If Life only holds you lemons in hands The only thing you can do to make lemonade.
If you are struggling to get traffic (humans) on your blog and the result is poor.
In this case – TRY something different, a little twist in the idea.
Don’t worry you are not alone,
Everyone at the beginning of blogging makes the same mistake – including me.
All beginners bloggers are after everyone – They want the whole world to be on their blog.
But this is only possible in imagination – The real world is much different.
But don’t forget there is always a way to get things done and reach the destination which is possible in reality.
So today I will shed some light on building a community around your blog.
#1:) – Community?
Forget about the traffic – all bloggers are just driving people crazy to get traffic but they forget – The power of community.
Community means to gather people around a sense of connection.
You work hard and set them on a road to success.
You represent yourself as an expert and a thought leader on a topic.
You daily prepare a dose of inspiration and new strategies to push them to the next level.
If you compare the idea of a community with a blogging community you will get this.
When you publish a blog you give it a name and a topic.
For example:
My Blog – I have two powerful sentences.
#1:) – Build a Successful Blog (Also, I have written a book under this title)
#2:) – Live a Laptop Lifestyle
And whenever I try to write a piece of content I always focus on these two phrases and around these phrases I have built a successful blog.
But when it comes to building a community around a blog.
It will not only require you to write blog posts daily but many tasks on daily basis.
To build a successful community you have to gather people around the world from many different sites, regions, and timezone.
#2:) – Target Community
Everyone is not your target but people who are interested in your topic are the real target.
To give power to your community is to foster a sense of connection.
All I mean to tell a story which will help them to keep you in mind.
A short story in the beginning or in the blog posts or somewhere on social media.
After someone went through your short story give them a chance to read your long story on a separate page on your blog home page.
A story helps you to build a strong relationship with your audiences.
Actually blogging is a communication system from one person to many people if everyone in your community knows you well they will respect your words and will help you in many different ways.
The science behind the story has cleared that we humans are hardwired to storytelling.
Even big brands such as Pepsico and Airbnb can’t ignore the power of storytelling.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories that you tell.” ~Seth Godin
There is another main thing to discuss is before you tell a story to your community about yourself or your company.
You have to give them a solid reason why they should engage in your community.
As we all know everyone on the internet doesn’t visit a page until they don’t ask themselves “What’s in it for me?” Subconsciously.
You don’t need a lot of traffic driven strategies or run your community by different tactics all the time.
Be authentic – and be yourself – as stats show that 63% of people buy from authentic brands rather than the competition who hide their true selves.
For being authentic you have to know yourself as much as your audeinces.
As Neil says you are the star in your community and the biggest shining star is not you “sorry to say this”.
But the real stars are your audiences. who read and share your content all over the web.
They are pillar if you are the roof.
To know them well you have to respond to them and help them in real-time when they need you.
It will be worth the time to research and put some efforts to know them and help them before they try to ask you.
“It means to be a dictator for good not for bad”.
If you visit expert bloggers posts you will notice that they are personally engaged with their blog readers and they are answering every single question.
Either it’s on youtube, Facebook, or blog comment sections.
The benefits I know from engaging with readers are that they keep you busy and give you thousands dollars worth of ideas to generate content.
But the biggest advantage is that they will be your brand’s advocates on the web and will help you to meet new eyeballs (aka), humans.
But don’t forget to be in contact with high profiles.
All I mean if you have an audience it means you are also a fan of someone.
To keep this in mind you have to be in contact with them and ask them many questions which will help you to build a successful blog.
Once you connected to the above and with your audience then invite your contacts and friends and let them know that you are doing great work.
#3:) – Social Media Writing Platforms
Gone are the days when bloggers were preaching to people to sign up for different social accounts and promote content consistently.
Even in a video Seth Goddin says that he used to tell people to sign up for email before social media.
He was trying to educate people to use email.
Today, if you look around you will feel that the world has become a global village.
But there is something still waiting for us to use on social platforms.
I think you may have heard somewhere on the web but you are not using these strategies.
3.1:) – Linkedin Pulse
Linkedin pulse is a platform where LinkedIn members write articles telling new stories and sharing their thoughts on different matters.
According to the LinkedIn press room, there are 722 million people in their community.
It’s a huge – huge community.
But you might be thinking that why I am telling you about this and why you need this LinkedIn pulse if you have a running blog.
Let me first clear this. when you write a new blog post after a lot of struggle you deserve to get some new eyeballs on your blog.
It’s simple just go to linkedIn and click on write an article and then copy-paste your half article to pulse editors.
Now linkedin pulse is integrated into every person’s account and you can easily write.
In the last add a link to your full blog post “click to continue”. while publishing adds some hashtags and mentions some of your connections for more exposure.
It’s simple and easy will take you only 5 minutes.
If you are still not convinced then have a look.
Getting a little traffic to your wordpress blog from this big community will help you build your community faster and successful.
#3.2:) – Medium
If you ask me about the medium I will Answer you that if you want to find the best talent from all over the world in one place then medium.com is your friend.
One thing I love about medium is that all authors- bloggers – and undiscovered voices are hanging there.
I am so impressed by their earnings.
The medium is also a large community where you can find some loyal audiences if you regularly post about your blog topic.
I will not tell you about the medium community statistics because it is something to see for yourself.
