13 steps to making money out of blogging
You may not know that we are owned by international best selling Author Mandie Holgate who is also a multi award winning business coach who grew her first business to over £1,000,000 in the 1990’s in a recession!
Over on Mandie’s blog there is an article that quite frankly we felt we ought to nick!
So here’s an abridged version of how to make money out of blogging*
Whether you own your own business, work for a charity, have a passion for K-Pop or Women’s football you can make money from blogging.
You can get your passion for any subject out there and help others benefit too.
- But what do you write?
- And what’s the magic formula that ensures people read and action what you say?
- And what if you’ve written a blog but like your social media it falls flat and achieves nothing?
And best of all check out step 11 where I share some of the amazing ways it can make you money!
Join me for the fastest 13 steps to a making your blog a money maker!
1. Time on your side
Make time — when I’m coaching someone on growing a business or earning more money I end every session by finding out when will the actions we set be completed by. If you can’t find 20% of your time to work on this, how will it happen?
2. Your reason why?
What is the purpose of writing your blog? And if the answer is “To make lots of money!” or “To find lots of customers” Then think again.
Do you want to inspire? Empower? Educate? Stir up passion for a cause?
Yes, behind that reason is the desire to make money from blogging but foremostly consider how you are going to make a difference in the world. Customers buy when they are ready to from those that they trust. A blog helps you build awareness, trust and respect so that when they want something, it’s you they remember!
3. Who are you writing for?
I was training a room full of business owners on blogging for business and when I asked this question someone said (and I’m not sure they were joking) “Anyone that has skin!” They’d been told that to sell their skin products they could sell them to anyone. I pointed out that my husband had skin and only used moisturizer if I bought it for him at Christmas, and even then 1 bottle could last a year!
Just like marketing is a lot easier when you really know your perfect customers (want more on that click here) blogging is a lot easier when you are talking to the right people. So take the time to describe in detail your perfect readers.
4. What do you write about?
A big mistake bloggers make is that they write what they want to talk about and not what readers want to read. You may know that what they need to know is questions they’ve not even considered asking, so how could they know they need to know something they don’t know they need to know?!? (Confusing right?)…
To read the full story and the other 9 steps to making money from blogging click here.
- Over on the Insiders, our confidential mastermind group and virtual networking platform we are focusing on how to create side businesses and new income streams. We appreciate how challenging this Autumn/Winter is going to be for many so there will still be no charge for our networking events (Just £10 a month to be a member and get all those benefits, discounts and competitions).
- You can also buy Mandie’s courses with a 50% discount as a member – including her Blogging for Business course – blogging led to Mandie’s first best selling book Fight the fear so we know this course is exceptionally good. Learn more here.
- AND as an Insider you can sell Mandie’s courses and keep 50% of the profit – another way to bring some extra money in this winter – that or get BP shares 2 years ago in your time machine?
4 Solutions No Business Should Go Without
In these uncertain times, it can be difficult to be a business owner. The coronavirus pandemic has caused major uncertainty and disruption to most industries and we will likely be feeling the effects of this for years to come.
Here are a few ways that you can invest in and protect your business for years to come.
Technology
This one is key and is one that has been thrown into sharp relief by the coronavirus pandemic. We are living in a fully digital world now and given restrictions on visiting brick and mortar shops, online sales and services have boomed.
Your business will need a good, professional website to showcase your talents and services. Your website should be dynamic and engaging – where possible make sure to update and tailor it regularly to keep it at its very best. Making use of features like blogs on your website can help you to showcase your knowledge and expertise and is great for keeping customers informed.
No matter your business, you will find technology out there to help streamline and improve your operations, which can end up saving you significant amounts of time and money. Make sure you do your research and find the very best technology out there.
Good Accounting
Accounting is vital for a successful business. Where possible you should aim to enlist the help of a professional to help with your accounting. This will leave you able to focus on your business and what you do best.
A good accountancy service will keep on top of legislation and regulation. This is their specialty and is invaluable to business owners who often don’t have time to oversee details of accounting in the same way they would in other elements of their business.
Check out these accountancy services for some great ideas on what to look for in an accountant. They can help ensure that your accounts and taxes are in order and ultimately save you money and time while providing peace of mind. Good accounts will also provide valuable insight into areas where your business is excelling and areas that need attention and improvement.
A Social Media Presence
As with technology in general, more of us than ever before are engaging on social media. This makes it an invaluable tool for marketing and promoting brand awareness.
Many people when looking for new products and services check a business’s social media pages to get a feel for the company and its ethos. Providing engaging content can be incredibly helpful to show that you are knowledgeable and that you truly care about your customers.
Social media can also be a great way to gain reviews and recommendations. You could try running social media campaigns to increase brand awareness and get social media users engaged.
