THE BLOG STARTUP- MEERA KOTHAND 1

COPYRIGHT

THE BLOG STARTUP

MEERA KOTHAND

Where Marketing Meets Simple So Solopreneurs & Small Business Owners Can Build
an Unmissable Standout Online Presence Minus the Sleaze

COPYRIGHT 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the
prior written permission of the author, except by reviewers who may quote brief
passages in a review.

For permission requests, please email [email protected]

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 DISCLOSURE

This eBook contains ailiate links. This means that when you click and make a
purchase at a site via a link I have provided, I make a small commission at no
additional cost to you. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade
Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising.

Regardless of whether or not I receive a commission, I only recommend products that

I personally use and/or genuinely love, and I always have my readers best interest at
heart!

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Start Here! 6
Nail Your Niche 8
Define The Value Proposition (Or Core Message) Of Your Blog 13
Know Your Ideal Reader + Persona 16
Your Brand In The Online Space 20
Pro-tip on Writing Voice
Branding Your Site 25
Legalese Of Starting A Blog 28
Content 32
Determine Your Content Categories
How To Capture + Curate Content Ideas
Pro-Tip On Having A Point Of View
Pro-Tip On Setting Up Your First Editorial Calendar
Write Your First Posts 42
How To Outline Your Posts
Making Your Posts Shareable
Pro-Tip On Writing Headlines
Basic SEO 53
Email Lists 56
Deciding On Your First Opt-In Freebie
Pro-Tip On How To Write An Opt-In Freebie Snippet
Prepare Your Site To Capture Traic 60
Write Your Welcome Email - Welcome Email Series 67
Social Media 71

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 Pinterest 101 73
Your Mini Launch Plan 82
Visibility Essentials 85
Growing Your Audience With Intentional Traic And Promotion 88
Monetizing Your Blog 93
Your First Digital Product
Ailiate Marketing
Ads
Working With Brands
Services
You Made It To The End! 108

*Sign Up to an ailiate here

You get 40% on all purchases from your ailiate link.

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 THE UN-INTRODUCTION TO BLOGGING

If youre planning to launch your blog or have just launched one, congratulations!
Youre about to embark on one crazy journey - and I mean that in a good way!

If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would start blogging and turn it into a
business, I would have said no way!

I didnt think I had it in me to figure out the tech, manage a website, send emails to
thousands of people, connect with others across the world or speak at virtual
conferences. With intentional planning and eort, you can do all of that and more.

But blogging is not a magic pill. As much as its romanticized as the secret to a
freedom or laptop lifestyle, a lot of work goes into it. Theres more to starting a blog
than just getting your domain, hosting and theme set-up.

Heres the BIG truth, which you may or may not already know.

Your blog IS NOT a business. It would be really hard and you would need a huge
amount of traic to be able to make money from the ads on your blog alone.

So what exactly is your blog? Your blog essentially is a content marketing tool. It
serves as a content hub to get people in the door. Its what you do using your blog
thats going to help you turn it into a business.

Take Pinch of Yum for instance. They make money with advertising, sell their ebooks
and also have courses teaching others to run successful food blogs. Their blog acts as
a hub and theyve used that content to build dierent revenue streams.

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 The intention of this ebook is to give you the foundational pieces and to help you
wade through overwhelm, as you get your blog up and running. I also want to help
you think through on these bigger pieces, see yourself as a personal brand and
formulate a plan to start making an income from your site.

Now, blogging is a huge topic and theres no way Ill be able to cover all of it in detail
in this ebook. But the bite-sized strategies I provide will help you get started right.

Think of it as your roadmap for the first 90 days.

As eager and excited as you are to begin, remember that building a business is a
marathon, not a sprint. Showing up regularly, at least in the early years, is key.

But remember to also give yourself grace. Growing an audience and building your
business takes time and everyones timeline looks dierent, even if they implement
the same strategies.

With that said, dig in! Id love to have a look at your site when its ready.

Im rooting for you, friend!

Meera

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 NAIL YOUR NICHE

Youre pretty burnt out by now trying to grapple with this word niche, right?
I was too.

Nailing down your niche seemed like this immensely critical decision that could make
or break my site.

Or so I thought.

And it took me six months to get my blog out there because I was certain that I was
choosing a niche that was going to fail me.

Here are some myths you may have heard about niches:
If there are big, established blogs in a niche, stay away from it.
If you dont have enough experience and knowledge in the niche, dont even
attempt it.
Your niche has to be original.

I bet youve heard these before. And you have my permission to let go of all the
doubts crowding your mind due to these statements.

If there are several blogs in a niche, that niche is crowded. But it also means that
there is validation of an existing audience out there for your blog. That there is
demand for the information, products and services related to that niche. That there
are people who are actively seeking these out.

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 Those big blogs may take a chunk of your audience, but not everyone will resonate
with the voice and style of the big blogs. Thats the reason several blogs are able to
thrive alongside the big ones. Remember that people are more likely to be influenced
by someone whom they like and can relate to someone whos at a level that seems
attainable. The pie is big enough for all of us.

Take me for instance.

Im in a crowded niche that isnt original, and I knew nothing about email marketing
when I started. I had a deep interest in marketing because of my corporate
background. I devoured everything I could about email marketing because of my
interest in the subject, and I saw that people had plenty of questions on the topic that
werent being addressed.

I carved a tiny space for myself within that crowded niche through the way I
presented my ideas and messages, and make a decent income from my blog. You can
do the same!

See this diagram below.

That intersection sweet spot is what youre aiming for in a niche

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 OTHERS WHO ARE
SERVING A SIMILAR YOUR TARGET
AUDIENCE AND TOPIC AUDIENCES
+ WHO ARE PAIN POINT
EFFECTIVELY SWEET
MONETIZING THEIR SPOT
SITES

YOUR PASSION, STRENGTH

AND INTEREST

And that intersection is a balance of 3 major points:

1. Your passion, strengths and interests

What topic are you passionate about?
What topic do you have some sort of experience with (work, internships, college,
school)
What topic do you have a keen interest in learning or knowing more about?
What ideas do you have to monetize that passion?

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 2. Your target audiences pain points
Its not suicient to have passion and interest in your topic. You also need to have
people who are actively seeking answers in your topic as well.

3. There are others serving a similar audience and topic who are eectively
monetizing their sites
Look for the presence of other blogs in a similar niche who
a. have existing audiences big or small and,
b. have monetized their sites through products, services, ailiate marketing, ads or
sponsored posts.

Like I mentioned in the earlier page, this is validation that there is an existing
audience out there for your blog.

If youre still struggling to figure out the crux of what your blog is going to be about,
heres another way around this. I personally prefer this method.

Dont think of your blog in term of a niche.

Think of your blog in terms of the problem it solves.

In its essence, a niche is a solution to a problem. People want to be better versions of

themselves. This better version does not have to be about having more money. It
could be in any one of the following areas:
Personal development
Fitness
Food
Budgeting orPersonal finance
Fashion/Beauty
Lifestyle

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 Home decor
Organization
Travel
Outdoor/Survival

Another way to think about it is via the value that youre going to provide and to
whom. Ill show you exactly how thinking in this way makes defining your blog a
whole lot easier.

Use the prompts in your workbook to brainstorm your niche ideas.

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 DEFINE THE VALUE PROPOSITION (OR CORE
MESSAGE) OF YOUR BLOG

Why do you blog?

On first thought, if we were all being really honest, we would say:

To make money
To sell our own products
To share our words and travel
To promote and market things that would help us make money

Thats all well and good.

But your blog has to attract people for you to do any of that. Your content is the hub
that has to bring people to your blog. Your content has to educate, entertain, inspire,
teach or help your readers in some way.

This is where your value proposition or blog purpose has to come in. It forms the
basis for every single email, video, image, blog post or product you create.

How can you come up with an all-encompassing purpose or value proposition for
your blog?

First, answer these two questions:

What group do you want to help?

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 In what area do you want to help them? Or what area do they struggle with that
you believe you could help them in?

For example, lets say the group I want to help is women and the area or topic is
women who are starting a home business.

Now you have two big groups to work with. Break these groups down further. Try to
get specific with your answers.

Youre not helping just any women, but single moms. And not just any type of home
business, but a virtual assistant (VA) business.

Once you break it down in this way, your content angle takes on a very dierent
dimension.

Content for a single mom with two kids trying to run a home-based VA business is
very dierent from a 20-something out of college trying to run a home-based VA
business. Well talk more in detail about target audience in the next chapter.

For now, plug your specific answer into one of these two statements in the workbook.

I educate/inspire/entertain/teach/help __________ who want to __________

I show __________ how __________

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 Here are some examples

1. I help single moms who want to build a successful VA business

2. I inspire 20-somethings to travel the world on a shoe-string budget
3. I show food bloggers how easy it is to take their own pictures and edit them

Ive given you a few dierent methods to understand the niche you're in. Which
method comes easiest to you? Thinking of your niche as a solution to the problem?
As the value you provide or via the diagram on page 10?

Pick one method. Condense your niche and then move on.

But what if you talk about a few dierent topics? Are lifestyle blogs doomed?