If you have some time apart from your blogging then you should try to write full articles on medium
If you don’t have then use the same above strategy.
Copy half of your article and then give a link in the end to your original article on your blog.
In a nutshell, don’t leave money on the table for nothing.
#3.3:) – Quora space
You may already know about quora.com where people ask questions and experts answer.
It’s a Q [question] and A [answer] social site.
On Quora.com people ask a lot of interesting questions about many topics.
Quora is not a community but the sum of communities even micro-niches are showing in the trending list.
If you dig a little deeper you will find below analytics results with google trends and also more interesting insights.
So how you can reap the reward from quora.com.
There are only three ways to reach your real audiences in this noisy world.
#3.3.1: – Answering
Sign up for a Quora profile if you don’t have one already or just sign up with your Google account.
Now build a good looking profile with a professional photo.
On the left side down if you scroll while landing on your profile you will notice “Knows About”.
It means what kind of topics you know well to help people with.
Click on the little pencil to add some topics.
Once you added some topics you will soon start receiving questions from people to answer.
If you know an answer to a question then write with full details as you write on your blog.
Once you finished Answering someone’s question- add a link to your related blog post or to your blog page at the end of the answer.
Don’t just say – “Hey visit my blog” But try to be natural.
it means a call to action.
This way you can get traffic to your site.
#3.3.2:) – Quora Space (quora Blog)
The second way is to create a space on quora and regularly write posts around your niche.
As I have created – if you don’t have one click on the + sign to create one.
You can use the same strategy to copy-paste your half post and then link back to the original post on your blog.
Using
- Linkedin Pulse
- Medium.com
- Quora space and answering
These strategies will help you build a successful blog faster.
#4:) – Social Media
If you are still not hanging on social media sign up and participate in groups.
If it works for you keeps on hanging.
Regularly posts your work on 3 to 5 social sites.
But keeps in mind – Only use one platform and grow from there.
You do not need all sites to waste your time.
One thing another which I do not want to skip here is to choose wisely your platform home.
Blogging is a complex business and you have to make your system simple.
Your platform home means is that you will be available there any time.
On your blogging journey, you will work on many sites but you should not be engaged everywhere but on one or two sites with people.
My recommendation in this matter is to choose your blog comment sections as your primary home.
As on my home page, I have advised visitors to ask me in any blog post comment section and I will answer.
So this is how you will point a place for quick help.
Social media sites or any type of messenger you can use.
But if you consider a place where you will only hang on.
In my view, social sites are not good for engaging with the audience. WHY – because This is RISKY.
Social media sites are the best sources for blog traffic.
95.9% of bloggers promote their blog posts via social media.
Don’t make mistakes as other beginners and mid-level bloggers are making.
They are surfing social sites all day along and wasting tons of time.
Yes – Using social media is risky and it’s hard to sip the juice of social media.
But if you have a look at expert blogger’s social site activities you will learn that they only post their content on daily basis.
They are not addicted but they are reaping the real rewards from social sites.
The best way I know is to use buffer.com and schedule your blog posts on daily basis to share on many networks once.
By using an outsource app will help you lower the addiction risk.
I have made social site addictions mistakes for years. (I was a Twitter addict)
So then somehow I stopped and now I only schedule my post with buffer.com and very often I visit social sites.
Recently I wrote this blog post to schedule and use or setup, buffer.com for your blog or around the web.
Buffer is a real-time helper – never ignore.
#4:) – Mail Chimp
You may have heard a lot – Money on the list.
Once you struggled and got some eyeballs on your contents then use mail chimp to collect emails.
As yaro starak says – If I had known the benefit of email marketing I would have started an email campaign from day one.
Mail chimp service is free in the begging you can collect 2000 emails in free.
After that, you have to pay them for more email collection.
But 2000 emails subscribers are enough to manage and you can still have your juice.
Even wordpress.com offers free mail chimp service setup.
Under the marketing tab and connection, you will find a mail chimp setup.
Also, add a mail chimp widget to your blog sidebar.
It is a one-time easy setup. Learn here.
Collect your years of struggle in a box with a mail chimp.
Using email and convincing your audiences in their’s inbox is way more personal.
It takes fewer efforts to close a deal in no time.
#5:) – Permission to Market
Blogging and marketing go hands in hands.
Marketing is simple if you first ask your visitor to allow you to send them
- Affiliate links
- Products Digital or Physical
- Membership plans
- Courses
- Books
- Etcetera
But one thing should be clear that you will only promote to them related products.
For example:
If you are blogging about writing and you promote to them cooking products then it will not make sense and they will unsubscribe.
This way you can hurt your campaign.
Be clear about your offer and keeps showing up with new unique content which will make their life easier.
https://youtu.be/wwMk1H4lPDU
Conclusion
First, you build your community, and then your community will run your blog.
It works as a team and they will refer more and more visitors to your blog.
Investing time and money in building a blog community is like gambling but it payback.
You may have different goals to achieve but the last and final goal of your blogging efforts must be to build and gather all the same taster (likeminded) people from around the world.
So you can teach them you can learn from them and you can engage with them.
Market to them and let them market to you.
This is your tribe and you have the stick to lead them.
Keep calm and keep in mind it takes time and a lot of struggle to build a tribe.
Let me know if you have any questions and what are your good tips to build a successful community around your blog.
Thanks
This is a very helpful post. Thank you for sharing.