Nurturing Talent
A business is only as good as its people. You need to make sure you are attracting the very best in your industry.
Making sure your business is a desirable place to work is key to ensuring you find the right talent for roles. This isn’t just about paying well, though that certainly helps. You need to stand out from your competitors by offering a good work environment.
It can help if you provide some things that other offices don’t. This can be any number of things such as break rooms with games like table tennis to bean bags for more dynamic working to using standing desks to promote staff health.
Progression opportunities are also key to attracting and retaining the best talent. If you make your place of work somewhere that they can thrive and grow for years to come you are far more likely to receive employee loyalty and dedication in return.
Blogging for business – webinar series
Over on the INsiders, we’ve shared a series of webinars looking at blogging for business. And since Mandie decided to be a “blogger” in May and is already a featured blogger for 4 international publications and writing for an additional 7 every month as well as getting shared on LinkedIn by Arianna Huffington and featuring in blogs in other languages too and gained clients as a result of her blogging, we’d say you are in good hands!
Remember blogging for business should deliver engagement in your digital media, new sign-ups to your database and social media accounts, raise your profile as a thought leader in your field, gain you speaking engagements and most importantly of all new leads and new business. So if it’s not working for you, what needs to change? Use these webinars to get your creative juices flowing!
You can access to webinars anytime under the video section of the private and confidential Facebook group, however, is a recap of what was covered. If you need additional advice then tag us in a post or email us. If you take up the challenge and get your blog out there and want to get some advice and support first, you are welcome to share your articles with us anytime.
How to get your blog seen, loved, read and creating sales!
You’ve written your first blog and now you need to work out how to get it read. If you spend hours writing your blogs its frustrating that no one comments on your social media posts about it. That no one shares it. And don’t even following the link in your newsletter. Gutting right?
Over on the Insiders, I’ve just shared a blog article in the Knowledge to help you get your blog seen and loved, followed and shared! And bear in mind I actually feel very confident to say that I know what I’m talking about here. It’s led to me being asked to write a book for the UK’s leading non-fiction publisher, which continues to be one of their top 3 sellers for travel reading, being asked to be a featured blogger for 2 international publications and lots of clients for my coaching, courses, BWN events and books as well various great speaking engagements too. So I know this works, you just have to actually do what I suggest.
If you are an Insider head to The Knowledge or the secret confidential Facebook page now for the full story. For those not signed up yet, here is a very abridged version of how to get your blog seen and loved to get more lovely sales.
Where is it?
It needs to be on your website (those reasons are on the Knowledge) but if that’s not an option for you WordPress, Blogger, etc is better than not having one.
LinkedIn also has a useful feature that enables you to blog within your profile.
Obviously, talk about through your social media platforms but if you are the equivalent of selling your blog at people stop it, it’s not going to work.
If you have a mailing list, don’t share the whole thing, just put something like “A client had the issue ………. so I shared this great solution and so I thought I would share it with you too. To read more…….”
Remember in this fast paced world everyone wants instant answers so sharing little useful titbits makes you a very useful golden nugget to keep in touch with – what’s that going to do to your sales and business growth?
Tell people about it in every form of your marketing in a useful relevant informative way ALL OF THE TIME. People make the mistake of assuming you can tell someone once on Twitter and that will get you a thousand hits – it won’t! You need to be consistent.
And don’t make the mistake of writing in a different style to your normal on line voice, it puts people off.
These ideas will work, I have a ton more to share but get this right for starters, be consistent and you will see positive results and a great impact on your business.
I will also share a webinar on this subject of what to write, how to write it and how to get it seen on The Insiders too. If you have personalised questions you wish to ask, just say.
How do I get my blog out of Never Read Land?
You’ve written your first blog and now you need to work out how to get it read. Here are some ideas to help you do just that. And bear in mind I actually feel very confident to say that I know what I’m talking about here. It’s led to me being asked to write a book for the UK’s leading non-fiction publisher, being asked to be a featured blogger for 2 international publications and lots of clients for my coaching, courses and books. So I know this works, you just have to actually do what I suggest.
So how do you ensure that people actually find your blog?
Firstly ideally it will be on your website for a variety of reasons but the most obvious one is that it brings new fresh relevant information to your website – and trust me that’s good for your SEO and ranking.
If you can’t get it on your website relying on WordPress or Blogger, etc is better than not having one. And they are free and pretty easy to set up and use.
LinkedIn also has a useful feature that enables you to blog within your profile. Even if you feel your business is business to consumer and not to the business owner or professional remember a well-worded article will get read by professionals. They still have lives outside of business that could need what you offer!