Not necessarily. There are lots of lifestyle blogs that make good money but you do
need to bring your topics under one over-arching theme or topic. What is your main
message to your audience? What message combines your dierent topics? Frugality?
Purposeful or intentional living? Happiness? Minimalism? Pick a message, keep it at
the center and then work out your value proposition.

Using this lesson as your guide, write your value proposition into your
workbook. Use the niche finder as a reference and niche checklist
to help you vet your idea

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 KNOW YOUR IDEAL READER + PERSONA

Why is knowing your ideal reader so important? Thats because you cant cater to
everyone. Content that tries to attract everyone attracts no one.

By defining who exactly your ideal reader is, youll be able to:
talk to your audience at the right level.
not waste your eort writing for people who will never enjoy or gel with your
content.
not scratch your head thinking about what content to create because you know
what your audience needs.

I know what youre thinking what if dierent types of people come to my website?

Thats okay!

You will definitely get dierent people coming to your site. For instance, I have people
who are in the process of launching their blogs and also people who have already
launched their blogs but are struggling with the email part of the equation coming to
my site.

For now though, focus on just one persona. A persona brings your target audience to
life by making her (or him) real.

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 Heres what makes a reader persona:

Demographics
Male or female?
Age range
Single or married?
Children or no children?

Psychographics
What frustrates them?
What worries do they have?
What websites do they visit?
What blogs do they read?
What other hobbies or interests do they have?
What social media channels do they hang out on?

Motivational Factors
What do they desire, want and aspire to?
What are their fears, frustrations and challenges?
What do they want to achieve in the next three years?

Taken together, these questions will help you understand at a deeper level the type of
person you want to attract and influence.

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 Have a look at the following persona:

Sarah is a full-time working mother of two children under the age of six. She wants to
earn some income on the side to help with the household expenses. Lately she has been
reading up on freelancing, but she doesnt know where to start.

She is toying with the idea of starting a blog, but shes not sure if she has the time for it,
especially with her kids. She fears that she is not an expert on anything in particular and
doesnt know what to write about. She relies on Facebook to keep up with the latest
news during her lunch hour.

Describing your ideal reader in this amount of detail can be powerful. It can help you
picture her in your mind.

Your ideal reader could very well be you a few years earlier.

But how do you actually get this information?

To get a deep picture of who your audience is and what they want, you need to
1. research your ideal reader
2. create a persona based on that research.

Im going to give you a hack that I regularly use to find this information.

Search Facebook Groups to Find Reader Motivations

Join Facebook groups where your ideal audience members are likely to hang out. I
have a list of Facebook groups you can find here.

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 Once you have access to a Facebook group, use the Search this group box and type
in the following keywords (preserving the quotes):
need help
desperate for
newbie
have no clue
advice about
question about

This allows you to quickly zone in on your target audiences pain points without
spending hours scouring through the feeds.

I have a handout in the workbook to help you through some of these

prompts.

Now that we have your niche and target audience out of the way, lets talk about your
brand and brand voice in the online sphere.

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 YOUR BRAND & BRAND VOICE IN THE ONLINE SPACE

When building your brand, think of it as a person.

A question that helped me a lot in defining my brand was this:

If you were a blogging personality, who would you be?

There should be one or two people that immediately come to mind.

For example, I identified a lot with Person A. She gave away lots of value to her
audience for free. Her products were reasonably priced and you didnt have to starve
for six months to buy her course. But her response or post product customer service
could be better. It was terribly diicult to get in touch with her via email or any other
means if you needed some product support (i.e. file not downloadable, email
confirmation not received). Lets just say its not the easiest task to get done.

But customer service is terribly important to me. So I definitely wanted my brand to

be approachable and provide timely support as well.

So think of who in the online space you most resonate with. What about them do you
want for your brand? What aspects of their brand do you want to incorporate for your
own blog and business? Do you know what you believe in? What you stand for?

Here are some questions to help you with these. To make it easier, I have some
attribute words in the workbook to help you answer these questions. This exercise is
important. So dont skip it!

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 I want my target audience persona to feel that Im ________ when they read my
posts and watch/listen to my content (example motivating, approachable).

Most people would describe me as _________ (example professional, confident,

knowledgeable, fun).

My blog business believes in?

If I was a blogging personality, I would you be?

I would never want to be seen as ____________.

I would never want my content to be ___________

What feelings do I want my brand to evoke?

The personal element of your brand is a lot of hard work. Knowing exactly the type of
feelings you want your brand to evoke in your ideal reader from the beginning will
help you immensely in making that dent.

A solid brand creates trust, recognition and consistency. Its more than seeing a
Pinterest graphic and identifying it as from this brand.

Visual aspects are important. But beyond visual branding, your name has to evoke
certain emotions.

Answering the questions above will help you form your identity and the pieces that
make-up your brand like your logo, imagery and colors. Thats what were going to
cover next!
Use the workbook and answer the questions truthfully. Be yourself
and youll have a brand that fits you like a glove.

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 Pro-tip on Writing Voice

The words youve identified your brand with will also influence your writing voice.
There are no right or wrong answers to these just whats right for your brand and
the persona you identified in the earlier chapter.

You would have picked 3 words based on the exercise in the workbook. Now, go
ahead to qualify what these arent. For instance, your brand is bold but not arrogant.
Fun but not wishy-washy. Honest but not hurtful. These will give you a set of markers
that identify your brand voice.

Put these together using the ADDE (Attribute Markers - Dos - Donts - Expressions)
Formula.

Dos are a short description of what your attribute markers actually mean. Donts
define how you dont want your brand voice to come across. And the expressions
drill down into the tiny nuances of how your brand voice comes across.

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 Attribute Markers Dos Donts Special
expressions
Honest but not Honest about mistakes Oversell or hardsell. Push Use emojis like :) in
hurtful. and failures. Keep what they are losing out by writing
promises and pride not purchasing your
customer service. product
Reply personally to
emails
Bold but not Not afraid to challenge Use jargon. Use Talk soon, Say
arrogant. status quo viewpoints expletives.Use passive voice WHAAT
in the niche. Never
apologize for
contrarian standpoint.

Fun but not wishy- Expressive. Use names Use expletives. Use passive Sign o with xoxo
washy to call your tribe and voice.
dont apologize for it.

Now that youve defined your voice and tone, go a step further and add in special
expressions that embellish your writing. How would you talk to that person? Is your
brand funny, warm, girly or quirky? Or is it sophisticated, modern and serious? This is
how voice comes into play.

Do you use slang or expressive phrases, such as Hey lovelies!, Say WHHAAT? or
Hi Buttercup.
Do you use emojis in your writing?
Do you start sentences with conjunctions such as and?
Do you end your posts or emails in a certain way? (i.e. XOXO, Hugs, till later, talk
soon)
Do you use CAPS or italics for emphasis?
Do you use acronyms in your writing? (i.e. LOL, ROFL, LMAO)

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 If youre familiar with my style of writing and my work, what would you think if you
see me use hell yes or badass or f*ck yeah in my writing?

Youd probably think I got up on the wrong side of the bed or got someone to do that
writing for me. But I know of some amazing women whose brands utilize those words
and it fits them like a glove. Something thats right for someone else, might not be
right for you, so know yourself well.

If you have an existing audience, what words are you able to pick out from their
comments and feedback? Is there alignment in how you describe your brand and
they do? This gives you clues as to how you need to pivot.

Try to take note of these and be consistent. Your writing voice will evolve over time as
mine did. Always ask yourself, does this sound and feel like you? Does this represent
your brand.

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 BRANDING YOUR SITE

A word of caution before we proceed to this section.

This is where many of us get stuck and we spend months trying to get things to look
right.

But its important not to get too caught up in the branding process. A lot of the initial
months are about exploring who you are as a blogger, your brand voice and what you
like. Dont spend excessive money on a logo or site design.

Like I mentioned in the Blog Zero welcome packet, this is what I recommend:

Get a paid theme. All the themes I have listed in the welcome packet have detailed
instructions and resources on how to go about setting them up as per the demo site.

But, if youd like to make it easier, you can get someone to install it for you as per the
demo site. You get no extra bells and whistles, but your theme is set-up exactly as per
what you fell in love with.

If you need help, the team over at Theme Valet headed by Nick Davis do an amazing
job with theme installations. Their turn-around is 24-48 hours and theyll get it to
look exactly as per the demo. Ive worked with them before and they are extremely
eicient and customer service oriented. Now, lets get into the details of branding
your site. The colors and fonts you pick to for your site should be closely linked to the
brand attributes you identified in the previous section. So make sure to do that first in
the workbook.

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 COLORS

Not sure where to start? Here are some steps you can take:

Make your own color palette or explore predesigned color palettes at Adobe Kuler
Color Wheel.

Use the 60 - 30 10 rule for colors.

60% of space should be the primary color. 30% of the space should be occupied by
the secondary color for a contrast. 10% should be used for the accent color.

Not sure which colors to use?

Tom Osborne from Viget.com has a word association exercise to help you select your
brand colors. Or look at your answers from the previous exercise and think about the
colors that lend to the words you have used to describe your brand.

FONTS
Head to font pair to pick a set of complimentary fonts

You should use a maximum of two to three fonts on your site. You could use one font
for the header, one font for your body of text and an accent font which you use
sparingly on your sidebar or images.

