[Blogging Bootcamp] Day 3: What do they want?

Yo Tommy! There are two approaches you can take to blogging: Write for yourself Write for your audience Unfortunately, many people go with the first approach because they believe that because it is their blog they should write what they want. They definitely can but the problem with this is that it doesn't benefit the readers in most cases. It's similar to someone asking you how your day is going and then they talk over you the rest of the time. That's so annoying! If your goal is to make money with your blog then everything that you do has to benefit your audience. Once they understand that you provide them with awesome value then they have no problem exchanging that value for money. To provide them with the value that they find worthwhile you need to understand what they want. How do you do that? Well, at the beginning of your blog journey the only thing you can really do is research. Odds are there are other sites in your niche with audiences already so you can scour them and see what people are saying. If it's a blog check the comments. If it's a forum read the threads. You're searching for common themes that continuously pop up. Keep a list because these are golden content ideas that you'll want to address at some point on your blog. Buzzsumo Another strategy to use is to hit up Buzzsumo. Type in a "competitor's" URL and see what the top posts are. The top posts usually give you an idea of what their audience likes to read. Odds are it's going to be a list post or a how-to. That's the stuff people are looking for. You might be thinking that it doesn't make sense to write down these ideas because someone else has already written them. Let me tell you something. Almost everything that can be written on a topic has been written. But not from your perspective or with your insight. And that's the differentiator. Pinterest I'd be crazy not to mention Pinterest. Pinterest is probably responsible for over 75% of my content ideas when I start a blog. They make it so easy to find the topics that people are looking for. Simply do a search for a certain term in your niche. For example, if you have a blog about the Paleo diet then simply type in "paleo diet" and scroll through the pins. Take note of the ones that get 1000s of repins. Note: Pinterest is making changes so this approach might only work on mobile where you'll have to click on the individual pin and scroll down to see how many boards it's been saved to. These are the topics that people are interested in. Again, you might be wondering why would you bother doing any of this. Someone else has already written on the topic so why should you? Because you can create a better version that is unique to your blog. It's silly to assume that everything you write is going to be an original idea that someone else has never thought of before. Trust me, they have. Your goal is to offer solutions to the problems that your audience face. If you can't do that they will find a blog that does. By simply using these techniques you'll have a laundry list of blog post ideas to tackle. There is no point in starting off a blog with content that people do not care about. Tackle the problems that people are facing and you'll find that your audience grows quicker than when you just write about your own problems. A Broken Record If you follow the how to make money niche (which you probably do since you're in this bootcamp) then you probably get tired of the blogs writing about the same content. How to do well on Pinterest How to make money with affiliate marketing How to start a blog This leads you to think that you can outsmart everybody and write brand new topics. You won't write about those old things, instead, you will break new ground. That's a fine idea but the problem is these bloggers write about the same topics because it is what their audience wants. You have to think of the lifespan of your blog as a journey. At the beginning, nobody knows about you so you can't just write anything. You have to show your value and that is usually done with the beginner type of posts. Once your audience becomes familiar with you and you've helped them with beginner stuff then you can look at intermediate topics. This might sound boring but it's the difference between having a successful blog in 6 months versus having one in 3 years. Once you've built up a nice library of topics that beginners are searching for then you can spread your wings and write more of the crazy topics that you have in mind without worrying about if they are going to bring in a lot of people. Keep an Ear Out As you write more and more blog posts you have to keep an eye on what is doing well and what your audience is saying. In almost all of my email sequences, the very first email asks the subscriber to tell me about themselves. The reason I do this is because: I care I want to know their struggles The more I understand their struggles the better I understand what type of content I should be writing. Same thing applies to comments on my posts or seeing which posts are doing well. Your audience is always giving you hints at what they want to read. Don't ignore them. To prove to you that I've gone through the hassle of writing for myself only to discover it's a miserable failure, go and read my first experience report.