This is a guest contribution from Michaela Clark.
It’s the one thing most bloggers avoid talking about the most. A shameful, hidden secret we keep from each other.
It’s the old way of defining a ‘successful blog’– your website traffic numbers.
I’m here to combat the stigma of low readership and show you how having the right kind of targeted consumers of your content is the best thing you can do for your blog and how you can still make money blogging no matter what your audience size.
So here goes.
I’m Michaela. I write a blog for trades and building contractors. I have less than a 1000 visitors a month and I still make money from blogging.
I am proud of every single one of the readers that I get and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I work hard to inspire and connect with each and every one. How amazing is it that a few hundred people a month actually want to read and listen to what I have to say? I wished my husband was as keen to hear what I have to say as some of my readers are.
So stop worrying about volume and look at how you are making a difference – even if it’s just one person you have an effect on. Isn’t that worth it? That you can change one person’s life for the better with your words?
Without massive readership, how do I make money from my blog?
Well it’s actually really easy. It’s all in the power of super niching.
A blog about cooking is a niche. A blog about cooking with tomatoes is a super niche.
The world will open up once you build authority in a clearly defined super niche.
How it all started:
Just over 12 months ago I went looking for online influencers to connect with to help promote my virtual assistant support business for trade contractors.
Sure there were lots of blogs about small business but I couldn’t find anyone that had built a following online around business advice for small, trade business owners.
Spotting a ‘first to market’ opportunity, I decided to become the online influencer I had been searching for.
My first concern was that if no one else was doing it then it simply mustn’t work. Even my mother said, “Surely there are people smarter than you that would have thought of this before now?” Geez mum, thanks for your vote of support there.
However with over 400,000 tradespeople in Australia alone, I knew there was an influencer gap there somewhere, just screaming to come out.
Straight away things began to change once I focused on delivering highly relevant and regular content to this area of the market. I began to blog more and started to produce a bi-weekly business podcast just for trade contractors called the Tradies Business Show.
In less than 12 months and with only a handful of readers, I now have over 10 different revenue streams that are all a direct result of the content I am producing.
This additional revenue has been gained through sponsored posts, event sponsorships, podcast sponsorship, affiliate deals, a membership site, product integrations, speaking and consulting. This is all in addition to the core VA services my business offers.
The key point I quickly realised was that potential partners and sponsors weren’t too concerned with my seemingly ‘low’ traffic numbers but rather the opportunity I gave them to speak directly to a highly relevant and engaged section of their target market.
Relevancy to the readers, not quantity of visitors, has become the new measurement of a successful blog.
Being relevant cuts through the noise, makes connecting easier and builds authority quicker.
Once you have authority you can achieve just about anything.
The power in super niching lies in the fact that it makes you relevant to those readers that matter– the ones that need your help the most.
It’s not about how many readers, but the right reader, that will make you money.
Recently I had someone ring me after reading my blog and watching some dodgy old videos of me on YouTube I had forgotten about.
I soon discovered this reader was actually the founder of a national company that has one of the biggest databases of trade contractors in the country. He rang to pitch me on how we could possibly partner together.
That one reader alone could potentially be worth millions to my business.
That only happened because of the niche content I was producing online.
Super niching will help you to attract the right reader and that is where the magic (and money) happens.
Do you have a super niche blog that you make money from?
Michaela Clark is the founder of Tradies VA, co-host of the Tradies Business Show podcast, and Event Director of Podcast Revolution happening on the Gold Coast Nov 2015.
