8 Tips from Jeff Bullas on How to Grow Your Digital Business

When the MD of Bruce Clay Australia, Sid Lal, interviewed the social media influencer, Jeff Bullas, on the sidelines of DigiMarCon 2022 here in Sydney, the conversation was bound to be interesting.?

In an interview that had a lot of takeaways for digital entrepreneurs, Bullas described how he started a blog from scratch in 2009, and the strategies he used to grow his digital business.?

More importantly, he explained what it takes to build a digital business in an era when search engines like Google and social media platforms like Facebook have changed their algorithms, which has made it far more difficult for entrepreneurs to build their online business in an organic way than earlier.

So, here are the top eight tips from Jeff Bullas on how to grow your digital business.

1. Find your niche – Or as Bullas said, ‘Discover why you are on the planet’. You’ve got to find your niche before you start your digital business. You need to know what you are good at. To make it more specific, you need to figure out what you are good at doing on a regular basis. Before Bullas became a digital sensation, he got up at 4:30 AM every day for four years to write, publish, and promote his blog. You can show such levels of dedication and persistence only when you are passionate about your niche.
2. Create content that solves people’s problems – Once you’ve identified your niche, the next step that Bullas recommends is to build content in such a manner that solves people’s problems. As a digital entrepreneur, you want people to visit your digital properties and become subscribers. They will do that only if they notice that you’re offering a solution to their problems.?
3. Build distribution – Once you start your journey of creating awesome content you've got to find a way to distribute it. After all, there’s no point in creating content if you can’t distribute it well. Here, Bullas shared that when he started using Twitter and Facebook for distribution (around 2009), social media was organic. This was before such platforms started changing algorithms. However, now, if you want to use these social media platforms to distribute your content, you’ve got to pay for it.?

One way around this is to find new channels that still give you organic distribution such as Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok etc. While distribution on digital platforms is more challenging now than it was a decade earlier; however, with persistence and great content, you can still build your audience.?

4. Test your content – This is a crucial step because this is where you will test whether your product/service and its distribution model are working or not. Until now, your blog/website was in a pilot stage, but now it’s going to take off. Analyse and figure out what’s working for you and what’s not.

5. How To Monetise? – After you’re done testing your content, the next step is to figure out how to monetise it. His own revenue streams include influencer work, sponsored content, affiliate commission, speaking gigs, Google Ad Sense revenue & now he is creating premium content around side hustles.?

6. Once you gain traction, amplify your content – Once you start getting a certain number of followers or potential customers to your digital business, you've got to find ways to amplify your content. In other words, you've got to ensure that it reaches out to as many people as possible. Bullas said digital entrepreneurs have to repackage or repurpose their content relentlessly. For example, if you as a digital marketer have done a podcast, then you need to figure out how to use that podcast to create multiple pieces of content. You can write an extended blog on it, create short videos and small pieces of content with top tips, etc.

7. If you want to build your brand online, you’ve got to be everywhere – brands can only become successful online by being relentless and persistent. Bullas said, ‘You’ve got to be everywhere, be ubiquitous.’ Create content and publish it everywhere: Social Media, Website - Organic Search, Podcasts, YouTube Videos.

8. See your digital business as a marathon, not a sprint – Often, people start creating content with a lot of excitement, but their enthusiasm lasts for only 3-4 months. Once the initial excitement wears off, they put an end to their digital activity. This is why Bullas said, ‘You’ve got to see it as a long game, like a marathon’. There’s a lot to learn from Bullas’s own story. When he started writing blogs way back in 2009, he had zero traction and zero experience in doing it. But he went on to write and promote his content for four years with total dedication and commitment, and in the end, he was immensely successful.

Loved the read? Now watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9rKi8ph-S8?

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