Blog can be defined as a website on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis. Blogs can be used for personal gain by reading blogs written by others or writing your own blog. Tumblr.com has over 101.7 million blogs with 44.6 billion blog posts. Blogger has many millions of blogs, but the exact number has not been published. This vast number of blogs can be used to seek information or join a community of people with similar interests. Most blogs seek comments and by commenting on a blog you can increase your visibility and make new connections. Creating a blog and writing regular posts can be a way of establishing yourself as an expert, provides a creative outlet and is a way of communicating with a new community of people. It could also become a way of making money. A blog may take a variety of forms – written, mainly consisting of images, a video (known as a vlog) or audio (known as a podcast) – and can be about anything of interest to you or your audience.
Before you start to blog, it is a good idea to think about the tone and content of your blog. Remember your blog should represent your personal brand. Even if you are writing an informal blog, it should still be spellchecked and proofread before posting. There are many reasons to blog. 8% of bloggers earn enough money to be able to support a family. 9% make enough money to sustain their lifestyle on 4–6 hours a day blogging, 2% spend 1–2 hours a day blogging and make $150K +4. However, many people blog just for the enjoyment of expressing themselves. When I have talked to people who blog, most talk about the enjoyment they get out of being creative when writing a blog and sharing their ideas and thoughts with others. Blogs are also a good way of increasing your visibility, establishing yourself as an expert and sharing your ideas and experiences. If you are looking for work, blogging may be a good way of getting found. Blogs have a long life – once written, they exist on the internet until you decide to remove them. The content of your blog will form an important part of your personal brand. A blog is a great way of building trust with your audience, but you need to be consistent and regular to ensure that visitors keep coming back to read and share your posts.
Vanity blogs are blogs started by people who enjoy the creative experience of recording their ideas and sharing what they have done. Craft or cooking blogs often start like this. People like using the anonymity of the internet to boast about what they have achieved and comment on what they like. Remember though that what you blog about is part of your personal brand. Many blogs have been started by mothers with young children who need to talk to people outside their immediate circle. Blogging is a good way of building an online community.
Your blog post can be as long or as short as you like. Normally it is a good idea to keep posts short (between 200 and 600 words) and use a style that is easy to read. Remember most readers will typically scan content, looking for the most important points in a short timeframe.
You can write your blog about any topic that you are passionate about. When choosing a topic, remember that once you start a blog, you should continue. So you need to have at least 24 topics that you can write a post about (assuming 2 posts a month).
Depending on the reason for writing your blog, you may need to apply the ‘so what?’ test. Will the post inform or entertain your audience? Will visitors want to return to your blog to read more? Does it reflect your personal brand and help people to know who you are and what you stand for? Blogs that I have read include the diverse subject areas of:
1. Help and advice on using social media.
2. The personal journey of somebody training for an Iron Man event.
3. The personal opinion of a digital marketing lecturer.
4. Information about quilting.
5. A personal view of how colour is used in life.

It is often a good idea to include an image relating to the blog post. It will make the post more interesting and may add context to the post. Be careful how you source images on your blog. Where possible, you should use photos or images you own (have taken, created, or paid for). There are several websites that source copyright free images. Do not just copy any relevant image from the internet and assume you can use it. Tips to make your content easy to read:
1. Use short paragraphs, lots of white space, bullets, headings, and subheadings to make the text easy to scan.
2. Use a font type and font size that is easy to read.
3. If you are displaying ads, make sure they do not distract from your content – display them on the side of the blog.
4. Use images in the post if they add value. Do not just include an image because a post should have one.
5. Use formatting (bold, italics) sparingly but to make a point.
You must keep these rules in mind when writing a blog. Apart from that, these are the strategies that you can use to convert blogging posts into signups or leads are as follows:
1. Newsletter Signups: Once you have built a popular blog, it is just natural that your readers will want to stay up to date with new content. And you should absolutely encourage them to act and sign up. However, when people sign up for your newsletter they do not expect to be bombarded with offers. Value their trust and keep them up to date with the new content just as they expect. As a result, they will be more receptive to occasional offers and convert more easily. You can collect newsletter signups in several ways. Navigation bar, static ads, pop-ups, and sliders are the most popular ones.
2. Call to Action: While you probably will not convert a first-time visitor of your blog, the chances to convert a repeat one is high. In any case, as a marketer, you want to stay loyal to the ABC (Always Be Closing) rule. Like with newsletter sign ups, you can convert people through strategically placed CTAs. Make sure they lead a prospect to the relevant page or landing page designed specifically for that purpose.
3. Lead Magnets: A lead magnet is anything your prospects will find valuable enough to give you their contact details and an opportunity to develop a business relationship to get it. A typical magnet is an eBook or a white paper. It can also be a market report, a template for something, a case study, or any kind of data. Lead magnets are a powerful conversion tool. Because they provide a lot of value, you can ask for more than just email (e.g. job title, phone number, etc.)
4. Remarketing: Remarketing is basically advertising to an already existing audience. Through services like AdRoll, Perfect Audience or Remarketer you can pixel your visitors and target them with your ads outside website. As it is with advertising, one thing you have to keep a close eye on is your customer acquisition costs – you basically want to make sure you’re getting a positive ROI.
5. Webinars: If you are selling a product or a service you should consider running regular webinars that focus on providing value. For example, if your ideal customers are small business finance directors you want to provide valuable information on the topic of accounting, taxes, and SMB finance. One way to convert prospects into customers using this tool is to offer them a special discount or simply ask them to sign up at the end of the webinar.
6. Special Promotions: A few years ago, Appsumo, an e-commerce company that targets web entrepreneurs ran a series of viral giveaways for prizes like 100 books on entrepreneurship, lifetime paid accounts for online tools like Evernote or Dropbox. In other words, the kind of prizes that appeal exactly to their target customers. You can also create partnerships and offer bundled deals with other products or find other creative ways to drive signups.
7. Engineering as Marketing: In the book Traction, the founder of DuckDuckGo has coined the term “Engineering as Marketing.” It means creating free products for your customers to generate leads. For example, a social media scheduling app Buffer has developed Pablo – a free tool for social media marketers to create images.
8. Email Drip Courses: You also can create a simple educational course in a form of an email drip campaign. This is designed as series of emails your prospects will receive on regular (e.g. bi-weekly basis) once they sign up. For example, if you are selling health supplements online you can create a ten-step course on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Or if your product is accounting software, it can be a set of tips on using tax breaks to save money.
9. Content Upgrades: A content upgrade is a lead magnet specifically designed for readers of a particular blog post. It is a complementary piece of information or a bonus the reader can download in return for their email address. Some examples include Checklists, Cheat-Sheets, Lists of Resources, Templates, Raw Files, a transcript of a Video blog or simply a pdf version of the blog post.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath