Today I have a special guest on my blog.
Besides the great bloggers that I have asked to write a guest post for me all throughout the year (one per month), some have taken the first step and contacted me, gracefully asking if I would welcome a good article from them.
Being the busy woman that I am, writing some 10,000 words a week on average while traveling Europe, I am not someone who can easily say no to such offers.
So, when Jonathan Spektor asked me if I would welcome a guest post of his, and I checked what he was doing, I say yes, right away. By the way, you should check him out too.
So, without further ado, take it away Jonathan…
Blogging Secret.
I have been selling products and services online for over 10 years now.
I remember my first foray into online business.
It was in the early days of eBay.
I would go to Rice’s flea market in New Hope, PA with my girlfriend, now wife and mother of two beautiful children. We would go and buy beanie babies and other trinkets to list on eBay. I made quite a bit of money for a college kid at the time.
I had plenty of spending money for cheeseburgers and beer.
Over the years, I started a number of online businesses. They all made a little bit more money each time.
But online business and ecommerce have changed over the years. With change I had to adapt.
Google Changed and we Followed
About 6 years ago, Google made some serious improvements to their search algorithms.
Gone were the days of keyword stuffing your Meta tags and having your site rank highly in search results. Remember those days?
Between the keywords, a title and description with “Dog” you could rank for Dogs in no time. How rudimentary that seems now.
It worked back then though.
Google’s new search algorithm was different. It was starting to take page content into account. Google started checking for relevancy and quality of content.
By this time, my partner Bobby and I had realized we had to adapt our online businesses to this change.
Most of our traffic was highly targeted to niche businesses. We had focused on keywords based on the products or services that we were selling. We based our domain names, product titles, and descriptions around the vertical we were targeting.
But this was no longer enough. We had to start blogging.
Cold Hearted Ecommerce Blogging
We realized we had to embrace blogging in a big way.
Other sites were starting to rank for our search terms.
So we created blogs on our sites. The idea was to create new, unique content, based around our verticals.
We would then capture people from related keyword searches. Once on our site, we would draw them towards our primary sales goal.
The problem was that many of our sites were in verticals that we weren’t experts in. We didn’t need incredible content, but didn’t want to publish junk either.
We decided we would find professionals in each of the spaces. We would contract writers and outsource our blogging posts weekly.
HINT: You can hire Sylviane to do this for you if you don’t have the time.
Each week I would provide the bloggers with the keyword we were targeting for each post. They would generate at least a 500 word post and send it back to us.
We would grab a creative commons image, plug it in, and publish it.
Guess What?
This process worked, and once again we were driving sales and converting traffic.
Our rankings increased and we were good again, at least for a while.
The Posts were Terrible
The blog posts were driving traffic, but they were awful.. The blog posts lacked personality.
They were written by a hodgepodge of different bloggers. The posts did nothing to foster a community.
We were producing blogs for zombies.
The process worked. Zombies came through search engine traffic and purchased. But it didn’t resonate with people.
They were blog posts without feeling.
They didn’t incorporate stories from real life situations.
But who cares, you may ask?
You should, and we do now.
Here is why…
Let’s All Hug and Blog Together
Sylviane has built an incredible blog over the years. With this blog she has built an incredible community. That’s you guys.
This isn’t luck.
This is perseverance and transparency.
Sylviane is real and tells us about herself.
She shares great posts like this one about low self esteem, or this one discussing tough times.
These posts help us get to know Sylviane and where she has come from. I love these little stories that delve into people’s lives, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Stories draw in readers and show your personality. They show your true feelings and let people understand your message.
This transparency is priceless and powerful.
This is a large reason that Bobby and I launched our blog. We wanted to build a community. If we could help people start their ecommerce businesses that was a plus.
My Big Regret
In all the years that I have been making money online, I never built a community.
I never wrote about myself or my online businesses.
I was passionate about them, but didn’t want it to come off as bragging or knowing more than the next guy.
I wasn’t comfortable sharing. And to be 100% transparent, I’m still not comfortable with it.
I don’t like self-promotion or chest pumping.
It’s not my style.
I’d rather have a conversation with someone to learn about them, rather than talk about myself.
A wise man once said: “You never learn anything by speaking”
I have taken this advice to extremes.
