The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 42. Find your blogging community with The Blog Depot

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Have you ever wished you had a community in blogging? If so, this podcast episode today is just for you. We are so excited to share more information about The Blog Depot and how it can help you to focus on the foundational pieces of blogging, have the support you need before you get started, and an online course with modules that help break down blogging for you so that you don’t feel overwhelmed when you want to start your blog one day. Our podcast listeners even get a special offer so tune in and check out the show notes (link below) for more information!Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join the waitlist for The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode42

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Have you ever wished that you had a community in blogging? If so, this podcast episode today is just for you. And Jennifer and I are really excited to share information with you about how we can offer you help with that. So we are talking to you today actually about a program that we've created called the Blog Depot. And we want to talk to you about, first of all, why. Why is having a community and blogging so important? I know that when I started, I had Jennifer already as a resource, as somebody to talk to. And I can't imagine actually going through it all without someone.

But Jennifer didn't. Jennifer started this whole crazy journey all by herself. So Jennifer, thinking back to when you started, is this something that you wish that you would have had? Oh, a hundred percent. I think that's what drives me now is just thinking about what I would have wished for or hoped for, what would have helped me in those beginning months, years of blogging? Yeah. Yeah. When we created Spark Media several years ago, that was our biggest intention was to create a community that we wish that we had from the get-go. So while I had Jennifer, she was my one and only resource to go to. And so we wanted more for people.

And why was that important? Well, one, if you've considered starting a blog, then you know right now that there is a ton of information to sift through. And it is hard to know who is telling the truth, quote unquote truth, who is the best resource, who is a valuable resource, who can you really trust. And that can just be a really rocky place to be when you have something that you want to do and share with the world, but you don't really know exactly how to do it. And you're looking at all this information online or via social media, and you're like, I really don't know who to trust. Also, not a lot of people know other bloggers in real life. I think it's actually becoming more and more mainstream.

I actually know several bloggers in real life here in Kansas City. I've gotten to know them just being in the space and everything. But when I started, I only knew Jennifer, who just happened to be my next door neighbor. And so it's not something that people understand right off. Like, oh, you're a blogger and they get it. I mean, I will say there are a lot more bloggers, but there are a lot more people who do not understand how we make money blogging, how this is actually a career, and why we spend all day doing this. That is a question that comes up often. So not having a lot of people in your real life who understand why you're blogging is another

reason why we wanted to create this community of people. We wanted to have that support system because we know how valuable it is. Having that support system is key to help you stay motivated and focused because just like any other career or anything that we try to work towards, we all get a little distracted at times. And so sometimes we need somebody to kind of rein us back and pull us in and say, Hey, remember why you started? And I know you can do this. And you're motivated by the people that you're surrounded by. So this is why it's been so important for us to create a community via our courses, via our podcast. And if you're a follower of ours on social media,

that is why it's so important to us. We did not want to be the type of people who learned about blogging and then just kept all that information to ourselves. That's not cool. To be honest, we don't believe in keeping secrets and we think that there's space for everybody. So this leads us into why we created the blog depot. We've had the ultimate blog bootcamp for several years now and where we help people create their blogs and design them, teaching them about content creation and SEO and all of that. But what we found is there was a need for people in those early stages to really get the information that they needed to where when they joined the bootcamp or when they decide to really go for it and start their blog, they had all that foundation set. So the blog depot is for those people who want help in those early stages.

Now I want to make sure I speak to something here. There's some of you listening who are like, nah, I don't need that. Those foundational pieces don't really matter. And I'm here to tell you as a blogger, as a blog coach, you do. They are important. It is really important to know who you're talking to, what your niche is, the right platform to be on, what the components of a good site is and the good content. Those are really important. You guys, please don't miss that. Please don't tell yourself, I can get this all figured out and just like throw it all together. I promise you that you will wish someday that you took the time in the beginning to set

the foundation, to set you up for success. Otherwise, I guarantee you, you're going to come back and you're going to say, well, darn it. I have to start over or now I have to build this in a different way. And I'm not saying that to discourage you from doing this on your own. I just want to be real with you. And I think that that's important for you to have an honest friend here who can talk to you and tell you like, hey, these are really important pieces that you

need when creating a blog. And so let's talk a little bit, Jennifer, about who a good fit would be for the Blog Depot. Yeah, because we obviously have different ways that we help people. And the Blog Depot is something fairly new that we've created. And we did this because we felt that there was a certain person or certain people who needed this particular step, who needed some of this foundational knowledge before they dive into setting up their blog. So if you are new to the idea of blogging, maybe you want to start a blog, but it's like, you've looked at the information and you're like, I have no idea where to start. This is totally overwhelming. The blog depot is going to be able to help you.

Or maybe you've already created all these ideas in your head. You know, I think when we get excited about something, we, we are like ready. We are ready to dive in. We have so many ideas, but we really need to refine those and figure out what our goal is, what we're wanting to do with this blog, how it's going to serve us, and how it's going to serve the people in our new blogging community that we are creating. So if you want somebody to bounce all those ideas off of, somebody to help you refine all of those ideas, you can do all of that within the blog depot. And if you know you want to start a blog in the future,

so you're not in a huge rush and you really want to take some time and think through things before you just jump in, you want to make sure you're doing the right things the right way the first time, the blog depot is going to be able to help you with that. And we're going to talk about all of the things that you can learn specifically in the blog depot so you can figure out if that's going to be a good fit for you or not. Do you want to start building a foundation for your blog? Do you have questions you need to answer before you start? Do you wish that you had someone there to hold your hand through the process? We are so excited to share that we have created a membership community just for you.

