Greetings All,
How is your fist week of August going? Ready for a brand new month?
First thing first, let’s do our blogging recap:
* Blog Content Writing Tips
* Why Can’t You Translate Online Biz Into Money
* AffiloJetPack Give You Fantastic Content for Your Site
* Will Adding Twitter Feed to Your Site Increase Your PageRank?
Do you want to build a empire? The empire I am talking are not unlike historical empires that relied on unique military tactics, advanced technology, and slave labor. The one I am talking is the empire that will rely on a single person: You – you’ll design it, build it and you’ll people it with readers who return to it day after day – who are becoming in a small sense virtual citizens of your blog empire and eventually your happy customers.
You’ll use the same tactics as others, but you’ll use them more efficiently. You’ll use the same infrastructure as others, but you’ll use it more effectively. You’ll compete with other empires for your reader’s time, and you’ll do so successfully.
Yes, I am talking about a Blog Empire, an empire of customer service and you will not only be its ruler, you will be the servant of all who enter it. Is that sound like fun? It can be, if you design your empire with one person in mind: you.
A blog empire, like any other business, is made up of three major components: a supplier, buyers, and the products for sale. The first component is a supplier. That’s you. It is your words, your opinion, your research, and your art which can bring thousands or even millions of readers to your blog. The second component is a buyer, a customer. While the vast majority of your customers will be your readers, other customers will include companies that pay you to feature their links and advertisements on your blog. The final component is a product. Like all businesses, yours can’t exist without a product to sell.
Unless you are a successful newspaper columnist or a famous actress who is able to draw hordes of readers by your reputation alone, your blog is going to need a theme. It may be a narrow one, like “Libertarian politics in the Massachusetts Governor’s race.” It may be a broad one, like, “art focusing on life and love.” But whatever your theme, your blog is going to keep readers by presenting them with the valuable content they expect. Not coincidentally, it’s also going to be a theme you love and will not be tempted to stray far from.
Because there are literally millions of blogs available, successful blogs reach one kind of reader, and they do it well. The reason is obvious: a reader who might share your interest in model trains may not share your love of fine wines. He may not care about your vacation in Paris. Unless he’s a personal friend, he may not care about your new car. That means you’re going to have to pick a subject and stick with it. A good starting place is the following list of popular blog categories: political, spiritual, society/culture, rant, business, hobby, technology, art, news, reference.
Of the most popular blogs, measured by Technorati.com, a popular blog search engine, a significant percentage are political blogs. This should not be surprising: with the exception of religious opinions, opinions on politics are some of the most fiercely held and vociferously debated. Political opinions make great blog fodder. But there’s a catch: everyone has an opinion, but not everyone has one that millions of readers will take time to read.
If you have ever notice, successful political blogs all have one thing in common: they have important and timely information (not just opinions) that can be relied upon by serious political junkies. They have high-level political connections, access to rumors, or expertise to share. If you are connected in politics or law and have serious light to shed on the issues of the day, a political blog may be your Blog Empire. The same case holds for spiritual blogs, hobby blogs, and technology blogs: the successful blogs are those run by experts (that is, of course, why you are going to build your empire on your own expertise) who can tell readers what they don’t know and want to know.
There are, however, successful blogs that are not run by experts; they are run, in fact, by someone who had a brilliant idea.
News, link, and reference blogs require an abiding interest in one subject and the tenacity to find relevant, timely information. Successful ones cover their subject so well that they are considered valuable references by serious news hounds.
Remember, when you build your blog empire, no idea is too small, too silly, or too pretentious, as long as you present your content in a manner that makes your blog a valuable reference. If you have an abiding interest in a specific subject more than any other, then a news, link, or reference blog may be may be the place to start.
The final category is, alas, the largest category of blogs and the one that makes up the smallest percentage of professional blogs: the rant blog.
Rant blogs are generally “brain dump” blogs, where the blogger simply writes what’s on her mind, tells about her day, or whines about her boss. It is a cathartic project, designed for the blogger’s mental health, and while it may be interesting – at least to the author – it will seldom draw much of a crowd. Unless your life is interesting enough to write a book about, the rant blog is to be avoided. If your life IS interesting enough to write a book about, it’s probably best to write the book.
Happy sharing – till next time.
Cheers!
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