I always try and extract as much information as I can from people I meet.
So over the years, I spent my time listening and not speaking.
But speaking and promoting, unfortunately, is what helps you succeed. So I started blogging on Long Live The Internet with two missions.
- To help people learn from our successes and failures to build their own ecommerce site.
- To push myself out of my comfort zone, and build a community of like-minded people interested in ecommerce.
So like Sylviane, I try and get personal and tell people a funny story or something about me. I try and incorporate a little something into each blog post.
Enough About Me… What’s Bad About Community Blogging
Ok so that’s the answer right?
The magic answer is to be real and to blog transparently.
Just publish nice content and your audience will grow.
Over time they will naturally buy your products or services.
Not So Fast…
Blogging for a community is rewarding. It brings clarity, and for me, helps relieve some stress. But let’s not lose track of what this post is about.
We are trying to drive traffic to an ecommerce site. We are trying to sell and make money.
Blogging for a community can take years to grow and we are trying to pay the bills now with an ecommerce site.
We don’t have the luxury of building our community slowly.
So after many years and many experiments, I’m ready to tell you my secret recipe for blogging for ecommerce, and driving sales.
The Secret to Blogging for Ecommerce
The secret is straightforward.
You can’t go all-in on either of these two approaches. You have to find the blend of the two blogging styles that works for your audience. Let’s look quickly at the pros and cons of the two approaches to blogging.
Cold-hearted Keyword Blogging
Pros
– You can drive search engine traffic quickly
– You don’t have to write the posts yourself
– Small investments in an outsourced post often pay for themselves quickly
– You free up your time
Cons
– The traffic is frugal. They are quick to leave and have no allegiance
– It’s hit or miss and some posts do incredibly well while others flop
– You aren’t building any allegiance to your brand or site
– It feels impersonal and “icky”
Transparent Community Blogging
Pros
– The traffic is recurring
– People trust you and your proposition
– You can make more than one sale and with a higher conversion rate
– If you shift course your people will follow
Cons
– This can take years to grow
– You have to produce lots of good content over and over
– You have to write most posts yourself
– You have to be transparent (this can take some getting used to)
Now you can see the differences clearly.
So what should you do?
Your Own Recipe
If you are blogging for Ecommerce, you need targeted traffic.
Additionally, you need to build trust with your audience.
You can do this in a number of ways.
For example, my wife’s fashion jewelry site combines a little of both styles.
She personally interviews a featured jewelry designer each month. This brings a personal angle to the blog and builds trust with readers.
Between these personal posts, she has blog posts that are purely informational. These are less community oriented but attract search engine traffic.
This approach of combining personality posts, along with keyword rich posts, works.
It has helped her build an impressive online business with consistent traffic. I may have helped some also.
Over the years Bobby and I have started implementing this technique throughout our online businesses.
Over time we saw increased traffic, higher return rates and increased conversions. Despite the statistical improvements, we are feeling more transparent.
It’s important to make this combination work for you. Each ecommerce site, and offering, is slightly different. If you are the face of a brand, then you need to focus on being honest and transparent often.
If the ecommerce business is about the actual products, you can publish more search engine traffic posts.
Tie in personalization by mentioning how these products relate to you or others you know.
In Closing
Putting real people and real situations into your blog posts can help build trust and a community.
You can build an audience that comes back to buy from you.
More importantly, you are providing social proof and addressing a major buyer concern. Remove obstacles to the sale, and you increase your bottom line.
In summary, you can’t afford to ignore keyword research and blogging for traffic. But, once you get the zombies to your site, relate to them and show them your brand is real.
This equates to increased sales and customers who rally around your brand.
Agree? Disagree? I would love to know what is or isn’t working for your ecommerce blogging in the comments below.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing your experience of eCommerce and Blogging – it was very interesting to read a new dimension about blogging.
I don’t have an eCommerce store, but I can understand what you are driving at about creating the right type of articles and getting the balance between both forms.
One thing I noticed on your wife’s jewellry site is that there does not appear to be many comments on the posts that I scanned through. And, btw, I don’t write that out of disrespect – just an observation, which leads me to a question. When you have a B2C site, do you find that readers don’t comment like they do here on a B2B site? Are they just quite happy to read the content and buy something (hopefully)?
