Today I will touch on a very important aspect of blogging. I’m assuming here that you already have a website up and running and have reached a “ceiling” where everything seems to stay the same and everything seems to give the same results no matter how much extra effort you put in. The traffic, the sales, the comments… everything seems to remain stagnant or you simply feel that the money your blog generates is less than it should be generating at the moment.
I have had the opportunity to discover these ‘laws’ which, if applied well, have the power to improve the results you are currently having, and these results could be immense. So I’m going to go through them and I hope you get something out of this and apply it (this is the most important part) to whatever niche you are. happy reading j
1. The Law of the Platform – See Every Opportunity as a Platform
The Law of the Platform tells you to view every opportunity, event, or adventure as a platform to reach a higher place. For example, being a 19-year-old blogger is an opportunity that many people don’t have. Somehow it gives me an avenue to promote myself. People will want to hear about a 19 year old making 5 figures blogging. Established bloggers will also be more inclined to what I have to say because they will feel that if I can earn that much at 19, I will definitely be doing bigger things in the near future. They will want to help me in the little ways they can, because they know that I will ultimately be of help. Yet at the same time, many people in my age group feel that they are too young or too inexperienced to lead an audience yet. I wonder when the right time would be.
So whatever your story is, you can take advantage of it. His story could be that he got fired from his job and he stumbled upon internet marketing and was able to make as much money, or even less than his day job: he has a platform. Build on it!
I have a friend who has almost 200 (good) eBooks sitting on a laptop, this friend of mine goes to seminars like crazy. He comes to my house many times and he tells me that he got more e-books and learned something new, but he still asks me WHAT CAN HE DO TO EARN MONEY. This friend of mine has a huge amount of information on a laptop, and all he has to do is take just one bit of information and apply He seems to know so much that sometimes I don’t know what else to tell him other than to create a plan. It has a very good opportunity but it is not managing to turn it into a platform.
Tip: It’s your approach to the platform that will determine what you get out of it.
2. The law of the web: build your network
The law of the web tells you to build a network, and in this case, a strong one. The power of your website is the strength of the people in your network. Build a network of weaklings and you have a weak network, or you can build a network of strong individuals and you have an asset. Using my Facebook and Twitter accounts as an example:
My Twitter account is strictly business, both Emmanuel Olonade’s and IncomeScene’s accounts are followed by people from like-minded accounts like Forbes, Problogger and JohnChow. They’re not from CNN or KimKardashian and that’s why I get amazing results with them; these people are interested in what I have to say.
But my Facebook account is full of real life friends and if you’ve had a reason or two to sell to a friend on a professional level, you’ll understand what I mean when I say it’s hard to market to my fans there. Many of my friends who become fans do so more out of loyalty or just for the fun of following (they all seem to follow as many pages as they can find). My Twitter accounts far outnumber my Facebook account simply because of the network I’ve built. I hope you understand this because this alone can determine the earning potential of your blog.
Tip: Build a network of people who are preferably stronger (have more audience than you) and are currently where you plan to be. More on this later.
3. The law of content – What do you have to offer?
You can do a lot of work building a large network of strong followers, but once you have nothing to offer them, they will end up running away to someone who has something for them. After all the hype and marketing, the top priority becomes the problems your site solves or the need it creates.
The subscribers we have today have some kind of resistance when it comes to giving out their email address; This means that you don’t just sit around and create any kind of content and hope your readers will subscribe. People have to see what’s in it for them before subscribing to receive your updates. You have to be unique with the way you blog or else people will see you like they see every other Tom, Dick and Harry.
Tip: Your readers don’t want the best products, they want the most useful ones.
4. The law of the brand – How do others see your blog?
The power of branding cannot be overstated as it describes how others view your blog. This is what ‘outsiders’ think your blog is about. Let’s take this analogy here, when you hear the name Toyota, one of the things that will come to your mind is the problem they had with the “brake system” of their cars; but if you come across a Walmart store the first thing that comes to mind is “low prices”.
