I love lists. But even more, I love to break a list down into some serious meat and potatoes. That’s why I created a 7-step program for becoming a leading blog. This is kind of like an alcoholics anonymous program. If you stick with it, you can be a leading blog in 6 months or less! If you break away from the program, it can mean the ultimate doom of your blogging future..
My 7-step program is based on a few of my past posts, and I decided to bring them into one gigantic article for your convenience. I hope you enjoy this article, and please leave a comment below.
The 7 Steps
- Your Layout Must Stand Out
- Collect Subscribers From The Start
- Establish Your Content FIRST
- Communities Take Care Of Each Other
- Being A Graceful Guest
- Utilizing The Entire Tool
- Make It Manage Itself
Your Layout Must Stand Out
Utilize your layout. It will be pretty tough to stand out if you have a layout that isn’t customizable and has been downloading by a few thousand other bloggers out there. If you download a free theme, get one that allows you to upload a new background and adjust other styling features. Or at the least, get one that stand out in asthetics. If at all possible, hire a designer to create a custom theme for you. I currently charge $699 to design custom Wordpress themes (this may change by the time you read this).
If you ever want to stand out, you really have to make your blog memorable. You also need to ensure that your best content is reachable with little effort on the part of your readers. This might mean that you have to place the popular posts as a top widget in your sidebar. Your best content is what will receive the most comments. It just makes sense to place those in front where people can see them. This helps you establish your authority in your niche and will help you grow your followers and subscribers.
Obviously, if you are going to grow your followers and subscribers, you need to make sure you place your newsletter signup and twitter link front and center to make it easy for them. People love convenience, and by placing your newsletter on top, along with a 1-step process to subscribe, you are likely to secure a new subscriber.
Your layout is your image. You don’t have to change it on a regular basis, but you do have to create a brand for yourself that’s lasting.
Collect Subscribers From The Start
I actually made this mistake, and learned from it before it was too late. The mistake? Not having a newsletter from the beginning. If you want to be a leading blogger, you need to build your list RIGHT AWAY! Your list will be your biggest and best marketing tool that will allow you to:
- Notify readers of updates and new articles.
- Promote your affiliate offers and get clicks/conversions.
- Sell direct advertising on your blog and within your newsletter.
Your newsletter is very important, and delaying putting one into motion will be detrimental to your blogs success.
There are some major blogs out there that teach what I teach, but they tend to tell bloggers that it is a good idea to send a couple of free info packed newsletters, and then one affiliate promotion a month. I will never and in no way send out a newsletter with nothing but an affiliate offer in it. If I wanted to direct a subscriber to an offer that I deemed worthy, I would link to it within my info packed content. I despise newsletters that send out even one issue that had nothing more than a sales pitch. Those are the kinds of newsletters that I hit the “unsubscribe” link on, never to return.
I love my newsletter, and I am careful with what I send. I am so worried about losing even one subscriber, so I take care to do a few rounds of quality control checking before I hit the send button. Don’t worry about frequency with the newsletter, just worry about quality. It is good however to do it weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Daily should be avoided unless you have a 1-week program or something in order to create a quick demand for your newsletter.
Establish Your Content FIRST
When you first start out a blog, it is nothing but a blank canvas with the words “hello world” on it. Turning that into a community jammed with traffic is no easy process. You have to realize that you need to provide the quality stuff right from the get-go, even though you have absolutely no readers to be impressed by it. Don’t worry. If you follow my 7 step program in it’s entirety, this will not be an issue as you will have even those first articles packed with comments in no time at all.
Your best content should be published every single day. If you have to wonder even for a second if it is worth of posting, then chances are it’s not. Whether or not your articles are short, medium length, or in great detail, you need to ensure it is your best. If you make a mistake of publishing less than worthy content, don’t have a panic attack. It happens to the best of us, and it is something you learn by.
I like to write content like this 7-step program because lists to great with readers and commentary. It allows you to look at your topic in a bulleted list, and break down that content in a way that keeps the readers attention. Your content is a translation of the thoughts in your head. Do you want people to think you are a nutball?
Most importantly, quality control your content. I often see articles with some major misspellings and grammar issues. I am a subscriber of a few major blogs, and I recently downloaded one of their PDF blogging guides to see how they are faring. It turned out that they had some serious misspellings and missing words within the first paragraph which made me shutter.
Communities Take Care Of Each Other
New blogs seem to lack the love that established once seem to be teaming with. But not to worry. Even if you have a single great article on your blog, you can get it jumping with traffic and commentary with little effort. My wife did! When you first publish your article, it is time to go out there and comment on other blogs. Commenting on other blogs is what will bring you immediate traffic to your own blog.
