A new year brings with it a new beginning and a new start. You can look at it as the same old same old or you can look at it as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Here are some tips to make 2010 your best blogging year ever.
Post On A Consistent Frequency
Many new people read this blog and think it had always made a lot of money. The truth is, I started just like you did. For the first eight months of my blog’s life, it made zero and barely cracked 1,000 page views per day. It also didn’t look anything like it does today.
If I were to nail down one ingredient to blogging success, it would have to be a consistent posting habit. Most bloggers fail because they want instant gratification and mistakenly think that blogging is the quick road to riches. When they first start, they’ll post like crazy for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. When nothing comes from it, they quit and become a statistic.
The key is consistency. On again, off again blogging doesn’t work. I have averaged over two posts per day since the day this blog was created. In fact, there has never been a single day when there wasn’t new post to read. It is this kind of consistency that will lead your blog to success in 2010. You should choose a posting frequency and make a commitment to stick to it.
Get That Domain Name
If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to give your blog a domain name and get out of Blogspot or WordPress.com and into a professional web host. 2010 is the year to build YOUR brand. 175,000 new blogs are created everyday. What are you going to do to separate your blog from the masses? If your blog already has a domain name, then make 2010 the year your blog gets its own custom theme. If you really want to kick it up a notch, have some business cards made up or maybe even some T-shirts.
Start treating your blog like a serious business. A major reason why most bloggers don’t taking blogging seriously is because of its low start up cost – easy in, easy out. If a blog cost $100,000 to start, a lot more people would treat it more seriously. Very few normal businesses can be started for the cost of a domain name and grow into a $500,000 operation in four years. But that is the power of blogging if you take it seriously and continue to work at it on a consistent basis.
Start Your Social Media Support System
Successful blogs are backed up by a social media support system to helps bring in the traffic and reinforce the blog’s brand. If you don’t have one yet, then 2010 is a great year to make one. It is not enough to just set up your blog. You need to back it up by taking all the social media accounts for your blog name.
For example, John Chow dot Com pretty much owns the John Chow name on the Internet. There’s the John Chow blog of course, but it’s backed up by the John Chow Twitter account, John Chow Facebook page, John Chow LinkedIn page, John Chow Flickr, John Chow Friend Feed, John Chow YouTube, etc. This support base of John Chow social media properties has allowed me to dominate the Internet for my name. Do a search for John Chow on Google and the first 10 pages of results are all about me.
Start That Mailing List
I was debating about putting this one here because I’ve written about the mailing list so much in 2009 that I figure everyone must have one by now. However, I know that is not the case. I can not stress enough how important it is for a money making blog to have a mailing list. The list is the number one reason my blog makes the income that it does.
My recommended mailing list provider is Aweber. They are by far the best in the business and have features that put them light years ahead of the competition. Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts and follow ups. If for some amazing reason, you can’t make the $1 back, then email marketing and making money by blogging is clearly not for you.
Get To Really Know Your Readers
Blogging is all about forming relationships. There’s the relationship between you and the readers and relationship between you and other blogs in your niche. Make a commitment to get to know them and form that relationship.
In addition to getting to know your readers, you should have your readers get to know you. If you haven’t done so yet, then make 2010 the year to create your about page and tell your story. Where did you come from? What are you goals and dreams? Introduce your family members. The more the readers know about you, the more they’ll connect with you and trust you.
Stay In Quadrant Two
If you ever read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, then you’ll know about the time quadrant. Basically, Every activity we do during the day can be put in one of four quadrants:
- Urgent and important (crises, pressing problem, deadline)
- Not urgent and important (Relationship building, planning, exercise)
- Urgent and not important (Interruptions, some calls, emails, etc.)
- Not urgent and not important (Busy work, time wasters, pleasant activities)
Answer this question: What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Chances are, whatever you name, it’s a Quadrant two activity.
Quadrant two is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are important but not urgent, like building your blog, forming relationships, long term financial planning, exercising – all those things we know we need to do, but seldom get around to doing because they are not urgent and can be put off until some other day. Well, we all know that someday never comes.
Don’t put off what you know you need to do just because it’s not urgent and you can always get to it someday. For many, someday will turn into years or never. I know people who said they were going to get into blogging years ago. I’m still waiting to see their blogs. The main difference between a highly successful blogger and an unsuccessful one is the successful blogger knows blogging is not urgent but it’s important enough to actually get started and keep going.
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