I started my latest blog project in the spring and screwed a ton of stuff up. I had to go back and redo a ton of things over the last several months. It was a pain, and it was completely unproductive.
My original blog project came about back in 2008 as a whim for me to get some of my ideas out into the world. I didn’t plan it out well, and I just winged it while picking stuff up along the way.
I had some ideas, that I wanted to write about. Then, I went on some forums and message boards to see if I could get anyone to listen to those ideas. The site grew organically. It grew because I didn’t care a whole lot about developing it. What I wanted was attention for my thoughts.
The easiest way I thought I could get noticed was to write some blog posts, and then tell people about them.
Well, I did end up building a following, and everything grew organically from there.
When I started my newest blog, I knew I wanted to help teach people what I learned through the years about getting out of debt and moving toward financial independence. Then I got hooked on the fact of trying to make money from it. The fact of trying to make money blurred the basics of blogging and led me to a place where I got some bad advice. I ended up doing things in the wrong order and had to redo things which took way more time than it would have initially. All the rework sucked.
I’m going to run through five things I learned to help you avoid rework and hopefully make your blog startup experience better than mine.
You will need to have an overarching theme for what you are going to talk about.
You will need to start with one core theme. Think about the proverbial elevator pitch. If you had thirty seconds to tell someone what your blog is about, how would you explain it? I learned a template years ago when I took some copywriting courses.
“I help ——————- with ——————— even though they never have ———————-.”
If your theme is helping family moms sort through their finances, the elevator pitch might go something like this.
“I help family moms with budgeting and family finances even though they have never created a budget before.”
Just fill in the blanks first with the “who” you help, then the “what you do for them,” finally I add in what I call the case of ‘extraordinary exclusion.’ I added something that shows how you could stand out in the market or some way of dicing the market into a little smaller pieces.
The fact that you are helping moms who have no budgeting experience could classify you as someone who can help people struggling with finances or who need some foundational financial background.
The ideal audience you are trying to help is family moms, and your theme is family finances.
When I first started this new blog, I went through this long process of questions laid out by another blogger. It got me where I was going, but it took way too long.
I would sit down in a night and roll this sentence through my mind. Figure out who you want to help and how you can help them. If you have overcome something or have a particular niche skill, that is where I’d start. If you have a specific thing you are good at and you love talking about, this is probably where you’ll want to start your blog adventure.
You will need to do at least a little keyword research to understand what your audience wants.
You will need to do at least a little keyword research from the very beginning. This is where I screwed up. I was told to get writing and then a keyword strategy would get added in later. This forced me to go backward at one point and do a ton of rework. I could have saved a ton of time if I’d done just a little in the beginning.
First, go to Pinterest and start searching for bloggers writing about similar things as you. If you can’t find anyone, this could be good or bad. There is either no audience. Or there is an audience and no one to serve them. The first is bad, the second is good.
First, go to Pinterest and start searching for bloggers writing about similar things as you. If you can’t find anyone, this could be good or bad. There is either no audience. Or there is an audience and no one to serve them. The first is bad, the second is good.
Think about some of the things you want to talk about and type them in the search box on Pinterest. A row of keywords will pop up at the top of the screen. These are the words people are typing in to learn about a topic. If these words match some of the words, you think of when you think about your topic, great. If not, there might be a mismatch of an audience or no audience at all. People may be looking for something different than you want to give them.
Look at some of the pins related to this content. Are the blog posts targeted toward things you would write about? This means you are on the right track.
Another tool I use is Ubersuggests. It’s a free tool from Neil Patel.
Run some of the words you found on Pinterest through this tool and see what type of search volume and keyword alternatives come up. If you can get at least some matches and at least 1000 per month searches, you’re on the right track.
By the way, keep track of these keywords if you are getting some hits. I have a Moleskin notebook which has two sections. One section is for Pinterest-only keywords, and the other is for keywords that will work well with both Google and Pinterest.
You will need keyword lists and ideas throughout your blogging career, so I’d keep a little list around to help you as you go.
You will need to find your audience.
If you did your research already, you have a good head start on who your audience is and where they hang out. The audience was a big stumbling block for me. I went down several wrong paths and several wrong ways of thinking.
I’m going to make a general statement here. Then, I’m going to go in and elaborate on it further to clarify some things.
Your audience will be people who want to hear from you and who will want your help. It sounds simple enough, but It can get more complicated as you move along.
I first got on Twitter and friended a bunch of financial bloggers. The financial blogger community is massive on Twitter. I’d heard bloggers say you could get a lot of traffic from Twitter. I jumped in and began interacting. I had fun. And still, have fun. But here is the caveat about Twitter. All the financial bloggers are on there talking about financial blogging. It’s good to collaborate with like-minded people, but they aren’t each other’s customers.
I still love getting on Twitter to build the community. But other bloggers on Twitter will be friends, not customers.
There are some instances where other bloggers will be your friends. If you are selling more of a physical product or you are offering something unique to the market, other bloggers may become your customers, but not in every case. Keep asking yourself as you create new content or write an original post, “Who is my ideal reader.”
Another area you will need to keep in mind is where your customers hang out and how to stay in front of them.
In some niches, Pinterest works well. In others, Facebook and Twitter. Before you stick a ton of time to one particular platform, go around to several and see which one works best. This will be a place where you like being on the platform and where your audience hangs out.
If your audience seems to be there, but you hate using it, it might not be a good fit. Eventually, you’ll get sick of pushing and falling off completely. Find your audience and find a platform you enjoy using.
You will need to find a picture source and figure out how to edit them.
I stumbled upon a ton of pictures and pins for Pinterest. Nowadays blogging is as much about the images as it is about the words and the messages. As bloggers, we are in the entertainment business as well as the education business. There are a ton of places online where people can get help with their problems, so to rise to the top of their list, you need to entertain as well as teach.
I still experiment with every post and every picture to find the right intersection of both. Pictures and video have become a large part of the blogging landscape.
I started out using free picture sites like Pixels. I’m away from that now because I’ve heard of some scams where the pictures are originally license-free. Then later, the pictures are pulled down, and the owners send the users a cease and desist letter or sued for using copyrighted images.
I take all my pictures now to avoid any hassle. I spent a lot of time learning about photography. That was more time in the rework cycle. I enjoy taking pictures now. I’m always snapping pictures of things just in case I might need them later.
Unless you have money to spend to have photo editing done for you, learning how to use a picture editor like Canva or Picmonkey is an absolute must. Some people can afford to pay for it, but many will need to do it themselves. You’ll need to learn the basics like resizing and cropping. For Pinterest, you’ll need to add text to the top of the image. This will help your pins pull people into your content.
If you are looking for design ideas, look around Pinterest in your niche and look for pins that keep coming up. These are probably pins that are working rather well. Don’t copy these exactly, but you can use them as guides to help you learn what works.
You will need to study writing.
You need to study writing and or storytelling. Not all blogs now are written. That is why I included storytelling. Video blogging or Vlogging is getting pretty popular. So, I can’t say you need to learn to write, but whether you are holding a video camera or writing on a keyboard, you need to create fun useful content and it will involve telling stories.
I’d received some accolades from friends and strangers through the years on some pieces I’d written, so I had some confidence. But, I will attest that no matter how good you think you are, you can always get better. I’m continuing to learn storytelling and how to write creatively to keep readers engaged.
It is a constant lifelong struggle I think all writers or content creators go through. Do you want to be a superstar blogger or vlogger? Know that you can never stop learning.
The blogging world moves fast, and by the time you’re done reading these tips, the landscape will have changed once again.
Till next time, be safe.
Kevin