In the previous posts I have talked about starting a blog - setting the basics right so you can start a blog and make money from it.
In this post let’s assume you have just started a blog. So how could you build your blog up from scratch? Building a blog is a challenging, yet a crucial task. If you just start a blog and let it sit, it won’t grow itself.
Merely creating and publishing content doesn’t contribute to building your blog; although content is a very important aspect of your blog, mere content creation doesn’t mean blog growth.
There are various other things that you need to focus and do strategically in order to grow your blog to a level where it stands as a stable online business entity, earning you income!
Let me start.
You need a community
You cannot build a blog by yourself. You cannot achieve success just on your own. You might be the only one creating content and you might be the only one doing all the necessary tasks that are needed to build your blog.
But you cannot grow it as a one man/woman army. In order to build or “grow” your blog you certainly need extra hands.
This is the case with any business. Do you know any business that succeeded by itself? Nope! Coz businesses are built for people. Be it a product or an innovation or something fancy - everything is built for people - either directly or indirectly.
So is your blog.
You are creating blog content for people (your readers). You are creating products and offering services for people (your prospects/readers/leads).
You need a community around yourself and your blog.
So how can you build such a community around yourself?
Apparently you have to reach out to the community and you have to build it yourself - I mean it will not be built by any other means or automatically. You have to do it manually (even if you don’t like to hear this :))
However, unlike certain unpleasant blogging tasks, building a community is fun because you simply have to connect with people. And who doesn’t like to make new friends, acquisitions and connections? I love that bit of my blogging routine!
Blogging communities
A great way to connect with people, build influence and build a community around yourself is to be an active part of blogging communities. Why blogging communities? Well I’ve written a post on this topic and I will direct you to the same.
Blogging communities are places where like-minded people hang out. And there is a great opportunity to gain traction and also to multiply your reach.
I invite you to join my blogging community, DoSplash.
Social media
Social media is an integrated part of a blogging business. It doesn’t matter if you are running an online global business or a local business having a social business will help you build your community and your audience.
Why? Because most of your potential customers are already on social media!
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many others are a great boon to small businesses.
Just don’t try to be present on all social media all at one - you will burn yourself out. Devise a social media strategy. Pick 2-3 top social media sites that suits your business and then drill in.
Socialize on other blogs
Other blogs in your niche are great places where your target customers will be present. If you hang out there, your chances of getting their attention is much higher.
In order to get optimal results you have to choose blogs that are very close to purpose and blogs that are in your niche that have target audience similar to yours.
So how can you “socialize” on others’ blogs. Well, blog commenting is a great way to do this! Leaving thoughtful, and insightful blog comments on the blog posts is a smart way to gain traction.
Just make sure you don’t leave a comment for the sake of gaining traction. Read the post truly and leave a genuine comment. If you don’t feel like you have anything to say just don’t comment.
Instead of (or in addition to) leaving a comment on the original post, you could also respond to other commenter’s comments - if they’ve asked a question, you could jump in and answer. Just make sure you don’t hijack the discussion!
Another great way to socialize on other blogs is to write highly useful and actionable guest posts. This way you will have the chance to prove your work; you will also have a very good chance to interact with them in the comments.
Build an email list
If you have been following my writing or my videos, I often say “Email marketing is golden”. And I say this now too.
No matter how many modern and probably faster forms of marketing methods have come in, email marketing still works great as a personalized form of marketing.
I can continue to talk about the glory of email marketing all day. But let’s get back to the focus of this post.
Now, a subscriber list is a wonderful asset to your business. If you want to build your blog from the ground up, you need loyal readers, repeat readers, prospects, potential customers and fans who would not only do business with you but will also spread the word for you.
A subscriber list, no matter how small or large, is your asset. And it will simply grow over the time, if you rock it online via your blog.
Don’t wait for the “right” moment to start collecting email addresses. It isn’t rocket science. You just have to start using an email autoresponder service like Aweber or GetResponse and then put up those signup forms.
You could work on delivering a freebie to your subscribers. But if that’s stopping you from putting up a form, simply put up a minimalist “Sign up for free updates” kinda form.
You won’t believe until you see for yourself how much response you will be getting if you do this.
And you aren’t losing anything by putting up a few sign up forms at strategic positions on your blog, no matter how little traffic you get.
You will actually be losing those subscribers and leaving asset on the table if you don’t do that!
And then make sure you retain those subscribers by having a good relationship with them and by providing them with real value. Don’t treat them as your ATM or they will leave you in no time.
Work on your flagship product and premium content
While you are busy creating content for regular publishing you should also be working on your flagship product or premium content.
This might sound a little controversial to you - People usually think about creating premium content or a paid product when their blog has grown to a certain level of readership and popularity.
It is correct to launch a premium product or a flagship product only you have a decent subscriber and reader base.
But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on your product/premium content when you still don’t have that number. You should start working on your flagship content and by the time you reach an authority level you should have something to launch 
This is not for the purpose of making money (although this is an important reason too), but you will be able to take your business to the next level by launching a premium product. You will also be establishing your brand by launching a premium product.
Continue to build consistently
Consistency is very important when it comes to blogging. Whether it is with creating content, or SEO, or email marketing, do it consistently to be able to see the results.
If you cannot stick with one thing for a consistent amount of time, you won’t be able to see any results. And with blogging it usually takes quite a while for you to see results with anything.
Be it gaining traction, or seeing your rankings go up or with getting sales - nothing happens in a short period of time.
Any SEO strategy takes weeks before you can see a change. And if you want people to “appreciate” your awesome content you have to be creating and publishing content consistently.
People won’t recognize you or your talent in just one blog post or one video. You need to do things consistently.
It will take some time for the results to show but once you reach the threshold, things will start to grow in an exponential manner.
Build your brand consistently
Just with doing things to build your blog in a consistent manner, you should also be building your brand consistently. A single guest post on a major blog will send you a spike in traffic. A few people will check out who you are on the day the post went live.
But then they will forget you because they are bombarded by a million other things on the internet. In order to be remembered as a brand, you need to also build your brand consistently.
You should devise a strategy and stick to it long term.
Blog commenting and guest blogging are two really effective ways to build your brand. When people see your face everywhere (make sure you enable Gravatar for this) that will build your brand awareness.
Also consistently delivering high quality content is a great way to make people remember you for quality content.
You could also build your brand consistently by offering free PDFs or whitepapers (Hubspot is very good at this).
There are numerous ways to build your brand - the key is to do it consistently.
How to build your blog from ground up
Starting a blog is pretty easy these days. You have lots of technical options and manual help. But building it from the ground up into a stable online entity is a challenging task.
Following these tips will help you build your blog so it can gain traction and will help market your business 24/7/365!
Leave a comment below letting me know which of these tips you liked the most and you find easier to do (you’ll surprise me :)). And don’t forget to share this post in social media.
Happy building your blog!
