The fourth film in the Jurassic Park series was released the summer of 2015, 22 years after the first movie, Jurassic Park, was released. Movie goers had long awaited a reprisal of the series and flocked to the theaters. As of the end of the June, the newest movie in the franchise had already grossed nearly $507 million in North America alone and had a worldwide total of well over a billion dollars.
The overall concept of the movie is a theme park where dinosaurs come to life. Of course, everything possible goes wrong, as it will when you mess with mother nature. If you haven’t yet seen the movie, not only should you see it, but you can learn a lot about how to manage (and not manage) your blog from this film.
Jurassic World and Blogs
When I was first asked to write this article, I couldn’t imagine what this movie and running a blog might have in common. However, I love the movie and I love running blogs, so I figured there must be a way to mesh the two. Surprisingly, I found several things in Jurassic World (I won’t admit how many times I’ve already seen this movie, but I might be solely responsible for a big chunk of those box office sales) that can be applied to running a blog.
Dream Big
In the movie, the scientists strive to do the impossible. First, they take dinosaur DNA and splice it together with amphibian DNA to clone dinosaurs. However, they don’t just stop there. They then begin to make bigger dinosaurs. They create a brand new species altogether. They push science to its limits.
Your Blog
When it comes to your blog, you too should dream big. Don’t just be satisfied with repeating the same information every other website like yours puts out there. Instead, look at things from a fresh perspective. Splice together different ideas.
Any time I’ve taken a look at a trending topic and related it to my personal blog, I’ve seen a spike in website traffic. While these items can become dated, if you’re also creating evergreen content at the same time, adding a trending topic post can be a smart move. For example, I recently wrote 5 Reasons Why a Sim City Player Could Be Your Next Social Media Manager, which meshes the topic of Sim City with blogging.
Also, don’t be afraid to dream big about monetizing your blog. Yes, it may take time, but as Jerry Low proved in his article titled How to Make Money Blogging: Research Tips, Niche Ideas + 10 Actionable Traffic Strategies, there are bloggers making six figures. Start small, but keep a big end goal in mind.
Don’t Mess with Natural Order
“Jurassic World poster” by Source (WP:NFCC#4). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia
In Jurassic World, the scientist in charge of creating the dinosaurs is pushed to create bigger and better dinos. Of course, there’s a lot more to the plot than that, but I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t yet seen the movie. In an effort to invent something that will draw crowds, he combines several deadly dinosaurs into one mega monster called Indominus rex. What could possibly go wrong?
Your Blog
What you can learn from the movie is that there is a natural order to things. For example, if you go to other blogger’s sites and start posting that people should come visit your site, you are not going to get a very positive reception.
Instead, remember that there is a process for interacting with other bloggers. You shouldn’t comment unless you have something of value to add to the conversation and you shouldn’t ask people to come to your site. Instead, include a link if the blog owner allows and let your comment speak for itself about your knowledge.
Gina Baladaty has some useful tips on how to market within your niche in her article series on starting a mom blog.
Trust Is Important
In the latest Jurassic series film, one of the main characters , Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), is a Velociraptor trainer. He has worked with the creatures and they trust him and see him as their leader, or alpha.
Later in the film, this will become a vital plot point that decides whether or not Grady survives the inevitable theme park meltdown that occurs.
Your Blog
If you want your blog to become successful, you must develop a relationship with your readers. They need to know they can trust you to deliver content on time and on specific topics.
In addition, you should back up what you have to say with credible, verifiable sources. For example, I didn’t just state that Jurassic World has grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, but linked to the source where I found that information. This invites the reader to double check your information. As she finds that you are linking to credible sources, she will begin to trust what you have to say.
If you’re asking your readers to sign up for an email list, you also need to gain the readers’ trust that you aren’t going to sell that information or use it to spam them. Guard your mailing list carefully and only send those who sign up what they agreed to receive.
You can also set yourself up as an authority in your niche. This will prove to readers that you know what you’re talking about. In my article Why You Should Offer Free Training Sessions to Set Yourself Up as an Authority, I talk about using some training sessions to establish authority. These types of events, posting on other blogs and having a social media presence can help you gain reader trust.
Market Smart Not Hard
In the movie, the park’s operation manager, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), knows that to draw new visitors she needs to have something to offer them.
Claire knows that it is important how people see her brand. She doesn’t want any visitors to know about any problems the park might have on the backend of the operations model. She worries about what the media will say if word gets out about negative aspects of the park. She also understands that adding something new, people will come to see what she has to offer.
Your Blog
The same advice can be applied to marketing your blog. Instead of spending countless hours tracking down new leads, let them come to you by creating content that people will want to share on social media and by asking your regular readers to share what you write.
Utilize options like IFTTT to automate some of your marketing, freeing up your time to create bigger and better blog posts.
Learn from the World Around You
The longer you blog, the more you’ll realize you can learn a lot about how to blog and market your site by observing the world around you. Learn what people like, share your unique experiencing and always be open to something new.
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