Audience Building

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© 2015 Mirasee. All Rights Reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole

or in part, without written permission from Mirasee.

It's easy to get permission. Just email

support@mirasee.com.

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What’s Inside? Introduction 4

Why Most Bloggers Fail... and Why You CAN

(and Will!) Succeed 7

Why Bloggers Absolutely NEED an Audience 14

What Does a Blogger’s Audience Look Like? 18

So, How Do You Build an Audience of Fans? 24

Enjoy these Resources 43

Further Reading to Help You Grow Your Audience 44

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Introduction

You’re special. You have a passion, a message to

deliver, something new and interesting to offer the

world.

Whether you’re into art, design,

literature, business, food or faith,

you have a unique viewpoint.

You know you’re good at what you

do but, unfortunately, that isn’t

enough to build a successful blog.

You may just be getting a handle on business,

marketing and audience building. You know they’re

essential for you to turn your blog from a fun hobby

into a profitable business. Getting more readers and

building new relationships will help you make money

and live the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.

We can help.

We created this free report especially for Bloggers. You

know you have something important to say, but

sometimes it feels like no one’s paying attention –

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certainly not the people who want or even need your

expertise! They are out there, but as a Blogger with

bills to pay, getting through to them can be one hell of

a challenge.

It’s fun to dream of overnight success (you know, the

kind of success that make-money-blogging blogs talk

about). But the truth is, it takes time to get the word

out and create an audience for your blog.

Most Bloggers don’t get discovered or find magical

sources of loyal readers who love sharing their content.

Bloggers who don’t take matters into their own hands

wind up with no readers, dampened enthusiasm, and

sometimes a crisis of confidence.

When you take into account just how many blogs exist

(well over 200 million), carving out your own spot in

the market feels overwhelming.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

You CAN build an audience of interested people who

respect what you do.

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You CAN get feedback from people about what they

want to pay for, even before you create a product or

become an affiliate.

You CAN have people approaching you asking if you

will work for them.

You CAN make a living from your blog, on your own

terms.

But it takes a shift in focus and a few tips, tools, and

strategies. Are you ready to take your blog to the next

level? Let’s go!

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Why Most Bloggers Fail... and Why You CAN (and Will!)

Succeed

The rules have changed. There’s a new way to

make a name for yourself, and it a proven

way to achieve success.

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Can you guess the most common complaint we hear

from Bloggers?

“I write and I write and I write for my

blog – top quality stuff! – but no one

reads, comments or shares!”

This is a common problem.

As a Blogger, you know you provide value and solve

problems for people and businesses. You know

somebody out there gets you and what you offer. That’s

why you write, tweet, go to conferences, pin, email

your friends, and do everything you’re supposed to do

to build a thriving online community.

But it’s not working.

A few people stop by your blog, but not enough. For all

the work you put into blogging, it hardly seems worth

the time!

This is happening because you’re blogging the old-

fashioned way, by building it and hoping the readers

will come.

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You’re trying to fit into an old mold, one that doesn’t

take into account the many changes since the rules

were first made.

Rules like:

You create tons of high quality blog posts.

You anticipate what people need from you and

create something that will help them.

You keep on top of social media trends.

You do SEO, helping Google and other search

engines index and deliver your posts to web

searchers.

But it’s not going the way you want it

to or the way it should. The problem is,

you’re building a house with no

foundation and providing information

and ideas with no proof that anyone

cares!

Wouldn’t it be better to have people

waiting for your next blog post, approaching you for

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advice, and asking if you could help them do the same

(and being thrilled with your high price tag!)?

Wouldn’t you rather speak from a position of authority,

with hordes of people backing you up when you say,

“I know what I’m talking about”?

I thought so.

So you need to make a real change, not just in the

actions you take but also in how you think about your

whole business. Because you are running a real

business. You decide how you want to position yourself

and your community.

You can build an audience.

It’s not going to be easy, quite the opposite! It’s going

to be a lot of hard work, but it’s work that, if done the

right way and in the right order, can transform you

from the chaser to the chased, from the seeker to the

sought-after, from a nobody to an authority.

Here’s what you need to know that your fellow

Bloggers probably don’t:

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What you know and blog about and what interests

people might be different.

