Blogging is incredibly popular these days. When the internet was still new back in the nineties, only a handful of dedicated writers or diarists actually bothered to blog. Nowadays, everyone from bored grandmas to multimillion dollar businesses engage in blogging. The blogging environment has changed very significantly in the last decade. In the past, blogging was mainly done either as a pastime, or to convey information. These days, blogs are used as a highly effective marketing tool. Blogs can act as a promotional instrument for companies to push brands. Also, dedicated bloggers can use their blogs to make money.
There are different reasons why people blog. If you have your own blog, you could be promoting a business, a personal brand, or just recounting personal experiences. However, it’s undeniable that blogs have immense power to drive traffic. Also, if you are a blogger, your blog could become a steady source of income for you. But there’s thins one tiny issue: the blogging world is very crowded. If you are thinking about travelling the world and blogging about it, be aware that there are literally thousands of other bloggers who do just that. So, how can a lone blogger, not backed by a major brand, stand out among it all?
That’s a question with no simple answer. However, there are several things you can do to make your blog stand out and in turn make you a lot of money. Scroll down below for the suggestions.
Find a Unique Niche
The most important aspect of your blog is its subject matter. The success or failure of your blog will depend on how interesting the subject matter is to the target audience. No amount of paid boosting can make your blog popular if the topic you choose is boring. The problem these days is that even the most interesting topics have competitors. Most people want to blog about good, travel, writing, or fashion. Incidentally, these are also the most popular subjects among bloggers. Even subjects that were once considered esoteric or boring— like linguistics, tech knowledge, language learning, product reviews, self improvement and professional advice—have dozens of blogs being written about them nowadays.
The secret to standing out when your blog is mainly about rather generic topic is to find a unique niche. For example, there are tens of thousands of food blogs out there. Take a cuisine, say Vietnamese, and you will find pages of Google search results for blogs about Vietnamese food. You can switch to a new topic, or you can find a new angle, or a niche, to present your subject. How many blogs are there about Vietnamese dishes you can find in Russia? What about blogs about making Vietnamese style dishes with Western ingredients? These are some examples of unique niches you can focus on.
For any given subject matter, there will be a segment of the audience that is not getting exactly what it is looking for. This is where you can find your niche audience. You can do some research to find out what sort of untapped audiences may be available for your subject matter. You can use your own personal experiences with reading similar blogs as well. Ultimately, you will have to find your niche to land a loyal audience.
Discover Your Own Writing Style or a Way of Presenting Information to Readers
Of course, not all subjects have niche audiences. But, you can still create your own niche audience by presenting your blog in a unique style. You can develop your own way of writing that utterly captivates readers. Or, you can present information in a manner that readers have never seen before.
Julia Powell is a famous blogger you may have heard of. She became popular for her blog about preparing all of Julia Child’s 524 recipes in 365 days in her small apartment kitchen. Powell could have written a generic blog about French cooking. But instead she gave her blog a personal twist that made it immensely popular, and into a movie starring Meryl Streep. Likewise, you can try to present information in your own unique manner that people haven’t really seen before. Novelty is important when engaging audiences. Keep in mind that modern blog readers have probably seen it all before. So, try to show them something they haven’t seen or can’t find anywhere else.
Experiment with Different Formats
It’s standard for bloggers to write an article, usually a short one of about 500 words, accompanies by a picture or two. This is a rather boring format that readers are used to. If you want to make an impression with your blog, try experimenting with other formats. You can use infographics, slide shows, short video clips, or anything else to present the information you want to present. It will be refreshing from everything else blog readers typically see. You can also present information in short bouts making up for quick readings, which web users particularly like.
Get Noticed by Other Bloggers, Writers, and Journalists
The other way to get noticed as a blogger is to be visible. Bloggers often use various marketing tactics to get traffic to the site to increase search engine rankings. But these efforts often pale in comparison to the power of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is when you get a famous person in your field to mention your blog. Getting mentions by other, non-competing bloggers or writers is a great way to increase the street cred of your blog. Then, word of mouth will take care of the rest.
Another powerful format to promote your blog is newspaper coverage. If you can get a journalist to cover your blog, it would be an immense boost to both brand awareness and search engine rankings. Of course, you will have to write about something completely newsworthy to get your blog written about in a paper. However, you can also try giving journalists quotes for articles that ouch upon the subject matter that you blog about.
It’s important to understand the difficulty of getting a blog noticed these days. It will be a long and arduous process before your blog attracts a hefty following. Until then, try one of the above mentioned to make sure you blog is not lost in a sea of other blogs.