In Jack Mitchell's book, 99 Blogging Tips, Strategies, And Must Haves - Make Your Blog A Success, you will get a detailed look at all of things you should be thinking about when creating a blog. This book covers traffic and promotion strategies, tools and blog necessities, the type of content you SHOULD be creating, monetizing your blog, creating a product, and a lot of other little "gold nuggets" as some of us say.
Excerpt:
I believe the first thing you need to do before even creating the blog is to ask yourself three questions. I call them the Ws. Who are you? Why should people listen to you? What do you have to offer? Let's dive in a little deeper...
Who are you?
Seriously, who are you? What's your name, what is your background, what country are you from?
Tell your readers who you are, and what you're about. Your blog readers will be more likely to come back, because they get that personal feeling. The feeling that they are visiting your blog to visit YOU. Make the social blogging experience more friendly, which will indeed grab the attention of more people.
Why should people listen to you?
You don't have to directly tell people why they should listen to you, it should be transparent from the very beginning.
Telling your readers who you are is great, but now you have to put your money where your mouth is. People listen to people with great content. People listen to people who are helpful. people listen to people who are inspiring and positive.
When someone visits your blog, what are the first few things they see? Does your blog make you look like a reliable, trustworthy, personable source? These are just some things to think about, we'll get into more strategic thinking later.
What do you have to offer?
Here we are, the offer. What do you have to offer to your visitors? If I sent you 10,000 visitors to your blog, do they convert? Do they opt-in to an email list? Do they share your content for you? Do they buy a product? Do they download a freebie?
But it's not just about getting the leads - it's about giving them an offer they can't refuse. Again, I'll get into a lot more detail on these strategies later in this book, but these are the things you need to be thinking about BEFORE anything else. You can get all the traffic in the world to a page on your blog, but if you don't have something to offer, then all that traffic goes to waste.
Defining Your Mission And Goals
Okay, so you've gone through the three Ws, now it's time to define your mission and your goals.
It doesn't matter where you put it, just make sure it's on your blog and people can find it easily. Some have it on their "about me" page, some have it on their home page. Others put it in their header at the top of every page.
Defining your mission should be easy. Why did you make your blog? Is it to help people, entertain people, inform people?
Explain in one sentence what people can expect from your blog. For example "JacksVeryCollWebsite.com is dedicated to helping young entrepreneurs reach their goals through the power of hard work and action."
People have the "what's in it for me?" mentality. When someone visits your blog, they want to know what it is you're bringing to the table. How is your blog different from the others? Why should I come back, what's in it for me in the future?
If you fail to establish your mission, the passerbyers will just be passerbyers. However, if you establish what you can do for them now AND in the future, the passerbyers will become subscribers, then members, then buyers. All of that... starts with a clear mission.
So what about goals?
Your goals are for yourself, but they are just as important as establishing your mission.
If you want 100,000 visitors a month, that's an awesome goal to have! Depending on how hard you work, and how smart you work, it might take awhile - but that's okay! Just having the goal in your mind will make it that much more beneficial to work hard on the blogging strategies that are proven to work, because then you know you'll reach your goals, and may in fact pass them.
Reader L. Leander says, "I loved the first book in this series, 99 Ways to Flood Your Website With Traffic. This book is equally as good and a reference I'll use for a long while. The author has done an incredible job of including step-by-step instructions and tips to blog your way to success. The book is a must-have for anyone, whether they are experienced or inexperienced.
"There is a wealth of information in the pages and you'll want to read it more than once. As a new website designer and blogger this is a roadmap that I can follow to reach people who are interested in my writing. One of the things I found invaluable was about RSS feed, since it's a bit of an enigma to me. CTA, Search Bars, Social Media, Tags and Categories - it's all here! What about using images in your posts? Text size, plug-ins, and how to create interesting headlines? All explained in easy to understand terms.
"The author touches on being mobile-friendly and the importance of using analytics. There is simply too much information contained within the book to list it here but you get the idea. I'm taking a high-priced marketing workshop and this little book touches on many of the subjects I've been learning at a tiny fraction of the cost. Be sure you add it to your reference library - it's easy to find what you need and your blog success may depend on it!" Click here for more information.
More Make Money Blogging Ideas:
• Seven Killer Blog Mistakes
• How to Make Money Blogging
• How to Write Killer Blog Headlines
• A Complete Guide to Freelance Blogging
• How to Make Money with Your Blog
• How To Write A Killer Blog Post
• Promote Your Blog To Gain Readers
• Five Big Worries of a First Time Blogger - And How to Overcome Them
• Eight Steps to Blogging Success
• How to Start a Blog