Onibalusi Bamidele is a 16 year old entrepreneur living the internet lifestyle, subscribe to his blog for more great blog posts.
I am sure you would have heard the word funnel once or twice before in relation to making money online. I’d like to define a funnel (in relation to making money online) as a system with which you can cash in income from your online business or as the basic steps you need to go through in order to get the best from your online business.
This post will be explaining the system used by many successful bloggers and internet marketers to make money online.
1. Build a Great Blog
The first and most important step in this funnel is to build a great blog for your online business. It is very important to note that setting up a blog is not only what it takes but having a blog that fulfills all the characteristics of a successful blog.
How Do You Build a Great Blog?
i. Quality Content: There are several things to consider when building a great blog for your online business and one of the most important things that should not be neglected is your content. Your content has a great way to affect the results you get and I’ve seen blogs that went from nowhere to overnight success just because of the valuable content they provide.
There are many benefits in writing great content when trying to build your blog, and one of those benefits is that it helps people develop trust in you. If you blog about a product, the factor determining the number of sales you will make is not only your audience but the type of trust you’ve developed with them.
Another great benefit of writing great content on your blog is that it makes people spread the word about you.
ii. Great Design: Another important aspect of your blog is your design. Aside from a great design being a very important aspect of a successful blog, it is also a very important aspect of our funnel (you’ll know why later).
One great characteristic of a great design is that it is easily navigable. You shouldn’t let your design make it difficult for your readers to read your content and you should also make it easy for them to locate everything they want.
If you take a look at the design of most successful blogs, aside it being unique and elegant, you will also discover it makes it easy for a reader to subscribe to their blog.
2. Attract Traffic to Your Blog
This is where many bloggers miss it, they will give the best of their content and expect people to come and read it without them doing anything to create awareness. Your content has no life of its own, except it is being read.
Even if your content will go viral, it still needs people to make it go viral.
There are several ways to get traffic to your blog and I will be listing 3 of the most effective ways to get traffic to your blog below:
i. Social Media: Making effective use of social media is one of the best ways to get traffic to your blog and this can explain why many social media sites are the top in the world.
ii. Guest Posting: Another great way to get the word out for your blog is by guest posting for other blogs in your niche and if done effectively, guest posting can be a great way to get traffic to your blog. When trying to guest post for other blogs, you don’t need to submit junk content because the blog is not your own. If you do that, several things may happen: either your post will get rejected by the blogger or you get little results from your guest posting efforts. Always try to give your best when guest posting for other blogs.
iii. SEO: Another great way to get free high quality traffic to your blog is by optimizing your blog for the search engines. Search engine traffic is a great type of traffic for several reasons. First, because it is highly targeted, and second, because it only requires little efforts from your part after which you can be getting results on autopilot.
3. Have a Backend
This is one thing I have noticed among every successful blogger, they all have a backend.
My definition for a backend is “a system that makes it easy for you to repeatedly get in touch with your readers after they stop visiting your blog”. There are two major types of backend namely “Your Mailing List” and “Your RSS Feed”, with the most effective one being a mailing list. There are several reasons why it is very important for you to have a backend. First, it makes it easier for you to get in touch with your readers anytime you want, and second it helps reduce your reliance on other forms of traffic. If you have a solid backend, you won’t worry about any fluctuation in search engine traffic and you won’t be afraid about losing traffic if you don’t post on your blog for a period of time. Another great importance of having a backend is that should anything happen to your blog thereby requiring you to start all over; you can still build upon your previous work since you can easily get in touch with your subscribers.
I will be writing about the 2 major types of backend below and which is the most important.
i. Your Mailing List: You would have heard it once or twice that the money is in the list. Having a mailing list is really very important and it is the best type of backend you can have. You can still do well with a lot of RSS subscribers but you will do better if you have a mailing list.
One great advantage of having a mailing list is that you can easily personalize the message your subscribers receive and you can easily send any message you want to them.
There have been many misconceptions to having a mailing list lately and this is why many people think having a mailing list is no longer effective. Having a mailing list is not the most important thing but how you deal with your mailing list; I will be giving some tips on how to get the best from your mailing list below.
- Trust Matters: One major thing you should focus on once you have successfully gotten someone on your list is building trust with them. Having a mailing list is not about you promoting offers every now and then, but you have to manage it effectively to get the best from it.
One of the best ways to build trust with your list is by making sure you provide value in every email you send. If you keep on helping people solve their problems and giving them high quality information in every one of your mails, it will be easier for them to take action anytime you recommend something to them.
- Frequency: While building trust with your list is very important, it is also very important to make sure you have the right frequency with your mailings. Don’t just be bombarding your readers with emails everyday but make effective use of every opportunity you have. You might truly be offering valuable information, but when you are bombarding your readers with too many mails (to add to the high number of daily emails they receive) they will begin to find it difficult to open your emails.
The frequency of your mail and your level of trust with your subscribers is really very important and if you could prove to them that they are in the right place, they won’t find it difficult to do what you say.
ii. Your RSS Feed: This is another form of a backend (especially for those who don’t believe in having a list – which is a very dangerous thing). It is very important to focus on building the number of your RSS subscribers because they are the ones who will be receiving each and every one of your posts.
One major way to increase the number of RSS subscribers you have is by making sure you have a visible subscription form on your sidebar (above the fold) and if possible, below your posts. It is also very important to educate your readers about it thereby letting them know the importance of receiving content using RSS feeds.
Conclusion
The above are 3 basic funnels to online business success and once you could put the above tips into practice, profiting from your blog wouldn’t be a problem.
[Image Credit: HardwareAndTools.com]
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