Your blog can be used to achieve any number of goals. A business blog is great for building an email list, establishing yourself as an expert in your niche, making offers (you know…SELLING stuff), reaching out to a new audience, communicating with your audience, staying in front of your prospects and much more.
With so many benefits, we tend to simply set up a blog and wait for the magic to happen. Then…nothing. How can such a powerful marketing tool just sit there and accomplish nothing?
Setting up a blog, plodding along and waiting for cool stuff to happen is not the approach I recommend, in case you hadn’t guessed! You need to have a plan, and the best time to have put a plan together for your blog is now. What do you want your blog to achieve?
For this particular blog (Dangerous Tactics), my main goal is to stay in touch with my subscribers. My secondary goal is to continue building my email list. As a result, you don’t see a lot of opt-in forms, banner ads or any overt attempts to monetize this site. My mission is to continue the conversation with my clients and readers, so this site is mostly all content, and there are a few links to sign-up forms. That’s it.
It’s surprising how many blogs are cluttered with all types of widgets and ads that aren’t even helping the blogger achieve their goals. This is why it’s so essential to decide what you want your blog to accomplish. When you don’t know what you want, you end up wandering aimlessly in the blogosphere. It’s a boring an intimidating place to be. I know; I’ve done it.
The fact is, succeeding with your blog is 100% impossible…it absolutely WILL NOT HAPPEN unless you have a clear goal and a clear plan to achieve it. With a clear goal and a clear plan in place…success becomes probable. That’s right. I didn’t say “possible”. I said “probable”.
So few people make a real plan for their blog…