Interested to hear your thoughts…
Thanks
– David
David Hartshorne invites you to read..3 Deliciously Simple SEO Tips That Increases Your CTR
David you are 100% correct. Although it’s not completely clear in my wife’s case. While Shopify is an incredible platform for ecommerce it’s equally poor for blogging. Because of this, I switched out my wifes native Shopify commenting with Disqus last week. Unfortunately when I did this she lost all of the native comments that were on the Shopify platform.
That aside, you are still correct that people are less likely to comment on B2C sites. The personal approach of the posts is more to make people feel comfortable with purchasing even though they seldom comment. I think the concern is that it’s not an intimate setting and more of a public forum. I do find the visitor/comment ratio lower on our B2C sites.
Great observation and right on point with it.
Hi David,
I thought I’d drop by and give my two cents as well.
One thing I know about comments is that people who do comment on our blog, are not necessarily and actually, often not our potential customers. While some sites might have daily sales left and right and not a single comment.
This is something I know for a fact, so while it’s cool to have comments because it gives more value to the blog and Google seems to like it, it’s not a true reveler of success.
Thanks for your excellent feedback and for coming 🙂
~Sylviane
Hi Jonathan,
Great meeting you here on Sylviane’s blog! I just had to chuckle to myself at the beginning of this post because Ebay was where I started my online experience back in the day. I was Retronona selling mid century stuff. Yes I did make quite a bit of money…but as things changed, so did I.
Fast forward to now. I’ve been blogging for a few years and now have learned the marketing aspect and having the time of my life creating products and selling them.
I believe our blogs are so important. We build a strong community for people to know like and trust us. Even if our loyal readers don’t purchase a thing…their friends do.
When I am in the marketplace on Warrior for example 99% of the people who do opt in and/or purchase a product ALWAYS come to my blog to check me out.
Blogging is a business, and when done correctly we can reach heights unknown.
-Donna
Donna Merrill invites you to read..The Road To Periscope
LOL Donna. I know there are tons of people who can relate to starting with eBay. It was a different place back then but so was the whole internet. As to blogging for the people you are correct. You have to build trust with your readers over time. There isn’t a quick fix to this solution. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Jonathan
Hi Donna,
You’ve done so many things my friend, no wonder you can give such good advise and create great tutorials that can teach others to make money online.
I’m glad you came and enjoyed this great guest post by Jonathan.
Thanks for coming as always 🙂
~Sylviane
Hi, Jonathan
I am pretty new in this blogging sphere. For me to know some of blogger history 10 years ago is fantastic, How your transform from so called Zombie situation to the present level through priceless and powerful transparency was amazing to me. I can’t agree more than straight forward is the secret to build e-commerce blogging.
Thanks for your post!
– Stella
Stella Chiu invites you to read..The Unique Characters of Christianity among all other Religions
Stella I’m glad you enjoyed the post and got something out of it. Best of luck.
Jonathan
Hi Stella, and nice meeting you.
Since you are new, let me invite you to come back and take advantage of the content that is shared here at my blog.
I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed my guest Jonathan, today, and I know he shares very good stuff at this blog as well.
I hope we will both see you again soon.
Thank you for coming.
~Sylviane
Hey Jonathan,
This is a different angle coming from an ecommerce background, but when it comessage to blogging there really isn’t a difference. I know a couple of people who would be all ears because their in Ecommerce.
I try to make an effort to mix the strategies you were referring to. Adding SEO and being transparent to your audience is a winning combination. I do improve with my results when I mix the two. There have been quite a few times where commenters have told me they found my posts via Google as well as through another blog!
Thanks for sharing Jonathan! Have a great day!
Sherman Smith invites you to read..9 Blog Commenting Rules That Brands You Like A Boss
Sherman you are correct that informational blogging is quite similar. You are focusing on combining the two elements to attract visitors from search and build trust. Finding the right balance is the special sauce that differs from site to site. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Sherman,
It’s always a winning game I feel when we mix our personal story to our online business. I know it works for me, and the reason I started doing it in the first place is because I was following people who were successfully doing it too. I thought why not me.
