Building a Successful Blog with Leslie Samuel

In today’s episode, Mark Podolsky, the Land Geek, talks to Leslie Samuel, former university professor and creator of becomeablogger.com and interactive biology blogs. His passion for education has led him on a mission to change the world one blog at a time. With a simple message of creating content, inspiring others, he is changing the world while building a solid online business.

When he started to do research for his biology blogs, he saw that the other biology blogs were boring and made him yawn. He remembers getting his start with 400 people until he was able to build his community to 15,000 to 20,000 people a month. In the last month alone, he was able to get 95,000 to that blog and he hasn’t even touched his blog for years! His blog gave him the chance to teach what he wanted to teach and it eventually landed him a job as a professor.

To build his blog, he says he used a combination of a number of different things. He put his videos on YouTube, the number two search engine in the world and leveraged that platform. He also said he was specific with the way he came up with titles for his videos. He says when people need information, they search and once they find content, if it’s good content, they’ll subscribe and start looking for other videos. Eventually, YouTube is going to see that and start recommending your videos as you’re searching. He also did “Strategic Outreach” where he approached other sites and bloggers in the same niche and formed alliances with them. This created a ripple effect for him. Essentially, blogging is about creating good content, putting it out there, making sure it’s written from a unique angle, and getting the right people exposed to it.

When asked what good content was, Leslie says it depends on your target audience and having an understanding of who you want to reach. It is content that helps a specific person accomplish a specific goal or overcome a specific struggle but does it in a way that resonates with that person.

When identifying your target audience, Leslie suggests that you have to know exactly who you are trying to reach. The narrower that niche is, the better and it is because if you know exactly who your audience is down to a tee and you create content that’s just for them, when the person finds you, they will know that the content you are creating is just for them. Make a list of questions that your target audience may have and start answering those questions by creating your blog post, which may consist of content, videos, or podcasts. Help your target audience accomplish their goals. Knowing and understanding the language they speak is also important.

Leslie also makes sure he has written content. He even has someone transcribe his video so that he could have written content that Google will send a ton of traffic for because it’s indexing the written content. Choosing the medium that resonates with your audience is important.

Monetizing your blog can take the form of affiliate marketing. This entails signing up with a company that has a product or service for sale, featuring the product or service on your website, and getting commissions from those sales. Then eventually, you can start creating your own products such as a course or an ebook.

Getting a person’s email address is difficult but Leslie says that once you have their email address, you can start nurturing that relationship with them. In that relationship, once people get to know you, trust you, and see you as an authority in whatever niche you’re in, they’re more likely to buy from you. Building an email list is one of the most important things to do when building an online business.

Email marketing is not dead, according to Leslie. He still thinks it’s one of the most effective way to drive sales. He says it’s more effective than social media and just about any other that we see out there. This, combined with webinars, are Leslie’s way of promoting his blog. Webinars with a good email follow-up sequence make sales go through the roof.

On getting exposure and traffic, being in all the social media networks may not be the solution. He suggests that you pick one and master it. Choosing one social media network and focusing on it is effective and that is how you can make an impact in the noisy world we live in.

When asked if Mark had the Best Passive Income Model, Leslie said it was the Best Passive Income Model for Mark.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Leslie: Read No Excuses by Brian Tracy. It doesn’t just go through the psychology and all that stuff but it also gives you actionable steps you can take. For me, the book was a game changer.

Mark: Learn more about Leslie and go to becomeablogger.com where he’s creating a ton of value.

Thank you for listening to the Best Passive Income Model podcast. Your support helps me to invite guests who share their knowledge that you can use to grow your business.