Starting a Blog
Oh bother! What a first week. Thank goodness for the content I wrote before going live. With all the time I have spent researching technical stuff, my writing time has been held hostage.
I knew from day one when I had decided to start blogging, that I wanted to make a financial success of it. For me, blogging means freedom from others and the ability to control my own success and failure.
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Writing stellar content that genuinely helps my audience requires time. This means that I will not be treating it like a hobby. I will be putting in many hours learning the back end stuff all while paying attention to my audience and helping them improve various areas of their lives and mine. With that let us mull over a few of the hiccups I encountered this week.
My First Week of Blogging
While trying to customize my site, I was struggling with widgets. My social media icons were showing up all over the page. I was trying to figure out if I even needed them at this point since my only account was on Pinterest.
Can people use those icons to share my content with each other or were they going to click on the icon and end up seeing nothing? That’s truly how social media clueless I was 🙂 Baby steps.
I finally found a video tutorial series that was helpful. WPBeginner.com. I had to enter an email and username but this video series was actually useful for a real beginner. The site was a series of short videos explaining each function on the dashboard. It didn’t answer 100% of my questions but for blogging basics of the WordPress dashboard, I was pleased.
Publishing Your First Blog Post.
Trying to choose which article to publish first. Yeah…So I had brainstormed article ideas months before launching a blog and suddenly I was in a panic over what to write about first.
I want things to flow and fit together. I really want my content to actually help people with their money, success, blogging adventures and so much more.
My inner voice suddenly said, “Stop overthinking this girl!” Reality check: Very few people will even see my first few posts.
This is both disappointing given the amount of effort and cares you put into reaching people and a blessing because we all start out from a place of confusion and blogging rookie mistakes. I’ll very likely be editing these same posts six months down the road. Certainly I will be adding photos but for now, I think the content is solid and it shows my personality to some degree.
Blog Policy and Disclaimer.Â
I will be using some affiliate links, therefore I need a disclaimer page. As I offer services down the road, I’ll need terms and conditions too. I highly recommend speaking with an attorney about this if you plan on making money from your site. Rules and laws vary from state to state.
In the future, my disclosure will also have to be clickable next to anything that might bring in some revenue. The link can’t be lurking in a hidden corner no one will ever see.
Why Do I Need SEO on My Blog?
Struggling with Yoast SEO. I understand small parts of it and how they are supposed to work. I will be watching a video tutorial on this later tonight with a cold soda and pen in hand. SEO is important for newer bloggers to get your posts moving up in search engines. As you become more established you can use a catchy title that may not have any keywords in it.
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For instance, take a pro-blogger and a newbie in the fitness market. They both write an article about “The perfect way to perform squats“. The newbie uses those exact words and shows up three pages into google. The pro titles her article, “How to sit and get fit” and shows up number three on page one.
Why? Because when someone types in fitness squats, her site has been viewed a few hundred thousand times before and earned her prime real estate on Google.
Copyrights for Beginning Bloggers
I really want my focus to be on research and writing truly helpful information for my audience. I enjoy taking photos for fun but was dreading spending so much of my time searching for photos to match my articles. The idea of spending hours in pic monkey or photo editor,..no thanks. And let’s face it, you can’t pin fuzzy garbage on Pinterest.
Luckily I know an amazing photographer, Catherine Dotson, who agreed to let me use some of her stuff. She is going to put her logo on some of the photos, I can link to others or just write an awesome tribute page for her. She has enough content to keep my site looking good for a while. It’s a win-win. I get amazing photos that save me loads of time and she gets more exposure for her kick-butt talent.
Starting an Email List for a Blog
The List. If you have a pulse and are even slightly interested in starting a blog, you’ve heard about the list. Email marketing is huge. All bloggers say they wish they had started their lists sooner.
I am seriously leaning toward ConvertKit but haven’t made the plunge yet. (Update. I am a Convertkit customer and affiliate!!) MailChimp is free up to 2000 subscribers. Not bad but the functions are limited and my plan is to surpass 2000 fairly soon. I don’t want to pay to migrate later.
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ConvertKit is an investment. At $29/month to start it’s nearly five times more expensive than hosting. Still, it’s less expensive than cable and I don’t have that so I consider it a trade. Who has time for TV when building an amazing website/business? Not this rock star! As the subscribers climb, so does the price but it’s well worth it.
I currently have a few opt ins related to self-limiting beliefs. One is a workbook and another is a 5-day challenge. I’ll work on clients and niches for making money from home soon.
Like I mentioned in my intro, failing forward. I am learning from other bloggers. I am learning from my mistakes and my successes. We can do this!
xoxo-Deanna
To get the program that convinced me I could be a blogger and truly live free from an employer click here.
To get the book that took my Pinterest from lame to game click here.