Hi everyone. How are all my blog writer friends doing with our 90 posts in 90 days blog challenge? Not as easy as we felt it might be! “Kidding”. I knew this would be a difficult task for anyone. They have lot’s of these types of challenges on Hub Pages Sites. I actually see them promoting the idea to Newbie hub blog writers all the time. I have also read many of the bloggers that have been doing the 100 hubs in 100 days, challenges, getting pretty tired by the end of it all. But never give up or say die, and manage to drag out those last few posts and make it to the end of the blog challenge and their 90 posts in 90 days. The benefit that they get from that many posts, is they become better blog writers, build more traffic to their sites, and eventually earn money blogging. There is one other factor to add to this equation, and that’s the art of telling a story.
Becoming a better blog writer who earns money blogging
In order to become a better blog writer, making regular posts is the quickest and easiest way to be assured of improvement. Becoming a blog writer that earns money blogging, is also a result of being a great blog writer. One important point however, is that there are two types of blog posts that really do best. One, which is a post that is epic in it’s information. The other, is a post that is targeted to earn money, because it reviews a product or a service and has affiliate links on the page. By combining the two, and writing epic content that either, recommends a product or service, or links to another post, which has affiliate links for a product or service, is really the type of post that a blog writer should be aiming at writing, each time they do post. Make certain to try this, at least while your doing the blog challenge.
One of my favorite bloggers, Supermom in NY, put it this way in one of her hub challenge posts (30 hubs in 30 days my strategy to increase earnings ) “Really great informational articles generate traffic. How? Quality content is shared by readers. On the other hand, helpful product hubs increase revenue.”
And all of the top blog writers repeatedly add to the above formula by telling a story
When I say, telling a story, I mean, in all of their posts, including the posts that they write to review a product or service, they will tell a story. The top bloggers realize that people like and remember stories and that stories inspire them to take action. They are a most powerful marketing tool.
When writing informational posts, the top bloggers will tell how the information provided, was acquired by themselves, why it was useful for them, and how they feel it will be useful for their audience. So not only are they writing a story about themselves, they are including into their post, the story of why it will benefit the reader. The reader or customer, always wants to know, what solution or problem of theirs, will be fixed, or improved by using the information, which they have searched for. To keep a reader coming back, requires the reader to form a level of trust with the writer. The easiest way that this is able to be done, is by showing your personality in your posts, and by telling your readers a story.
A story from a top blogger
Well that was easy to find! I just went to my bookmarks to find an example and a link, to one of the top blog writers, and instantly found a story being told.
Meet another of my favorite blogs and blog writers: Anna from Traffic Generation Cafe. In this post, titled, “How to milk commentluv for all it’s worth” Anna is discussing the benefits of using a tool, that she personally uses on her site and attributes for a lot of her success, in the amount of informative and worthwhile conversations that take place. This particular post alone has some 220 comments, and some 326 tweets. Absolute social proof that the product, commentluv, which she is an affiliate for, works. In the post, the opening paragraph describes quickly what the product is used for. In a nutshell, if your not familiar with the product, it’s used for comments, and provides the commenter with the opportunity to provide a link to a recent post, on their own site. Check out the article for yourself. Now, where were we up to? Oh yes, the story. After the introduction, Anna goes on to tell the story,
“When I first started blogging, I was a nobody in the blogosphere; just another wannabe trying to “make it” online.
We all have to start somewhere, right?
I knew that creating loyal readership was what I needed to focus on. Once you have readership, they will be the ones to spread the word about your blog and bring in even more readers.
And one way I did it is by giving my readers every reason to comment on my blog.
I made my blog DoFollow, which it still is, and installed CommentLuv to give my readers even more incentive to engage.”
As you can see a personal story from the blog writer, softens the hard sell, and focus’s on the true value that the product has had on the blog writer. Read any of the top blogs and you will see this continuous pattern being played out over and over again. Not even intentionally I believe. I really think that the blog writers have high opinions of the products that they are selling and by telling you their story, and not being pushy, but explaining all the ways in which the product has helped them, and by which it can help you, makes the whole issue of selling a lot easier and less pushy and sleazy.
Blog Challenge Day 3
Get into telling a story when you write your blog posts. Over the next week, choose a product that you own, that you couldn’t really do without, to write a review on. In the review, make certain to write an epic story and to include affiliate links to the product. Amazon, sells almost everything, so if your wondering who might have an affiliate program for the product your looking to review, you could start there. One other quick point, if you start with a product that is quite inexpensive, and are able to sell a few, your affiliate commission will quickly rise from, around 4% to 6%, which will benefit you down the track during our challenge and benefit you overall with your affiliate sales.
Blog Challenge Story of “Caines Cardboard Arcade”
Here’s a story for you that I promise will put a big smile on your face. About a little boy named Caine, who opened his own cardboard arcade game, shop, in his dad’s car parts store. As you can imagine, business was very slow, for a long time, but as I have mentioned to you before, the universe has a wonderful way of rewarding those who dare to dream, and who have a burning desire to succeed.
“Link text: Caines Arcade on Vimeo
So do you think it’s important to tell a story in your blog posts? Do you already? If you know anyone who you think would enjoy our blog challenge, “Blogging while Angels Sleep, why not tell them about. It’s also helpful to share our challenge with your friends on Twitter.
As always thanks for reading,
(link to book on amazon) I can’t think of a better way to read it, than listening to it. I absolutely love the examples and stories of hope and faith and desire and to really believe and achieve and never give up. If you don’t own a copy of this book, buy an audio copy, and listen to it when your diving or in the bath, or my favorite, while 
