This is a guest post submitted by Nathan Hangen, of the Webrepreneur Blog. In this post, he gives some good lessons about branding and connecting with your blog’s audience.

One of my favorite parts about making a living on the internet is being part of a community that understands itself and the members within it. David doesn’t have to explain his income strategies to us because we are all aware of Internet Marketing strategies and we’ve made an effort to become a part of that paradigm.

One of the benefits of being part of a community like this is that you get to meet a variety of people (both novices and veterans) which interact like they’ve known each other for years. Of course, every once in a while you will meet the negative people that love to flame other bloggers, but for the most part the blogging community is both accepting and easily approachable.

When I first got started, I made an effort to reach out to a lot of experienced bloggers so that I could both get noticed and learn anything they were willing to share. Although some ignored my request, many were more than happy to help. Now that I’ve been in this business for a while, I’ve been in a position where people ask me for help. This is, by far, my favorite part about being in this business. I just love to share what I’ve learned and I really enjoy helping others turn dreams into realities.

Becoming an Expert

However, there is a problem that I see with most new bloggers that keeps them from living up to their potential. A lot of new bloggers try to create an image that doesn’t match their experience level. In some cases, you’ll find new bloggers teaching people how to make money online, even though they’ve never done it themselves. Other times, you will find bloggers trying to become an expert in their niche without understanding the niche or its audience.

Now, there is nothing wrong with becoming an expert in your niche, but you have to position yourself as such outside of your blog. What I mean is that you can’t just write a post that claims you are an expert, you have to have some kind of social proof.

Some ways that you could do this are:

• Have someone interview and post it on their blog.
• Create a product of your own and sell it or give it away.
• Guest post for someone else’s blog.
• Use social media/networking to blast your message over time.
• Use article directories to publish some of your better articles and link them to your blog.
• Display credentials on your blog.

Understanding Your Audience

Now, even with social proof you might not be positioned where you want to be, which leads me to the primary reason I am writing this post. I believe that a lot of bloggers, especially new bloggers, make the mistake of talking to themselves rather than to their audience. To help you understand what I’m coming from, let me give you an example of what I mean.

Let’s say that Brad is a new blogger that decided to start a blog about social media. Brad loves social media and spends a lot of time using MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to market his brand. He knows how he uses them well, but he really doesn’t understand how his potential readers do. So in an effort to connect with his audience, he starts to talk about what he knows best, from his perspective. Even worse, he claims to understand where his readers are coming from, but makes incorrect or inaccurate assumptions about the way that they use social media.

His readers find his blog, and they see that it is written in a context that they don’t understand. Brad failed to bridge the gap between his understanding and theirs. Rather than helping them figure it out, he has alienated them and lost their interest. He doesn’t  understand them, and they don’t understand him. It is a common problem that can easily be fixed, but too many people fail to grasp this concept and never really figure it out.

Now, for the purpose of clarity, I have given you a rather extreme example, but the truth is that this happens more than you might realize. In less obvious examples, the blogger simply never connects with his audience and fails to gain traction in the blogosphere. In other cases, the blogger hasn’t properly identified his niche so he posts randomly about some of his favorite subjects. Well that is great, but it really doesn’t create a sufficient enough experience to keep your readers coming back.

The way to avoid all of this, is to properly understand both your potential niche and your target audience and make sure that you find a way to bridge the gap between your perspective and theirs. Build every post with your brand in mind. Don’t talk to yourself, but talk to your reader about the feelings and experiences that they have. Speak from your audience’s level and talk in a context that is easy to understand. They’ll see that you are not speaking from a pulpit, but that you “get them.”

If you are a pro in your niche, then use social proof to brand yourself as such and then find a way to turn your readers into pros too. Don’t expect them to understand where you are coming from if they haven’t experienced your insights yet. Just like it took you time to get there, you’ve got to take time to get them there with you. Once you’ve given them that “aha!” moment, then you can start getting into more advanced topics, but in the beginning just keep it simple.

Although this is more of a marketing perspective than anything, part of becoming a successful blogger is learning how to properly market your brand. As a webrepreneur, you get to do everything on your own, but unfortunately you have to learn every part of the business.

So take the time to think about your approach before you start blogging. Make sure that you know the audience you are appealing to and find a way to catch their eye. Although sharing your personal insights is fantastic, don’t bombard your readers with information about you. Teach them how to gain your insight by taking them down a path that is interesting and makes sense to them. Otherwise, you will just lose them from the jump, and that makes building a popular blog very difficult.

Nathan Hangen is an internet marketer, author, and competitive triathlete. He is currently deployed to Afghanistan and spends his free time developing his personal brand and social network. You can learn more about him and read similar content at his website, The Webrepreneur Blog.