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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.
3
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
4
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.
8
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.
43
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
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