Phases of Blog Growth
For this Tool’s of the Trade Tuesday, I talk about a powerful tool that every affiliate marketer should have… a blog (or website). A website or blog helps you to establish authority and serves as a home base others can find. But it is more than that, phases of blog growth also helps your online business grow when done right.
Yeah, yeah, I know everyone says you need one and that’s all fine and dandy. But I already have one that’s not doing much of anything, now what?
It is more that just having a online presence, it’s all about doing something with it. Not only that, but how long does it take?
Building a blog is similar to building a business, they both go hand in hand. And when it is online, both are even more interrelated. As you grow your blog, you will also be growing your business.
So let’s get started. I have identified six phases of blog growth. To help figure out where you currently are, and what you need to do next to keep growing. Here are those six phases:
- Phase 1 – Start by posting great content consistently
- Phase 2 – Tell everyone you know about it
- Phase 3 – Start building a community of followers
- Phase 4 – Build your authority or brand
- Phase 5 – Go viral
- Phase 6 – Monetization
Phase One – Its all About Content
You’ve just finished installing your blog – your theme is selected and running, widgets are installed and active, and a “Hello World” post graces the homepage.
It’s normal for you at this point to be super-excited, and want to be recognized, spreading the word.
Resist that urge!
Before you begin telling anyone about your blog, you first have to make sure that there’s enough good content for them to read when they arrive there. That’s why your #1 priority with your new blog is to write some really great posts.
I know that it is easier said than done. Not only do you have to think of good content to write, but you’ve also got to stay motivated and consistent, even when you realize no one is reading it. I know it’s hard, but it’s really worth it in the long run.
Remember even the most popular blogs and sites online today started out the same way!
Phase Two – Tell Everyone
Once you have written and posted great anchor content that will impress people who arrive at your blog, it’s time to start spreading the word – starting with those who are nearest and dearest to you.
Reach out to everyone you know by using your email, social network accounts, even the telephone, and any other way you can think of. Let them know how excited you are about your new blog, and what your plans are for it.
Don’t forget to ask them for feedback; let them know how much it would mean to you if they would subscribe, and leave a comment on posts so you know what they think. You can even ask them to help you spread the word about your blog, but don’t expect miracles.
In the beginning, you won’t get tons of traffic, but it’s a start. Strive to get to about 10-20 unique visitors per day once the initial spike of curious people has passed who came to check out your site but didn’t stay.
Phase Three – Build a Community
Once you’ve achieved that baseline of web traffic mentioned above, and your nearest and dearest (particularly those in your blog’s target market) have given you some feedback, it’s time to widen your circle.
Now would be the time to reach out to other bloggers in your community or niche – avoid the big ones, who have no reason to listen to you. I’m talking about ones like yours – other blogs that are fairly new, and are receiving somewhere around 15 or less comments on their posts.
Look for the quality ones (it’s important that they actually be good). Visit and leave comments on their posts, engage with them. Invite them to write a guest post on your blog – in most cases, they’ll be happy to do it, leave you with a great post, and tell their followers to go read it.
Of course, you should return the kindness for them. Share their good work with your network – they will thank you for the exposure, and your network will thank you for the unique quality content that you’re sending their way.
Also offer to write guest posts for them, and answer all of the comments that you get. Doing all of this will help to bring your daily numbers up to the range of 50-100 unique visitors per day.
At this point, you really want to pay careful attention to what resonates with your guests, because you’ll need it for the next phase in the process.
Phase Four – Build Your Authority
Okay, at this point we can take a look at where we are; you have great content available on your site that your close group likes, and that has gotten good traffic and reviews from other members within your blogging community.
Now it’s time to take off the training wheels.
I’m talking about guest posting on the bigger blogs in your niche or specialty. This is where you’ll start tapping into bigger targeted traffic numbers.
Here’s how you can do it:
First, find blogs that you want to do a guest post on. They need to be blogs whose audience would like your stuff, too. They should also be large enough to help you get good traction; related blogs that have an Alexa ranking of around 100,000 or less.
Second, visit the blog and read the articles. Then decide what topics you could write about that they will like, and ones that they will respond well to (by this I mean where you’ll get lots of comments, social shares including tweets, and Facebook likes).
Third, become active on the blog by reading through it and leaving useful comments on at least 2-3 posts. This is important – you need to know the style and flow of the blog and blogger, and show them that you care.
Finally after completing all the above, send the owner of the blog an email. Make it meaningful but keep it short and sweet.
By doing your homework and only presenting ideas that fit well with the blog, most blog owners will be happy to receive a draft. Once they say yes, send them a draft within a few days. Once it runs on the blog, be active and gracious when addressing comments.
Continue to do this until you generate around 200-400 unique visitors per day.
While doing this, also use your growing traffic numbers to optimize conversions. That is get your site to the point that your opt-in rates are solid. And if you’ve got something to sell, people will be buying with some regularity. Make sure everything is operating efficiently before jumping to the next step in the process.
Phase Five – Let’s Go Viral
Once you are consistently getting 200 unique visitors per day, time to take it up a notch – time for your traffic to go viral. In other words, you need to develop ways to multiply or leverage that traffic.
There are a number of ways to do this – but I must warn you first. If your blog doesn’t have a enough traffic, and isn’t optimized, DON’T JUMP AHEAD TO THIS STEP!
Why? Because for virality to work, it requires a critical mass. For example, say you create an awesome piece of viral content and release it to your audience of seven readers.
It’s possible that you might get lucky and someone shares it with someone who eventually shares it a lot… but that probably won’t happen.
Instead, make sure your content will get enough exposure that when you produce something worthwhile of getting past the tipping point, it will tip!
Here are just two ways that you can use to go viral:
Offer a Bonus for Sharing – you can create an awesome piece of content, and then give it away for free in exchange for sharing on Twitter or Facebook (you can use a free trial service like InviteBox).
Viral Content Contest – run a series of posts about your topic and make sure these posts are all share-worthy (high quality content). Then add an incentive for sharing by running a contest – only enter people into a draw if they share.
This is where your traffic can really grow – just run a couple of these campaigns, properly executed, can bring you up to 1,000 unique visits each day… that’s 30,000 visitors a month – now we’re talking!
Phase Six – Revenue Generation
Many blogs falter because they’re too busy trying to sell something when they should still be focused on building an audience. Once you’ve got an audience that loves your content and trusts you, selling becomes easy.
The main point here is that you should focus on building your audience first, and then on selling second. Too often, when people ask why their site isn’t making money, the answer is obvious, because nobody is visiting it. No visitors, no money!
Grow your audience first, then focus on selling after that while maintaining your blog, is how you solve that problem.
Of course, this isn’t the only way you can do this. It is, however, a proven path, a safe path, and a path that will get you there quicker than many of the others that are out there – especially the ones that promise to rocket you to the top, but really just push you off a cliff.
Another great thing about this method – it works even if you veer off of it from time to time. And it will happen; you’ll discover other ideas that you’ll want to try, or find opportunities that you won’t want to miss while waiting for the next step to develop in the process.
When you’re done exploring, you can work your way back to the path and pick up where you left off.
As always, I invite you to leave any questions, comments, or observations about today’s topic and ask that you share it with your favorite social network group in the process – thank you! 🙂
