These are the steps I took right after creating my domain. This is to be read after the blog on the first step to blog writing.
- Website enhancements. Some basics are simple but I learned that you need plugins for inserting a Subscribe line for example. Don’t feel demotivated by this step, it’s a long learning journey. I still haven’t made my website 100% functional, what I mean by this is that each click actually does the function it’s supposed to do. I’m about 85% there!
- Read 100 of the top blogger’s blogs. This is my personal target, to identify thematics of successful bloggers.
- I’ve read 24 so far. I’d identified a few bloggers whom I’ve read and feel that are good for me to reference. They are Pat Flynn from Smartpassiveincome.com, Michelle Schroder-Gardner from Makingsenseofcents.com and AllInOneSEO. I particularly find the emails I get (upon installing) from AllInOneSEO very helpful as they send comprehensive lists of to dos for SEO optimization.
- Create Pinterest account and ‘Claim’ the blog website on Pinterest to link the blog to the pins.
- Understand how Rich pins work – I’m not 100% sure what this is still, after reading/watching about 15 different explanations but I’ll figure out along the way
- Google Analytics research. Not the easiest either but I’ve got it working after so many trial and errors. I think mine worked once I installed Monster Insights plugin. This shows me users visited per day and average time spent on my site and which were the top sites. Currently, 1 month into my blogging, I have 49 users ◡̈
- Install All In One SEO plugin. This scores my pages, posts and how I can improve the score. I find this very useful.
- Continue to identify steps to take based on top bloggers’ tips
Lessons learned in the past week
Scott Adams’ message from his book on How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big is to set goals AND to always create a system to meet the goal. So the 8 steps above I think is my system to make my blog a success. I’m not 100% completed with each of these steps so I need to continue to work on these, especially #2. The more I consistently improve and progress in these steps and go further (e.g. analyse what Google Analytics or Monster Insights or All In One SEO tells me I should do to optimize more). #successinprogress
Yesterday, I watched a really good podcast on an interview with Dickie Bush. It was so good that I watched the 2 hour video twice in 2 days! 3 key takeaways that I will take action on.
First, to pursue the business if the business 1. has no downsides (No, even if nothing comes out of this blog, I’d have shared useful tips, learned and researched other entreprenuers along the way) 2. has exponential upsides (Yes! Passive income plus this is what I love to do, do share what I’ve learned and I believe in the value I’m creating for the people who’re also following a new blogger or a digital entrepreneur’s journey) and 3. is sustainable for me to see the benefits of compound interest from 2 (Yes!).
Second, to identify the bottleneck and to work on that first instead of other nice to dos. This will ensure I get the biggest ROI from my business at any point. I love this. I now need to identify my bottleneck, I think it’s to get the domain out there as I believe in my content. Before that though, I need more content. Hence my weekly blogs ◡̈ Need to think more about this point over the next few weekends. He said to identify the bottleneck, inhale resources into removing that bottleneck, and iterate to work on the next bottleneck.
Third, to recognize early that this journey to success will be a long one and hence to enjoy the process. To constantly remind myself where I came from and the problems that I face now vs the problems I faced earlier. Love these 3 advices amongst the others he shared in the podcast.
My next action
With this, I think I’ll next create a Resources page as I’d like a page with all links to the resources that I’ve read/listened to that’s helped me.
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