Starting A Blog

[zenjen]

Hello everyone!

I was wondering if anyone here has experience starting a blog as a form of income. I want to start one that documents my path from major depression to becoming the best version of myself. The main purpose of the blog would center health of the mind and body, and how it ties into spirituality. I'm currently on my way to becoming a business owner and a pilates instructor, and I want to document my progress on that, too.

What should my first steps consist of in starting a blog? Is there a certain platform that is preferred? What are the pros and cons you have encountered?

Thank you in advance

[herghly]

Keep it simple, use wordpress

http://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/

Why don't you start a youtube channel?

[zenjen]

@herghly thank you for including the guide, I tried to create a wordpress site by myself before but got confused. That's why I was considering squarespace, even though I know Wordpress is basically the industry standard.

I guess I like the idea of writing out my thoughts because I think I've always been better at it than speaking. In the future YouTube could be a good idea to showcase my own workouts, though.

[Girzo]

7 hours ago, zenjen said:

What should my first steps consist of in starting a blog?

Creating valuable content. That means writing things that people actually want to read. When you have that, where and how you publish it doesn't matter. Practice writing, practice, practice... (or focus on marketing, then it's all the other way around)

Have you ever heard of Fiverr.com? Here you can hire someone to do basic stuff like setting up a Wordpress for $5, so you don't need to bother with learning all that stuff, focus only on things that make the difference, that distinguish you from others (almost every girl I meet nowadays thinks about starting a blog or something similiar). Choosing between Squarespace or Wordpress is not important at all.

If you want to make a good living from it I can already tell you that you've choosen a wrong niche. You need to have that drive to be the best and be successful to profit. Mediocre bloggers in that niche earn pennies. You will probably need to build a personal brand, it involves a lot of stuff like Facebook and Instagram marketing, great communication with your audience (you can't slack that off), featurings in others' content, etc. - basically your whole life needs to be structured in order to support that goal.

Seeing from your post that you want to be a pilates instructor and own a bussiness I can already see that it won't fly. You will be too distracted to succeed. The idea for your content doesn't seem appealing and unique. Your question about platform shows that you have no idea what you get down to.

If I can suggest something, that would be trying to write about things you write about in your post and publish it on journals sections of this forum. You would get some valuable feedback from people potenially interested in that type of content and see if your idea of starting a blog has any grounding, if people will like your content.

[zenjen]

@Girzo I've since watched Leo's video on setting realistic expectations and I now realize that this goal will be FAR into the future. For now, I like doing my journaling. I think I will focus on slowly starting my business and doing my Pilates certification, which is already an ambitious enough plan for me for the next 3-5 years, considering I'm still going to college and currently have another job. I still probably would want to do a blog in the future, but it won't be soon.

Thank you for your honesty, by the way. I appreciate it.

Edited October 6, 2017 by zenjen

[Klayne]

1 hour ago, zenjen said:

@Girzo I've since watched Leo's video on setting realistic expectations and I now realize that this goal will be FAR into the future. For now, I like doing my journaling. I think I will focus on slowly starting my business and doing my Pilates certification, which is already an ambitious enough plan for me for the next 3-5 years, considering I'm still going to college and currently have another job. I still probably would want to do a blog in the future, but it won't be soon.

Thank you for your honesty, by the way. I appreciate it.

In that case ... 

Start now !

The thing is, accept the fact that the website will be terrible, the content will be subpar, and traffic will be close to nonexistent.

But :

- You will learn how to create a website and the basics that come with it

- You will have improved your writing and editing skills

- The website will have aged and gained some kind of follower base

 

Don't have the website as a priority, but slowly work towards it, as it will help immensely once you want to take it more seriously, and your expectations will be more reasonable. 

 

After the 3 years, spending more time on the site will be easier, than starting from flat ZERO, and learning everything that goes with it. 

Even if you spend 2 hours a week, after 3 years it will accumulate nicely. 

 

Not to mention the benefits towards SEO (Search Engine Optimisation, think Google) traffics, due to the aged site.

 

While you don't go at it full time, get a cheap hosting, as you won't be receiving much traffic. You can get 1 year hosting and domain in the 50$ range, and even cheaper, for the first year if you go with Namecheap smallest package. So don't go with squarespace if you don't want to pay a premium + you will want bacis understanding of website, if you want to go at it seriously in the future.

If you need help (within reason), I can help you with Wordpress.

And general idea with marketing and SEO .

[Leo Gura]

@zenjen As with any business, if you want to earn money doing it, you need to master business and marketing.

The writing of content is the easy part.

Breaking into blogging is much harder than most people assume. You'll need to have a very solid marketing strategy in place. You're gonna need to take a bunch of online marketing courses to have a realistic chance of success. There are even courses available for how to do blogging.

Be sure to watch my video: The Psychology Of Small Business Success.

[Wouter]

What are actually some good, in depth information resources on blogging? I only manage to find "do this and you will make x money" or "how I made x money".

[zenjen]

@Klayne @Leo Gura @Shiva thank you for your input! I'm glad I started this topic, I'm finding it very helpful.

This morning I watched the video on "The Psychology Of Small Business Success" per Leo's suggestion. Very useful information and very eye-opening. I took notes (something I rarely do with videos) on some of the main points that I found relevant to myself moving forward:

• Research the market, become a master. Learn more about the consumers and marketplace than your competitors.
• Find a Niche: Unique life experience, style, how the product is defined.
• Look for things of practical value to the consumer.
• Strategy > Product
• Test out multiple business plans/strategies. Be open to hundreds of ideas. Prove cash flow. Can you test out the idea in a week / can you generate a sale or two?
• Take Action: Rapid speed of implementation. Get to work immediately. Don't make it an option to fail -- full commitment.
• Self Governance: Emotional resilience in the long term. Prepare to be demoralized. Deal with people who don't understand the vision.
• Treat the marketplace seriously and don't be pie in the sky fantasy hippie child (oops). There are many people in the world who treat their business as life and death that you must compete with.
• Don't get lost in materialism. Believe in your cause (There's a book I'm reading called Start With Why that relates to this point).

Edited October 10, 2017 by zenjen

[Progress]

@zenjen Start with Why is a great book! It is relatively unorthodox but pieces all the pieces of the business puzzle together. How else could overpriced Apple macs succeed? Also if you're looking for a headstart, I have 2 facebook groups that could use more content, I'll pin your post for a week.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DumbDeep/ (140 members)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Filmsophy/?ref=group_cover(800 members)

Also learn how to use reddit and Facebook to your advantage, It is the two easiest marketing tool but they're still a bit tricky in their own right.

[Skenderberg]

Start a blog, it's good. Use Wordpress.

The first step is getting started. Get a domain name and start writing and publishing posts. Share them on relevant Facebook groups and set up Google Analytics.

Learn SEO, copywriting, and take 1-2 writing courses at Udemy.

First steps:

• Write on a specific topic first
• share them online
• do keyword research and write so your stuff shows up on google search.
• focus on growing your blog and you'll move in the right direction

write, promote, listen to podcasts, don't take unnecessary courses.

Don't expect money for at least 1 year or 6 months. Use affiliate programs and promote relevant products before you make your own.

Write posts that are 1000-2000 words. 

You just need to get your feet wet and jump in the ocean. Then you'll find your way to the shore slowly!