Plus at the beginning of the year, my own business coach encouraged me to do it even more. She felt that my personal development posts could be more personal than they were.
People are people and they relate to our story, because emotion is the number one selling feature, if you ask me.
Thanks for your input and have a wonderful rest of the day!
~Sylviane
Hi Jonathan,
Glad to see you at Sylviane’s blog. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. 🙂
Well, I understand how you felt back then. I think all serious bloggers will experience the same problems, as well as me.
I agree that the story will motivate the readers. When I learned the story of a person, I’m thankful that I’m not alone. There are many people who experienced the same problem and share it with us. If they get through it, then I can too.
Until now, I’m not build my own community yet. I think, I have not been quite able to it. I believe it will come at the right time. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. It’s awesome to hear your thoughts.
Have a great day for both of you!
~Nanda
Nanda Rahmanius invites you to read..Top 5 Crucial Tips For Building A Successful Blog
Nanda transparency both feels good and attracts like minded people. Keep at it and slowly they will come. I’m having fun building my own community now. Patience and perseverance are instrumental to long term success with anything.
Jonathan
Hi Nanda,
Yes, people do relate to our story, and maybe you could share more of yours to build your community.
However, I feel that you’re well on your way, but it’s not always easy to keep loyal people to come back and back again. Believe me I know.
Thanks for coming and for your input.
~Sylviane
Hi Jonathan,
It’s great to meet you through Sylviane’s site! I love this topic for many reasons one of which because I’ve written so much about it over the last 9 months.
Unfortunately, for many businesses it does take a long time to grow a following through building a community.
But, it doesn’t have to.
I was blessed to grow mine in less than six months where they tipped the scale for me big time! My sales exploded because my community shared that I’m competent, capable and was making a difference for them.
I haven’t looked back since! I’ve been on some major sites where my audience hangs out like SEMrush.com and today I’m recording some training’s with instantetraining.com. In addition my blog was awarded a 2015 Best Marketing blog by fitsmallbusiness.com.
The best part… I sell every week now and my business is exploding.
However, it took a lot of work and time connecting with other bloggers, business owners, entrepreneurs and content marketers of all sizes, types and shapes.
I was very intentional for the first six months and I realized that making money early on was not going to be easy but with patience comes rewards and I’m just now scratching the surface.
I share this just to affirm that it can be done IF a business owner is committed to it. Otherwise, it takes time. Nothing wrong with that at all and in fact for most it’s probably better that it does. It’s better to grow slow and steady than it is fast and in chaos.
I enjoyed your article Jonathan!
Have a great week!
~ Don Purdum
Don Purdum invites you to read..Are You Creating Opportunities for Your Audience to Discover Your Business?
Dan thanks so much for the comments. It sounds like you have had some great success that has come from all your hard work. It’s nice to show others that the work pays off. Online business in general and especially blogging can feel like an uphill battle. Your success and others show that there’s very seldom an “overnight success.” Behind every overnight success there are years of hard work and perseverance. Thanks again for sharing and I’m glad you liked the post.
Jonathan
Hi Don,
Indeed, I can say that I was there to see how you came from like being the new guy in town, as far as a blogger, to someone who is now reaping the success of your hard work.
At the end of the day, I think that no matter what content we put out there, if no one is seeing it (meaning if we don’t network), it’s like spitting in the air. That’s why, for example, I started posting each week on Linkedin because it’s amazing how much more people will read my article there, as opposed to my own blog. And actually after few weeks of experimenting my next post will be about such topic.
Thanks for coming and you have a great day!
~Sylviane
Hi Jonathan,
This is an interesting post and love to read your experiences and the milestones you crossed.
At the beginning of this post you mentioned about the bloggers who can able to write an article with 500 words.
Could you please mention some of them and how much they charge for each post?
There are some people do the same in Fiverr, but I’m not impressed as they work only for money.
So if you can, please suggest some bloggers who can write articles with more than 500 words on our request.
Anyway, thanks for shared this useful post and keep up the good work.
Thyrone Charles invites you to read..6 Cheap And Best Tablets For Artists 2015 Online Shopping
Thyrone I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Sylviane actually writes herself for clients and may be able to help you out. If you are looking for someone less qualified I actually wrote a post specifically about Outsourcing your Blogging that you may be interested in. I outline how I find writers and what I look. Hope this helps and best of luck.
