Blogging For Money | How To Find What Your Audience Wants ~ Part 2

Blogging For Money | How To Find What Your Audience Wants ~ Part 2

The first part of this discussion started with how to orient a blog toward gaining an audience to generate income.
The second part will be more focused on how to create blog posts and other pieces of information which will encourage others to trust you and to purchase from you.
We talked in the last post about ways that you could discover your audience to make money with blogging.
This post will be focused more on how to gain the customer’s trust enough so that they will purchase from you.
It’s all about the customer
The most successful bloggers have the customer on their mind all the time. The Business of blogging revolves around the customer. The customer makes the business happen. They have the money, and it is your job to give them something in exchange for it.
In a blogging environment, potential customers also pay in two other currencies, attention and social promotion. These need to build up to a critical mass before money will begin to flow.
The way to get them is to write content that your audience will appreciate. Unfortunately, many blog owners fail to realize that their content is boring or self-centered or “salesy”.
Engage with your customer and they will engage you.
How to engage with your customers
The best blog posts are not only passionate and unique, but they help to drive the business. They help to challenge the status quo, question authority, perhaps provide a little bit of controversy. That little bit of controversy might prove to be helpful in sharpening your audience into one which is more willing to buy.
When you write a piece of content, ask yourself this question. If you were the customer, would that content get you to keep reading or make a purchase?
Try these example content topics on your blog:
• Tell more stories
• Talk about what happens behind the scenes
• Expose the business challenges you have
• Look for quirky things in your niche
• Explain the inner workings of something
• Make people feel like they are part of something
• Develop your own special code language
• Be incredibly specific about a solution to a challenging problem
What can I do for you?
These six words should form the foundation of every business.
The product that you are selling doesn’t matter so much. What brings in money is assisting the customer in fulfilling a desire or removing a problem.
The phrase ‘what can I do for you’ is the path to steady money.
There should always be something in it for the readers, even if they’re only sympathetically nodding their head.
One way to make your blog posts customer-oriented is to let someone else read them. This person should be outside of your field (though doesn’t necessarily have to be a freelancer) and act as if they were a potential customer.
Your blog post should teach them or entertain them. If it doesn’t, go back and create something stronger.
Your products are solutions, and it’s your job to convey that to your readers and your customers. Your blog is definitely your own, but if you’re selling affiliate products, advertising, or something else, each part of the blog you create should serve a purpose which nudges your reader down the sales funnel.
If you want to learn more on how to find and target a relevant audience along with keywords and traffic generating strategies, please check out my ebook called The Profit Blogging Blueprint.
Your Turn
What types of things do you blog about? Could your blogging efforts be more focused toward developing an understanding of your audience? I’d love for you to share some of your good blog posts in the comment section below.