Your Blogging Mentor

Recently, with the launch of my newest course, 5 Days to a Successful Blog Launch, I’ve received a lot of emails from new and aspiring bloggers asking me what, exactly, is needed to start a blog.

You might be surprised (and relieved!) to know that it’s not a lot. 🙂 While my main blog, MoneySavingMom.com, is quite complex now, it didn’t start out that way.

Starting a blog off with only a few necessary components will enable you to really put your time and effort into building your brand, your content, and your audience without having to worry about more complex marketing systems and complicated plugins upfront. And I’m all about keeping things as simple as possible!

To start off, here are the few things I recommend you start with in order to get your blog up, running, and ready for content:
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In 2004, I started an online business. My long-term goal was to build something that would earn a part-time side income and allow me to stay home while my husband was in law school.

I never would have dreamed that 13 years later, I would be running a large blog, writing books, speaking to audiences around the country, and have a small team working for me.

Many times, people look at me and only see the accomplishments and success. What people don’t see is the hours, days, weeks, months, and years I worked very, very hard and saw little return on all my investment. They don’t see the many, many times I’ve come so close to shutting it all down from frustration and discouragement.

There have been some gloriously rewarding moments in the process, but there have been many more mundane and difficult seasons along the way. Continue Reading

I’ve talked to so many people over the past few years who really want to start a blog, but they are plain scared of actually doing it.

They have great ideas and dreams. They have big visions. They have high hopes and aspirations. But when it really comes down to doing it, they feel overwhelmed and scared.

Maybe you can relate? Perhaps you are asking yourself questions like:

• What if I start the blog and then nobody by my mom reads it?
• Do I really have anything to offer to the world that is different than the 152 billion-ish blogs currently in existence?
• What if I run out of things to write about?

Or maybe you’re feeling like you are just inadequate. You feel like you aren’t a good writer, you don’t have any special gifts, you don’t know how to set a blog up, the techie stuff scares you, and you’re afraid to market yourself to others.

If you have felt any of these things, here’s what I want you to hear: I get you. So, SO much!Continue Reading

A friend emailed me distraught over what she should do as a blogger. She wants to write. She loves writing. But she was feeling so frustrated and stressed over all the stuff she felt like she “had” to be doing in order to keep up her blog.

She didn’t want to have to devote most of her time online to updating Facebook, posting pictures to Instagram, interacting on Twitter, networking, writing guest posts, and trying to figure out new social networks.

She just wants to write and live her life. I get that.Continue Reading

I haven’t set up my own blog yet; I’m stuck on a decision I have to make before I can really begin. How do I figure out what topic I should blog about? There seem to be blogs on pretty much every topic imaginable, so I know I could write about any topic, but how do I figure out what kinds of topics people would be interested in reading about? – Christopher

This is such a great question, Christopher, and one that many people have. Here’s my encouragement to you and anyone else who is considering starting a blog and wondering what topic would be good for them to choose as their focus:

Take out a sheet of paper or open up a blank page on your computer screen and answer these questions. There are no right or wrong answers. Just write exactly what comes to mind in answer to these — anything and everything you think of:Continue Reading

I am wondering if some of us are getting into blogging too late? Are there just too many blogs out there to really be able to get in on it all?

I have so many ideas, but then I do a little research and see that there are a ton of people already posting on these things. I feel like another blog is not needed.

So how do you make your blog something people need to read? The really successful blogs either look like they had money to put into it before making money or they have been around since the beginning. What are your thoughts? -Debby

Can I just encourage you, Debby? I don’t believe in any way that the market is saturated when it comes to blogs.

I know others disagree with me, but I hold to that statement because I believe that everyone has a unique perspective, everyone has a different writing style, and everyone has their own story. These three things will set apart your blog from anyone else’s in the world.

Think about book ideas and business ideas: there are millions of them out there. And yet, every week, many new books are published and many new businesses are started. Not all of them will succeed, but many of them will make a difference.Continue Reading

Ever feel like quitting your blog? Megan asked me a question about that recently:

I read your post about the three most important things to do after you start a blog, and I enjoyed it. I do have a question though that I’ve had for a long time, and was excited to see you were accepting questions! It’s a question I have asked myself every day for the past 6 months: What do you do when you’ve tried everything the experts have said to do, it’s still not working and you don’t have any extra money to invest in any more courses, consultations, or books?

I’ve been blogging for over a year now. I have read article after article, changed ad placements, guest posted, added better pictures to posts, wrote personal posts, have done TV interviews, have reached out to other bloggers, constantly retweet other bloggers, share content from other bloggers, and have recently re-done my site.

I still struggle to get traffic and “conversions”. I may have 98 views on a coupon deal post, and only 1 coupon print. Honestly, I’m exhausted. I feel like I wasn’t “cut out” to be a blogger…only thing is, I love writing and always have. I’m at my wit’s end. I’ve tried everything I have ever read to do and it just doesn’t work…what am I supposed to do now?

I’m not sure if this is something everyone at some point has struggled with, or not. I just didn’t think I would still be struggling after a year. -Megan

Can I just encourage you, Megan? I think all of us have felt this way at one time or another. Personally, I know that I’ve felt this way multiple times. In fact, I probably feel like quitting every few months.

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