When youre picking a free font, make sure that it is free for commercial use. When
you start to monetize your blog, you dont want to worry about whether you the have
rights to use that font. Google fonts are safe for free and commercial use.

Again, dont get too caught up with your font. I probably changed my font four to six
times before settling on the one I have on my blog now.

Looking for some inspiration? This is what I currently use on my site:

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 #12bcb9 #002F43 #F7CE55 #262626

Use the workbook to fill in your brand style guide.

MEERA KOTHAND - TT CHOCOLATES REGULAR (HEADLINE)

MEERA KOTHAND - Source Sans Pro (Body)

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 LEGALESE OF STARTING A BLOG

This is not the most fun aspect of setting up and launching your blog, but its
something that you need to get out of the way.

DISCLOSURE POLICY

If you make money from your site or plan to do so in future, you need to have a
disclosure policy. Based on the Federal Trade Commission's regulations, this is the
law and its also the right thing to do. If you need help with the wording, a helpful
disclosures policy generator is available at disclosurepolicy.org.

PRIVACY POLICY

You also need to have a privacy policy on your site. Most advertisers like Amazon and
Google Adsense require that you have one. This is to make it clear to readers that you
are using cookies, which track the sites people visit.

If youre an Amazon ailiate, you need to have an additional statement displayed

prominently on your site, either in your sidebar or footer:

[Insert your name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates

Program, an ailiate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites
to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site

name (amazon.com or myhabit.com)]

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 This is in accordance with the Amazon Ailiates Agreement, point #5. Ive heard of
bloggers who have had their Amazon ailiate account revoked or suspended abruptly
because they dont have this on their sites. So if you use Amazon extensively as a
source of income, have a look at their agreement that I have linked to above.

COMMENT POLICY

This is not a must have, but it gives some guidance to readers as to what the
expectations are.

You can have a look at my disclosure, privacy and comment policies here.

When you have a blog post or email where you have included ailiate links, you
should disclose this at the very start. I include this statement in my post:

Disclosure: Some of the links below are ailiate links. If you decide to
purchase any of these resources, I earn a small commission at no additional
cost to you. For more information, check out my Privacy and Disclosure

Policy here [link to policy]

Also, provide a link to your privacy and disclosure policies in the footer of your site or
your sidebar.

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 SPONSORED POSTS LEGALESE

If youre working on a sponsored post, heres an example you can use at the start of
the post just below your headline.

A huge thanks to Brand X for sponsoring this post! The opinions and reviews
shared in this post are 100% my own. I only recommend products that I
personally use and/or genuinely love, and I always have my readers best
interest at heart! For more information, see my disclosure here. [link to

disclosure]
SHARING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

You also need to disclose on social media if youre sharing a sponsored post link or
ailiate link. You can do this by adding a hashtag #a or #sponsored to let people
know that the link is an ailiate link or the post has been sponsored.

USING PHOTOS

Before you use a photo from a free stock photo site, you want to look for images that
are FREE FOR COMMERCIAL USE and NO ATTRIBUTION REQUIRED.

Some sites have photos that are free but require attribution, which means that you
need to credit the photographer and/or site in your post when you use the photo. If
you want to save yourself the hassle of remembering to do this, pick sites that have
the above 2 indications. Examples of such sites are Pixabay, Pexels and Stocksnap.

And you also cannot use an image you find on Google search. Just because its found
on Google does not mean its free to use. If you find a stock image and the lines are
blur as to whether its free for use, do yourself a favor and pick another one. There are

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 plenty of stock photo sites out there and the last thing you want is to get a notice for
illegal use of an image.

Have these in place from the very beginning so that you dont run into trouble in the
future!

Were about to head to some heavy chapters on content and email.

Take a deep breath! Setting up a blog is a lot of work, but if you get the foundational
pieces right and in place from the beginning, it gets so much easier as you go along.

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 CONTENT

You can have the most amazing graphics, videos and website, but if your content is
sub-par, youre not going to be able to attract and hold on to your audience.

Quality content does not have to be viral. Your content can still achieve its goals
without ever going viral. Well talk about content goals and purposes later on in the
chapter, but first lets determine your content categories.

DETERMINE YOUR CONTENT CATEGORIES

Think of your content in terms of buckets. Each content category is a bucket and you
can have three-five content buckets.

If you are struggling to nail down your content buckets, head back to the core
purpose or value proposition of your blog that you identified in the first chapter. What
categories would support that purpose?

For example, if you have a budget/frugal blog and the purpose is to help 30 to 40-
somethings get out of debt, think about the content categories that will help the
reader achieve that purpose.

These could be budgeting, intentional living, saving/investing.

Or if you run a motherhood or parenting blog and the purpose of your blog is to help
home-schooling parents be stress-free and raise confident learners, your categories
could be organization, lesson plans, parenting.

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 Next, thinkabout the content your target persona wants and needs. What does she
want to know from you? What subjects do you have enough knowledge or experience
in,that matter to her?

CATEGORIES

ENTIRE BLOG TOPIC

Then ask yourself, If I wanted to be known for just three topics, what would
those be? Add those to your core categories.

Determining your content buckets may sound restrictive but doing this 'pre-work'
early on gives you an area to work with. It defines your boundaries so that each piece
of content has a role within your larger content plan.

The moment you do this and target all of your content to clearly defined categories:

Your readers start to get a clear picture of what you are about and who you serve.
Youre seen as an expert or knowledgeable in a few topics rather than anything
and everything.
Its easier to work with brands because theyll look at your main topics to see if it
fits with their products.
Its easier to secure clients.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 33

 I can assure you, this will not come immediately.

It takes time to find out what content your audience responds to and also what your
interests are. These will shift over time, but its good to have a rough idea of what
these will be from the start.

By defining your 'working area,' you also know how to plug the gaps in your content
and who to reach out to in order fill that gap.

For instance, social media is not one of my blog categories. I dont foresee myself
developing a product on that any time soon. I may not write a post about social
media myself but I could certainly supplement this gap in my own content, and also
serve my audience's need and desire to learn more about social media, by having
expert guest posts on this topic.

I've done it with these posts on Pinterest.

3 simple ways to make money on autopilot with Pinterest Ailiate Marketing

How this blogger grew her new blog to over 20K page views in just 3 months

You don't have to (and you definitely dont want to) write about your entire blog
topic. You cant possibly be seen as an expert on all fronts. Remember that its easier
to establish authority in one to three topics.

Refer to the workbook now and jot down your content categories.
Ask yourself if each of these categories serves your core purpose and
goals.

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 HOW TO CAPTURE + CURATE CONTENT IDEAS

What is more stressful than a blank page is a blank page plus no idea of what topic
youre going to write about.

You have a higher chance of success when you sit down to write with a topic in mind.

You need two things here:

First, you need a bank or vault to capture ideas.

This could be Trello or Evernote for some of you.It could also be a simple notebook
or Google Sheet.I have a Google sheet called content ideas where I keep a swipe of
headlines and possible blog post topic ideas broken up into dierent category tabs.

Second, you need to have a place to capture ideas.

But where exactly are you going to get ideas from?

Ill give you three dierent methods to get content ideas in this chapter.

METHOD 1: LOOK TO YOUR OWN NICHE AND COMPETITION

Certain posts never go out of style and are always in demand.

Look at your competition. What articles have done well for them in terms of shares
and comments? How can you replicate this success? Rather than re-invent the wheel,
do more of what people already want and have explicitly shown they want.

Here are a couple of places you should look:

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 Pinterest
Blogs in your niche
Go back to your Tweets for the week to take note of the topics that have the most
engagement, likes and shares.
Sign-up for content curation sites. These are sites like:
Content Gems
Scoop.it
Buzzsumo

These sites will send you lists of articles on topics you have selected in your
notification settings.

These sources will give you the fuel to ensure your content bank is always filled.

A word of caution here. Only attempt to replicate those topics if you have a gap that
you can fill. Vet that post idea.

Could you do better? Will your piece make a contribution to theexisting content on
this topic?

If you think its better, in what way?

Here are a few points of dierentiation that you can use:

Can it go further in-depth?
Have they missed out on any angles or points?
Could you make it more helpful/user- friendly with, for instance tutorials or
videos?

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 METHOD 2: DO MORE OF WHATs WORKING FOR YOU

Make sure you have Google Analytics installed for this step.

If you dont have Google Analytics yet, get the free plugin. I use, Google Analytics
Dashboard for WP. This plugin automatically adds the tracking code to all the pages
on my site.

Then go to Google analytics and sign up for a free account.

Look at your Google Analytics to find your:

Top Posts
Behaviour > Site Content >All pages and look at those top 10 posts

Bounce rate
Go to Behaviour > Site Content > Landing page
Look for posts with a low bounce rate. Your readers are staying at these posts for a
longer period of time.

Look at your Pinterest Analytics to:

See the posts with the higher click-through rates.
Click on Analytics > Website > Clicks

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 METHOD 3: CREATE CONTENT FOR ALL LEVELS OF YOUR READERS

This is a slightly more advanced method of coming up with content ideas, but its one
that I personally love.

Imagine your readers being on the outside and you want to help them get to the
middle. Remember we spoke about blog purpose in the first chapter and how you
want to help your readers.