Jonathan
Thanks for letting Thyrone know about me. I just read his comment and let him know about my services too.
Have a great day!
Sylviane
Hi Thryone,
Indeed, you will get what you pay for on fiverr, when it comes to this type of things.
Well, unless you don’t know what I do, I’m a freelance writer and write for small and large businesses’s blog, so if you need someone to write for you, why don’t you let me know what you need and I can let you know if I can do it and for how much.
You can easily find my email on my contact page.
Thanks for coming,
~Sylviane
Hey Jonathan/Sylviane,
I agree “Putting real people and real situations into your blog posts can help build trust and a community”. Your conclusion is great and there is no doubting the fact that we can readily express value to potential clients and the audience.
Ecommerce marketing should apply similar principles that has helped other types of business achieve and gain the trust of the audience. A human touch readily helps an ecommerce site to increase traffic and conversion!
I left the above comment in kingged.com as well
Sunday good to see you hear over at Sylvianes blog. Glad you enjoyed the post and got something out of it. Buying online is still a scary proposition for many people and the more we can relate to them and make them feel comfortable, the more sales we can make.
Jonathan
Hi Sunday,
Yes, in fact, no matter what business we’re in, people like to know that there is a real human being behind the scene.
Thanks for coming and have a wonderful day ahead!
Hello Sylviane and Jonathan,
It is so nice to meet you and congratulations on being featured on Sylviane’s blog. I can see why she was excited about introducing you, yours is a story to tell.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I think we all have some regrets at the beginning stages of our online career until we have that light bulb moment to put it all into place.
I considered going into ecommerce when I first ventured into the online world but it wasn’t a fit for me at the time.
But for those who are, they will definitely appreciate the valuable advice you shared here. I’m sharing this post as I’m sure there are many in the ecommerce niche who could use your tips. 🙂
It was great meeting you. I wish you all the best! I hope you both are having a great week.
Take care,
Cori
Corina Ramos invites you to read..Seven Life-Saving Rules For Your Teenaged Daughter When She Goes Out
Cori thanks so much for the kind words. Learning is all about making mistakes and I’ve made my share of them. I’m only to happy to share with others what has worked for me and what hasn’t. Thanks again for your comments and for sharing the post.
Jonathan
Hi Cori,
I’m glad you found this post interesting and are sharing it.
I’ve done just about everything under the sun when it comes to making money online, but back then a lot of things were still foggy. I’m sure this type of information can help those who are into eCommerce.
Thanks for coming and have a wonderful day ahead!
~Sylviane
Ciao, Sylviane,
Thanks for introducing me to Jonathan, I really appreciate it.
Jonathan: Nice to meet you! You sure did bring back a lot of memories with regard to my eBay days – was a Power Seller for quite a while, and actually had to start over with a new account at one point. lol
Just went back to look at the date of my sign up, and it was back in 2006 for this current account, but I had a different one before that, so it was probably about 10 years ago or longer.
I enjoyed the stroll down memory lane, and really enjoyed your story.
You’re right, Sylviane has an awesome blog, and it isn’t luck, that’s for sure. I appreciate you sharing your regret with us, that was bold and also helpful. Loved your summary, and I couldn’t agree more! ? In fact, when I was a guest for Sylviane, I wrote about research because it’s such an important foundation.
Thanks so much for sharing, Jonathan, and look forward to getting to know you even more.
Spreading the word…
˜Carol Amato
Hi Carol,
So glad you enjoyed Jonathan’s post. It was great information wasn’t it.
Yes, time flies by. Next year, in 2016, it will be 10 years that I’m online. I’ve tried so many things over time, that’s crazy. I’m glad I finally found my path though.
Thank you for your visit and you have a wonderful day ahead!
Carol its a pleasure. I understand the new account start over on eBay all too well. For fun I looked back at my account start date. Feb – 1999. Crazy how time flies.
I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’m trying to continue to push myself out of my comfort zone to grow and be as transparent as people want.
Glad to see such a great community supporting Sylviane and thank you for the kind words and for spreading the word. I try and write at least once a week on my blog with tested advice for making money online.
