Do you ever feel like you’re just waving your hands around hoping that potential buyers will notice you?
That one day your blog will just take off and money will come pouring in? 
I hear you. Blogging is a great marketing strategy. And it’s smart that you want to use your blog to grow your business.
But do you wanna know something crazy?
Blogging doesn’t actually get you more sales.
I know, I know you’re thinking,
“Wait, what?! I thought that’s why I did marketing stuff – like blogging – doesn’t it make people wanna buy from me?”
But here’s the truth – blogging doesn’t actually get you more sales. It simply creates awareness about you and what you’re offering.
It’s what you do with that awareness that gets you those sales.
And that’s the secret to making money from your blog – knowing how to create that awareness, and then knowing what to do once people are aware of you.
You want to know how to turn a curious blog reader into a buyer.
I’ll show you how in 4 steps.
Step 1: Make sure that your foundation is rock solid
No one will buy from you if you have a shaky business foundation.
So you want to make sure that your foundation is strong by getting clear on…
- Who your target market is: who do you want to help?
- What they want and need: what desires, goals, pains and problems do they have?
- The big result you can help them get: what do you help people do or have? What’s your niche?
If you don’t know these 3 key things, people are going to come to your blog and have no idea whether it’s meant for them or someone else. They won't know whether you understand what they're going through. And they'll wonder what you can actually help them achieve.
They'll be confused.
That means they probably won’t stick around, and they probably won’t end up buying from you.
So work on getting crazy clear on those three things before you take the next step.
Step 2: Earn their trust and showcase your credibility
There are 4 main reasons someone would buy from you:
1. You prove to them that you understand what they're going through
2. You show them that you can help them
3. They like you
So how do you earn their trust, showcase your credibility, and make them believe you understand them and can help them? Well you…
- Blog about topics your readers are passionate about. People read about stuff they care about. So give them something to care about.
- Bond with your readers by sharing your values. People are naturally attracted to others who share the same values. Make it easy for your ideal readers to like you by sharing your beliefs. Live video is a great way to form bonds with your readers.
- Look the part of a credible expert. Get professional photos taken, make sure your website doesn’t look like a two-year-old made it, post testimonials. All these things will help people believe you’re someone they should listen to.
- Actually help them on your blog. To prove that you can actually help someone when they buy from you, start by helping them for free on your blog. Give them free tips, tools and resources that’ll actually make a difference for them.
Featured podcast: Here are some additional tips for monetizing your content from Ms. Ileane!
Step 3: Sell something awesome
If you want people to buy from you, you need to sell something they want to buy.
I know this sounds so simple but often we try to sell something we feel like selling, instead of selling something our target market actually wants or needs.
So, before you go making assumptions about what people will buy, do your homework. Talk to potential buyers. Do the market research.
Once you know your customers so well they'll think you can read their mind, you’ll be able to create an offering that blows them away.
Step 4: Blog smartly to create loads of awareness
I have this catchphrase I say whenever someone tells me they’re not a good enough writer – “It’s not about being good, it’s about being smart.”
You see, you don't need to be the best writer to capture a lot of attention. You simply need to be a smart writer.
You want to make sure that you blog smartly by:
- Not blogging about the same-old-same-old. Brainstorm what you think people are going to expect you to say, and give them something a little different. You'll stand out and get noticed a lot more when you do.
- Coming across as relatable. Share pieces of your personality and insights into your life – especially any mistakes you’ve made. This will help make you more relatable – which makes you more likeable.
- Getting off of your own website and onto others. One of the fastest ways to grow your email list and get more leads and sales is through guest blogging. Find websites that target the same people as you and see if you can get a post on their site.
Put do a quick recap and it all together
Now that you know all 4 steps, here’s how they work together…
You create awareness by blogging about topics that your target market is passionate about. Maybe it’s even something that keeps them up at night. A problem they're dying to overcome.
