Posts tagged how to start a blog


How to grow your blog like a Fortune 500 company

Aug 17th

14 comments

By Srivinas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist

If there’s one exercise that continually causes my blog to grow, it’s conducting a quarterly review.  If you want your blog to turn into a business you have to treat it accordingly. Fortune 500 Companies do quarterly reports, so why not model some of their best practices?

Why You Should Do This

As bloggers we’re often caught up in the day to day activities of writing posts, commenting on blogs and interacting with people across various social media channels and it can feel like we’re not accomplishing much. We have a tendency to focus on how far we have to go rather than looking back at just how far we’ve come. The process of conducting a quarterly review will motivate you to keep charging forward because you’ll get a very clear look at just how much you’ve accomplished.  It will also give you insights into what worked, what didn’t work and what you can do differently.

The Review Process

Conducting a review is something you should expect to spend a few solid hours on if you want to get the most value possible out of it.  The review can be broken up into 3 main categories: traffic+subscribers, revenue, and projects.

Traffic + Subscribers

Traffic is the biggest concern of many early stage bloggers and you should remember that not all traffic is created equal and that quality always trumps quantity. That being said reviewing your traffic on a quarterly basis can give you some deep insights into things you can do differently to increase it.

1. Compare to the Previous Quarter:

Perhaps the most important thing to consider when it comes to traffic is that you are showing a pattern of growth. If you do a comparison and your traffic has declined, then you’ll need  to think about what might be the cause:

  • Are you posting enough?
  • Are you building the right relationships?
  • Is your content worth sharing?
  • Do you need to write more guest posts?

There are a number of factors that could cause your traffic to decline or increase. Choose one area to improve and stick to it over the course of the next quarter.

2. Look at Referral Traffic:

Take a look at where your referral traffic is coming from. You’ll notice that you get much more traffic when you guest post on certain blogs. If that’s the case reach out to the author of the blog and ask if you can be a guest contributor again. Connect with the readers of that blog by visiting theirs.

3. Look at Subscribers

After two years of blogging, all I can say is that your email list is gold.  Every successful blogger will tell you “the money is in the list.” While RSS subscribers are nice and bring people back to your blog, I’d recommend shifting your entire focus to your email list. Many of us neglect our lists because we’re writing so much content for our own blogs.  While the numbers are important, what you need to concern yourself most with is a pattern of growth.  If you’re not seeing growth, then you’ll want to make some adjustments. Below I’ve suggested a few ideas to improve your email list.

  • One simple thing that will help you to improve your newsletter is repurposing content from your archives. Most blog archives are sitting around collecting dust. You can take 5-6 of your best blog posts and make them the content of your autoresponder sequence.
  • Interview somebody well known in your niche and give away the interview as a bonus for signing up for your newsletter
  • Create a free e-book. But make sure it is just as good as something people would pay for. If the things you provide for free are of no value then it’s unlikely anbody will buy from you.

Projects

I usually have between 2-3 project goals every quarter. Here are some sample projects that you could work on over the course of any quarter

  • A Guest Posting Campaign
  • A free E-book or Manifesto
  • A course or product

In the review process you really want to make sure that you have made some progress on at least one of your projects. If you’ve made no progress on any of your projects from the previous quarter, you might want to consider taking some of them off your list.

Revenue

The final thing that I tend to review every quarter is the revenue that I’ve generated. The best way to do this is to break up the revenue by categories. For example you may generate revenue in the following ways:

  • Consulting
  • Products
  • Advertising Revenue

It’s important to break this up into categories so you can get a sense of what efforts are giving you your highest ROI. This helps you to prioritize your revenue generating efforts.

Setting up Your Quarterly Marketing Plan and Goals

Don’t have Too Many Goals

This might seem counter-intuitive, but the more goals you set the less you seem to get done. The list will seem so daunting that you’ll never take any action towards the goals on the list. That’s why I recommend you set less goals. If you happened to get those goals done you can always add more to the list later in the quarter. Set 1-2 Goals in Each Area.

Traffic + Subscriber Goals:

Traffic and subscriber goals are interesting because the end result is really not completely in your control. All you can do is take certain actions to move in the direction of your goal. That being said, I think it can be quite valuable to set a traffic and subscriber goal since it’s keeps you focused on how to grow your audience. For example, you could set a goal of reaching 1000 total subscribers by the next quarter if you are at 500 now. The real value is not reaching the number itself, but learning how to reach it. Once you’ve done it once, you can repeat the process and grow by another 1000 subscribers. Just have a target to aim for over the course of a quarter.

Project Goals

I recommend that you make it a goal to complete at least one project every quarter. Rather than set a number of different project goals and scatter your effort, focus on one and make it your mission to finish it. If you want to write an e-book or launch a product make that your project for the quarter. As I said before, you can always add more projects when you complete one. In fact if you have less things on your list and complete them you’ll be motivated to keep moving forward.

