Blogging 1.0 and 2.0 is over.
Sad but this is a fact. Read it, research it, accept it, swallow it, and get over it.
If you are thinking of creating a passive income from your blog and you are starting now, you are entering into a very competitive domain. That said, let me show you a few things that you need to do to be successful at your online business built around a central blog.
Enter Blogging 4.0
Blogging 4.0 basically means an online business centered around a blog since 2014. Blogging is competitive and it takes lots of hours. You need to research, you need to write, you need to post consistently.
Building a readership from scratch is tough (read: not worth the time investment). Building a large readership who engages with your content is even harder.
Today, you need to think beyond blogging. This is where blogging 4.0 comes into the picture.
There are over 250 millions active websites, over 8 million blogs and almost as many vlogs (video blogs), and about 115,000 podcasts (audioblogs).
Blogging 4.0 includes (well, more than a blog):
1. Blog (for long form content + introducing your product/services)
2. Podcast (this is the least competitive domain)
3. Social Media Platforms (for short form content)
4. Videos (Youtube, Vine, Vimeo, Periscope, etc)
5. Repurpose Your Content (Quora, Medium, LinkedIn)
1. Blogging
To start, here are few tips:
- Blog long form content. Save the short quotes and daily muse for social media. If you want to succeed in blogging, go long and detailed.
- Try to solve a problem. Try explaining a situation from a new perspective. Tell a good story that most people can relate to.
- Write and then offer free eBooks.
- Collect emails so that you can email to your group when a new blog post is up.
- Guest blog and cross promote each other.
- Encourage your blogger friends to leave a comment. Reciprocate the generosity.
- Provide incentives to your readers for commenting. For example, reply to your comment and answer their questions. Or simply just acknowledge them.
2. You need a Podcast
As I mentioned above, podcast:blog ratio is very low. Podcasts integrates with both blogging and social media. Podcasting is technical and intense. And that's why you have less competition there.
You must explore this medium to connect with millions of 9-5 job going workers when they are commuting to work, exercising at gym or taking a long walk.
Example: Podcast Launch | The Naked Soul Talk Show | Full Human Potential | Daily Growth | Lifestyle Design
3. Build Your Tribe
In the past, your blog was your platform. Not anymore.
You need to build your online tribe on various social media platform as that's where your readers are already gathering. Social media is usually the best free source to send traffic to your blog.
4. Go Video
You are writing. You are researching and inserting catchy images in your blog posts.
You are building your social authority and building your platform on each major social media.
Now go full circle. Go video.
Make videos. Make SlideShare out of your blog posts and turn those SlideShare into YouTube videos.
Make video of some of your audio recordings (podcasts) and push it on Youtube.
Make videos out of images and add music to it. Publish them.
Remember, rather than waiting for people to find your blog, you want to find your tribe. You must go where people are already gathering. Then broadcast. Let your lost tribe members find you.
Bring them home (to your blog). Reward them for following you.
5. Repurpose Your Content
Just as if you have a book to offer, you'll most likely sell it on Amazon and through Barnes & Noble rather than your own website, similarly, you must blog on platforms which are already trusted by millions of users.
There are studies done that vast majority of readers prefer (read: trust) to buy a book (or a product) on Amazon than directly from a blog or website. And the reasons are simple.
Return. Refund. Shipping options. Trust. Existing account, etc.
Likewise, rather than publishing your posts just on your blog, be mindful that there are millions of users on Medium and LinkedIn and Quora who would not go to your blog because they spend a vast majority of their online time on these platform. They do not have any need to go to your blog.
So what can you do?
You repurpose your content. Change a few things and tweak it to the like of the target readerships and re-publish. Leave a link to your blog.
Those who would resonate with your content and find value in your offering would become your reader.
What do you do then? What do you do in the end after all is said?
Publish. Be Original. Be Consistent.
Consistency is the key.
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