They stumble upon your blog – from Google, a recommendation from a friend, social media, or something else – and they check out your foundation. They read your about page and a couple posts, and realize that your blog was made for them.
Then they give you the opportunity to earn their trust and show them that you’re a credible expert who can help them. This might mean that they sign up for your email list to give you the chance to be someone they trust to help them.
Once you’ve earned their trust – and you've made the right offer, at the right time – you'll get the sale.
It doesn’t have to be complicated
I get that figuring out how to make money from your blog can seem tough and overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be.
Simplify things by going back to the basics and focusing on these 4 key things.
And remember – blogging doesn't actually get you more sales. It simply creates awareness. It's what you do with that awareness that gets you more sales.
So start using your blog as a smart marketing tool today. Before you know it, maybe one day your blog will take off and money will start pouring in.
For now, just get started. Pick one thing you need to do to start making money from your blog – whether it's picking a target market, creating an irresistible offer, or something else.
Then go do it. Make it happen.
And make the impact you know you're meant to make.
Recommended Reading:
- The AntiHustle: Start a Six Figure Business in One Year to by Nicole Purvy
- Boost Your Content with Viral Content Bee: 3 Traffic Stories From Our Readers by Ann Smarty
- Blogging for Business: A How- To Guide
by Kristi Hines
Jenna what an awesome post! I actually had not thought of my blog in that way. But as I think about it you are so correct. Our blogs should create awareness. Once that awareness is created you have outlined the 4 crucial things that we need in order to make money.
Your article has made me realize I can definitely make some adjustments to my blog that will get me closer to mastering your 4 crucial steps. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Nate! I’m so glad that you got so much goodness out of the post. Good luck making those adjustments to your blog. 🙂
Thank you, Nate! I’m so glad I could help you see your blog in a new way. Good luck making those adjustments 🙂
Hi Jenna,
Thank you for an awesome post. This post has set me thinking what I need to do on my blog to get more visitors and engagements.
Cheers,
Boon
You’re welcome, Boon. Glad it was helpful.
Jenna ,
Amazing post.
The first and foremost objective of a blog should be to help people in their pain areas. By doing so you reveal your potential and thus winning their heart.
With good quality content and market research you create what they want . Along comes money, fame and success.
I can say these are the success mantras of every problogger too.. 🙂
Thank you, Sangeetha. I definitely agree – you want to make sure you’re actually helping people with their pain points in your blog. And in order to do that, you need to actually know about them – by doing your research. Thanks for sharing!
Jenna I like your writing style and points you mention are key to success. I mostly write for newbies so that they can start from zero.
Thank you, Waqas. It’s great that you write for newbies – they obviously have a lot of questions about how to succeed. So it’s good you can help them.
Excellent road map to blogging success. I’ve been building wordpress sites since 2008 and now I’m just an occasional builder. I do have a few sites just for myself though. On one of these new sites I looked at all your points and I’ve got a good feeling that I did good. Strong foundation – earn trust – showcase a great product – keeping it simple and not too complicated. I’m just wondering about user engagement… should I open it up to comments? I hate going through comment spam.
Hey Mal, I think allowing people to comment on your blog is a very smart move. If you’re worried about spam you can always use something like Akismet – https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/ – that way you don’t have to manually go through all the comments and delete the spam.
I have always thought if the right audience could read the blogs, they would definitely buy the product. The trick is to make sure that the blog is being delivered to the right type of audience. Thanks for a very helpful post!
You’re exactly right, Afnan. You want to make sure your posts are getting into the right hands. You’re so welcome!
Hi Jeena,
Nice post, the four main things that you’d explained is awesome. Got to know that blogging creates awareness to people and ensure that my self or my promoting blog is give well sustained path to target audience.
Once again,Thanks for sharing the good techniques for budding bloggers.
Regards,
Siva
You’re so welcome, Siva. Glad you enjoyed it.
