Blogging challenge day 1 – as part of the Money Making Mastermind Group.
Today is the first day of our blogging journey, and before setting up any websites, we need to have a few things worked out.
WHAT are we going to be blogging about?
WHAT categories are we going to have?
HOW often are we going to be publishing posts?
HOW do we intend to make money from our new blog?
WHAT will we call the blog?
WHAT are we going to be blogging about?
Deciding what to blog about can be the first stumbling block for many of us. If I were to meet you in a pub, what is the one thing that I cannot get you to shut up about? What is your passion? That is what you want to be blogging about! Whether it is your children, making extra money, model railways – whatever. You need a niche – something that you focus your blog on. If you are struggling to narrow it down then don’t get too fixated with making it perfect. As your blog develops you can start introducing your other passions into it, sharing them on social media or making a new blog dedicated to those other passions.
WHAT categories are we going to have?
The next step is to think about the categories you are going to have on your blog. I like to think about what links I would like at the top of my website, and write categories around them. Categories can have subcategories too – I use Make Money as my main category with lots of subcategories under those.
This doesn’t need to be your definitive list, but it is a good starting point and it will help you to get your content planned and written.
HOW often are we going to be publishing posts?
Next up is deciding how often you are going to publish posts. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can publish a brand new post every single day – this will fail for so many reasons. I personally am going to aim for 2 a week (Mondays and Fridays) on my new blog. I would recommend that you aim for at least 1 a week to a maximum of 3.
The number of blog posts you decide to publish per week is going to dictate how many blog posts you are going to have to write before the 19th March. This is so that you can spend the rest of March (after we launch on the 19th) promoting your blog, then throughout April writing your posts for May and beyond.
1 post per week = 6 posts written before 19th March
2 posts per week = 12 posts written before 19th March
3 posts per week = 18 posts written before 19th March
4 posts per week = 24 posts written before 19th March
5 posts per week = 30 posts written before 19th March
I am going to aim for 2 a week, so I need to have 12 posts written by 19th March.
HOW do we intend to make money from our new blog?
We are starting blogs because they can be great businesses, so you need to think realistically about how you are intending to make money. This doesn’t have to be set in stone, but again it will help you to write your content.
There are tons of ways that you can make money from your blog:
Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is where you promote a product or a service and you earn a commission for every sale that you drive. I make almost £3,000 a month from affiliate marketing, so be sure to check out my guide to getting started with affiliate marketing.
Display advertising: The easiest way to get started with display advertising is to use a service such as Google Adsense. Display the code on your blog and earn some advertising income every time that your advert is displayed, and also when it is clicked.
Sponsored posts: A sponsored post is where a company ask you to write about them, their products or their services for a fee. This can be a great boost to any blogger’s earnings. If you are not sure how much you should be charging then be sure to check out Michelle’s survey results about what other bloggers are actually charging for sponsored posts.
Make money from your social media: You might think that only the big names with hundreds of thousands of social media followers can make money, but the truth is that we can too! If you have developed a decent social media following then consider monetising your social media accounts with Buzzoole, SocialPubli and FameBit.
Sell related products or services: Are there other products and services that you can offer? For example, you would write an e-book or sell your services as a social media whizz. Writing an e-book might seem like a daunting task, however, I managed to get my own book published quickly by following some fantastic guides online. I chose a topic that I knew a lot about (iPhone apps to earn cash from) and set to writing. Once I had written the main content it was easy enough to format using the Kindle guidelines, hire a proofreader and then upload. I have now been earning a great passive income from my book.
WHAT will we call the blog?
Coming up with the name for your new blog can seem impossible, but it isn’t! Think about what you are blogging about, and whether you can have a name that screams that out. If you are really stuck then head over to today’s Facebook thread and we’ll help you out. Check if your name is available by going to GoDaddy and searching for it.
It is a great idea to try to use the same name across all of your social media websites, and there is a great website that lets you check where a name is already in use, called Namecheckr.