What people need and what they think they need

can be different.

You’ll never know whether your audience wants

something you can’t provide or even knows what

they need, until you have a relationship with

them.

People might be interested in your viewpoint and

expertise but are overwhelmed with options and

often don’t know you exist.

Other Bloggers and other sources of information,

businesses, social media platforms, journalists

(and even celebrities) don’t have to be your

competition. They can help you!

You’ll probably never make a full-time income

from advertising.

It takes lots of preparation, research, and trial and

error before you can start making sales and

monetizing your blog, but it is doable.

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Don’t let all this overwhelm you. You don’t need to

learn everything today, but you’ve got to understand

this: without an audience, you’ll be chasing low-value

readers and struggling to make a name and a living for

yourself for a long time, like most struggling Bloggers

out there.

Which brings us back to what most other Bloggers get

wrong.

It isn’t that they aren’t good at what they do and don’t

want to learn new things to effectively market

themselves.

It’s that they play by the old rules, building a

traditional blog the way it was done five or even 10

years ago, when what they need is an audience-based

blog.

Talent and skill simply aren’t enough to

attract your best customers.

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The key difference between successful and

unsuccessful Bloggers is that successful Bloggers have

audiences and unsuccessful ones don’t.

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Why Bloggers Absolutely NEED an Audience

Learn the real value of an engaged, loyal

audience… and how it helps you turn your

talent into a real business.

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Let’s start with the bad news.

No matter how dedicated you are, you’re unlikely to be

able to reach every potential reader on the many online

spaces, forums, communities, magazines, social media

platforms, networking groups and publications.

And when you run a traditional blog and chase after the

readers who will hopefully click on your ads, the

burden of proof is all on you. An audience takes a lot of

that off your shoulders. They help you spread the word

about your blog and act as living testimonials to your

quality.

Without an audience, your pool of contacts, online and

offline reach, sources for traffic, and ideas for new

content are limited to what you can do or buy.

You’ll constantly play catch up and maybe never see

the results you want, whether those results are

financial or related to your lifestyle.

That won’t do.

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So hopefully, you’re coming around to the idea that

building your blog without an audience will not create a

profitable and sustainable business.

Knowing that, you cannot afford to miss out on an

audience that will help you:

Share your content across the Internet

Validate that your ideas are good

Improve on your style and tone

Share your message to hundreds and thousands

more people than you could by yourself

Connect you with leaders in your space

Tell you exactly what they want to buy, when, and

how

An engaged audience is a group of people who like you

so much, they’ve chosen to become your readers,

An audience is genuinely interested

in you, and what you have to offer.

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customers, colleagues, and even friends. They will

support you as you move forward, comfort you when

you fall, and help you build your business into

something great.

Are you ready to start building yours?

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What Does a Blogger’s Audience Look Like?

Building your audience doesn’t

need to be overwhelming,

especially when you know how to

do it.

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By now, you’re probably wondering what a Blogger’s

audience might look like. After all, it’s unlikely you can

assemble all of the people interested in your topic in

one place and keep them there until they share your

latest post.

An engaged audience works differently.

The significant difference between a Blogger’s audience

and everyone else’s is the nature of the relationship.

Your audience will probably never be huge enough for

you to generate a full-time income from advertising,

but you can make money dozens of other ways. And

they require diversity in the composition of your

readers.

Your ideal audience will engage with you about your

passion, prove you know what you’re talking about,

and possibly become customers in a way you never

expected.

This means you have a wonderful amount of freedom

in what your audience will look like and who it will be

composed of.

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Keep this in mind as you read this report and start

building your own audience:

Relationships can be valuable even if they’re non-

transactional.

The more people paying attention to you, the

more authority you command in your niche.

You may be leaving a lot of money on the table if

you refuse to consider new options as they present

themselves.

An engaged audience will bend over backwards to help

you build the kind of online community you want, but

you have to put in the time first.

If you attract people by giving away valuable

information, they will repay you by singing your praise,

commenting and sharing your posts.

A Blogger’s audience is composed of:

An engaged audience wants you to succeed—

but only if you’ve put in the time first.

