Try These Powerful Steps to Grow Your Blog by 500% by the End of 2014
There aren’t many guarantees in life but what I can say is that one of the most tried and proven approaches to successful personal life and business is one of tenacity and persistence to deliver results, regardless of the odds. Let’s face it, blogging is a crowded game today with hundreds of millions of voices trying desperately to make their mark. However, one thing you’ll realize is that in every saturated market, every economic depression, there are still many who discover some “secret” and find solutions to the challenges. But there’s no secret, the successful stories reveal a common nature and this is one made of persistence, patience, repetition and an unrelenting tenacity.
Growing your blog or any online presence begins with a few foundation steps which are common across any niche you can think of. The keys to blogging success is an art based on certain enduring principles. If you want to know how to push yourself to the next level and make a greater impact online, read on.
Productivity Skills
This is first on the list because in whatever you do, if you’re not efficient or productive you’re going to lose. If you’re sloppy at managing time and resources, you’re going to lose regardless of how amazing your product or message is. Its a foundation that should never be ignored and your success with it is more guaranteed in doing one thing really well, better than everyone else versus trying to juggle great ten things. The rest of this article will have productivity techniques on managing each aspect of the work required to grow your blog.
The first steps:
- Create a spreadsheet or use a calendar to list the daily tasks that are important to achieving your goals. Break them down into short to medium to long-term tasks and goals and focus your attention on tasks which matter today only. Use this approach each day.
- Use a whiteboard to write and clearly display your daily tasks. There is power in the act of erasing each task as its completed. This is highly recommended.
- Schedule each task specifically to the times or amount of hours you need to spend on each task. I use a similar time-table format as when I was in high school.
- Rinse and repeat.
Conquer your habits and be productive first.
Become a Video Blogger
Complement your usual text-based articles with video. I know it feels much safer hiding behind the articles you write, public yet protected by a veil of secrecy. Video is the next big thing and its consumption is on the rise according to Comscore with a consumption of 40 Billion videos mid last year. Create a Youtube or Vimeo channel and start recording and talking about your favorite subjects. You don’t need to have $10,000 equipment and it really doesn’t matter is you’re shooting from your porch, walking on the street or in your bedroom, viewers only care about what you have to say and if you’re interesting. So bring a new spin, be unique. Ensure that your video content directs users to your blog and be ready for them.
I promise you that working a video channel will significantly add to your readership and increase your audience. There are millions of viewers who prefer watching and listening versus reading a lengthy article. Take advantage of that. Plus there are additional earning possibilities with Youtube’s Partner Program, so take a look at that.
As a start, publish one video per week and gradually work your way up from there.
Guest Blogging & Contributing to the Community
Guest blogging has been around for a long time and in more recent times, opportunities are becoming scarce as the typical quality of guest bloggers are in the dumps. So to protect their blogs, bloggers have kept accepting guest articles to a minimum, especially since Google is now more vigilant on penalizing poor quality content. This doesn’t mean guest blogging is dead. Finding the most influential blogs in your niche and contributing articles, provided that you get a few links back to your content, is still a powerful strategy for for increasing backlinks to your website and growing your authority, profile and reach in your niche.
Identify the popular blogs in your niche and set a goal of publishing 1 guest article per week. Each article should be a powerhouse and is a reflection of your best work. Pour as much energy, knowledge and insight as you can into these articles. You will begin to see a steady flow of new readers to your site and your connections will grow.
Commenting and other contributions
Building relationships is still the trump card in getting what you want in any business. Build solid relationships by commenting on blogs that interest you and engage in community discussions. Do not go around posting one line “Great article!” comments but provide useful feedback and insight into each article. Show more interest in others and you’ll be on track. Don’t be selfish.
Your target here is commenting on 10 – 15 articles per day or whatever you can comfortably do on a daily basis.
Sticking to the End
Now more than ever blogging is a long-term effort and your greatest results will come to fruition after persistent work. If you want to get rich quick then quit right now. Its not for you.
The schedule to win it all
I won’t go into everything you should be doing to market your blog but this is just the foundation of the major goal. The key is doing specific things better than everyone else or even just better than the average. Now here’s the schedule, if you stick to it, will guarantee you growth of 500% or more with your blog:
Weekly Tasks:
– Comment on 70 to 100 blogs per week. That’s 10 per day
– Submit 1 powerful guest article per week
– Publish 1 video per week. Place that video on Vimeo and Youtube
– Write 3 new articles per week
These tasks can easily fit into working 4 hours per day and certainly the hours can be spread across different times of day as you like. Repeating this schedule, completing the work diligently and on time will grow your blog to levels you could only imagine. The main take away here is that you need to be consistent with whatever you decide to do and get out there and engage people. Its that simple.
Get rid of the get rich quick mindset, quit being intimidated by the success you desire and go for it daily. Each daily victory brings you closer to blogging success. Crave and pursue the daily victories, not the one at the top of the mountain.
Robyn-Dale Samuda is a Web Developer & is owner of Yuraki, a Website Development, IT Consultation & Online Marketing Firm in Jamaica. He has a passion for the web and helping clients achieve more online.
Wonderful advice for any blogger. I particularly like your productivity tips. It’s easy to get caught up in the time sinks of blogging — fiddling with themes, graphics and so on. Your strategies to block out time are excellent.
I need to do more videos too, so your post is a timely reminder. Many thanks. :-)
Hi Angela,
I’m glad my article could help as a reminder. The theme and technical stuff can also be allocated in their own time slots.
Keep blogging!
Wonderful advice for any blogger. I particularly like your productivity tips. It’s easy to get caught up in the time sinks of blogging
he theme and technical stuff can also be allocated in their own time slots.
Keep blogging!
che thai nguyen
Your tips are very helpful :-) I’ve now started to apply these daily myself. Im a big fan of writing a to do list everyday and then ticking them off one by one.
When I wanted help with PPC on Adwords I wasn’t sure who to trust, so I got a free audit from Results Driven Marketing and it was really helpful. Just call 325-446-1507 Hope they can help you too! Good luck!