Revenue Goals

When you set a revenue goal, set something that you think is actually achievable. Chances are that if you are a beginning blogger you are not going to make a million dollars by the end of the quarter. Setting that kind of goal and not meeting it will only frustrate you. Once you start with a number in mind, you’ll be able to start brainstorming the different ways that you’ll hit your revenue goal. It could be a combination of the following:

  • Product Sales
  • Consulting
  • Speaking
  • Advertising Revenue

If you have an opportunity to capitalize on low hanging fruit, then do it.  Even if it is not a lot of money it will give you the confidence to keep going.

Deviate from Your Plan (when it makes sense)

One final caveat I’d like to add is that you shouldn’t be afraid to deviate from your plan.  Opportunities will arise, your business will go through changes, and certain actions will make more sense than the ones you originally planned out at the beginning of the quarter. If you’re too stubborn about your goals, you might miss out on fantastic opportunities. For example, if somebody comes to you and asks you to partner with them on a product launch, be open to that because it could lead to many other things in the future.The quarterly review might be a time consuming process, but it’s a very worthwhile one. It will give you a tremendous amount of insight into the growth of your blog and if you act on those insights your blog will continually grow.

Below you’ll find links to sample monthly/quarterly reviews from my blog and two others that I think do a fantastic job of breaking down everything they’re up to.

How do you manage the long-term goals of your blog?

Srinivas Rao is the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast to help you take your blog to the next level. He also writes about personal development at The Skool of Life.  You can download his free webinar on the 7 Pillars of Blog Traffic. 

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The 7 Fundamentals of Starting a Company Blog

Apr 14th

46 comments

It’s more than ideas. It’s more than marketing. Starting a corporate blog is a commitment and should be carefully thought-through before executing.

{grow} community member Tabatha Bourguignon told me she is starting a blog for her company, Sandy Bay Networks, and asked me about the steps to take to get started. Let’s all help her out, shall we?

The technology part of it — the right look, functionality and widgets — is not that big of deal when it comes to long-term success. You can make technology do anything you want, iterate and add widgets over time. However, you can’t make HUMANS do anything you want, and that is the most-overlooked  — and also the most important — aspect of starting a company blog from scratch. Let’s look at the practical political realties of building a company blog.

1) Assess the culture – Even if starting a blog is the RIGHT thing to do, it might not be the WISE thing to do if your company can’t sustain it. Are you built to blog?  I was working with a company that definitely could have used a blog and other social media tools to stand out, but the culture of the company (usually dictated by the person at the top) didn’t support it.  You and I are in the job of creating success with the cards we’re dealt, not wishing for another hand to play, so I moved on to other ideas. It is disastrous to try to implement plans that your company either can’t, or won’t, support at the top. If you have a resistant culutre, you need to re-trench and begin an education process, not dive into a kamikaze mission.

Another consideration is that company culture will set the tone of your blog. If you are buttoned-up and conservative, your blog will be too. If you’re customer-focused and passionate about your product, that will show through. So have a realistic expectation about the tone of the blog before going into it.

2) Align with strategy – Blogging is a marketing function. There. I said it. Before all the PR folks jump down my throat (where did that phrase come from any way?) let me explain the rationale. Assuming you didn’t get a government bailout, companies must take money from customers to exist. There will be no media relations, no press releases, no employee newsletters if the money doesn’t flow. Marketing is responsible for bringing in more money, from more people, more often. Everything in the company directly, or indirectly, supports that. Including the blog. A blog is just another way to influence people to do something. What is that? What is the ultimate call to action? What is that blog driving for over time? If you can explain that, it will help you determine how you will …

3) Measure what you treasure – Well, you ARE going to measure aren’t you?  Of course you are. Without a measure of success, how would you know if you are doing better or worse? Or if you should spend more or less money on blogging? Or if you have the right people doing the blogging? Or if you are covering the right topics? Most important, when the budget axe falls some day in the future (and it will), and some outside cost-cutter visits your department and asks “what do you do?” you better have some charts to show how you are adding to stakeholder value on a daily basis.

4) Assess your resources– It’s time to get real.  You know all those people who are telling you they’re going to help you with the blog?  Don’t count on it! It sounds like a good idea but when it comes time to put pen to paper, many people can’t, or simply don’t deliver. What happens if key bloggers get too busy or don’t follow-through? What counter-measure do you have in place? If it’s not a compensated part of their job, it may not be reliable. How will you sustain the blog?

Also in the category of resources is assessing existing content that can be re-purposed. Get more bang for your marketing buck by using speeches, videos, slide presentations and marketing materials in your blog.

5) Look at the outside world. Talk to your customers and ask them what they would like to see on your blog. Just makes sense, but usually overlooked. What do your competitors offer? How are you going to be different?