Making money online is always become hot topic to talk about. And I agree with you: trust and credibility are so important. These will bring more and more fans. it is very helpful post 🙂 Thank you Jeena
You’re welcome, Ricky. Yes – trust and credibility are huge!
Trust really makes the blogging engine go Jenna. Money responds to trust. Like bees respond to honey. Money flows from people to people so make sure you focus on establishing trust with people, so they’ll freely work with you.
I know that anybody who buys my eBooks trusts my judgment. I gave away so much free information in the past, that they figure, this SOB is NOT just after my money 😉 Nope, they know, I want to help them for free. No strings attached. Because when you help someone for free, money sneaks in the backdoor. Not looking for it. Money is shy and elusive, like a rare, endangered animal. You’ll see it when you’re not looking for it.
As for your other awesome tips, well, there ya go: awesomeoness. Go over the top. Be funny. Inject personality into your blog posts. I’ve been known to go off of the deep end in this department, talking about my coke-fits in Peru, and being beaten up in Bali, but folks seem to dig my colorful travel stories.
Being awesome never sucks. This I know. Even if some catcalls come your way, comment wise, you can also laugh along with them at any criticism. Just a by-product of your awesomeness I reckon.
Thanks Jenna for the awesome sauce post 🙂
Ryan
You’re right, Ryan – building trust is such an important aspect of blogging. And, it’s important to keep in mind that you’re not trying to get everyone to like and trust you. Just the select few who get what you’re trying to build and want to be a part of it. Thanks for sharing!
Man you made my day 🙂
I was searching for something like this. I have some sites with good traffic but i didn’t know about how to make money out of them..Now i got the idea..Thanks to you 😀
So glad I could make your day, Hadia! Enjoy implementing 🙂
Thanks Jenna for the best 4 awesome tips that you share. Sometimes passion plays important part to search the niche keyword for blogging. But, we have also concern to the reader… Once again, thank you..
Absolutely, Vinoli. Passion is a huge part. But, like you said, we also need to be paying attention to what our readers actually want to read. You’re welcome!
Hi Jenna,
An awesome post that has lead me to reflect what needs to be changing in my blog. I have never seen awesome leads and I guess the answer lies somewhere in the post as to why it happened. This was a great resource and thanks for the same. I thought it would be selfish to keep it only to me and so I couldn’t help it share across twitter.
So glad you can see how to make some changes to your blog, Swadhin. Thanks for sharing it on Twitter 🙂
I always thought that you could make easy money from a blog, seems that i was wrong. Very nice article, it shaked my idea foundation pretty bad.
Thank you Jenna, as you see, we bloggers always try to make easy money, but it’s not that easy as it seems. You are starting to illuminate me.
Ya. A lot of times it can seem so easy looking from the outside in can’t it, Tracta? Seeing all the successful people who seem to just effortlessly make money? But I’m glad that you were able to get some key takeaways from this that’ll hopefully help you make some changes so you can start making money from your blog. Good luck!
Thank you, a good reminder of filling the needs of the reading and building rapport.
You’re welcome, Angela. Yes – building rapport and paying attention to your readers is huge!
Hey Jenna,
I must commend you on this piece! Yes when it comes to blogging, it’s about making people aware. This is personal branding. Once you catch their attentions, then you can go through these 4 tips.
A lot of us tend to make it more difficult then what it really is! The most powerful ways to make money via your blog are with just the simple things to do to make your audience aware. I figured that once you know who you are and your struggles, and how you overcame them, you start to attract the same people with similar psyches but yet haven’t found the answers to their problems.
Thanks for the share Jenna! You have a great week!
Thank you, Sherman. It’s so true – we really do tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. You have a great week too!
This is a great post it shows some information and best advice I needs for a blog. Thanks and keep on posting.
Thanks, Jennifer. Glad you liked it!
Hello, after reading your article I have had some fantastic ideas so thank you very much. Your article made a lot of sense to me and made certain things a lot more clear to me. Thank you very much for you excellent article.
