6 Obvious But Often Missed Blog Marketing Basics

By Barrie Davenport

When you are building and growing a blog and trying to make an income from it, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.

We get so caught up in the details of SEO, affiliate marketing, email lists, advertising, and all of the various strategies for creating income that we often neglect some of the bigger picture tactics that are essential to success.

With blogging, as with life, sometimes we have to step back and assess the bigger picture issues. We have to remember that behind every successful and profitable blog are thousands of human beings — individual people who are looking at your blog for their own personal reasons. They have names, faces, families, hopes, needs, problems, and dreams — just like you.

Remembering that will go a long way in helping you have a successful blog. You aren’t just writing to product-hungry, easy-to-manipulate, nameless masses. You are writing to intelligent, savvy, knowledge-seeking people. Just like you. In fact, asking yourself if you would find something you are doing on your blog useful or annoying is a great barometer for your decisions.

As things slow down a bit during the holidays, it’s a great time to step back and make sure you remember some of these bread and butter basics that are actually the meat and potatoes of your blog marketing success.

Here are the top six to keep in mind:

Basic #1: Trust

As I mentioned above, your readers are individual people. You can’t expect them to trust you enough to follow your blog, much less purchase from you, until you gain their trust and loyalty. How do you do that? By being trustworthy, caring, and authentic. Every day, ask yourself, “How can I serve my readers today? What will they find useful, informative, or inspiring?”

Communicate with them like a real person — not in hyped-up market-y speak. Don’t over-promise, over-sell, or talk down to your readers. Give them such great information through your posts and emails, that they are eager to see your name pop up in their in-box.  Respond to them quickly in your comments or if they communicate with you directly. Openly acknowledge screw-ups and fix them immediately. Your reputation and your readers’ trust are the foundation upon which your entire future success rests.

Basic #2: Patience

Building that trust outlined above doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months and years. That doesn’t mean you won’t make any money for years — but to have a consistent, large, and loyal following, you must be patient. If you look at successful bloggers like Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, Darren Rowse of Problogger, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, or any number of high-earning bloggers, you will see that they have been at it for many years.

Their success didn’t happen by chance. It happened as a result of putting in the time and effort day-in and day-out, writing great information that their readers wanted, listening to their readers, and responding accordingly. Often they were working at “real” jobs while they were building their blogs.

Big success can happen, but it takes time and patience. Keep giving your readers what they want, and they will come.

Basic #3: Connections

Beyond building trust with your readers, you need to keep building connections with other bloggers and other blog readers in your niche or a similar niche. A network of connections helps your blog grow exponentially. If you are guest posting, making comments on another blog, using social media, and participating in joint ventures, you are opening the valves to thousands of potential new subscribers.

Every single day, spend some focused time building those connections — for both short term and long term growth. Specifically, that means getting on Twitter and Facebook and responding to people and  sharing useful info. Commit to writing and submitting at least one guest post a week, as guest posts on larger blogs will bring an immediate rush of new readers to your blog. Send a friendly email to another blogger with a kind comment or an idea.

For long-term connections, start building relationships with other bloggers with whom you might partner or share a joint venture in the future. These relationships will pay off in building your reputation and authority in your niche.

Basic #4: Branding

Don’t forget to reinforce your blog’s brand in everything you do — from the design of your blog to the message of your tweets. Every communication is an opportunity to drive readers to your blog and help people remember who you are and what your blog is about.

When you comment on a blog, rather than typing in your name alone, brand yourself by putting your blog name with your name — like this: Barrie/A-List Blog Marketing. If you are writing a guest post, in addition to the bio and author name, reinforce your brand by mentioning your blog name (with a link) in the body of the post. I try to do this regularly with my personal development blog, Live Bold and Bloom. (See how I snuck that in?!)

Create a branded fan page on Facebook and include your logo on your Twitter account. Put your logo and blog name at the top of or end of all of your email correspondence.

And in all of your actions and decisions, remember the message of your blog. If you are blogging about money management but spend beyond your means, you are undermining your credibility.

Basic #5: Research

When you are in the trenches of building and marketing your blog, it’s easy to isolate yourself in the details of the work you are doing. But if you do that without pulling your head above the water, you might be missing some important new trends, ideas, or inspiration to propel you forward with your blog’s growth and financial success.

Set aside time during your week to research and read about blog building and marketing strategies, as well as ideas and inspiration for your particular niche. I often do this on Friday mornings or over the weekend. You will probably find a few blogs that are your go-to resources, but occasionally expand your reading list to get new and different perspectives.

As much as we’d like you to stick around A-List Blog Marketing for all of your blogging inspiration, there are so many great blogging blogs out there. I particularly like Smart Passive Income, Copyblogger, Skelliewag, and Successful Blogging.

Basic #6: Creation

Remember that your readers are frequenting your blog because of you. You are the personality behind your posts and emails. So don’t forget that in addition to affiliate marketing, advertising, and consulting, you need to be creating your very own products to sell on your blog. And not just one product.

Product creation should be an on-going effort on your part. You don’t have to present a new product every month — or even every six months. But you should be presenting something new that is your personal creation on a fairly regular basis.

You can have one foundational signature product (a course or manifesto of some kind), and supplement that regularly with eBooks, guides, or mini-courses that you sell for lower price points. And you can update older products and reintroduce them with additional material (video, case studies, etc.)

Remember, even as your blog grows and begins to produce real income, return to these basics regularly. Blogging is an ever-evolving endeavor, but these basics should be the foundation for your business model. They will serve you and help your blog grow at every stage of your journey.