Raving fans are passionate, engaged, and loyal customers or followers who will go out of their way to promote your product or service. Blogging can make you money by tapping into this audience. Raving fans are an essential part of any successful business.
So, how do you turn your blog post readers into raving fans? Keep reading to find out!
Why should you blog?
The real question is – why shouldn’t you?
Blogging has so many benefits and can truly help to put your business on the map.
It enables you to set aside a regular time to create and get your thoughts written down – helping you to think more clearly.
It allows you to share content and establish yourself firmly as a thought leader and an expert in your field.
Blogging allows you to connect with an audience and create a community, while increasing the amount of traffic to your website.
Which, in turn, allows you to stand out in a crowded market and ultimately make more sales.
What should you write about?
Blogging can be a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world, while allowing you to provide value to your audience.
Remember that each blog post is a chance for you to give away free advice and firmly cement yourself as someone your customers can turn to when they need help.
So what can you blog about? Blogging can make you money with some of these quick ideas:
- Customer success story
- Dare to disagree
- Cover newsworthy topics
- Discuss trends you’ve noticed
- Carry out comparison tests / reviews
- Cover a conference
- Mention charity work
- Share your successes AND failures
- Discuss a recent report or survey
- Keyword posts (check out search terms)
- How-to guides
- Interview someone in the industry
- ‘A day in the life of…’
- Where you get your ideas
- What podcasts you listen to and books you read
- Resources you use
- Top tips
Every blog post you create needs to tell a story. That means it needs to have a headline that grabs attention, a first paragraph that hooks the reader, an engaging middle and a firm ending with a call to action.
By telling a story, you can evoke emotion among your readers, and it allows you to make the message you’re trying to get across feel real. To tell a story. If you tell a story, it makes what you’re saying real.
Who is your audience?
Forget about what you’re selling and focus on who you’re selling to.
Think about your customers’ goals and values.
What are they trying to achieve, and how can you help them achieve it?
What is their problem and how can you solve it?
Determine what your audience wants
Don’t be afraid to ask.
It’s never been easier to ask your readers what they actually need help with. Simply head on over to Instagram and do a quick poll.
Or send out a Google Form or Monkey Survey via email.
The answers to the questions you ask might surprise you. And by responding to them, blogging can make you money.
It also pays to look at what you’re selling the most of and write blog posts around that. For example, if a certain service sells more than others, talk about the customer journey when they purchase that service from you.
If you are repeatedly asked the same question, write a blog post that covers it, so your ideal customers can easily find answers.
How to improve audience engagement
First of all, a tech note: if your website loads too slowly, you’ll struggle to keep people on your website. So fix your site’s speed as a matter of priority.
Secondly, make sure you include both internal and external links, because this will keep your readers on your website for longer, or help them to find further resources they need.
Include social buttons so visitors can easily share your content, and ask for readers to comment so you can start to create a community. And then reply to those comments quickly!
It pays to have a branding photoshoot at least once a year, so you can get a range of professional photos to use time and time again.
And don’t forget – always include a call to action at the end of every blog post.
How long should a blog post be?
I hate to say it, but the longer the blog post, the better.
Research from Hubspot shows that shareable posts are generally over 1,000 words and the longer the post, the more shares it is likely to get.
Basically, the more value you provide, the stronger the results.
Not only is long-form content more shareable, but it also gives you more SEO opportunities and therefore attracts more customers to your website.
However, try not to go over 3,000 words because that’s simply too long.
Remember, most people are still writing shorter, 500-word blog posts. Your beefed-up blogs will stand out, if you put in a little more effort. (And you’ll soon see blogging can make you money.)
Longer posts are also good for backlinks and increased organic leads, allowing your blogs to continue to be read in the months (and years) to come!
Don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd when you blog
Don’t be afraid to have a voice. Be honest. Have an opinion. Be personal. It’s okay if not everyone agrees – it wil help you find the right audience and customers for you
Don’t be vanilla or boring – be the blogger that everyone talks about because you look at things from a different angle.
Think outside of the box and make sure your content reflects your brand’s personality.
Use images or videos – always
People are visual creatures.
Adding images and videos to your blog posts will make them more visually appealing and easier to digest.
Videos are especially effective at holding people’s attention. If you can add a video to your blog post, do it!
Or if you don’t have the time to add a video to your blog, use video on your socials to promote it. Remember that people retain information in different ways, and many of us prefer watching video to reading content.
Basic SEO tips
Remember to add your keywords to the headline, first paragraph, in the URL and in the meta description.
Here are some of my favourite tools that I like to read:
- Ubersuggest – Great for discovering different topics to blog about, as well as for keyword research.
- YOAST SEO – This is a WordPress plugin that audits your content to make sure you’ve popped your keywords in the right places throughout your blog posts.
- MOZ’s beginner’s guide to SEO – A guide that I read when I was first training myself in SEO. It’s very useful.
- Answer the Public – Simply plug in a topic and this website will generate all the questions Google users have been searching for. See what questions need answering and then answer them!
- Quora– Another useful resource to find out what questions your ideal target market are asking.
- HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator – This does what it says on the tin.
Search results from Answer the Public
How to attract more readers
When deciding what to blog about, research a blog topic and then Google it. Look at the top search result and then write a post that’s better. If you want to outrank the top searches then your blog post needs to provide more value.
Also look at some other blogs that get a lot of traffic and see if you can write a guest post for them, linking back to your blog, as this can be great for your SEO.
Share all your blog posts on socials, and if you don’t have the ability to host a blog on your website (my first option) then I would recommend posting articles directly on to LinkedIn.
And when your blog launches, why not create a giveaway to attract more readers?
Add in extra value
Make sure you ALWAYS offer value and consistently give away freebies. Aim for one freebie giveaway a month (otherwise known as a lead magnet) and you’ll be shooting for the stars.
Here are some ideas of what you can giveaway:
- e-books
- Courses
- Trials
- Competitions
- Demos
- Guides
- Podcasts
- Templates
- Event tickets
- Webinars
- White papers
- Discounts
Here are some more tips on how to write an engaging blog post.
Consistency is key… you’ll soon see blogging can make you money
Use a content calendar (there’s one you can download on our homepage) to make sure your blog routine stays consistent.
Whether you blog once a week or once a month, select a timeframe and stick to it.
Consistency is key if you want to attract long-term readers.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of what you should do to write a blog post that turns readers into raving fans, it’s time for you to put this into practice.
Remember, writing great blog content isn’t easy – but it is worth it. The more effort you put in, the more rewards you will reap.
Have you written something that you’re proud to show to the world? Put the link to it in the comments section below. We can’t wait to see it!
Want to read more about blogging? Here’s a post on 7 free resources to help you blog better.
