Most bloggers stick to writing posts and hosting discussions in the comment sections of their websites. When exploring new ways to grow their blogs, webinars aren’t usually considered, however these can be extremely beneficial in several ways and fairly simple to execute. Here are few ways bloggers can benefit from making webinars a recurring activity in their promotional calendars.
Establish or solidify your blog as a brand
Branding is about creating and image and perception amongst those who interact with you blog and online persona. If you’re serious about making your blog a business, you should be using every opportunity to promote it on a larger scale as a brand, not just a website. You can use webinar software that allows you to change the interface settings and use your own logo and tagline gives a professional image to your viewer.
Form a bond with and amongst readers
There’s a limit to the connection that can made through reading someone’s words – it’s a powerful start but doesn’t compare to face-to-face interactions and active discussions. Since it would be significantly difficult to meet and chat with each of your readers, a webinar bridges that gap by allowing you to engage in discussions with them. Even better, they get to meet and chat with each other online to form a stronger network that will discuss your blog elsewhere after the webinar.
Build relationships with industry experts and influencers
Many industry experts and influencers are willing to be interviewed or appear on webinars to discuss latest hot topics and share thoughts with networks that are relevant to their area. Webinar hosting gives you a reason to engage them. Even if they are unable to accept your invitation, most will add you to their own networks, which can improve your own standing as an influencer.
Start discussions about your ideas and opinions
If there are radically opposing views or opinions about industry news or hot topics, webinars can be the perfect platform to discuss with peers and get your readers engaged outside of the comments section. During webinars, participants often share details of the discussion on social media and invite their friends to join, unlike with blog posts where viewers typically share a link and leave it there.
A great example of this is when humor and lifestyle blogger, Awesomely Luvvie, teamed up with SanTara of The Gorgeous Ingredient to host a virtual after party for the season 4 Winter Finale of popular TV show Scandal. Luvvie typically live tweets the episodes and shares weekly recaps on her blog, so this was a great way to transform her written words into a discussion and engage fans of the blog while attracting other fans of the show.
Become an authority
If your blog targets a niche, you most likely want to become an authority in that niche. Hosting a webinar requires that you share your knowledge and expertise in this area for 30-60 minutes. You have no time to research or compose the right message, but rather to speak from memory and experience. This won’t be an easy accomplishment for a newbie, hence your audience will see you as an authority in that field or niche. They also begin to connect your name and blog with that of the industry experts appearing in your webinars.
Increase website traffic
The moment you announce a webinar, interested persons will head over to your website to check it out. Many will also share it with their networks, some of whom will also check it out. You can then do a series of blogs leading up to the webinar, and offer a post webinar review. During the webinar itself, you have opportunities to mention relevant blog posts that viewers might find interesting. These are only a few ways you can gain some extra traffic to your website, and we haven’t even spoken about the most important one…
Attract new readers
It’s likely that many of your webinar viewers may be hearing about your blog for the first time. Now that you have a captive audience for an extended period, it’s a great time to give an overview of your blog – the topics discussed, main target and your approach – to get persons interested. In order to keep that audience around you may want to provide a link to add your feed to their favorite reader or subscribe to posts so they stick around.
Promote your own products and services
Your blog doesn’t have to be limited to Google advertising to earn revenue. A huge part of targeting a niche is that you are positioned as an authority – simply by blogging extensively on the subject. This gives you the opportunity to create your own products. A beauty blogger, for example, could create the ‘101 Ways to Save Over $500 While Shopping Online’ e-book guide with coupons and tips on finding deals. Visitors would be willing to pay a few dollars to access this information and the discounts since it saves them a lot more in the long run. Creating a webinar based on saving tips for shopping online would be a great way to promote and sell copies of this e-book.
Earn through affiliates and sponsors
If you’re not as established and you don’t have any products of your own to sell, there are still ways to earn money through webinars. If you have a significant audience in a certain niche or geographical location, you can approach businesses also targeting that group to sponsor your webinar event. You can advertise their information on your sign-up page, include them in pre and post-webinar blogs and offer a 2-3 minute ad slot in the actual webinar.
This is also a prime opportunity to recommend product or tools in your niche that participants might enjoy. Products with affiliate programs often give you a link to share and a discount for those who use your link. ShareASale is a good place to start looking for affiliate products in your niche. Affiliate links also tend to be long and hard to remember so you can use bitly or the Pretty Link WordPress plugin to make them much more user-friendly.
Conclusion
Blogging is a great place to start developing relationships with like minds and persons in your niche but webinars can take it another level. You get to meet and interact with influencers and experts and be seen as an expert yourself. They can increase traffic and readers to your blog and even allow you make some extra income through your own products or affiliates and sponsors.
If your blog is an important part of your life and you are looking to grow and leverage your online presence, it’s definitely time you started to consider using webinars as your next promotional strategy.