How To Build A Popular Blog

Blog Tips Newsletter by Yaro Starak

If you just started blogging chances are you don’t have many readers, if any at all.

If you are wondering what you are doing wrong and what you need to do in order to build an audience, this newsletter will help.

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Why is it that some bloggers have all the traffic and others are lucky if they have about 10 visitors per day?

You may write regular content for your blog but because no one reads it, you feel like you are wasting your time.

All blogs are not created equal. Guy Kawasaki started a blog and a few weeks after launching he had over 4,000 daily readers. So what made him different?

Guy is a famous author and business speaker so he had the benefit of lots of other bloggers and media spreading the word about his blog for him.

Chances are you don’t have the same advantage as Guy. I didn’t, I had to earn my blog traffic the hard way.

Do You Know How To Market Your Blog?

Blogging is like starting your own print newsletter or “fanzine”. First you put the hard work in, gather a collection of articles, images and other content and launch your new publication.

Once the first issue is ready it’s time to get out there and show it to everyone.

You won’t have a marketing budget or the benefits of a public relations officer drumming up free publicity for you. You have to do all this for yourself. You wear all the hats for your blog – author, publisher, marketer and public relations.

This is why a lot of bloggers fail. You produce good content but you don’t know how to MARKET your blog.

Most bloggers do not know where the best places are to drum up traffic and instead use “shotgun” tactics – haphazardly shooting for traffic all over the place using as many random methods as possible with no thought into exactly what is the smart way to get traffic.

No methodology. No process.

Start At The Beginning

The first step to build blog traffic is accepting the fact that you will have to *work* for your traffic. No one is going to do it for you. No one is going to help you. Your blog is your baby and you are a single parent, solely responsible for its growth.

Are you okay with that? Do you accept the burdens?

Yes? Good! Okay, let’s move forward.

Blog traffic building begins, just like a magazine, by creating something worth reading. You would never go out and hand out copies of your fanzine if it had only one or two articles in it. Before we even talk about finding readers for your blog you have to ask whether the readers you are chasing will read your blog once they get there.

Is your blog AMAZING? Do you have great content? Do you even know what great content is?

Take a good look at your blog and review whether your starting content is worthy enough to capture and retain the attention of readers.

If you just switched the “on” button for your blog then there is only one thing you need to worry about. Forget about traffic. Sit down, get your writers hat on and start writing articles.

If you haven’t done so already, cover at least these topics before properly launching your blog –

1. Your About Page

Who are you? What you are blogging about and why would a person want to read your blog? What is in it for them?

Talk about the BENEFITS for your readers, NOT the features of your blog.

2. Your Contact Page

You need a contacts page because you want to make it easy for your readers to get in touch with you. If possible, include a nice smiley picture of your face on your contacts page, to make your blog more personal.

Other possible contact details you might want to include in your contact page:

Phone number (if you are comfortable with this)
Mailing address (ditto)
Skype, MSN Messenger or Google talk contact details
A link to your Linked-In, Facebook or MySpace profile
Your Twitter, StumbleUpon or Digg profile

You can place anything you feel comfortable making available to the public on your contact page.

You can see my combined contact and about page here:

https://yaro.blog/about/

3. Pillar Articles

I’ll discuss the concept of “pillar articles” in more depth in an upcoming email newsletter, but for the moment you need to start working on some nice, fat, juicy, meaty…okay, you get the picture – SOLID articles.

Something substantial. Something worth reading that teaches your audience about the subjects relevant to your blog topic. Not just news reposts from other websites. This is ORIGINAL content from your mind.

Be creative, be interesting, be inspirational and demonstrate these elements through your blog articles.

Lay The Foundations

Do you know what a pre-launch is?

A pre-launch is what you do before you *launch* your blog. You take certain actions and set up the foundations at your blog before you tell anyone about it.

The purpose of a pre-launch is so you don’t go wasting time marketing your blog to build traffic before there is anything there. There’s no point trying to sell an empty book.

I tell my blogging students not to bother looking for traffic in the first month of blogging. Your blog may be online, but it’s better if people don’t know about it until you get something there worth reading. Once the content is in place and you finish all the pre-launch activities, then you can officially “launch” and get the word out about your blog.

Knuckle down, work on your pre-launch and you will be ready and confident when you start to drum up your initial traffic that the new readers you attract will stick around and not immediately click away from your blog.

What Goes Into A Good Blog Prelaunch?

If you need help with your blog pre-launch and want to know what steps to take during the first month of creating a new blog, I have a private blog training program you can join.

My mentoring course is called Blog Mastermind and provides a step-by-step guide to take your blog from zero to hero, explode your traffic and build a solid income stream, so you can quit your job and earn a full time income from blogging part time.

During the first month of Blog Mastermind I provide you with lessons that reveal the common mistakes most new bloggers make and how you can avoid their fate and launch your blog with all the right elements in place.

I’ve helped over 1,000 students successfully launch blogs. Here’s some feedback I received from one of my students –

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Where do I begin? I started getting into the idea of blogging from a friend of mine who earns a decent living from running websites and the one piece of advice he gave to me was to learn as much as possible. Whilst I have used many resources to assist my blogging process, yours has been the easiest to understand and the most informative.

— Andrew Weber, arsenalfcblog.com

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I’m inviting new students into my program now and I’d love to have you as one of them.

If this is the year you take blogging seriously and want to follow a proven system for creating a successful and profitable blog, go to this website and read what Blog Mastermind offers –

http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching/

In The Next Newsletter

That’s it for this newsletter. In the next newsletter I have a story for you about a blogger who made a critical mistake that cost him $2,000 a MONTH in lost blogging income.

If you want to make sure you don’t make the same mistake as this unfortunate blogger, stay tuned for the next Blog Tips newsletter coming to you in seven days.

Here’s to your blogging success,

Yaro Starak
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com