When you help your reader, your reader goes from problem unaware, to problem
aware, to knowing the solutions and desiring that change. Each layer takes her
through a dierent stage.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 38

 Problem Unaware
Problem Aware
Solution Unaware
Solution Aware
Desire
Action &
Implementation

Create content that walks the reader through the dierent stages because you could
get readers who are on any place along the continuum. They could be at the
beginning of their journey or further along. And dierent content pieces will appeal to
these dierent readers.

For instance, lets take the example of a single mom who wants to start a VA business.
Here are some topics that I came up with for readers who are at dierent stages.

Why a VA business is perfect for moms and why you need to start one today -
Problem Unaware
13 things holding you back from launching your VA business - Problem Aware
10 steps to start your VA business in 2 weeks - Solution Unaware
Think you have no skills to start a VA business? Think again. Heres why you may
be perfect for the role - Solution Unaware
How this mom makes 10K a month from her VA business - Desire

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 The only ebook you need to start your VA business in 10 days flat - Action and
Implementation

Do you see what I mean?

Or take this example below. This is one of the comments I received on a blog post.
The reader didnt know why she should even embrace email marketing or have an
email list in the first place.

If you educate these readers on why you're solving the problem, or why youre
promoting a particular change, you will inch more readers toward your products or
services and get them motivated about the change you want for them.

This is how you bridge the content gap.

Now that weve got some methods of capturing and curating content ideas, lets get
into the nitty, gritty of writing your posts.

Depending on the launch plan that you pick, you may not necessarily need to have
your first posts up before your blog goes live. So if you want to dig straight in and
start writing after this chapter, I suggest having a glance at Page 80 - Your Mini Launch Plan -
first.

Want to dive deeper into content? You can check-out my Amazon book The One-Hour
Content Plan here > 1HCP.ME

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 Pro-tip on Having a Point of View

In every niche theres a social conversation. These could be simple discussions about
topics with a few diering perspectives. Your perspective on these topics determines
thetype of content youll write.

You want to build your stature in your niche or community as someone who believes
in certain things.

If youre not sure what your stand is, dont be afraid to say you dont know. Dont rush
in to follow another persons point of view.

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 WRITE YOUR FIRST POSTS

There are 21 dierent content types and four main content delivery formats.

CONTENT TYPES
1. How-to posts 9. Interview with a course creator or
2. Tutorials with images, screenshots influencer
or videos 10. Beginner guides
3. Personal story 11. Tools lists
4. Mistakes or myths 12. Popular questions posts
5. Opinion post about a viewpoint/ 13. Solving a problem post
angle/state of aairs/another post 14. Tools or resource list
or video 15. List posts
6. C a s e s t u d y a b o u t a r e c e n t 16. Roundup posts featuring other
experiment influencers or peers in your niche
7. Case study about a success story 17. Behind the scenes post
from an ailiate product or service 18. Review of product or service or tool
you oer 19. Income/progress reports
8. Case study of a student who took 20. Infographic
your own product or service 21.Predictions about niche, state of
aairs
CONTENT DELIVERY FORMATS
All of these content types can be delivered either via
1. Written posts
2. Audio (sound cloud, podcasts)
3. Video (slides or presenter)
4. Live video

Here are my suggestions for what you can write for your first few posts.

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 Write one post on an ailiate product you are promoting (see the section on
monetizing for dierent types of posts you can use to promote ailiate products)
Write a how-to post or list post on your target audiences most pressing issue
(Authority post showcasing your expertise)
Write another how-to post or list post on your target audiences most pressing
issue (Authority post showcasing your expertise)

HOW TO OUTLINE YOUR POSTS

1. DETERMINE THE PURPOSE OF THE POST

When you write with the end in mind, you know what you want the post to do for you.
You measure what that post is meant to do based on the tangible and intangible
goals you set beforehand.

A tangible goal
To drive opt-ins to gauge interest for a product
To get opt-ins and then lead them downa sequence to a paid product
To make an ailiate commission
To pitch a sponsored post
Educate your reader (how-tos)

An intangible goal
To position yourself as an expert or thought leader
To network with influencers (through a roundup post)
To empower your readers (i.e. motivational pieces, income reports)
To entertain with personal stories
For example, these are the goals of my following posts:

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 The secret to making money with ailiate marketing
Goal: Promote the course which for I am an ailiate. Drive ailiate sign-ups.

How to get started with landing pages without losing your mind
Goal: Lead each opt-in through an email sequence that promotes my Opt-in Blueprint
ebook

The goals will determine the call to action I have at the end of the post as well as the
opt-in or content upgrade I use in the post.

2. IDENTIFY THE MAIN PAIN POINT

What pain point are you hitting at in the post? This will help you in writing the
introduction and conclusion of your posts. It will also make it easy for your audience
to identify with and relate to your post.

Here are some of my examples:

What to send your email list: Beginners guide for the clueless blogger
Pain Point: Have no idea what to send or do with people once they are on your list

How to set-up your first profitable sales funnel

Pain Point: Sales funnels are complicated

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 Identify the Main Idea Behind the Post

What does your post promise to do? Try to articulate this in a single sentence. Give
them ways to solve that pain point. Are you trying to get them to think dierently
about a topic? Inspire them through your story?

3. GETTING DOWN TO THE ACTUAL WRITING - BLOCK OUT TIME TO

WRITE

Here's where you actually have to get the writing done. Have a non-negotiable time
block in your weekly schedule where you have to write. If you can batch your writing,
all the better.

Don't edit and write at the same time. That never works.

If you think better on your feet while talking, try Google Talk. Open a new Google doc
in chrome and click on tools. The tool is much better than it used to be and is able to
capture words pretty accurately.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 45

 Now, use the blog post template in the workbook to craft your posts
so that you dont miss out on any details.

Pro-tip on Setting Up Your First Editorial Calendar

If youre looking for a free option, the Wordpress editorial calendar is a free plugin
that lets you see what posts you have planned at a glance. You can even move them
around if you change your mind.

If youre looking for a more tailored, hands-on solution, I designed and use the Create
Planner. You can have a look at it here > CREATEPLANNER.COM

Some Ideas to Plan Your Content

Have themed Months. Take your readers through a topic for the entire month.
Lock in launch dates, ailiate sales, events and holidays that are relevant to your
niche. Work your content around these crucial dates.

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 MAKE SHARING YOUR POSTS RIDICULOUSLY EASY
The more you get your posts in front of people, the easier it will be for new readers to
subscribe.

ADD SHARE BUTTONS

Use a plugin like* Social Warfare that give you the option of placing share buttons at
the top and bottom of each post. It also lets you share the correct image sizes for
each social media platform without any weird cropping.
This is how it looks within Wordpress.

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 ADD CLICK TO TWEETS
Click to tweets are quotes or punchy sentences within each post.
If you use Social Warfare, you can easily create click to tweet boxes within your posts
like Ive done here:

You can also do so by downloading the free Click to tweet plugin.

HOW TO ADD SHARE LINKS TO EMAILS AND THANK YOU PAGES

Facebook

1. To add a share link for Facebook, use the following URL:

http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=INSERT YOUR LINK

Its as simple as that. You can hyperlink that link to a word, Facebook icon or image.
Whenever someone clicks on it, the Facebook window will open up with your image
and link.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 48

 Twitter
1. Head to bit.ly. Sign up for a free account.

2. Click on CREATE BITLINK in the top bar.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 49

 3. Paste your long URL into the orange 4. bit.ly will throw up a shortened link.
box and click CREATE, Then click COPY.

5. Now go to clicktotweet.com and sign in with your Twitter account.

6. Type in the tweet you want sent out with the hashtags and include the bit.ly link
you copied from above. It will generate a new link for you that looks like this.

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 7. You can hyperlink it to any word or even an icon or image you want.

Whenever someone clicks on it, it will automatically open up the Twitter window.

Alternative Method

Go to http://www.sharelinkgenerator.com

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 51

 Pro-tip on Writing Headlines

A good headline gets attention and attention ensures a click through to your site to
check out your post. Your headline sells your blog post.

You can use the free tool Co-schedule Headline Analyzer to see how well your
headlines score against a few factors.

Here are a few permutations of headlines that generally do well.

How to ______ (Even If____)

- How To Write A Killer Resume (Even if youre starting from absolute scratch)
- How to be a best selling author (Even if you think you cant write)

How to ______(Without____)
- How to launch your product in 30 days (without losing your sanity or precious sleep)
- How get 100K page views on your new blog (without spending a dime on ads)

How to ______. X Ways

- How to succeed in affiliate marketing. 13 top strategies to implement today!
- How to potty train your child in a single weekend. 13 ways to get it right the first
time.

Why ______. X Ways

- Why people struggle to meet deadlines. 13 ways to slay your looming deadline.
- Why you need to Amazon FBA in your life. 13 ways this passive income strategy
could change your life.

Why______ - How to ______

Why people struggle with affiliate marketing. How to get your first 1K in 60 days.

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 BASIC SEO

There are a lot of dierent tactics when you want to deep dive into SEO. But when
youre just starting out, the basics that Im going to cover are more than suicient to
get you going.

