101 TIPS TO START A successful BLOG THE COPYRIGHTED RT INDUSTRIES INC.
You don t need to do everything - just those relevant to you now! Optimizing your website & User experience Don t just give information. Focus on the transformation. Categorize content neatly into main categories Create a resource page for your audience Don t clutter up your website Create a start here page Have proper taxonomy (categories & tags) Create images to optimize for Pinterest, FB & Instagram Optimize your footer with social media icons, opt-in links, popular posts or a search bar Refrain from hosting your podcast on your website server. Use a podcast server. Track the time spent by users on individual blogposts Scan for Malware and other infected files on your site COPYRIGHTED RT INDUSTRIES INC.
You don t need to do everything - just those relevant to you now! Writing & Content Marketing Find content that has already generated a lot of links, and then create something much better than that. Create evergreen content Post titles should contain keywords for SEO purposes and entice readers to click on it Brainstorm blogpost ideas using post it notes. Write down your ideas, paste them on the wall and get creative! Categorize your ideas using different coloured post-it notes! Want to get comfortable when recording videos? Natural light is your best friend, and stand up for more energy. Focus on quality over quantity when writing posts. Keep your paragraphs short Create a solid process for writing your blogposts Use how to posts, list posts, case study posts, checklist posts and series posts as they will bring more traffic. Keep a running list of reader questions. COPYRIGHTED RT INDUSTRIES INC.
Foundations Make sure you can find 5-10 influencers on your blog topic. Identify a gap in the market and create solid, free articles to fill that gap. Be very clear on who you serve Always niche down Understand your target audience and develop audience personas Don t blog randomly. Branding Your brand colours are important - when choosing brand colours, think about what you want your audience to associate your brand with! Be helpful, and be kind. Figure out your unique selling proposition (USP) - what makes your brand stand out. Use Picmonkey or Canva to design graphics for your blog
Getting Traffic Search engines want to show the best results to their users. Build a site for people and create awesome content. Create amazing round-up posts from experts When writing guest posts, always pepper your writing with examples Change the title and alt text of images you upload to optimize it for Google. Writing a guestpost at a large site? Link to a tailored landing page in your audience bio. Hold joint venture webinars with your competitors and watch the both of you skyrocket to success. Have one blogpost? Think about how you can leverage it across different mediums (eg webinar, podcast, guestposts, PDFs) etc. Use Upviral to create a referral chain (Invite X number of friends to unlock this feature/ get this freebie) Use Triberr, where bloggers congregate and help to share each other s posts!
Getting Traffic Don t be afraid to ask and contact influential people! There are people out there, waiting to connect with people who are bold enough to ask. Getting visitors is a drip, drip, drip process - getting just 1 or 2 new visitors a day will snowball into something big in a few months List Building Use a feature box (those boxes you see above the fold on my home page) to convert traffic into subscribers. 4 types of emails to send to your list: 1) RSS to email, 2) Round-up/ summary of your posts, 3) Relationship building emails and 4) Sales. To prevent your emails from going into spam, make sure your email titles do not have words like Sale!, Discount & Limited Time! If you ve paid courses, send out previews of your paid course - it ll engage your subscribers and even bump up sales!
Social Media Want influencers in your Facebook group? Don t assume that they will know about your group - be proactive and ask them to join (and perhaps even do a Q&A!) Use Woobox to add social media tabs to your Facebook page. Get other experts to live stream in your group. This provides value to your peeps and helps you to establish relationships with other influencers. Use conversions box.com to increase your FB likes. It results in a small pop up at the bottom right hand corner of your blog, asking people to like your Facebook page. If you ve paid courses, send out previews of your paid course - it ll engage your subscribers and even bump up sales! According to Moz, the shelf life of a tweet is 18 minutes. In light of this, make it a goal to tweet 3-10x a day. Sign up for Twitter Cards. They provide more information about your tweet. Retweet people that mention your biz liberally, tweets your posts many times, and tweets good posts in your industry constantly.
Social Media Make your pins a little longer than average to make it stand out in Pinterest s smart feed. (800px x 1422px) Create a new image for an old post and re-pin it. Get ready for more traffic! Once you ve your customer pin it button ready (you can use picmonkey, canva or photoshop to design it), use the JQuery Pin It Button For Images plugin to highlight images on hover and add a custom pin it button to them. Styling your photos for Instagram? Choose one hero piece around which you can create a theme for the photo. Have objects distributed such that they don t compete for attention, but complement each other. Instagram s picture dimension is 640px by 640px. Use IFTTT to automate some parts of your business! IFTTT connects devices and apps you love with if this, then that statements.
Monetization Don t expect Google Ads to bring in lots of revenue. Ads look tacky and take readers away from the content, and the payout is tiny! Create email courses/ a series of videos for your readers, give them amazing value, and make your offer multiple times throughout the content sequence. If you post affiliate links, you must have a disclaimer at the top of your post, not at the bottom. Weave your recommendations naturally within your posts and don t forget to check your old posts to make sure they are working properly! Selling something on your landing page? The story and fears outweigh the features and specs. Don t just link drop when promoting affiliate products. Create a guide, round-up post, video or resource page around it around it. Use trustworthiness, lots of good content to beat the #1 sales killer: Prospect fear of wasting money & feeling stupid. Every detail counts of your website and business counts.
Mindset & Entrepreneurship Businesses require investment. There is nothing in this world that you can get for free. Your college education was not free. Even finding a job requires you to spend money on nice clothes, transport etc. Unless you have someone willing to mentor you for free, you have close to no chance of being successful blogging. Have problems staying disciplined? Do specific things at specific timings. What separates top bloggers from tragic wannabes? Top bloggers keep going! Blogging is all about relationships. Write posts that people care about, offer freebies that are helpful, create valuable emails and create true fans. That s how you make money. Don t write about strategies you ve heard from someone else. Only write about stuff you ve personally tried. Never, ever, grab a photo from Google image and use it on your website - or risk paying thousands for copyright infringement. Figure out your rat race freedom number: How much you have to make from your side business to cover your fixed monthly expenses.
Mindset & Entrepreneurship Creating a daily routine as a blogger is very important. Find bloggers further along than you doing what you do and watch them. Not to copy them, but to know what to focus on. I try to keep it 40/60. I keep 60% of the good stuff for my paying clients and paid products, and then I share 40% with my audience. You will either work hard to create your dream, Or you will work hard to create someone else s. Just because you re doing it online doesn t give you a superpower of being able to skim over the important bits and becoming a master at your craft. Start celebrating the pure act of creating, rather than your success. Your creative energy itself should be celebrated! The secret to success is support. Turn your nervous energy into something positive by telling yourself you re EXCITED! Why do blogs fail? Because bloggers don t have a specific goal for their blog.
Mindset & Entrepreneurship If you re on limited funds, do not use the lack of not having enough money be the excuse to not start a blog & business. Consistency will make or break your business. I try to keep it 40/60. I keep 60% of the good stuff for my paying clients and paid products, and then I share 40% with my audience. Consider choosing 1-3 main tasks, timing yourself using the Pomodoro method and evaluating it using the pomodoro method. Consider using the distraction free writing mode in your Wordpress editor if you have problems focusing when writing. Wanna scale your business? Delegate, automate and communicate! Key elements of marketing include: having a great headline + being memorable, creative, emotional, leveraged and trusted. Base your business around creating a community and inspiring others. *Selected tips have been removed for clarity purposes