Building Authority with Your Blog
If you’re just getting started in authority blogging, it’s easy to get frustrated when you don’t see immediate results. But like anything, it can take a little time to get things rolling.
Setting Up For Success
When building authority with your blog ,the first thing you should do is make sure your blog is properly configured.
In order to foster visitor engagement, motivate people into taking action and subsequently, build an active subscriber base.
Specifically, we’re focusing on building your email list and social media following. So we’re going to make sure your blog is set up to give you the best chance at achieving those two things.
The main things you need to pay close attention to are:
•Making it easy for your blog visitors to find your social media profiles.
•Making it easy for your blog visitors to sign up for your email list.
Social Media Followers
Not only will social media help you to connect with your target audience. But it will help you build an authoritative presence in your niche quickly and easily.
You probably already have a plugin on your blog that enables social sharing. But that only goes so far.
Your blog needs its own profiles on various social media sites, and you also need to make those profiles highly visible on your blog.
Be sure to place links to your major profiles in your sidebar, top menu bar, and anywhere else you think people might notice.
Email List Subscribers
Building an email list is more critical than ever, as blog traffic is at an all-time low.
More and more people are spending their time on social media and video sites like YouTube, and less time on blogs.
Plus, it’s getting harder to get SEO traffic, too.
So building your email list is vital in order to build a source of traffic that won’t disappear.
When first starting out, building your list consists initially of three main steps:
1.)Create a lead magnet.
2.)Create a squeeze page.
3.)Promote the squeeze page.
A lead magnet is something you give away in order to encourage people to sign up to your email list. This could be a report or other free download.
Like a free course, a physical item they must only pay for shipping on, or something else of value.
But it must be something your demographic is very interested in.
The fact is, most people don’t return to a blog on their own after the first visit.
That’s often because they’ve already read the one piece of content that brought them there.
Perhaps they Googled a problem they were having, or noticed a link to your content on social media and thought it was interesting.
One effective way to build your mailing list is by offering short reports that focus on a specific topic.
Think about your demographic and what type of problem they might have that you could help them solve with a free report.
Then write up a guide that explains how to do it and use that as your lead magnet.
Use Content That Converts in Authority Blogging
Regardless of your niche, you’ll want to write content that solves a problem and helps your reader achieve their goals.
When creating content for your blog, you want to focus on 2 things:
1.)Educate
2.)Empower
Every post on your website should do one or both of these things.
Content that either educates or empowers is the easiest way to create posts that become sticky.
Evergreen Content
Another thing to consider when writing content and building authority with your blog is to focus on evergreen content.
Start by jotting down links to the top 10 authority blogs in your niche market, and then spend a bit of time evaluating the type of content they are offering.
Especially posts that have a high level of engagement.
Look for things like:
•Commonly asked questions posted by your target audience.
•Posts with a high number of comments or likes.
•Posts with the highest number of social shares.
High quality, informative and unique content is the key to your blog's success and building authority with your blog.
It’s what forms the foundation for your entire business, but it also is the driving force behind turning that traffic into subscribers.
Focus on building high quality content pages on your blog before you do anything else.
You should aim to have 4-5 pillar posts before you start to drive traffic to your site.
This will give your visitor’s enough reason to return to your site. And to leave a positive impression in the mind of your target audience.
When it comes to the length of your content, search engines prefer longer blog posts that provide informative, original content. So try to write posts that are between 800-1500 words in length.
Don’t be afraid to link to other bloggers!
Not only is this a great way to provide additional value by guiding your readers to other resources that may help them.
Choosing a Primary Traffic Source
It’s now time to figure out which traffic source you want to focus on as your primary traffic source.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you have to ignore other avenues.
You’re going to just spend the majority of your traffic focusing on your primary source with your authority blogging.
Some of the traffic sources you might consider include:
•Snapchat
•YouTube
You should ideally focus your efforts on whichever traffic source is currently sending you the most traffic.
If you’re not already getting much traffic. Then it makes sense to research these different sources to find out which one seems to have the highest density of your demographic.
Here’s another way to generate targeted traffic to your blog quickly and easily:
What you’re looking for are blogs that allow clickable signatures.
You’re not going to spam the blogs, but you are going to write comments that provide value and are relevant to each post.
For example, if your blog is based around “Low Carb Recipes”, you could visit the top 10 LCHF (low carb high fat) blogs.
Scan through existing posts and leave comments on posts that have received a high level of engagement.
Build Authority with Your Blog by Using Guest-Blogging Opportunities
Guest blogging is one of the easiest ways to generate steady traffic to your blog.
Absolutely free! The only cost is your time.
Better yet, guest-blogging on established websites puts you in an authoritative position by simply being connected to a reputable blog in your niche market.
So, how do you find guest blogging opportunities?
Turn to Google!
Start by using search terms like:
“submit a guest post”
"guest blogging”
"accepting guest posts”
“guest post by”
You’ll be able to find many different opportunities to guest-blog just be using search strings, such as the ones above.
You can also find guest posting opportunities by analyzing the backlinks from competing blogs to see where they have guest posted.
And finally, yet another high-powered traffic strategy involves positioning yourself as an expert in your market by participating in user-generated content sites including:
Search for questions or posts in your niche market and then respond by providing value, along with a link to your blog.
Encouraging Email Opt-Ins
We’ve already discussed the idea of using a short report as a lead magnet to encourage people to join your email list. There are other things you can do to push them to sign up as well.
Coupons & Special Offers
One great way to get people to join your list is to offer coupons, discounts, and other special promotions.
This can include special offers for your own products, or products owned by other people. If you can get them to give you a discount code for your followers.
It’s generally most effective if you use it with your own products if you have something to promote.
Because you’ll be able to get signups AND sales. However, it can also work great if you offer discounts on popular brands within your niche.
Low Front End Offer + Upsells
Offer potential customers with a massive upfront discount on your primary product.
And then make up for it through a series of higher priced offers as they work their way through your sales funnel.
A low cost, front-end offer is the easiest way to engage visitors and transform them into customers.
Because you’re giving them an opportunity to test out your product and get to know your brand without risk.
Downloads
Another effective way to get people to opt in to your mailing list is by offering your posts and downloadable PDFs that people can read offline.
Contests & Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are one of the most powerful list-building methods.
Smart marketers have been using them for a long time to get more people to opt into their lists.
Everyone loves free stuff, but not everyone is willing to shell out money, even a few bucks for shipping, for a small, simple item.
However, a lot of people will give their email address away for a shot at winning a larger prize.
Ideally, your giveaway item should be something that would appeal to nearly everyone within your demographic.
Increasing Conversions in your Authority Blogging
If you really want to see the best possible results from your campaigns, it’s important to test and tweak various components in order to see what works and what doesn’t.
This includes everything from your blog layout, template and navigational system right down to the graphics and placement of advertising or offers.
Testing different elements and improving them will help you identify potential problems so that you can correct them immediately.
Conclusion
It’s important to be patient in the beginning, because the quickest way to fail is to give up too soon!
When it comes to building authority with your blog, consistency is key.
To Your Success,
Joshua
Please keep in mind I may receive compensation when you click my links and make a purchase at no extra cost to you. However, the products I recommend are the ones I have either created myself, use everyday or I have tested and I stand behind them 100 percent!