And taking it to the blogosphere, when a name like Darren Rowse or Shoemoney is mentioned, you immediately think of “make money online” or “blogging as a business”, but what kind of bell does a name like Shawn Casey ring? over the top. That’s the power of the brand.
And it is with blogs as with any other business, the brand simply does not become a trusted one overnight. It takes consistency and some hard work (or, if you prefer, smart work). You can’t blog about everything in this world about making money online and expect people to respect you.
Even if you have a large following doing this, it will be hard to make money from them – if I subscribe to your blog because I want affiliate marketing information, I will feel left out when you start talking about forex trading. The result is simple: I’m not buying from you, I’m looking for someone to tell me what I need to know about affiliate marketing.
Tip: Ask your readers or friends to describe you in 3 words.
5. The law of mentoring: find someone to “copy”
The power of mentoring, I wouldn’t be able to fully explain. But anyone who has had the opportunity to be properly mentored would tell you that finding the right mentor greatly shortens the learning curve. Ask anyone.
No matter what you claim to know about blogging, your eyes are not open to some things. There are many other people who know a lot more than you do, but these people cannot choose to help you if you don’t ask them. They have a lot going on, which means they don’t have time.
So what can you do about it? I would say that you should make yourself useful to them one way or another. You can post comments and ask engaging questions on a regular basis, you can email them genuinely telling them what you like about their blog, and you can even ask them for the chance to intern with them for free. By doing this, they will surely take notice and pay you in the smallest possible way, probably a Retweet or the opportunity to write them a guest post (if they allow it).
But a note of caution here, don’t copy the exact things they do, letter by letter. That is parasite and will do you more harm than good.
Tip: Be selective with your mentors.
6. The Law of the Cross – Make a Sacrifice
You might see this as “ecclesiastical”, I know, but that’s what I’d like to use here. It resonates with me that way.
To transform your blog into what you want, you have to pay some sacrifices since it is not cheap (sorry to scare you a little). Know that to create great posts, you don’t just sit down and write for thirty minutes a day, unless you’ll be working on the same article all week. To write a really good article, you need quality writing time. This article, for example, was not published the same day I wrote it. It took a few days and a few fixes and tweaks along the way.
And the same principle applies to making great connections, you have to sacrifice something tangible: it could be your time, it could mean giving up easy or guaranteed sources of income for unpredictable and initially less rewarding ones. In the end, your blog will be better positioned to reward you. All you have to do is make some sacrifices.
Tip: To roll with the greats, you have to make SACRIFICES.
7. The Law of DNA – You have to be unique
This is more like the laws of content and trademark mixed in some types. The law of DNA says that you have to be unique in what you do. And for those of you who don’t know what DNA means, it’s the part of our genes that makes each person different from the next.
Ok, I said you should be unique, but does that mean you should start looking for “untapped” markets? No. Find the things people are doing and succeeding at and then create a unique (and better) version. It’s more like putting alloy wheels on an existing wheel.
One way to avoid this is to do some soul searching and figure out what sounds best or resonates the most with you and what you stand for. You can discover this by finding out what you seem to do pretty well, something you feel comfortable talking about, or you can ask your friends and family for feedback.
Tip: Don’t sell your beliefs for the rewards you might get as a result. It’s not worth it in the end.
And finally…
8. The law of looking ahead – Looking to the future
This is pretty simple, look to the future, see a picture of what you want your blog to be like in, say, one, two, or five years; and use this to find out what you should be doing NOW.
Since it’s a new year, everyone has made the usual rule of making projections and resolutions, but quite a few of us don’t break these goals into small enough chunks. This makes it a chore when we need to keep track of our progress, and usually by March many people will have fallen behind on meeting their goals, and then start looking ahead to next year to make more resolutions.
For myself this year, I have goals that I have written down and assigned time limits to which they can be attached. An example is having 2500 followers on each of my Twitter accounts by my 20th birthday (in July). I hope writing articles like these can help my cause.
On a final note, you have to do the best you can right now and run your own race, don’t model your blog exactly like someone else’s; we all have to take different paths but in the end we will reach our goals.
Believe that you can transform your blog and you will, think the opposite and you will also be right. The choice is yours.