The only secret you need to know to build a successful blog

The most important work you want to do on your blog happens before you create the blog. You need to know your audience. Otherwise, you only shoot arrows in the dark ... You have no hope of reaching your goal. So what's the secret you need to know?

I have been blogging for ten years. Until 2005, blogs were considered a strange concern for nerd types. Then the companies realized: a blog was a powerful business tool.

Once he realized that the bloggers were spreading and it was no longer enough to have a blog, he had to aim strongly at his blog to attract a specific audience. If he did not, he received little traffic. Other defined blogs stole their traffic.

Therefore, it is the secret you need to know to build a successful blog.

In short: Know your audience and establish a good relationship.

Let's see how this works when you want to create a new blog.

You want to create a new blog for your business: a gym. Decide to aim for "health". STOP! It's too amorphous. Enter the search phrase "health" in Google and you will come across two billion pages that refer to health blogs in one way or another.

It can be a lot more competition than you want.

However, if you are sure you want to solve the health problem, you can. Just focus a little more. A laser is much more powerful than a flashlight.

You can point to:

* "Health" in your local area (your city). This gives you excellent access to Google because Google Places allows you to claim your local business listing and this provides instant traffic to your site and blog; or

* Sports health if the clientele at your gym consists mainly of people who practice different sports. (Or any other topic relevant to your gym membership).

Always think locally when it comes to business blogs, because local relevance is the direction the web is targeting.

But what if you are a person rather than a company?

The same rules apply. Think locally and think about targeted traffic.

Imagine working in a medical field and wanting to create a "health" blog because you feel you have a lot of valuable information to share.

Enter "health + _________ (your city)" in the Google search box. What is the competition?

Whether your competition is huge or minimal, you still have to aim more. What about preventive health for pregnant women? Or people who are under stress?

I hope I've given you something to think about. Remember, the secret to building a successful blog is meeting your audience, writing for them, and building a good relationship over time.