If you want to know how to start a blog from scratch and build up so your books can become well-known, then start with a strategic plan. It will help a lot over the coming months and years.
Here are some lessons I learned, along with some thought leaders’ lessons, like Ali Abdaal, who is more on the YouTube side of things.
RESEARCH STAGE
- Start with a mindset of giving and dig into why you want to start this blog. You’ll find a selfish reason first no doubt, then ask why is that important? What will it achieve for others? Do you have a once-burnt story to share that will help them? Can you inspire through your openness?
2. Research your ideal readership. Use value-priced tools like Ubersuggest (not just for SEO), AnswerthePublic.com, and ask similar people on Twitter or Instagram. People are easy to find via hashtags and topic searches.
3. Find out what kind of services, digital products or books your ideal tribe actually wants – that you could possibly deliver online, remotely. This is called monetisation. (Thanks to Ali for this tip).
YOU ARE LOOKING FOR PROBLEMS – to provide a good solution.
CONTENT PLANNING
4. This step is all about planning your content after you have researched the key issues and questions people use (see the likeliest 5,000 monthly Google searches via Ubersuggest or MOZ). You want web traffic that’s looking for certain words inside the micro-niche you chose.
5. You can even do a free Content Marketing course at this stage, at Coursera.org, or try Neil Patel’s Marketing Funnel course at Thinkific. I’m doing it now and it’s fantastic.
6. Then you will be writing the content. Learn about how to write a good headline (for click-throughs) and a good first sentence. Don’t forget to write using the words that your market uses – and explain any industry jargon. Never forget the visual people. Look for a relevant photo, make a blog image on Canva, or take a photo of your own for the blog post image/s.
Organisation is key.
ORGANISATION
7. If you have a lofty goal, you will need organising methods. A regular schedule for publishing blogs will help you go forth after the initial fun wears off — and it leads to return readership as well as better Google rankings over time.
8. Don’t let technology take the fun away. You can start with a simple WordPress.com site, which you may have to pay to upgrade remember. After you get some funds, you can upgrade to a subscription blogging platform like Ghost, where they host all your content for you, and it is super fast.
9. Be patient. A blog is like a giant sunflower. You will be watering it weekly, making sure the bugs (spam) are not on it, and it will seem not to grow while you watch. But over nine months or more, this blog can flourish. This is where most people fall down, as life comes along.
SHARE THE JOY
10. Record your journey online. There is nothing more inspiring to someone who is a FB friend than watching your little endeavour grow. The simplest way is to write a quick update status with today’s blog or book writing task… pop a quick meme, stock photo or screen capture of blog (no links) and away you go. You can achieve that in 5 minutes and it’s a good way to put your work into their radar.
Well, that’s all I have time for today. Let me know in the comments if you’re starting a blog… or thinking about it. If you’re struggling with self-publishing, then check my course out.
– Free Sneak Peek of Book Creation Success:
https://bookcreationsuccess.thinkific.com/enroll/1773088?et=free_trial