6) Who’s in charge — The dreaded approval process is part of company life. Don’t fight it. Just make sure it is well understood before you start. You don’t want to start blogging and then have a whole new set of rules thrown at you.

7) Create a plan, then abandon it – Plot out your first 25 blog posts.  How does it align with strategy? Meet customer needs? Blend with management expectations? It’s a good idea to have some sort of a plan before you start, but don’t become too wedded to it. Don’t miss what is going on all around you and all the great story ideas flying at you every day!

Whew. That’s a lot to think about, isn’t it?  And I probably missed a bunch of ideas. Will you help make this a better post for everyone and all of eternity by adding your suggestions in the comment section? Thanks!

Thanks for the question Tabatha! Tabatha Bourguignon blogs at www.bantameant.blogspot.com and submitted this question through the recent B2B blogging webinar I provided through MLT Creative.

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Overcoming blogging’s fear factor

Dec 5th

72 comments

I talk to a lot of bloggers. In fact I speak to some blogger somewhere almost every day … supporting, encouraging, listening, and helping where I can.

And I think I’ve determined the biggest hurdle that keeps people from ever beginning a blog.

It’s not a lack of ideas.

It’s not time.

It’s not writing ability.

It’s CONFIDENCE.

Fear of failure and criticism seems to be the most overwhelming reason why people don’t blog.  Having some trepidation about blogging is reasonable. After all, it’s kind of like public speaking in a way, isn’t it?  I think it is a pretty rare person who can put themselves out there in a public way and not have at least a little insecurity.

So what do we do about it?  Here are a few ideas that seem to be working …

Re-frame the fear. “Blogging” is a word associated with publishing and being in the spotlight. Let’s use a different word — “essay.”  Can you compose a 500-word essay on a topic that interests you once a month? In analog terms, 500 words is one page, double-spaced. That seems pretty easy, doesn’t it?  Well, let’s start there.  Set a goal to write one 500-word essay every month on a topic related to your passion or profession (or if you’re lucky, both!).

Now, let’s look at writing a second essay every month.  This one is based on something that you’ve read — a book, a newspaper article, a blog post. Write this 500-word essay on why you liked the article, what you learned from it, or how it impacted you.  Focusing on two essays a month … that seems achievable doesn’t it?

Focus on fun. Now, let’s address the fear factor directly.  If you’re thinking about blogging, you probably have some thought that you will enjoy it, right?  Well blogging IS fun. It’s an interesting challenge, a wonderful creative outlet, and an opportunity to join an amazing global community of bloggers.

So one way to get over the anxiety is to focus on the benefits to yourself, not the fear of criticism from unknown “others.”  Even if nobody reads the thing, many bloggers tell me they keep doing it just because it’s so enjoyable.  Focus on this opportunity to learn a fun skill that might open up some new doors.

Seek active support. When I started blogging there was a small group of people who were also just starting out and we encouraged each other along the way — Jayme Soulati, John Bottom, Steve Dodd and Gregg Morris, to name a few.  They would leave a comment now and then or tweet a post out just to keep me going. I’ll never forget — one time I was beginning to wonder if anybody was reading the posts I was writing and out of the blue I got this email from Dan Levine:

I appreciate what you’re doing — slowly and surely, thoughtfully and methodically, you’re helping shape the direction of this “new” medium. In a landscape filled with yes-people and a few too many sheep, your posts are making ripples that will eventually lead to new ideas and fresh approaches. I have no doubt.  So … thank you.

Let me tell you — that was a great confidence booster at a critical time for me. Blogging can be a lonely job.  Remember that on average, only 2% of your readers ever leave a comment. So take the time to build your support group of fellow beginners and encourage them by becoming active on their blogs.

Handling hate — I’ve received about 7,000 comments on {grow}. I take a lot of risks in this forum and would say I have only received two or three comments that were unprofessional pot-shots. That’s 0.04%.  Now I get plenty of criticism and dissent because I encourage that. But mean? No.

Expecting negativity is an unfounded fear. Bloggers, and those who read blogs, are generally an extremely nice and supportive bunch of folks. They may push you, they may disagree with you, but that is sign that they care about what you say. It’s recognition that you’ve had an impact and you’re making people think.  That can be a point of pride, not a source of fear.

Fear of failure — If you define success as attracting a thousand readers, or achieving professional recognition, or even becoming rich from your blog, well, you might fail. But there are lots of other personal and business benefits of blogging even if you have a small audience or you never get rich. And you’ll never achieve any of them if you don’t try.  What’s the worst that can happen if you “fail?” Probably not much.

You are unique and amazing in your own way. There are people who would benefit from hearing your stories and learning from your experiences.  Dive in. The water’s fine!

Join the conversation. What fears did you have when you started and how did you overcome them? What advice would you provide beginners?

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