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Individuals who are interested in your passion

Random browsers

Other Bloggers in the same, related, or totally

different spaces

Each of them is valuable in their own way and brings

different qualities to your community. The more

viewpoints you can draw upon, the more insightful

your writing and, eventually, your offers will be.

YOU make the difference. You gather people togetherfor

a common purpose and guide the community towards

success – for themselves as much as yourself. Because of

that, and because your audience gives you the precious

gifts of their time and attention, you should be prepared

to give a lot of yourself to help them.

Having engaged readers and

community members who are

interested not just in what you do

but in YOU yourself is a priceless

resource.

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If you can gather together people with different needs

and interests under the banner of your passion, then

your blog posts will get shared far and wide and

generate many great conversations, ideas and attention.

As your community grows, you will be seen as an

authoritative source of information, and people will ask

you about your area of interest. This will help you gain

traction in a crowded world and get the attention of

huge industry leaders and other media. It can even lead

to invitations to speak and teach around the world.

Your audience will suggest topics, challenge your

assumptions, and treat you like a mentor. You will see

the impact you have, not just on existing readers but

also on a growing, constantly evolving group.

Your audience will teach you things, too! If you’ve

connected with people who are colleagues as well as

As a Blogger, your greatest asset is an

engaged community that’s interested not

only in what you do but in YOU yourself.

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audience members, you’ll be able to share tips and

advice and even refer traffic and business to one

another.

Lastly, your audience will buy things or introduce you

to other potential buyers. Whether you offer an affiliate

product or one you’ve created yourself, if you’ve

invested the time in making real relationships, you will

reap the rewards in monetary terms.

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So, How Do You Build an Audience of Fans?

It starts with finding the link between

your areas of expertise and your

audience’s areas of interest. But that’s

only the beginning…

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Consider why you started Blogging in the first place. It

could have been:

An interest or passion

A need for flexibility and freedom

The desire to shake things up in the world

It could have been all three, or something else entirely.

Whatever the reason you chose to do it, you started

blogging because you had something important to say.

Whether you write about lifestyle, career, technology,

education, spirituality or economics, you are worth

listening to.

Being able to dig deep into a topic and continuously

provide fresh information and insight means you can

solve a problem for someone. And if you can solve a

problem, you have a wealth of ways to talk about it and

share what you know.

So you need to start finding the links between topics

you’re an expert in and things people want to learn

more about. This is the bridge between you and your

audience.

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The basic steps are:

1. people there.

Let’s go into each step in more detail.

How to Build an Audience of Raving Fans

1. Identify who you want to serve and what you want to provide.

2. Provide one unique and irresistible bit of insight or delight.

3. Create that content, and put it on a landing page, connected to an auto-responder that has a series of engagement emails that will be delivered at intervals.

4. Start connecting with people on blogs, social media, and other online spaces they inhabit.

5. Contribute to communities by guest posting on blogs your ideal customers read.

6. Once you reach “critical mass” (at least 1,000 people) on your email list, launch or re-launch your blog and continue to engage people there.

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1. Who You Serveand What You Provide

First things first: know what you offer and who will

find it most useful. This means identifying (in much

more detail than you’d expect) your one single ideal

reader (customer). Who is that one reader you wish all

of your audience could be exactly like?

Think about things like their age, family situation and

income, and then delve into their hopes, fears,

opinions and dreams.

Start by identifying

your one single

ideal customer.

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Think about things like their age, family situation and

income, and then delve into their hopes, fears,

opinions and dreams.

Once you have a clear idea of who you will be working

with, think about your blog:

What element of it is the most

important to your future customer?

What do they care about the most?

What causes them the greatest pain or

difficulty?

This will tell you how you need to talk to your readers

so you clearly communicate the benefits they’ll get

when they engage with you.

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Write down your answers to the questions about who

you serve and what you provide, and post them near

your computer so you remember who you’re blogging

for.

2. Solve ONE Problem

Next, think of one specific problem your readers have,

one you can solve quickly and thoroughly with a single

piece of content. Remember in the previous step where

we talked about benefits in relation to your readers?

That’s where your analysis begins.

Pick one problem you can solve. If you succeed, you

will forever be regarded as a hero in the minds of your

subscribers!

