1594: The Secret to Building a Popular Blog by Martyn Chamberlin of Goins Writer

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily, The Secret to Building a Popular Blog by Martyn Chamberlin of GoinsWriter.com. What are you trying to accomplish with your blog? I mean, really. Do you want a passionate audience? A growing volume of traffic? More subscribers? Maybe even a steady income flow? Or something else entirely? Writers don't write to get published, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to share what you've written. There's something about good art that demands to be shared.

[00:00:29] An artist paints a picture that cannot be hidden. A musician composes for the concert hall. A writer writes words destined to be read. With blogging, this is possible like never before. I know you've heard this before, but the ability to publish your thoughts for the world to see in an instant did not exist a thousand years ago. It scarcely began two decades ago. Indeed, we find ourselves in a fascinating era of human history. Yet the barriers of entry are so low that practically anybody can be a publisher.

[00:00:58] With millions of writers broadcasting their work to the web, the space becomes saturated. Imagine if the only subscribers were bloggers themselves. In order for the average blogger to have 100 regular readers, the average blogger would have to be subscribed to 100 blogs. I don't know about you, but I can only read about 10 blogs at a time. But I want more than that many blog readers. So, how is this done? How do you build a popular blog that will attract hundreds if not thousands of readers?

[00:01:28] The answer is copywriting. That's four syllables and 11 letters. Copywriting. In short, it means writing to get a response. When you blog, you are seeking a response from your readers. You want them to leave a comment, tweet a link, or like you on Facebook. Maybe you even want them to click a link or buy your ebook. Let me make this clear. Unless your blog is a personal diary for your eyes only, you are seeking a response from people, and you are a copywriter.

[00:01:57] You do not need to be working for an ad agency to be a copywriter. You don't need to be a prestigious CMO or freelancer. If you're a blogger, you're a copywriter. It doesn't matter if you blog about digital marketing or gluten-free homemade bread. It's all the same. You want a response. If you get a response, you've succeeded. But how exactly do you do this? How can you know that your next blog post will spread? If word of mouth is the secret sauce to growing a popular blog, how do you initiate it?

[00:02:25] The internet is full of writers trying to build an audience. Many are failing because they don't understand the basic elements of copywriting. There are no magic bullets. You can't follow a formula and guarantee a bright outcome. Some tend to mimic others without fully understanding how successful copy works. Invariably, they abandon their blogs in disappointment. At best, observing formulas tends to undermine your uniqueness and effectiveness. As David Ogilvie once said, quote,

[00:02:54] Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising. End quote. While you must learn the general principles of copywriting, you will have to apply them to your unique situation. Here are some of the basics. The most important part is the headline. Your headline holds more weight than the rest of your entire article. Copywriters like John Morrow tell us that we should spend more time writing our headline than the rest of our article.

[00:03:19] While this may sound extreme, you should certainly spend more attention on your headlines than you currently are. The rules aren't what you think. Just because you insert the words secret or free in an article's headline doesn't mean it'll go viral. This isn't Mad Libs. You can't borrow headlines from a lifestyle magazine, switch the words around to suit your niche, and expect spectacular results. It's frightening how many otherwise seasoned writers make this blunder. But what makes a great headline?

[00:03:47] There's so much talk about it and yet so much confusion. What's in it for me? Nobody's going to click past the headline if it doesn't offer them something in return. This seems obvious, yet few writers get it. Blogger and copywriter Jeff Sexton says readers will do anything for someone who encourages their dreams, justifies their failures, allays their fears, confirms their suspicions, and helps them throw rocks at their enemies. A good headline promises to deliver one or more of these points.

[00:04:17] The content better be good or else. The greatest headline in the world is an absolute failure if the article fails to match expectations. If the body copy doesn't match the headline, you'll lose your credibility. When I wrote the headline, how a single blog post sent me to San Francisco and launched my art career, I obligated myself to a pretty unusual story. If I dropped the ball and failed to deliver the goods, I would have been a spammy jerk.

[00:04:43] Your headline can only be as epic as your body copy, which means the latter is important. Part of good copywriting involves breaking up the text. The only reason traditional media uses blocks of text is because paper costs money. It's not going to cost you an extra cent to make people scroll a bit more, so break up the text. Use pictures. Use the return key more. Use subheadings. Write no more than three to five sentences per paragraph. There's nothing wrong with one-sentence paragraphs either, like this one.

[00:05:11] Good copywriting spreads. A headline and content that answers, what's in it for me, gets shared. This is the most exciting aspect of blogging. When you're truly teaching, delivering solutions, creating value for others, people thank you for it. They tweet it and like it. Their friends come and read it and subscribe. Your blog grows by itself automatically. If you're trying to make money from your blog, learning copywriting will increase your revenues.

[00:05:40] A reader recently told Copyblogger how he doubled his income by paying closer attention to his headlines alone. There's so much opportunity. There are thousands of subscribers awaiting you. And depending how much time you devote, a lucrative career. You just listened to the post titled, The Secret to Building a Popular Blog, by Martin Chamberlain of GoinsWriter.com.

[00:06:06] And thank you to Jeff Goins for giving us permission to narrate from his blog today. You can come visit his site, which I have linked in this episode's description, as well as at oldpodcast.com. Jeff is a super popular writer, the best-selling author of five books, including The Art of Work and Real Artists Don't Starve. And on his site, you can hear his thoughts on writing, life, and creative work. And because he covers a lot of different topics, you're going to hear him narrated across several of our shows here in the podcast network.

[00:06:34] So if you're looking to share your work, but you're afraid of becoming a starving artist, this site is for you. Lots of great advice there for you. So come check it out at GoinsWriter.com. That's G-O-I-N-S. And thanks again to Jeff for letting us share his work. And that's going to do it for today. I thank you so much for being here and listening all the way through. And I will be back with you tomorrow for the Tuesday show, where your optimal life awaits.