For many entrepreneurs, a blog can often become an afterthought on their website. Everyone starts with good intentions, but new posts soon become less frequent, quality declines, and visitors stop returning. This decline is often because the entrepreneur doesn’t really know what they want their blog to be and, subsequently, it has no focus at all. However, if you know how to craft and focus your blog, becoming a leader in your market is almost a certainty. You can become the go-to authority in your industry, leading to new opportunities with your own products and services.
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Be Focused and Targeted
Creating focused, targeted content can be one step towards increasing your authority level. Writing about a vast array of topics can create the impression that you are a jack-of-all-trades without a focal point or direction. It is not necessary to completely limit yourself, but your readers should have a clear idea of your core ideas and areas of expertise. It is difficult to become an authority if your content appears too ill-defined, so try to limit the scope of your blog to make it laser-targeted.
Be Provocative
It won’t be appropriate for every blog owner, but being occasionally provocative can help you become an authority in your market. Choosing a safe and bland route is the easiest approach, but authority figures are usually comfortable in challenging their audience. You won’t please everybody when you have strong opinions, with everything you do being held up to more scrutiny. However, your status as an authority will be achieved far quicker if you are not afraid of ruffling a few feathers.
Be Insightful
The ability to be insightful is core to building a reputation as an authority. In order to show some genuine insights you have to go beyond the usual conversation that is taking place in your market. Take a commonly held viewpoint and deconstruct it, find a talking point and delve deeper, build strong industry relationships and probe them, or seek out some relevant statistics and analyze them. Most blogs will look at issues in a superficial way, so always try to go the extra step for your readers.
Be a Leader
Leadership is a vital component in generating authority for yourself. In every industry there will be a select group of leaders and pioneers, and associating with them can gain you an almost instant level of authority. Collating the views of a number of industry leaders into an article can be a good place to start, and securing an interview with an influential person can help to increase your status. Associating with leaders is a start, but your end goal is to become one of these go-to authorities through the quality of your blog content.
Be Consistent
Many blogs struggle to get an audience because the owner has no consistent point of view. While you definitely do not want to become overly predictable, your readers will want to have a keen sense of your views and philosophies. If you appear too changeable you will find it hard to build a loyal following, making it impossible to become an authority of any standing. Before you even create your blog, think about your views and standing within the marketplace.
Every market is full of people who are desperately trying to be noticed, but most bloggers will remain in general obscurity until they properly build their reputation. The most talented, thoughtful, and knowledgeable people are often ignored because they assume casual readers will eventually recognize their abilities. However, it is the people actively building their reputation as an authority who will gain the most recognition and influence.