Glad you got some clarity out of it, William. Thanks for sharing and good luck implementing.
Will do, thank you Jenna
Jenna, thanks for the great tips! Having a blog is a key component to an Internet presence. It’s an asset that is forever yours. I love blogging and you gave some awesome info here of how to monetize it.
Thanks again.
Lisa
You’re so welcome, Lisa. I’m glad you love blogging – I do too 🙂 And you’re right, your blog is a key part of your online presence. It can be a very powerful tool.
Hey Jenna, after reading your article i cant stop my self to say you thanks. I really need to make money from my blogs and your stuff helped me so deeply. I will give it a try and thanks again for this nice sharing
So glad you got some clarity from the post, Jeffrey. Thanks for the thanks 🙂
Great article Jenna. I’ve been researching blog behaviour quite a bit recently and this post is as good as I’ve came across. Thanks for taking the time to post 🙂
Thank you, Barry! That truly means a lot for you to say that. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
can you please write about adsense approval ?
my request was rejected 2 times by google .
Hey Amit. I wouldn’t be the person to give you advice on Adsense because I have no idea what to do with it – never used it. Good luck finding someone who can help 🙂
Hey Jenna,
You nailed it in this post. I specifically want to boost point #2.
Just last week, one of my readers bought Adrienne Smith’s product from a post I wrote on my blog and that buyer sent me a mail to mention she bought it without even reading any further simply because I recommended the product.
Once you are trusted, your community can always listen to you. However, we should not misuse the trust to recommend or try to sell crap ;). That will only destroy the trust.
Thanks Jenna for the wonderful post 😉
So glad that you appreciate the power of people trusting you, Enstine. It takes a lot to build it, but so little to destroy it. You hit the nail on the head – always sell/promote with integrity. Thanks for sharing!
Loved this Jenna.
I couldn’t agree with you more that those who view us need to trust on. We have to be honest and genuine in who we are. My blog took off once I stopped pushing growth for myself and gave 100% to understanding that it was all about the readers and audience. I gave back to them whole heartedly and once I did that, I gained loyal and committed followers. I’m not even sure I believe that fully until I started hearing the very same message in emails, testimonials and comments saying I was real. I truly wanted to help because I could, not because I wanted to make a buck. From there, I relaxed and let everything grow as it should….with honesty and loyalty to those who followed me.
Irish
I love that you were able to grow and make money once you really started to focus on your audience, Irish. I think that’s key – and something so many people miss. I had a similar experience and it was definitely an eye-opening, awesome realization. Thanks for sharing!
Hello Irish
I totally agree with you that the priority needs to be helping other people and giving massive value. That way you build trust and confidence, and then people start to come and see what you are doing because they want to, not because you begged them to. I have just made that mindset change over the last week or so, and I am blogging about it at the moment. Because the best thing to post about and teach to others is what you are learning yourself at this moment lol
Who do you write for — readers or browsers? It is important to know your audience’s reading habits so you can dish out the kind of posts that they’ll enjoy digesting.
Good point, Ailas. I actually believe you should aim to write for both kinds of audiences – the readers and the browsers. It’s easy to do that by writing as you normally would, for the readers. Then, for the browsers, creating some great sub-headlines, bolding or italicizing some major points, and giving a simple 1-2 sentence summary of the main point of your post somewhere in the conclusion.
Thank you, for a good reminder of filling the needs of the reader and building rapport, it makes sense.
You’re welcome, Duane. You’re exactly right – it’s all about the reader and developing that relationship with them.
Hey Ileane, this is my first comment on your blog. I have been eating its contents for two weeks regularly. I got lots of amazing actionable tip here. This post is really a great approach to make money online. By the way, thank you and looking forward to hear from you.
I’m honoured that my post is the first one you commented on, Ashraf, thank you! Enjoy exploring more of Ileane’s blog.
Thank you for the reminder that I need to work on my guest blogging strategy.
You’re welcome, Sylvia!