moment they discover their passion can actually become a successful career that doesn’t take them away from their children, family, and other important life issues at the most critical times.
The Beginning
Think back to the days when blogging was just a thought or a desire you had but were afraid to go after. Remember the times when you were only reading the blogs of others wondering how they managed to pull it all together. Oh, what’s that? This is you right now, at this very moment? Well, guess what? You’re at the peak of your success as a blogger.
The fear that you feel in the pit of your stomach is the fuel that will cause you to pour every ounce of your creativity, personality, and experience into your blog. You are building your blog based on that one thing or things that you are passionate about. You will base your posts, research, and videos on experience, relationships, failures, and successes. People will respond to your blog based on the effort and compassion you put into it. As passionately as you read the blogs of others, you must pour into your own. You become a successful blogger when you’re not only blogging for others but to fulfill your very own desire to get things done.
Let’s take an up-close look at a few ways to grow your blog into a full-time success.
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Time Management
Let’s begin by removing the false concept that to be successful as a blogger, you must work at it 24 hours per day! Doctors, teachers, lawyers, military personnel and many others are successful, and they have personal lives that reflect that success. It is crucial to managing your time effectively as a blogger. Make schedules and stick to them. Coordinate calendars for kid’s school, extracurricular activities, social gatherings, family time and mother. If it must be done, it needs to be added to the calendar. Designate specific hours of the day that are dedicated to efforts toward your blog. It doesn’t have to be the same hours each day or the same number. It is wise to set a goal of hours per week, allocate those hours and work to achieve it.
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Realize the Consequences
This is one of the most important steps to becoming a successful blogger. Create boundaries for yourself and most importantly, for others. NEVER allow anyone to downplay the importance of your commitment as a blogger, especially if this is your career. Everyone reads blogs, but not everyone appreciates the work that goes into them. During those preselected hours of research, posting or reviewing, do not let others convince you to put it off until later. Most importantly, you must advocate for your position harder than anyone else. It’s easy for your friend to run out for lunch and ask you to join her for an hour, but if it’s not your lunch hour, it simply won’t work! The end result could easily be you postponing your blog contribution time to later regret it because you’re behind schedule. Your friend will eagerly meet you during her lunch hour but will return to work on time, because she knows the consequences of failing to do so. As a blogger, realize there are consequences for your actions also.
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Create Quality Content
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is falling victim to the click-bait trap. You begin to lose yourself and everything that motivated you to start blogging in the first place. There is a load of viral content out there and it seems everyone is reading it. Well, you’re right! People do read it, but they recognize it for what it is, viral. It spreads quickly, has no valuable substance and eventually fades away. As a mom blogger with valuable insight and information that others want and need to hear, create quality content. Use valuable sources and always accredit those sources for their contribution. Take tips from other bloggers who have grown successful over the years.
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Expand Your Product Line
Blogging is not a one-way street. There are many avenues that lead to many places in the world of blogging. Professional services, products, crafts and much more can become a part of your blog. This is a major part of growing the following of your blog. It requires strategy and marketing concept but can be done effectively. This is another step in the process of success that many bloggers discover as they grow. It doesn’t matter at what rate you grow, the point is to grow consistently.
As a mom and a blogger, I know and understand the challenges that present themselves. I know how easy it is to give into anxiety and fear of not gaining immediate success. Most importantly, I also know how easy it is to turn all those fears and anxieties into the ammunition you need to help your blog grow in the direction you would like to see. There are no overnight success stories to be told and no magic potion to help you succeed. But there is a process to your success as a blogger and a full-time mom, and I’m excited to help you grow into your best years as a blogger!
This article was originally posted on Mom Marketing Coach.com May 2018
Photo Copyright: marysmn / 123RF Stock Photo