So you have an interesting relevant useful blog now its time to get it seen;
Talk about it on social media – Youtube, Linkedin, Facebook Instagram and Twitter are the main ones. But don’t just do endless links to your blog – you have to build up interest and get to know people first. If anyone in their very first tweet to me says “Hey check out my website, blog, FB page- I’m instantly turned off. They have never met me and they are already assuming that I need what they have. If they took the time to build a relationship with me I would be more than happy to “check out their blog” etc. So build relationships first and you do that exactly the same way as you would face to face;
Be interested in others, share useful tit bits (this works really well, commenting on other peoples discussions on Linkedin etc (so ensure you join the right groups too) allows you to get to know other people’s opinions and then share yours. If you have had a great conversation with someone then you can say “Funny enough I wrote this about this very subject…” but only after being interested, considerate and getting to know others.
If you have a mailing list (Please tell me you have one of those!) whatever effective ways you have to stay in touch with your client base (Please tell me you are doing that!) share your blog ideas there too. Don’t share the whole thing, just put something like “A client had the issue ………. so I shared this great solution and so I thought I would share it with you too. To read more…….”
Remember in this fast paced world everyone wants instant answers so sharing little useful titbits makes you a very useful golden nugget to keep in touch with – what’s that going to do to your sales and business growth?
If you publicly speak (and where ever you go NEVER turn down the opportunity, you never know who is in the audience and who they know!) finish with something like “There are a ton of free ideas on …………on my blog, so help yourself.”
Tell people about it in every form of your marketing in a useful relevant informative way ALL OF THE TIME. People make the mistake of assuming you can tell someone once on Twitter and that will get you a thousand hits – it won’t! You need to be consistent.
You have to tell people over and over again in a useful, relevant informative way (Hope I’m getting that across – ha ha!) in short succinct chunks. It’s the drip drip drip approach. That if you keep telling people they will get the message and want to know more and keep in touch and what does that do for your business success? Thus you always need to consider what is it that you want to be known for? Keep this at the forefront of your mind when writing to ensure you stay bang on subject.
These ideas will work, I have a ton more to share but get this right for starters, be consistent and you will see positive results and a great impact on your business.
I will also share a webinar on this subject of what to write, how to write it and how to get it seen on The Insiders too. If you have personalised questions you wish to ask, just say.
How do I get my blog out of Never Read Land?
Last time I spoke about how to write a great blog and if its a great blog what it would be doing. If you missed it you can read that here.
Now what do you do to ensure that people actually find it?
Firstly ideally it will be on your website for a variety of reasons but the most obvious one is that it brings new fresh relevant information to your website – and trust me that’s good for your SEO.
If you can’t get it on your website relying on WordPress or Blogger, etc is better than not having one. And they are free and pretty easy to set up and use.
So you have an interesting relevant useful blog now its time to get it seen;
Talk about it on social media – Youtube, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are the main ones. But don’t just do endless links to your blog – you have to build up interest and get to know people first. If anyone in their very first tweet to me says “Hey check out my website, blog, FB page- I’m instantly turned off. They have never met me and they are already assuming that I need what they have. If they took the time to build a relationship with me I would be more than happy to “check out their blog” etc. So build relationships first and you do that exactly the same way as you would face to face.
Be interested in others, share useful tit bits (this works really well, commenting on other peoples discussions on Linkedin etc allows you to get to know other people’s opinions and then share yours. If you have had a great conversation with someone then you can say “Funny enough I wrote this about this very subject…” but only after being interested, considerate and getting to know others.
If you have a mailing list (Please god tell me you have one of those!) whatever effective ways you have to stay in touch with your client base (Please tell me you are doing that!) share your blog ideas there too. Don’t share the whole thing, just put something like “A client had the issue ………. so I shared this great solution and so I thought I would share it with you too. To read more…….”
Remember in this fast paced world everyone wants instant answers so sharing little useful titbits makes you a very useful golden nugget to keep in touch with – what’s that going to do to your sales?
If you publicly speak (and where ever you go NEVER turn down the opportunity, you never know who is in the audience and who they know!) finish with something like “There are a ton of free ideas on …………on my blog, so help yourself.”
Tell people about it in every form of your marketing in a useful relevant informative way ALL OF THE TIME. People make the mistake of assuming you can tell someone once on Twitter and that will get you a thousand hits – it won’t!
You have to tell people over and over again in a useful, relevant informative way (Hope I’m getting that across – lol!) in short succinct chunks. It’s the drip drip drip approach. That if you keep telling people they will get the message and want to know more and keep in touch and what does that do for your business success?
These ideas will work, we have a ton more to share but get this right for starters, be consistent and you will see positive results and a great impact on your business.
And do share your results on our social media which you can access on the home page of our website – because we just love to see what you are up to!
(You can access our social media world on the home page – old.thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk)
WooHoo – I wrote a blog! Now what?