The premise behind SEO is that you want to associate your articles with certain
keywords so that the search engines know they should show your posts to anyone
searching for those keywords.

So always think from the perspective of your target audience. What words are they
likely to put into their search engine if they wanted information on a particular topic?

If youd still like some extra help in figuring out these keywords, I usually use Soovle
and UberSuggest. There are lots of other free keyword tools out there as well.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 53

 Type in the first few terms of your topics and it shows up various combinations of
keywords that people have searched for.

Once you have some of those keywords, you want to use them in your headline and
plug them in your meta description. Your meta description is the short snippet of
your post that people see when it is listed among Googles search results.

The easiest way to customize your meta description is by using the YOAST SEO Tool.

If you have the Yoast SEO plugin installed, you will see a box of options underneath
your post in WordPress. To change the meta description, simply press Edit Snippet
and type in your description. Follow the guidelines gives by YOAST and if you get an
orange or green light youre good to go.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 54

 Meta-description

Extra Reading: Basic SEO Knowledge Every Blogger & Solopreneur Should Know

Now that were done with content, lets move on to my favorite topic - Email!

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 EMAIL LISTS

Email is a huge topic and I cant possibly cover all of it in this starter guide. But Ill
give you the basics that you need to launch your email list and start growing it. On
Page 80 - Your Mini Launch Plan, I walk you through a method that allows you to grow
your email list while your blog is still a work in progress.

Here are the pieces you need:

An email service provider
An opt-in freebie
A thank you page
Welcome email
Welcome email series
If youre launching your blog first, you need to optimize your site with sign-up
forms in the right locations.

SIGN UP WITH AN EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER

If youre just starting out and don't want to pay for an email service provider, you can
choose to go with Mailchimp which is free for the first 2,000 subscribers.

The problem with Mailchimp is that you may start to face diiculties when you add
more than one incentive or when you choose to oer content upgrades on your site. I
decided to go with Convertkit when I was earning $0 from my site because I didn't not
want the hassle of switching later on.

You can read my detailed review in this post:

Why I chose Convertkit vs Mailchimp when I was making $0 on my blog

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 PICK YOUR OPT-IN FREEBIE
The easiest way to grow your email list is to oer an opt-in freebie.

There are several dierent types of opt-in freebies you can oer. Here are some
examples:

Swipe files Webinar (pre-recorded or live)

Cheat sheets Bite-sized email series
Tool kits Free assessment
How-to guides Free Consult
Exclusive access to Coupons
membership/Facebook groups Loyalty program
Test/ Quiz/ Assessment

But what opt-in freebie is right for you?

Think of your blog purpose statement as well as the content categories you have
decided on.

What freebie addresses a pain point of your audience and is closely aligned with the
purpose of your blog?

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 Have a look at the diagram below. Your opt-in has to serve your blog and business as
well as your audience.

WHAT
WHAT YOUR
PRODUCTS
TARGET
YOUR AND SERVICES
AUDIENCE
OPT-IN YOU
WANT
WANT TO
CREATE

So if you oer an opt-in that has absolutely nothing to do with your blog and business
you're going to be attracting the wrong people on your list.

And this is why your opt-in incentive has to act as a primer for a related product or
service that you have to oer.

If you're just starting out, and have no products or services to oer, think about the
problems that you want to solve for your audience. What do you want to inspire, help
or educate them about? What kind of products and in what categories and in what
areas do you see yourself creating products or services? Oer an incentive thats
aligned with that.

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 58

 The best opt-in freebies are quick to consume. You do not need a massive guide to get
subscribers. You can get some simple done for-you opt-in freebie templates to use
here.

But you also want to make your opt-in forms and landing pages enticing so that youll
get plenty of subscribers right?

Wondering how to do that? Well cover that in the next section!

Create your opt-in freebie and check it o against the checklist

given in the workbook. If you tick o on most of those points, you
have a winner!

Additional Resources:
Opt-in Blueprint
How to survive your first opt-in freebie and be successful at it. Answers to 7
questions revealed
Does your opt-in freebie suck? Heres how to create one that converts like crazy

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 59

 Pro-tip On How to Write an Opt-in Freebie Snippet
Always write descriptions for your opt-in freebies to share on Facebook promotion
threads. Heres what to include in the snippet:

A short description written from the perspective of a reader in a conversational

tone
A call to action

Use one of these starters:

Have you ever been in a situation

Imagine
Are you struggling with
Ever wonder how
Do you ask yourself
Do you ever notice that

Plug them into this template:

1. Insert starter and pain point

2. In this [whats your opt-in?] I share [whats in your freebie].
3. With [state the name of your opt-in] youll [state the benefits]. Get it here!
4. Insert LINK

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 60

 Example of one of my snippets:

Everyone tells you an email list is important. You know that already. But its a
struggle knowing what exactly to send your subscribers, isnt it?

In this post I break down 16 email archetypes that you can send your email list.

I also share my swipe file of 100++ content hacks. These are content ideas Ive
been putting together for my own subscriber emails and blog posts.

With these ideas youll never be stumped on what to send your email list again.

http://meerakothand.com/send-email-list/

THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 61

 PREPARE YOUR SITE TO CAPTURE TRAFFIC

First, theres no point in having an attractive opt-in freebie if your readers are going
to have diiculty finding it. And Ive seen this several times on many site reviews that
Ive conducted for my clients.

I hardly see opt-in forms and actually have to click around before I find one. You need
to make it easy for your readers who are more often than not skimming around your
site.

Add opt-in forms to your top-bar, footer, below header, side bar, middle and below
each blog post. I would also suggest having an exit intent pop-up.

I currently use Convertplug, which has been amazing for my conversions. I also have
a list of tools and plugins and their features to help you decide on the right one for
you. Get it here.

OPT-IN FORMS AND LANDING PAGES

First, determine what change your opt-in freebie gives your subscriber. Dont be
alarmed or stressed by this word change. What you should be looking for is
something simple like:
Less organized to more organized
Anxious to calm and happy
Struggling to get traic to plentiful page views and subscribers

Determining this will help you better articulate the benefits and the problem that
your opt-in freebie solves.

Then use the following formula on your opt-in form:

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 YES! SEND ME [NAME OF OPT-IN] SO THAT [BENEFIT].
Then list down everything that your opt-in covers in bullet points. If youre struggling
with this, here are a few ways you can present your bullet points:

Add intrigue by hinting at a secret or a myth

Give a warning
Add an even if statement
Specify a branded technique

See examples below for how Ive done it.

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THE BLOG STARTUP - MEERA KOTHAND 64
 Another way to capture traic is via a landing page. And the conversion rate of a
landing page is a lot higher than that of an opt-in form.

Several times, your email service provider may provide you with free landing page
templates, like Convertkit does.

The other alternative is Thrive landing Pages. Its an aordable one-time fee option
for beginners. I dont recommend Lead Pages for beginners because of the hefty
recurring fee.

Here are the elements of a landing page:

Headline
Subhead
Bullet points
Mock-up of opt-in freebie

Heres a simple formula you can use for the headline of your landing page.

[PROBLEM?] Get my [SOLUTION] and [RESULT].

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 HEADLINE

MOCK-UP

Sub-head

BULLETS
BUTTON COPY USING
FIRST PERSON

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 WRITE YOUR WELCOME EMAIL + WELCOME EMAIL
SERIES
Now that youve primed your opt-in forms and landing pages to capture traic, you
have to get the backend prepared to welcome your new subscribers. You do this with
your welcome email and welcome email series.

Did you know that the first 48 hours after a subscriber opts-in is when they are most
engaged with your brand?

If you have access to some statistics, have a look at the open rates for your welcome
email. Welcome emails have one of the highest open rates compared to other emails
sent. This is your opportunity to make a great first impression. And to start cultivating
a relationship with your subscribers on the right note.

Heres what your welcome email should address:

Deliver your opt-in incentive.

Tell the subscriber where they can find you on social media.

Share your most popular posts.

Share some social proof in the form of testimonials or links to places youve been
featured.

State why are you the best person to inspire, educate or teach your subscriber
about the topic.

Open a conversation loop. Ask them a specific question that will enable you to
peek directly into what your subscriber needs.

But a single welcome email can only do so much.

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 Thats why I advocate having a series of three to five emails in a welcome email
series.

Each email builds o the other to help reinforce your brand, get them acquainted
with your best content, what you have to oer and why youre the best person to help
them.

You can set these emails in a sequence to go out on auto whenever a person signs up
to your list.

I created a welcome email series of eight emails to go out on auto once someone
subscribes to my list. I only had three blog posts on my site at that point in time so I
did not have suicient posts to link within my welcome email series.

Email 1: Welcome email

Email 2: A quick hack with a link to an article I wrote for Addicted 2 Success (value
+ credibility)

Email 3: Tool tips and unexpected, exclusive guide

Email 4: Link to post that talks about my take on business building + exclusive
guide

Email 5: Peek at my blogging strategy (personal story + value)

Email 6: Personal story about how not focusing on goals messed me up (personal
story + value)

Email 7: Tips on how to boost authority (value)

Email 8: How-to info

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 Email 9: First Ask - can I feature you on
my website

Heres how it looks within Convertkit.

