So if you didn’t catch lesson 1 of the Starting a Business blog series, you can find it here. Go ahead and take a gander at that… we’ll wait.

Alright, moving on to the next step in the process:  Once we’ve figured out what topics our blog should cover by first looking at what our intended readers want and need, we have to figure out our Unique Value Proposition so we can properly market the blog.

We need to be able to answer the question in every potential readers’ mind: “Why should I pay attention to you and what you have to say on your blog instead of some other person/company?”  Yes, it’s true, our readers are looking out for #1. And it’s our job to convince them that our blog is of value to them.  They want to know what’s in it for them, what they’re getting and how that makes their life better.

“On our blog, we cover the latest news in our industry.” Awesome. Really. But still not a UVP, so try again. That tells the reader what they’ll will find there, and if in your industry, they will surely understand how that would be important.  However, it still doesn’t explain why they should read YOUR blog rather than some OTHER industry news blog.

There are about a bajillion blogs out there. And let’s face it, everybody’s strapped for time. Justifying the time investment (no matter how small) you’d like your readers to make is critical to the success of your blog. This is the unique part of your UVP. What makes you, and therefore your blog, unique?

Once you’ve figured out what makes you and your blog one of a kind, you have to figure out if it’s sales-worthy.   You need readers, enough of them to make it worth your while. A sizeable audience interested in reading your posts is the other key to success.

So to sum up: The 2 keys of a winning UVP:

1. It must be clear about what makes your blog a standout in the crowd.
2. It has to be something people actually want.

If you don’t have a UVP, or your current value prop needs some work, take time to develop this concept.  To help guide your thinking, we’ve provided a few questions you can ask yourself.

• Do you talk about topics as they relate to a particular segment of the population? demographic?  industry?  entity?
• Do you blog about a niche topic?
• Do you have a unique perspective on a common topic?
• What kind of tone do you take in your blog? funny? casual? educational?
• How will readers participate in your blog? will comments be turned on?  will there be a forum? surveys?
• Are you going to track comments and respond frequently to your readers?
• Are you going to let readers and commentators interact with minimal involvement?
• How are you going to interact with other websites and blogs? links to external content?  guest posts?

Good luck with this – let us know if the task was difficult or easy for you in the comments.

Related Articles:

1. Starting A Business Blog – Lesson 1
2. Starting a Business Blog – Lesson 3