You need to learn to market yourself. With rare exceptions, every blogger that fails to market is always a failure, so I hope you also don’t fall into the pitfall of thinking that you will start a blog, just write and expect the above benefits to come to you.
Here are some things you should do to market yourself as a blogger.
1. Define Yourself
What is your purpose as a writer? What do you want to use your writing to help others achieve, and how is it a part of your blog? Define yourself; let people know why you’re different, and why they should trust you instead of the competition online.
Your message should be a core part of your unique difference and you shouldn’t be afraid to show this. Let people know why you’re different, let your domain name reflect it, let your tagline reflect it, let your design reflect it and let every article you publish on your blog reflect it.
2. Take a Stand
Don’t just maintain a blog like every other person. Don’t be afraid to offend those who aren’t a part of your audience if you will be changing more lives. It’s okay to offend others, as long as you do it in a healthy way, and with a goal in mind. What I mean, is that, not everybody will agree with your message, but that shouldn’t prevent you from telling the truth, neither should it force you to “soften it”.
Taking a stand will make you come across as someone that can be trusted because your readers will always expect the truth from you. Taking a stand will also help you build a passionate audience that is always willing to hear from you.
3. Build a Tribe
A tribe is a group of people connected to an idea, connected to a leader, connected to one another – Seth Godin
There is a different between building a tribe and amassing numbers and there is a huge difference between building a tribe and getting traffic. Your tribe is connected to the same idea as you, they are connected to the same message as you, with you at the center of everything and they are always passionate about anything you have to say.
Don’t just build an audience, build a tribe!
4. Network
You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don’t seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together. – Henry Ford
Smart people don’t do it alone, neither do they expect others to come and meet them. They go out of their comfort zone, they network and interact with other people, and they work on ways to achieve a common goal.
Don’t just wait and expect success to come. Be proactive at networking with others in your niche. Always be there for them, and let them know you are. Focus on contributing value to each other’s lives, work on keeping each other accountable and utilize your networks to achieve mutual success.
5. Leverage Other People’s Audience
For every topic you choose to write about there are at least a thousand other blogs online talking about the same thing. Don’t just wait and expect people to discover your blog by chance. Go out there, meet people and show them to your base. Look for other bloggers with the same audience as yours and contribute to their blog as a way to build exposure for yourself. The process of doing this is called guest blogging
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