Your email series doesnt have to be that

long, but I would recommend having at
least five to seven emails in your welcome
email series.

NURTURE NEW SUBSCRIBERS ON

AUTO

By the end of the welcome email series, you

will have created a solid foundation and
impression of your work and delivered as
much value as you possibly can. This is a
trial of sorts to show your subscribers what
they can expect by being on your list and
how you can help them.

Anyone who chooses to unsubscribe after or

during this period is not your ideal reader
and you shouldnt worry about the
unsubscribe.

It takes some time to set-up these emails, but once you do, your welcome email
series is a tool thats going to help you nurture your list on auto.

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 You set the path that a new subscriber takes and you always have your best content
going out. Your welcome email series takes care of new subscribers even when youre
on vacation.

Once you have these pieces in place, youre starting your email list on an excellent
foundation.

Now that content and email are out of the way, lets cover social media!

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 SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can be very overwhelming for new bloggers especially when there are
so many platforms to focus on. There are lots of dierent opinions about which one
and where to focus on. You may hear dierent influencers recommending dierent
things.

I recommend focusing on Pinterest + 1 other platform of your choice (Instagram,

Twitter, Facebook).

The other platform you choose depends very much on your goals. I focused on
Twitter a lot in the beginning because I wanted to connect with influencers and guest
blogging was a huge part of my strategy. If you want to monetize your site using
sponsored posts (well talk about on this in the section on monetization) or you have
a very visual niche like home decor, fashion or lifestyle, then Instagram might be a
better fit for you.

But whether you choose to have a Facebook page or not, participating in Facebook
group promotion threads is important. A huge number of my subscribers came from
Facebook. So, have a list of Facebook groups where your target audience hangs out
and keep tabs of their promotion days. I have a quick list of Facebook groups you can
use here.

SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULERS

There are ton of schedulers in the market and most of them are competitive in the
features they oer. It ultimately boils down to ease of use and which interface you are
comfortable with. I use Buer because its easy to use. If youre looking for a
comparison of the various schedulers, check out this post.

POSTING SCHEDULES

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 These are not cast in stone and are averages of what most people recommend.

Facebook: 4-6 times a day

Twitter (it moves pretty fast): 8-10 times a day

Instagram: Once a day is fine

Pinterest: Ive heard various combinations from 30-150 a day. It depends on what
style you are comfortable with.

If you are crushed for time, focus solely on Pinterest. There are so many moving
pieces to Pinterest and it takes time to figure it all out. Im still figuring it out myself!
Id recommend taking a dedicated Pinterest course that walks you through the
pinning schedule and strategies. These are the two that I recommend:

Pinning Perfect

Pinterest to Profits

In the next section, Ill cover some of the basics of Pinterest because I believe in the
potential of Pinterest to get traic and subscribers for your new blog.

These steps will help you get your Pinterest account up and running. I also dont want
any of you to make the mistake I did and neglect Pinterest for a good six months after
starting my blog.

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 PINTEREST 101

1. Create a business account on Pinterest or convert your personal account.

Yes, you do need a business account if youre promoting your work on Pinterest,
which we are, as bloggers.

The set-up process is pretty simple. If you are creating a new account, you can start as
a business here.

If you already have an account, you can quickly and easily convert it to a business
account. Just click here and then click on Convert Now.

Pinterest will then take you to this page. Type in yourbusiness name, your own name
or a combination of both. You can change this later so dont worry about it.

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 2. Then select the type of business you are which is the first one.

3. Add your website, then click Convert.

4. Confirm your website.

Just click here to follow Pinterests step-by-step instructions for verifying your site
based on what host or platform youre using. Dont worry. Its not as scary as it
sounds.

5. Get rich pins.

Rich pins add additional information into the pin.

If youre on Genesis, everything you need in order to qualify for rich pins is already set
up for you. Simply go here to validate your pins and then apply: https://
developers.pinterest.com/rich_pins/validator/

If youre on a self-hosted WordPress site and not using the Genesis theme it can
still be a simple process to get your site ready for rich pins. Simply install the Yoast
SEO plugin and click here for step-by-step instructions.

6. Validate your pins.

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 Youve made it to your final step, now all you have to do is validate your site to
oicially apply for rich pins.

Simply visit the Rich Pins Validator on Pinterest and scroll down to enter a URL to one
of your blog posts and follow the steps.

Then youre done!

Setting up Your Boards

You definitely want to create a board solely for your own blog posts. Use the name of
your blog as the board title and describe your blog in the description.

Create boards to reflect the categories of your blog posts and the topics you write
about. You can also add boards that cover topics that your target audience will be
searching for.

Applying for Group Boards

Boardbooster has a free tool that shows the top group boards in each niche.

Most of these group boards will have a description at the top that includes who to
contact to be added to the group board. Please follow the instructions carefully. Most
group boards require that you follow the admin and the group board first before
being added as a contributor.

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 Heres a template you can use to email the admins:

Hi [name of board owner],

Im [your name] and I blog over at[your site address].

I would love to contribute to your group board. It looks like a great curation of
pins, and I would love to grow the board together with you guys.

My Pinterest email is[state Pinterest email].

Ive already followed the board and you.

Thank you so much!

When your site is brand new, the volume of your own pins will be low. The way to
increase the volume of your own pins is to create multiple pin images of the posts you
have, the opt-in freebies you create or even the resource page on your site.
When you go into your Pinterest Profile, you will see a + sign. Click on that and a
menu will drop down.

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 You can then upload the image that you have separately created. Once you upload
the image, you can edit it and add in the pin description as well as the URL you want
it linked to. Doing so also lets you see which pin styles perform better for you.

Note: The Pinterest vertical pin recommended size is 735 x 1102. When you save your
images, please use keywords (Ill talk about this below) to name the image rather
than d5673456.jpg.

Your Pinterest Profile

A good Pinterest profile description includes the following:
Your name and your blog name
A description of you and your website
Keywords
A call-to-action

Here are a few examples:

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 Writing Your Pin Description

A lot of people are obsessed now about followers and re-pins. Now, dont get me
wrong.

Re-pins are important. The more re-pins you have the higher your engagement and
the more your pin shows up on someones feed. But re-pins and followers dont
equate to more traic back to your blog. You can have lots of re-pins and not as much
traic.

So, what you want to do with social media is get those clicks back to your blog and
convert them to subscribers. You do this by having an enticing pin-description. You
need to give people a reason to click through to your site.

And thats where a well-crafted pin description can help. You want to find a way to
incorporate as many Pinterest search words as you can while also sounding
conversational so that people actually click through to read your post.

Have a look at these two descriptions:

13 mistakes parents make when dealing with toddler tantrums.

Are your toddlers tantrums driving you crazy? Wondering how to deal with them?
Here are 13 mistakes you absolutely shouldnt make when dealing with your
toddlers tantrums. You dont want to be doing #7, for sure!

Which one sounds more appealing?

You would be more likely to click on the second one right? You do not want a click-
bait title but you would want your title to be enticing and peek curiosity.

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 Make sure you don't "give it all away" in your pin description, but also try to include
keywords.

Guided search is what I use to find keywords on Pinterest. Guided search are the tiles
that appear after you type in a search term.

The tiles at the top are all part of guided search, and they represent keywords that
people are using to search along with the word that you just typed into search.
Theyre in order from left to right of most to least searched.

When you begin pinning, I suggest using a 50-50 ratio for your own pins and others
pins.

Pinterest Schedulers

You will ultimately need to invest in a Pinterest scheduler. I use two currently.

Boardbooster is great for auto looping which Tailwind does not have at this moment.
But the analytics in Tailwind is far superior to that of Boardbooster.

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 Tailwind (Get the first 100 pins free for a trail)
Boardbooster (Click to get a free trial)

PIN-IT Button
Its important for you to get the PIN-IT Hover button on your images because this
invites people to pin them.

There are lots of PIN-IT Hover buttons that you can use but what I use is the oicial
Pinterest Hover Button. You can download it for free from the Wordpress Plugins
Section.

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 This was a pretty heavy section!

Social media can be a major time drain. Its important to remember that you want to
use social media to get readers back to your site and signed up to your email list so
you can touch base with them. A subscriber is more valuable than a social media
follower.

In the next few chapter were going to cover your blog launch plan. We are so close to
the end!

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 YOUR MINI LAUNCH PLAN

What do you need to have prepared before you launch your blog? Ill give you two
dierent approaches you can take for your launch. You can go with Plan A or B,
depending on which you are more comfortable with.

PLAN A (LOTW)
You launch with a landing page, an opt-in freebie, a thank you page and a welcome
email series.

When someone lands on your site, they see your landing page which promotes your
opt-in.

This leaves you plenty of time to work on the backend. You can start to grow your
email list, connect with your audience and still have time to write your posts and
work on your site in the backend. Use the social media post templates provided in
the workbook to build hype surrounding your launch and your freebie.

If I could go back, I would have chosen Plan A as my blog launch plan.

Heres what you need to start with Plan A:

A landing page
An email service provider
A welcome email and/or welcome email series
An opt-in freebie
A snippet/description of your opt-in freebie to share on Facebook Promo threads
3 Pinterest images linking to your landing page URL
3 social media graphics linking to your landing page URL

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 You can create a coming soon page using a landing page tool such as Thrive landing
pages. Then make that page your front page. Heres how you do it within WordPress.