We call this problem-solving piece of content a First

Impression Incentive, and it is one of the first steps to

building the thriving, income-producing business you

want.

You may be tempted to go after a big, intricate

problem. After all, you have so much insight into your

readers and your topic that it seems natural and easy to

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help them solve major issues. Save that for your paid

products and services.

With your First impression Incentive, you want to

prove your credibility. You do that most easily by

solving a smaller but bothersome issue you know your

readers have.

Some examples might be:

Rule of thumb: Keep it simple, applicable, and valuable.

These examples will appeal to more people than just

your ideal reader, and that’s good. While you’re aiming

First Impression Incentives Suitable for Bloggers

5 reasons your website visitors don’t convert

7 ways to tell when someone is lying to you

The poisons you didn’t know were in your bathroom

Why art history is an important topic for every undergrad

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to have a steady stream of engaged, sharing, supportive

readers, attracting a wider audience is valuable as well.

3. Crafting the Incentive

Once you’ve decided what annoying and persistent

issue you’re going to help your new audience members

with, you have to figure out the best way to present the

information.

You can make an eBook, a free report, a video, an audio

recording –whatever you think will best help people

absorb and use the information you’re giving them.

If you’re not sure which format to use, keep this in

mind: use the minimum richness to get the job done.

So if you need a video to demonstrate a technique, then

make a video, but if a description would be as good,

then write a report or an eBook. You don’t want to

Always use the “minimum

richness” to achieve the best

possible outcome.

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invest more of your time or resources than necessary,

because you’ve got plenty of other things to worry

about!

Like making the content available.

You’ll do this through a landing page and an email

autoresponder.

A landing page is a page on your website that presents

your incentive, plus a form for entering their name and

email to access it. It’s very simple, since anything else

would be a distraction.

You want readers to sign up for your First Impression

Incentive and, at the same time, give their permission

for you to contact them in the future, which is where

your Engagement Sequence comes in.

The Engagement Sequence is a series of emails that

does a few things:

It gets people in the habit of opening

your valuable messages.

It encourages your subscribers to

respond to you.

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It shows that you’re interested in whether or not

the incentive is working for them.

It show’s you’re a real person, not just a computer

program.

Set up your engagement emails to deliver in the days

and weeks after people subscribe. In these emails, you

can ask them if the information you’ve shared is

working, send other resources, and ask for their

opinions.

You manage all this with an email service provider like

AWeber, which allows you to create opt-in boxes and

schedule your emails in advance. Landing pages can be

tricky, but many free and premium WordPress plugins

that work right out of the box, and don’t take much

time to get the hang of.

It’s extremely important for Bloggers to get people

onto a mailing list! It should be your top priority,

before you write your first post, before you think about

making money with your blog.

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4. Finding Your Tribe

Once you’ve got your landing page set up, your First

Impression Incentive created, and your Engagement

Sequence ready to go, you’ve got to start finding and

connecting with the people you identified as your

perfect readers.

Go back to the research you did when you were

identifying them, and try to step into their shoes.

If you were them, what other blogs would you read?

What magazines? What forums? Where would you look

for answers to your problems or information about this

topic? Make as long a list as possible and start joining

conversations in those spaces.

If your ideal customer religiously follows

entertainment blogs, for example, start reading

them too, and leave interesting, insightful

comments on as many posts as possible.

Do this for a while, and you will start to see

subscribers trickling in.

Do you see why the first step is so important now?

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This part of building an audience is long and

sometimes feels like absolute drudgery, but you’re

building a strong foundation for everything that comes

after.

The readers of these blogs and communities aren’t the

only ones who’ll notice your comments. The owners

will notice, too, which is critical to your next step....

5. Contributing to Communities

Once you’ve established yourself through commenting

(when you have 100 to 300 subscribers), you’ll need to

step up your game, and start leading the conversations

on these other blogs, not just participating in them.

You do this by guest posting.

Remember, the owners of those other blogs will be

reading your comments. That’s important because

Your audience is the foundation for

everything else you do to build your

business.

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when you go to pitch them a guest post, you’ll be able

to say, “I’ve been happily commenting on your

articles...” and they will know it’s true. This puts you

miles ahead of other Bloggers who haven’t done the

preliminary work.

