For decades traditional advertising was considered the standard for gaining market share and new customers.
Those who had the biggest budgets were often the ones who made all of the money.
Magazine ads, billboards, T.V. and radio commercials and endorsements gave big companies huge advantages over their competitors.
Over the years however there has been a huge shift in the consumer markets.
People no longer buy a product just because it’s featured in a commercial.
Nowadays people are looking for a more personalized and emotional connection between their wants and needs, and those who provide them with the solutions.
In today’s market making money is easier than ever and it doesn’t take a big budget or ties with well-known companies/advertisers to become successful.
In fact many bloggers and online businesses are thriving today with an advertising budget of $0 dollars.
How is this possible?
Well first of all it has become easier than ever for people to communicate with one another online.
Millions of people use the internet each and every day and with social media platforms such as blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and many other social networks connecting with others is as easy as a writing a blog post, doing a podcast, creating a video or sharing a link.
Anyone can become a small marketing force in today’s economy and they can do it with nothing more than a computer and a social platform.
For todays bloggers it’s about building a connection with their readers and spreading their ideas through word of mouth.
If their readers like what they’ve read then they are likely to share it with their friends thus increasing the bloggers expose and building upon their success.
By being your brand or at least having an identity within your brand people feel more connected with you because they see you as a person and not just a logo.
By baking yourself into your brand you create an emotional bond with your readers and they are much more likely to want to share your content, buy your products, and follow your lead.
You don’t have to write every article, respond to every comment or answer every email but you do have to be present enough to connect with your readers.
Darren Rowse and Tim Ferris are two great examples of bloggers who have managed to grow their websites by showing a consistent presence while limiting the amount of work they have to put into their blogs in order to be successful.
For example Darren Rowse has an extremely popular website known as Problogger which generates tons of visitors each and every month without him needing to write every blog post or respond to every comment.
In fact most of his content comes from other bloggers guest posting on his website, yet he remains extremely successful because he has identified himself with his brand and everyone who goes to his website knows who he is within the first few seconds of visiting it.
Tim Ferriss (author of the four-hour work week) runs a fantastic blog also titled the fourhourworkweek which currently generates over 1,000,000 unique visitors a month.
Tim doesn’t follow a traditional writing schedule as many other bloggers do, but he writes great content that keeps his fans in anticipation, and he has masted the art of effective content marketing and knows how to generate massive buzz about his new books.
One month he might write 12 posts and another month he may only write 2 or 3 but he connects with his readers and gives them what they want, and because of this his readers stay loyal and can’t wait to hear from him again.
Darren Rowse and Tim Ferriss didn’t just build a brand they are their brand, and they’ve built their business through word of mouth by utilizing the power of the internet, not by spending millions of dollars in advertising to (hopefully) get the word out.
Another great thing about bloggers is that they are much more likely to spread the word about other successful bloggers instead of trying to compete against them.
Bloggers enjoy working together and build social networks amongst others in their fields and in related fields which helps them expand their horizon.
Brian Clark runs a blog known as Copyblogger which has grown into a multimillion dollar empire and he’s done it while promoting other bloggers who have since become quite successful themselves.
Brian also loves to bring up the fact they he built his business without spending money on advertising.
Instead he focuses on effective content marketing and building trust amongst his readers.
5 tips on building your blog through effective content marketing
1. Find a successful blogger in your niche. Successful bloggers know how to build something from nothing by consistently developing their writing skills, creating content worth sharing and developing a good content marketing strategy and network. Find successful blogs that truly resonate with your own and study them. Find out what made them successful and how they’ve marketed their content. Great blogs will often tell you all you need to know in order to become successful. You just need to follow their advice and implement their techniques on a consistent basis.
2. Build connections and gain exposure. Gain as much expose as possible in the beginning by working with other bloggers. You don’t have to try to communicate on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and countless other social media platform when you start out. Instead focus on communicating with successful bloggers and their audience. This may include writing a guest post, doing an interview or being an active member in their community. The more expose and connections you can build the better.
3. Learn as much as you can about your niche. Understand the purpose and theme of your blog and learn as much as you can about your niche. The better you become at teaching others and/or writing about content that they enjoy (such as a comedy or entertainment blog) the more likely you will be to succeed and the easier it will be to provide people with consistent and useful content.
4. Show personality. Readers enjoy reading blogs because of the personality of the blog and the writer/s. Find your voice and share your personality with your readers. It may take a year or more to really tune into your own writing style and personality but keep working at it. The most successful and shared blogs are ones that people resonate with and enjoy the writer’s perspective and personality. Tech blogs and News sites may get millions of visitors but when it comes to raving fans bloggers with personality often get the most comments, tweets and likes which translate into reader loyalty and an active community.
5. Evolve. As your blog grows it is important to keep evolving and growing. Expand your website to offer new related topics. Sell related products/services to meet your readers needs. Increase your social outreach by expanding to other social media platforms and continue writing guest post and/or being an active member in a community for other blogs and/or accept interviews from bloggers and so on. When you reach a certain level of success you can either choose to continue your current content marketing strategy or dial down and identify the two or three social media platforms that are generating the bulk of your readership and focus on those.
If you want to be heard and adored you have to reach out to an audience first.
Even A-listers in the music industry had to reach out to other professionals and potential fans before they’ve reached the level of success that made them who they are today.
I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man.”
Jay-Z