1. Head to Appearance > Customize

2. Choose Static Front Page.

3. Choose Static Page and choose which page you want to show as your front page.

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 LAUNCH PLAN B (3X5 FRAMEWORK)
Launch plan A is what I recommend. But if you prefer to send readers to your blog
first, heres what you minimally need to launch.

Remember that you do not need to have everything figured out and ready to go
from Day 1. Done is better than perfect.

Three pages
An About me page - Use the About Me page template in the workbook
A Contact me page using a free plugin like Contact Form 7
A Resources page
Three to five posts
Five to seven emails in a welcome email series
Opt-in freebie + landing page to promote your opt-in

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 VISIBILITY ESSENTIALS

Before we head to the chapter on traic and promoting your blog, here are some
essential steps that will help you make the most of your promotion eorts.

1. Ensure you have a favicon installed that little icon that you see in the tab of your
web browser.

If youre on WordPress, simply log into your dashboard, click on Appearance >
Customize > Site Identity. (Or mine was Appearance > Favicon)

Use a single image:Dont use multiple images. A simple, single image works
best.Use letters sparingly: Stick to one to two letters like your initials. No one will be
able to read a full word in a favicon.

2. Pick a picture that you will use across all your social media profiles.

3. Write a short bio so that you dont have to scramble for guest posts. Believe me,
you will be using this a lot. Your bio will change over time, so dont worry about
getting it perfect the first time.

See how mine has evolved:

Previous

Meera is a freelance writer and tad bit of a nerd who loves supporting busy
solopreneurs and bloggers find focus, build authority & stand out online.

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 Current

Meera is a certified email marketing specialist, blogger and a self-professed email

nerd.Sheblogs over at Meera Kothand where she helps bloggers and solopreneurs
find focus, build authority and craft a strategic online presence. She has been
featured on Smart Blogger, Marketing Profs, YFS, Addicted 2 Success and several
other sites. Her goal is to simplify email and help readers to not only create a plan
that grows and nurtures their list, but thats profitable as well.

4. Get yourself a gravatar image.

A gravatar image is what shows up when you comment on other blogs.

Heres how to do it:

Go to Gravatar.com

Sign up for a WordPress account if you dont already have one. Or log in with the
same email and password you use for your WordPress site. Verify your email address
and account.

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 Add image to upload your Gravatar photo. For consistency, use the same picture
across social media.

Assign the new photo to be your Gravatar. You also have the option of assigning
dierent profile pictures for dierent email addresses using the same account.

5. Include your image on the About Page.

6. Be sure that your social media profiles are consistent. Youre using the same profile
picture in all of them. They have consistent headers and brand colors.

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 GROWING YOUR AUDIENCE WITH INTENTIONAL
TRAFFIC AND PROMOTION

I mention intentional traic sources, because not all traic is good traic.

You ultimately want to convert traic to subscribers. You want readers coming to your
site to stick around and engage with your content. While a lot of that has to do with
the quality of your content and your site, some traic sources are known to be not as
sticky as the rest.

Unless youre focusing solely on ads as a monetization strategy, be picky about which
sources of traic you focus on. For instance, traic from stumble upon does not
convert as well for me as traic from Facebook or Pinterest.

There are four key questions you need to address now:

1. How are you going to grow your audience?

Borrow others platforms to get in-front of their audiences
The idea is to capture this audience into your home base so that you can nurture a
relationship with them.
Use Social media
- Focus on one to two platforms that are aligned with your ideal reader. Its
impossible to have a solid presence on every platform. You will end up spreading
yourself too thin.
- Like I mentioned earlier, if youre crushed for time, focus on Pinterest alone.
Pinterest has the ability to drive a lot of traic if you optimize your profile and pins
well.

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 2. How are you going to promote yourself and your blog?

Comment on influencers blog posts

I commented on several influencers blog when I first started out. Youd be surprised
at the number of readers who clicked over to my blog from comments Ive made on
these blogs. Many of them have become subscribers as well.

The intention, though, is not traic or subscribers. The intention is to show that you
can make a valuable contribution to the conversation. And you cant do that by
posting anotherme-too comment: The great postgood job type of comment. To
be noticed online, your comment has to add to the conversation.

Get featured in podcasts and guest posts

Look out for opportunities to get featured on Podcasts or guest posts for others. You
dont have to have a huge following to be featured on a podcast. There are several
business owners at all levels looking to feature people who can add value and
contribute.

3. What medium(s) will you use to build trust and give value?

I used email and blog content to build trust. Yours could be a Facebook group where
youre heavily engaged. That could be your home base. Periscopes and free webinars
are also possible mediums.

That said, remember that you shouldnt rely on social media to build trust. If
Periscope closes shop or Facebook decides to change its algorithm, the huge
audiences you have built on these platforms can vanish in an instant. You need to get
this audience back to your home base.

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 4. Determine what will be your home base.

You dont own anything other than your blog and email list. Your blog is a transient
medium. You can use it for communication. You can have banners across to make
announcements. But you dont have their undivided attention. Email is the only one
that gives you this undivided attention.

I had a really good blogging friend who had a Facebook group of about 8,000 people
just shut down without warning. Gone. Just like that.

Even if you have a Facebook group, even if you do Facebook lives, webinars,
periscopes, keep that as the first step in the funnel. And funnel those people into your
email list.

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 HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO GET TRAFFIC (AND EYEBALLS) TO YOUR
BRAND NEW BLOG

Oer to write guest posts for other Add a link to your blog in your
blogs and include a link to your blog LinkedIn Profile.
in the author bio. Share your new blog posts as status
Comment on influencers posts. updates on LinkedIn.
Pin your blog post on Pinterest. Join relevant LinkedIn groups & post
Join Pinterest group boards & pin links to your content when
your blog posts on the group boards. appropriate.
Do a roundup post and interview Share your blog post on Instagram.
influencers in your niche. Ask them Use hashtags on Instagram to find
to share the interview with their your ideal audience.
audience. Email bloggers who have written
Participate in Facebook group similar blog posts and ask them to
promotion threads. share it with their audience.
Pitch Podcasts. Post a link to your blog post in an
Twitter appropriate sub-reddits.
Set up the Revive post plugin which Answer a relevant question on Quora
tweets your old posts automatically. and link back to your blog post.
Set up a Google+ page and post your Start a Facebook group for your
blog posts there. niche & post your latest blog posts in
the group.

Check out the entire list of 30 traic strategies in the spreadsheet.

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 Pro-tip On How to Make an Exceptional Comment

1. The greet
Always address your host. If its a guest blogger, address your host and the guest
blogger.
2. Give a compliment raising a particular point about the post that you liked or
intrigues you.
3. Heres where you give your take and add to the conversation.
Is there a dierent perspective?
Is there a point they missed out?
Or do you know of a free tool or app that could make something they
mentioned easier?
4. Thank them again and let them know youll be sharing the post (if you are).

Additional Resources: 5 Step Process to deal with Blogger Overwhelm

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 MONETIZING YOUR BLOG

All the work that youve been doing so far is getting your blog ready for
monetization.

In the 90 day task list, I have suggested preparing for your first small digital product at
the end of three - six months. This is a stretch goal. And you should do what youre
comfortable with. But a quick word of advice: Dont wait to monetize your site.

I suggest starting with ailiate marketing immediately and then add on other income
streams. Your first milestone should be to hit that 1K.

You will hit your 1K faster if you have a list and if you have been nurturing that
audience. You have all the foundational pieces for that within this ebook.

Use the following diagram as a gauge of the dierent blog growth stages and the
milestones you should be aiming for.

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 The most popular system in the market proposes selling a $97 digital product
through an email course. While that is definitely one method towards your first 1K, I
propose the 2P (+1) system to make your first 1K and beyond.

The 2P (+1) system is based on having two main sources of blog income and one
supplementary source rather than just relying on one income stream.

P - Your own product

P - Ailiate Products
(+1) Other monetization Strategies
- Sponsored posts
- Services
- Ads

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 You could switch these around depending on which two you want to keep as your
dominant sources of income and which is your supplementary.

Let me walk you through the dierent monetization strategies.

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 YOUR FIRST PRODUCT

Your first product does not have to be a premium course. Here are dierent product
types that are valuable and that people pay for:

Ebook
Masterclass
Mini-course (two to three lessons)
Live workshop

The mistake I made in creating my first product was to go with a big course.

I fell into the online courses are best trap and felt the pressure to create one as well. I
under-estimated the time and resources that would go into creating a modulated
course. If I were to start over, I would start with something smaller. A smaller priced
item that would give people a smaller win. So, if you're just getting your toes wet I
would encourage you to start with a smaller priced item as well.

Smaller Price + Quick Win

But if you've been doing this for some time and if you've waited long enough to
create your first product and you feel like you have the expertise and experience, then
go ahead with a full-fledged course.

Clues to what your first product should be:

1. Is there an opt-in freebie that is converting well for you?

If yes, create an accompanying product to that opt-in freebie. Have a look at this
diagram that I shared in an earlier page as well.