Let’s step back for a moment.

What Is a Guest Post?

Guest posting is when a blogger lets a guest author

write a post for their blog. It’s an amazing way to get

attention and build relationships with both readers and

bloggers who will help promote your work down the

line.

If you’re not sure you have anything to write for other

blogs, look for the intersections.

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Say you blog about environmental issues, and your

ideal reader is a mom of four who reads lifestyle blogs.

A possible intersection between those two ideas would

be “The 12 Easiest Ways to Reduce Your Carbon

Footprint in the Cosmetics Aisle.”

If you’re a current-events Blogger whose ideal clients

hang out on university sites, you might want to write

about “Why You Should be Terrified of X Politician.”

Remember, your main goal is to impress your future

readers so they follow your byline back to your landing

page! You’ll ideally do all of this before you actually

start a blog. In fact, until you have close to a thousand

people on your list, we don’t recommend blogging

much on your own site at all.

Your goal as a guest blogger is to

impress your future readers so

they follow your byline back to

your landing page.

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If you already have a functioning blog, however, it can

still work for you. Make sure to create a landing page

and spend more of your energy guest posting and

building relationships than you do posting in your own

space. Until you have 1,000 subscribers, limit posts to

your own site to about 2-4 a month.

6. Finally, You Can Launch

Did you think you would never get to launch (or re-

launch) your blog? Not at all. We just wanted to make

sure your launch is a successful one.

Waiting until you have around a thousand subscribers

before you launch (not to mention healthy relationships

with other Bloggers) is crucial. That way, when you

officially open your doors, you’ll have a crowd of people

For best success, wait until you

have around 1,000 subscribers

before you launch.

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waiting to celebrate with you, share the news, and

spread your message.

To launch, pick a date at least a couple of months in

the future and reach out to all the Bloggers you’ve been

in contact with. Ask them for another chance to guest

post during your launch week. Most of them will say

yes, and running several guest posts in one week will

bring plenty of site traffic.

And that’s the basic formula for building an audience

and getting your online business going.

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Let’s recap, because we’ve covered a lot, and this stuff

is vital:

What happens after you launch your blog?

The 6-Step Formula for Building Your Audience Business

1. Identify who you want to serve and what you want to provide.

2. Provide one unique and irresistible bit of insight or delight in the form of a First Impression Incentive.

3. Create that content, put it on a landing page, and connect it to an autoresponder that has a series of engagement emails that will be delivered at intervals.

4. Start connecting with people on blogs and other online spaces your target audience inhabits.

5. Contribute to communities by guest posting on blogs your ideal customers read.

6. Once you reach “critical mass” (at least 1,000 people) on your email list, launch or re-launch your blog and continue to engage people there.

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You continue your community-building efforts and

start offering your products and services to your

audience.

Remember, up until this point, you’ve been giving,

giving, giving, and asking for fairly small things in

return, like comments and social shares. Now it’s time

to think about offering something a little bigger in

scale, namely, something they can buy.

If you’re new to selling on your blog, you’ll want to

start with a small offer: something inexpensive, high

value, and possibly created by someone else. Make it

special, make it exclusive, and make it an almost

irresistible offer by including bonuses you created.

You have two goals for this offer:

1. To get a few people to pay you for something to

get the ball rolling

2. To get glowing testimonials you can use for

higher-end offers and your own

products/services.

If your blog is already established, then it’s time to

start testing out higher value offers with joint venture

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partners, using all you’ve learned about your ideal

clients’ wants and needs to make the sale.

This is just the beginning. There are many more details

to creating a thriving audience business – but these are

the basics.

If these ideas appeal to you, look into the Audience

Business Masterclass – where we take you through this

process step by step, with all the detailed, customized

support your blogging heart could desire.

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Enjoy these Resources

Engagement from

Scratch!

The Audience

Revolution

Teach and

Grow Rich

44

Further Reading to Help You Grow Your Audience

Creativity: The Essential Discipline for Entrepreneurs

I used Instagram for Business and Doubled my Sales in

One Month

3 Reasons to Use Pop-Up Retail: Curiosity, Cost Cuts

and Carving a Niche

Blogging 101: The Most Advanced Blogging Technique

You Can Master