Okay you finally wrote a blog, you finally appreciate that the world and his wife is writing blogs not just because they have a passion for writing as I do) but because it actually is a little god send of a free marketing tool for your business, but now what?
The fact is the world and his wife ARE writing blogs, so how is yours going to stand out?
How are you going to ensure yours does not languish in Never Read Land?
How are you going to ensure that people sign up to read it again and again?
Well let’s start with the reasons why you write a blog and they include;
To share advice, ideas and opportunities with people – it’s not about selling, it’s not about resplurging your website – it’s about giving away just the right level of advice and information (a word of caution to follow here*) that makes you useful. That gets you known as the thought leader which means you are the expert that they are going to trust, know and love – remember you can’t dictate when someone buys but you can have a say from who they choose to buy from.)
To showcase what you can do for people – again this is not a resplurge of your website – this is about sharing. Think about your favourite customer right now – the problems they talked about, the issues they faced, the solutions they needed. If they have that issues stands to reason other potential customer will have the same issue) so share posts that solve problems.
This very blog came about because a brilliantly talented makeup artist to Italian Vogue and London Fashion Week (you know who you are Michelle Court!) asked me how to get her blog seen – she actually called me Queen of Blogging – I like that!
And here’s that word of caution* don’t give everything away. Don’t write mighty long tomes of a blog that bore the pants of people. In this hyper fast world everyone wants answers fast and easy – so deliver easy to read content that answers the question succinctly – better to write 2 blog posts with a lot of material than one long one – finish the first blog with “and in our next blog we will be sharing with you…….”
People often make the mistake of not sharing really useful advice and ideas because they assume that the person reading it will go off and do it all for themselves and not need what they have to offer. Just because I know in theory how to play snooker it does not mean I can, just because I know how to paint a car it does not mean that I have any intention of actually doing it. If someone can learn from you something useful that makes their life easier they will come back for more. If you help them, they will want to work with you.
A great blog gets you known as the expert, it raises your profile and promotes your brand – and that leads to free PR, great marketing, more customers, new opportunities, speaking engagements, and so much more – I speak from experience here.
And lastly the written word is not the only kind of blog to produce. If your business is visual why are you writing 300 words? You know what they say about a picture painting a thousand words? What about a short video too? By the way anything longer than 3 minutes is not short.
Get visual, introduce sound, let people feel like they know you, so that your blog quietly answers their questions, get’s them out of tricky spots and shares some great ideas and stories and guess what? The next time they need what you do, for some inexplicable reason your name will be on the tip of their tongue. One of the most read recent blogs we produced was a 5 minute video showing you how to set up MailChimp!
In my next blog I will share with you how to ensure your blog doesn’t languish in Never Read Land. (see what I did there?)
How To Set Up An Email Campaign With Mail Chimp
Hi Guys,
So yesterday a client says to me thats its hard work sending out individual emails to everyone and what results do they get anyway? Thus I mentioned Mailchimp – its free, I can keep in touch with clients/potential clients/ and business women looking to grow their business effectively, knowing who reads it, how often and if they open the links I included and even automatically share on my social media too – great right?
Here’s a taster 5 minute video to help you get going;
The How to Set Up An Email Campaign With Mail Chimp
Get started, pause the video as you and do send us your finished results.
Why You Need Killer Headlines (As Well as Killer Heels.)
Okay so I’m no copywriter (although I did once gain a client out of a copywriter who noticed grammatical errors on my website and emailed me!) But I do know, writing great blogs and fabulous web content is pretty pointless unless you are directing people to it.
Recently I was running a BWN workshop on Blogging For Business and this topic came up. “I am writing a blog, but no one is reading it, what do I do?”
Well here’s the thing, unless you find an effective way to market your blog, you might as well go and talk to the tree at the end of your garden. The tree will apparently feel good (he enjoys your carbon dioxide) but doubtful it’s liable to buy anything from you – if it does now THAT one would be easy to market!
You see you need to interact to the right people.
In the right way.
At the right time of day.
Saying the right kind of things that hook people in to wanting to know more.
That is useful and relevant.
And most importantly make it easy for them to find it again, and again, and again.
It could sound daunting but if you get it right, you will have people interacting with you, visiting your website regularly, appreciating you as an expert in your field and starting to love you and all that you do.
And pretty soon amazing things can happen thanks to blogging.
I personally include, new customers, speakers engagements and press opportunities but my personal fave to date, is having @StephenFry say “Great Blog” and when I DM’d him and asked if I could quote him, he said “go ahead.”
Sigh world’s best Tweeter thinks I’m great – Love it!
What could it do for you?
I am now running Business Clinics once a month at HSBC Business Banking Centre in Colchester through The Business Womans Network, for your chance to be one of just 10 business women at that table – get in touch.
The next one in October is be social media and a second one on Marketing- Creating & Actioning Your Plan. (24th October).