Thanks again,
Jonathan
Thanks for the interesting article. I hadn’t really thought too much of the difference between B2B and B2C types of websites, the style of writing, and the willingness of the target audience to leave comments. That’s all very interesting, and explains some things. With that in mind I believe that the best way forward is for me to do like what a few other people said above, include both keywords to get customers from search and personality to help people feel more comfortable and maybe get more comments to increase social proof. Thanks for pointing that out.
Ben invites you to read..Have You Seen The Abundance Factor Movie Yet?
Absolutely Ben. The perfect balance really depends on your specific objective. Finding the right balance is largely dictated by your goals. You can’t go wrong being honest, but remember selling and ecommerce is a slightly different approach. Glad I was able to share something you hadn’t heard of and best of luck.
Jonathan
Great article.
Blogging is sure a business that must be done by planning and passion.
Sharad Gupta invites you to read..No 1 Web Hosting Company in India – HostingRaja
Thanks Sharad. Glad you enjoyed it.
Hi Jonathan, Hi Sylviane,
Thank-you both so much for this post. It is quite timely for me since I recently got back into blogging.
I started a blog a few years ago. While I had primarily used it as a form of personal expression, and established some beautiful relationships through commenting and doing some guest posting – monetizing it wasn’t something I had any clue on how to do.
I focused primarily on content and my writing skills, which was a wonderful experience. Now, however, it’s time to get serious about how to direct things differently.
I started up a new blog recently, and I will need to start implementing techniques to not only make it a site filled with authentic content (and I do write from my heart) – but to also make a business out of it. I think that for me, it’ll be a matter of refocusing and placing intention on blending the two together – which isn’t something I practiced before.
I genuinely appreciate this post…and I’ll have to come by and visit your site and see what your wife has done as well.
Thanks 🙂
Dana invites you to read..I Was Over 200 Poundsâ¦My Personal Weight Loss Story
Dana I’m so glad you enjoyed the post and that you are getting back into it. When deciding to monetize your blog it’s still important to focus on your business model up front. These days there are so many different ways to monetize a blog. You have to decide what your primary goal is as well as what you will be offering your readers. If the blog is center stage, its a different approach all together than using it to drive traffic to an ecommerce, software, or service site.
Either way it’s exciting you are getting back into it. The internet is still in its infancy and the opportunity has never been more affordable and approachable than it is today. Best of luck with the new blog and I would love to have you stop by the site.
Thanks for sharing,
Jonathan
Hi Sylviane,
I’m really late to this post, sorry about that. Was one of those weeks and then I had a pretty bad weekend but it’s a new week and I’m going to try to make this a good one.
Happy to meet you Jonathan and I too found this post interesting. I don’t have or am interested in e-commerce sites so I can only imagine how hard it might be today to get people interested in what you share. I know how hard it is at times to get people to comment on our blogs so sharing their opinions on your I would think would be a lot harder. I’m sure though that your personal approach in your content makes them feel much more at ease and of course we all do love stories.
Things will always continue to change online and we have to find the things that keep working and move in that direction constantly.
I’m glad Sylviane accepted your guest post because I got to see a different side of this. Thank you for sharing it with us and I hope you both have a wonderful week.
~Adrienne
Adrienne invites you to read..How To Write For Your Target Audience
Adrienne its a pleasure to meet you as well. Change is what keeps it interesting I suppose. Glad I could show you another side of blogging and thanks for taking the time to read the post.
Jonathan
Hey Jonathan,
Start with a simple, 1-page monthly calendar that has enough space for you to write in each day if you need what you say
Regards Steve
Hi Jonathan,
Happy to meet you Jonathan, I came via your comment on Adrienne Smith’s blog. I must say I too like others found this post very interesting.
I don’t have neither am I interested in e-commerce sites for now, therefore, I can only imagine how whatever you have said here so far.
But for the fact that Sylviane who I refer to as my instructor accepted your guest post means I have to see a different side of this post and consider it very vital.
I just published a post on my blog that will be of great help to you and your readers, it is titled: 3 Tips for Writing a Blog Post for Your Target Readers.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, have a wonderful week.