How do you go about finding said blogs? Search for them. Do a Google search for your niche subject along with the word “blog” and see what comes out on top. Go to a blog with lots of comments and comment on it. Then go to the blogs that belong to the people commenting on that blog, and comment on their blogs. This is an easy process, and will result in people clicking on your blog link and commenting on yours!
So many people fail to understand how important it is to comment on other blogs. I wrote a short article recently and sent it out in my newsletter about this very subject. If you are not a subscriber, you are missing out on free tips by the way.
At first, I failed to take my own advice. But as soon as I did, I noticed that my commentators were regular. Now, I spend every single day commenting on other blogs. It is easy to find articles to comment on too. The great thing about my niche in “making money blogging” is that I can comment on pretty much any blog out there. My entire target reader group is blog owners!
Being A Graceful Guest
This is a major traffic generator. The great thing about guest posting on other blogs related to my own is that I only have to do it once, and that article will bring me traffic from then on as long as that blog is still in business. Another great thing about guest posting is that you get to introduce your writing style to an already established readership. That readership becomes your own if those readers love what you write.
I have recently guest posted on multiple blogs, and I notice traffic from those guest articles every day. I also notice that the referrals end up turning into commentators on my own blog.
Guest posting means that you have to write your best content exclusively for another blog. A bad move would be to write an article as a guest post, then republish that article on your own blog, or some article site. That sort of conduct will result in you getting a bad reputation. Guest posting is about sharing your knowledge with others, and providing unique content for the blog you guest post on.
While it would be great to be able to guest post on the biggest blogs in your niche, it is not your main goal. Your goal should be to guest on blogs with small and medium readerships because those are the ones that will be likely to accept your article, and become long-standing friends with you to help promote your work in the future.
Don’t underestimate the power of a small to medium sized blog. One day, that blog might be a leading content source. And with them as your friend, you will realize that you have a powerful ally.
Utilizing The Entire Tool
Ok Guys. This doesn’t mean what you think it does 
when I talk about utilizing the entire tool, I am talking about the features of social networks and other websites that allow you to network with others.
An example of a tool that I have under-utilized in the past is Twitter’s search feature. When I post an article on my blog, it automatically published a partial description and link to my Twitter status. What I failed to do was to tag it with #Blog which will help me get found for that search word. The great features of Twitter allow you to tag search phrases, and also direct your message at a person you want to see it with the @ symbol. This will help you get Twitter followers because when that person replies to you, their own followers will see it and may potentially follow you as well!
Another recent tool I have decided to utilize was my facebook fan page. I started it because I have a pretty big network on Facebook, and that number is growing closer to the maximum every day. Who am I to neglect this potential traffic source? So I created the fan page so that I can provide unique content just for it. Then I can draw the fans back to my blog and turn them into regulars and subscribers. Never underestimate the power of a 3rd party tool which was developed to help you network socially.
Make It Manage Itself
The great thing about Wordpress is that I can use it’s various features, and the plugin functionality to take care of redundant tasks for me. An example would be to automatically link certain keywords and keyphrases to pages or other sites. Even affiliate links. An example of me doing this would be with the phrase “my newsletter” which will direct you to sign up *HINT*HINT*!
Another great tool I use with my blog is oiopublisher which allows me to automate the sales of my direct ads here on the blog. If you want to buy a text link in the sponsored section of my right sidebar, then it is as easy as one – two – three. You input your information and pay. Then wham bam thank you mam! Your ad is good to go on my blog!
Automating tasks that would normally take precious time from your ability to comment on other blogs and write great content for yours would be ignorant to pass up. It is plain sacrilegious to do it any other way.
Summary
Your blog might be a blank canvas, but there is no reason for you to be lost in the crowd. Think of your blog as one of your greatest assets and take out insurance on it. Also, during the 7-step process, make sure to make a daily or multi-daily backup of your blog files and database like I do. It really sucks butt-monkeys to wake up to a message that says “You have been hacked by Allah!” That crap just makes me want to join the Army. But when I have backups, I am less focused on revenge and can go back to making my blog great.
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Taking a risk every now and then is what puts you into the global success lottery. Without risk, you would die a poor struggling individual. Even people playing a $1 a month lottery ticket are at least attempting to take a risk. They risk a dollar, and have a chance to win a million dollars. 
I bet you are wondering how in the hell can someone stealing end up earning you money? Well, I will tell you but not yet. Keep reading and I will get to it in good time. Piracy can be a major setback for someone who is trying to protect their copyright and ensure they are paid for licenses to their work.
His latest post about focus and planning while creating solid goals was excellent. Although I still have no idea what the hell coconuts have to do with anything.