Setting Up Your Blog
WordPress is free, and despite its security loopholes and constant updating, it’s my preferred platform. You can install WordPress in under ten minutes (they say five, but if you’ve never done it before, it might be more like ten). Next up, ensure you make sure you do basic SEO for your WordPress blog so it will do as well as possible in the search engines once you follow through on all the steps below. Get that design (and framework like the Thesis Theme if you can) and you’re ready to go.
Be Real
Before you write a single post, I’d like to offer up some advice. BE REAL. Don’t be who you think readers want you to be. Don’t be just like the person writing for the most popular blog in your niche. BE YOU. Being you may not get you the most readers, but it will get you PASSIONATE readers.
I was talking with a very popular blogger a while back. His subscriber list trumps mine many times over. When I made a joke about that, he said, “Yeah, but your readers trust you, they listen to you – because you never bullshit them – you are what you are. I may be more popular in numbers, but your entire audience LISTENS.” I’ve long said I’d rather have 5K READERS vs. 50K subscribers. And it’s true. You may not be everything to everyone, but by being real, you will be “real” to YOUR audience. And that’s the goal. If you plan to make money online, it’s not about “numbers” but rather about a following. And people can see right through “fake” – so be REAL.
I curse like a sailor… I very regularly offend people. But I also don’t bullshit on Sugarrae. What I say is what I’m thinking and not who I am “trying to be” to please the masses. You want the audience who likes you as you truly are, not as you try to be. A bullshit personality can only go so long before it’s found out.
WordPress is free, and despite its security loopholes and constant updating, it’s my preferred platform. You can install WordPress in under ten minutes (they say five, but if you’ve never done it before, it might be more like ten). Next up, ensure you make sure you do basic SEO for your WordPress blog so it will do as well as possible in the search engines once you follow through on all the steps below. Get that design (and framework like the Thesis Theme if you can) and you’re ready to go.
Be Real
Before you write a single post, I’d like to offer up some advice. BE REAL. Don’t be who you think readers want you to be. Don’t be just like the person writing for the most popular blog in your niche. BE YOU. Being you may not get you the most readers, but it will get you PASSIONATE readers.
I was talking with a very popular blogger a while back. His subscriber list trumps mine many times over. When I made a joke about that, he said, “Yeah, but your readers trust you, they listen to you – because you never bullshit them – you are what you are. I may be more popular in numbers, but your entire audience LISTENS.” I’ve long said I’d rather have 5K READERS vs. 50K subscribers. And it’s true. You may not be everything to everyone, but by being real, you will be “real” to YOUR audience. And that’s the goal. If you plan to make money online, it’s not about “numbers” but rather about a following. And people can see right through “fake” – so be REAL.
I curse like a sailor… I very regularly offend people. But I also don’t bullshit on Sugarrae. What I say is what I’m thinking and not who I am “trying to be” to please the masses. You want the audience who likes you as you truly are, not as you try to be. A bullshit personality can only go so long before it’s found out.