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 Your first product has to sit nicely right after the opt-in that you created. All email
content that youre creating should nudge those people who opted in towards that
product or service.

2. Are you known for a particular topic or do people come to you asking questions
about a particular topic?

3. Are there a certain category of posts that get you the most amount of traic?

These are all clues that will steer you in the direction of the product that you want to
create.

Once you have certain ideas for the type of product you want to create, write targeted
blog posts that show your expertise in the topic. You want your readers to have an
easy association between you and that topic. You want to establish your authority
and expertise in it so that readers trust your views and teachings with regards to that
topic.

Validation
Before you create a a single worksheet or single slide deck for your product, do some
validation.

You need to find out if there is a need for this product in the market or in your niche. If
you find similar products in your market and your niche, it's means that there are

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 others who have had success selling this product and that there are people who want
this product.

Here are some places you can look to validate your idea. Look out for products that
are similar to the one you want to create:

What other bloggers and small businesses are oering

Udemy
Skillshare

There are a few things to look out for when youre doing your market research:
Hook
Look for the hook that other course creators have used. Your hook is the promise of
the product. In many cases the hook is a mixture of promise + timeline.

For example, if someone is oering a weight loss program and youre also thinking
about oering a weight loss program, look at the promise and timeline that your
competitors course is oering.

Do they promise that youll lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks without going hungry or do
they promise to lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks using simple exercises. What exactly are
they helping students achieve and how do they promise to help them achieve that?
Take note of these hooks.

Benefits
Features
Bonuses
Results
Testimonials
What are students saying? You want to look for gaps in the market for what people
want and have not received and where you can fill in with your product.

Price points

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 Your Promise - Craft your own hook

The hook is the promise of your product and what you are helping your students
achieve.

What objections will people raise?

You also want to think about objections potential buyers may have.

Here are some examples:

- I cant lose weight because I'm always going to be hungry
- I cannot go on a diet because I'm always going to be hungry.

For instance with regards to Email Lists Simplified some of the objections that I have
come across and that I've collected from my research are that people believed they
needed some sort of a list to get started with the course or that the tech will be crazy
to figure out.

Think through on what these objections are.

Now that you have your hook and laid out your objections, it's time to outline your
product.

What goes into your product?

Modules
List out all the steps that will help them them achieve your promised result. Then
group these steps into modules. Anything that helps them achieve that promise goes
into the product and anything that doesn't goes out.

Bonuses
Other useful pieces of information that dont directly contribute to your hook and
promise can be added as a bonus. Bonuses dont directly help with delivering the
promise of your product but they are a good to know to enhance your students
results.

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 Creation

These are the basic tools you will need to create your first product.

Microphone (I use the Blue Yeti microphone. This is more pricey but there are lots
of mics at various price points)
Slide Deck (Powerpoint, Google Slides, Pages for Mac)
Screen recording software (Camtasia, Screencast-o-matic)
Smart mock-ups (or something similar)
Landing page toolkit (Thrive Landing Pages or an all-in-one solution like
Teachable)

Pro-tip: When do you go with an ebook vs course?

Ebook is where the content is in a single mode, its purely written but you can
still get your point across. But if you feel your audience would best benefit from more
complimentary resources like videos and worksheets and audio to understand the
message, then youd be better o going with a course.

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 Sales Page Template

1. Main Hook or Promise

2. Show the reader you understand their frustrations and feel their pain

Are you struggling with?
Youre a _______ who is sick of _______

3. Show your reader that you understand what they want to be/do/have

Imagine if..
Wouldnt it be nice if.

4. Introduce your oer as a bridge to where they are and where they want to be

The [oer name] is [what it is] to help you [core benefit here]

5. Paint a picture
Whats included in the course

6. Scarcity bonuses
Why should I say yes right now instead of later
7. Testimonials

8. Guarantee

10. Antidote (address hesitation)

will it work for me if_____
what if I _______

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 Ailiate Marketing

Less is more when it comes to ailiate marketing. Your audience is more likely to trust
you when they see that you are consistent about what you promote.

While I cant fully cover ailiate marketing strategy because thats a course by itself,
Ive personally seen a huge spike in revenue from ailiate marketing after I decided to
get intentional about it.

Once I narrowed down a set of products to promote, I felt confident promoting them
because I knew they would benefit my readers. I promote those ailiate products as I
would my own products. Pick a few products which give you a good commission and
which align with your blog and business. You could also promote ailiate oers which
complement the products and services you already oer on your blog.

On your website, what topics do your audience like to read about? You should look at
your Google Analytics to see what topics bring the most visitors to your website. Is
there a common question your audience is asking? If you notice a recurring question
or theme, you may want to find an ailiate product that is related to that.

Start by picking three ailiate oers. You could pick either:

One big course
One tool
One resource related to your niche (membership or subscription service), or
Three ailiate products that give you the highest ailiate commission

Once you have decided on your ailiate products, you need to create content to
promote it. Content educates your audience. It gets your products in front of your
audience and provides value at the same time.

Here are some ways that you can promote an ailiate product:

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 A tutorial in which you fully explain how to use a product
A video walkthrough
A review of the product
A blog post in which you mention the product.
Interviewing the product or course creator
Interviewing someone who has had success from using the product
An email to your subscribers that promotes the ailiate product.

Make images for these posts and promote them on social media. Look for relevant
opportunities to share oers related to these ailiate oers with your email list.

I have personally had lots of success with my ailiate sales through interviews with
course creators. Here are 2 examples of interviews Ive done:

The secret to making money with ailiate marketing

How this new blogger grew her blog to over 20k page views in just 3 months

I have more than made back my investment in these courses through ailiate sales.

A well stocked Resources Page also creates lots of interest around the products and
services you use for your own blog and business.

THE NO FOLLOW ATTRIBUTE

All ailiate links should also be given the no follow attribute. This means that
youre telling search engines not to give any weight to those links in your post.
Google can penalize you if ailiate links are not no follow, and you dont want that!

I use a plugin called Pretty Link to make those long ailiate links short and to make
it a no follow.

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 How it looks within Pretty Link

Another plugin you can use is the Res Nofollow Checkbox.

For both plugins, you just need to check the box and the no follow attribute is
automatically added within the post.

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 It sounds scary, but its actually really easy to make links no follow with a simple
plugin.

Additional Resources: Making Sense of Ailiate marketing Course

Ads

I have personally not used ads but know of many successful bloggers who do. And
from my research, most of them use Media.Net.

I was skeptical about the type of ads served and got in touch with the Media Net team
to find out more from them about their ad program.

The type of ads they serve on your site is tied to the content on your site. You also
have control over the placement and type of ads shown. The ads are also mobile
responsive.

They have clear program guidelines and are quick to approve applications (usually
within two days).

Here's a link to a videothat explains what contextual ads are and also about their
association with the Yahoo! Bing network.

If youre keen on hosting ads on your site, signing up through this link will get you
abonus of 10%on top of your regular earnings for three months.

Additional resource: Why use media.Net

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 Working with Brands

Pitching brands is very similar to pitching a guest post template. Follow up with a PDF
proposal once you get the green light after your first email.

A useful resource to find out how much you can charge for your social and page view
stats is Social Bluebook.

Heres a template you can use.

Hi [first name]

Im [your name] with [your brand].

I recently discovered [state product] and love [state benefits of the product]. I have an idea
for a project [name of project] and would love to feature [state products name].

Just to give you an idea of the reach of the posts: My site gets about X page views a month
and has Y Pinterest Followers and Z Instagram Followers [state relevant social media stats].
I also have over X email subscribers. My last post working with Brand ABC was pinned over
Y number of times and had X number of views over a x month span [insert time span]

My audience are mostly ABC. You will find more details in my media kit that Ive attached.

If youre keen on hearing more, I could send a detailed proposal over.

I hope youll find this to be a good fit for [state brand name]. Thank you so much for your
time and consideration

[your name]
[Professional signature at bottom of email]

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 Services or Coaching

One of the quickest ways to monetize your blog is by oering a service. I dont
promote my coaching services heavily but I do have a page on my blog and have it
linked up to a typeform. I get about one to two inquiries a week requesting coaching,
and I only take them on if they are a good fit.

But you could switch this up to make it one of your dominant income sources.

You need a page on your site dedicated to promoting your services or coaching.

Heres what you should include in a services page:

Hook/Headline addressing their pain point and struggle
How you can help them
Why they should trust you
Testimonials
How can they contact you

Go out and look for clients in Facebook groups. Use the search box in Facebook
groups to search for your target word in relation to your service. Be helpful in
Facebook groups and look for collaboration or service threads where business
owners look for particular services.

Additional resources: The secret to monetizing your blog by oering a service

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 YOU MADE IT TO THE END!

You have everything you need to go out and launch your blog.

Yes, you do! You may be tempted to get your hands on more ebooks, more courses,
more blogposts and podcasts but I urge you to put those aside and get to work. Its
overwhelming in the first few months. Everything will seem like an uphill battle, but
dont lose hope.

Even if you focus on one chapter a week, youll be much further along in a month.
And dont be discouraged seeing how the rest are doing. Focus on your journey and
stop comparing it to someone elses middle.

Good luck and like I said at the start of the ebook, I'm rooting for you!

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