~Emebu
Hi Buddies,
I want to share my personal experience with this post. It seems like I was reading a story. What a great write up. From the starting while you e-commerce business was running well and instantly you encountered the fall in traffic to your website and then you started a blog and maintained the quality was the nice step.
Outsourcing some of the work of your business is a quite right decision. By this way, you get more time to look over other things of the online business.
I am developing the true followers to my blog. In this competition, I need to maintain the quality of each blog post. IT takes too much time. I will also outsource some of the work of my blog to the professional so that I could concentrate on the other things.
What would you do next to grow traffic ???? Knowing this one will be very beneficial to me.
Good luck..
🙂
Nikhil invites you to read..2 Amazing Subscription Plugins to Speed Up Email List Building
Nikhil glad you enjoyed the post. Remember there are downsides to outsourcing everything. Moderation is probably the best approach. As to your traffic building, getting out there and letting the people find you is the only way. The old theory of building it and they will come doesn’t hold so true in such a competitive market these days. Best of luck.
Jonathan
Building trust with your customers is one of the keys to increasing your retention rate and getting more marketing through word of mouth, because if you have someone who is a loyal customer, they will refer other to you as well. Like you said, building trust can take a while especially in the way you mentioned. Being transparent and publishing great content is a great way to build trust within a community of customers. You have to find and publish things that people can connect with and even be valuable to them and their lives.
Lawrence Berry invites you to read..How To Deal With A Passive-Aggressive Co-worker
Lawrence you are spot on. It’s not just about being transparent but also about providing things of value to your readers. Value may be learning or entertainment but you have to offer them something besides transparency to truly engage and convert.
Thanks for the comments
Jonathan
Hi JONATHAN,
Happy to Read such a wonderful post .It is well written.I like the way you have explained everything so easily .It is always pleasure to visit Sylviane blog and read such great article .Keep going 🙂
Jerry glad you enjoyed the post and hopefully got something out of it. Sylviane has built a great community here and continues to produce honest, true, writing which is not the norm these days. Thanks again for stopping by and reading.
Jonathan Spektor invites you to read..Online Selling on Amazon for Beginners
Thank you so much for this awesome post i am newbie in blogging line and i owned a tech blog. I will follow your points thanks again 🙂
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Thank you for your advice on transparent blogging. I’m a beginner at blogging and I still have issues with getting traffic to my blog. I noticed that each time I publish a new post and publicize it on various social networks my traffic increases dramatically (about 20 visitors in that day) but after 2 days I start receiving 1 to 2 visitors. I’m planning to make some changes to my site and its content to solve this problem. Any suggestions?
Hi Jonathan,
I strongly believe that building a community through our blogs is very important. A strong blogging community means having people who trust and believe in you though it takes a considerable length of time to achieve this, its worth the effort because you have a better chance of selling to your community, again and again, since they believe in you and knows you are competent so convincing them to buy from you is much easier.
Content is key to building a blogging community, visitors will only return to your site if they are satisfied with your content, so the first step towards building a blogging community is by studying your readers and provide them with the kind of content they want. I have taken this step and the result is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your experience, I enjoyed reading it.
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Hi Jonathan,
I am glad to know your 10 years of selling experience in this post, those days have no competition, ranking on the first page was very easy, later on, Google animals killed most of the blogs which used wrong practices.
You are fortunate that You have seen all these changes in these 10 years and rocking internet marketing till now, thanks for sharing your experiences, see you soon.
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I am pretty new in this blogging sphere. For me to know some of blogger history 10 years ago is fantastic, How your transform from so called Zombie situation to the present level through priceless and powerful transparency was amazing to me. I can’t agree more than straight forward is the secret to build e-commerce blogging.
Thanks for your post!
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10 years in blogging, WOW!!. In just few years sometimes it feels so frustrating. Hats of to your motivation and inspiring others like this. Wonderful journey.
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Hi Deb,
I’m sorry you’re frustrated with blogging. What are the problems you’re running into?
Thanks for coming and I hope you can tell me more.
~Sylviane
Simply, it’s just wow. Spending 10 years in blogging with maintaining success is really a big thing. Thanks for sharing your secrets. It will really help the newcomers like me.
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Thanks for sharing such a great article with us,looking for exactly the same information.
surely going to implement it with my blogs.