The Blog Depot is an online course and membership community that will teach you the foundations you need to build a blog. We teach you about niching down, finding the right mindset, the best platform to build a blog on, and so much more. With monthly coaching calls inside the community, you will find the support you need to finally make your dream a reality. The doors are open to join this amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to help you. Find the link to join the blog depot in the show notes. So what are you going to learn in the blog depot? And now that you know, kind of

who's that, who that is for some of the things that we're going to talk about with you in the blog depot, it's an online course, first and foremost. So it's an online course that has nine modules and each module is, is pretty quick and easy. Actually, it's not going to take you a significant amount of time each week, but we dive through some really important things in there, such as what a blog is and what it isn't, plus some blogging lingo. That's one of the things that we learn from our students all the time is the terminology in blogging is overwhelming, honestly, from the start, because this is a whole new language when you talk about blogging. And that alone can be really overwhelming for people as they get started. So we kind of break that down. We take it to like an elementary level

and teach it to you. That way you don't feel overwhelmed by it when you go to start your blog someday. In the blog depot, you're going to discover the real why, like why you want to blog and how you're willing to fit that into your life. That's something that I think is really important to consider here is blogging is a beautiful, amazing, wonderful career that can fit into the life that you want. And so you have to ask yourself the questions of how is it going to fit? Do I have the time that it's going to take in order to do this? Because it does take time, quite honestly. Do I have the energy to

put forth this? Do I have the drive and motivation? Those are all really important questions to ask yourself as you are considering starting a blog. Mindset is another huge piece. So how to overcome any limited beliefs that you might have, like what's holding you back? If you've wanted to blog for a while, why haven't you started yet? What is it? What is the story that you're telling yourself as to why you haven't gotten that blog up and running? Is it that you need some help? Is it that you need a community? Do you need more resources? Or do you just need somebody to bounce ideas off of like Jennifer was talking about? In the Blog Depot, we also work with you on your niche. And I would say that this is something, this is an area that we really do focus a lot on with people in there who need to refine their niche because a lot of people are

passionate about a lot of things, but we want to help you find a niche that can help you stand out and how to do that in the best possible way. We are all multifaceted. We all have multiple things that we are excited about and want to share about, but how can we do that in the best way to help our blog grow and our traffic to do the same? That is a really important question. And that's something that we dive into within the depot as well. Getting a clear picture of who your reader will be. And many of you who join the depot, you might not have a social media following, so you don't really know who you're talking to quite yet, but you can have an idea of who you want to attract and decide what do they need? How are you going to serve them? What solutions can you provide to the problems that

they have? It's asking yourself those really important questions that if you start from the get-go having that solid foundation laid, I promise you, it will help you when you go to create content down the road. We also talk with you about branding your blog from logos to colors, our suggestions, how to keep it simple, how to not let that piece hold you back forever. Let me just tell you this. Logos and colors do not need to take you weeks to figure out. No one cares that much, if I'm honest.

You need to make sure that your colors are the right way that people can actually read them and things like that. But a lot of people get really hung up on the design aspect of it. And so we talked to you about why not to do that, really, but also simple ways to get that done on your blog. And while it is visually important, it's not something that you need to spend a ton of time on in regards to thinking about the foundations and actually setting up your blog. Also, and you know that we're passionate about this, is learning what

platform to create your blog on and really going deep diving into why it's important to choose a platform that is best for you and deciding what platform you should be on in order to achieve the greatest success that you can. We talk about how to create a self-hosted site with a great user experience, and then how to decide your main content pillars. So the main things that you're going to talk about. We also give you recommendations for themes, plugin, and email marketing platforms within the depot. And all of that kind of makes up the different modules that we offer.

And so like I said, it's an online course with 9 modules that you work through on your own time. And that was a really important piece to us. One, that you weren't spending a significant amount of time on them because while these are important, really the bulk of this is going to be on you to figure out and you to work through on your own. We just wanted to give you the framework to ask yourself those important questions. And also we have a community aspect within the depot. And so it includes an online forum that you can ask questions as you are in the course and membership. So having a course is one thing and that's great. There's a lot of courses out there, but we firmly believe that having that community aspect is what makes

the offerings that we have different. We don't want to just have you buy a course and like send you on your way. We want to engage with you. We don't want to just have you buy a course and send you on your way. We want to engage with you. We want to create a community with you and we want to support you. And so that's why the offerings that we have do have that piece because we find that a lot of you who are thinking about blogging or starting your blog, you need that and you want that. And those of you who don't have that sometimes quit before you ever even get started. And so we want to be that community for you. So that was really important to us to have that online forum for you to ask those questions

as you're diving through the materials and connecting with other students. Even on top of that, you get a live monthly coaching call with Jennifer and I via Zoom. And we talk about some of the foundational principles more in depth that we share in the Depot, but we also get to talk to you directly and see where you're at, how we can help you, how we can support you and how we can help you find your next best steps. I want to be clear here that the blog Depot is not going to help you set up your blog. So it is not a course that is designed to help you create your blog. This is setting up the foundational pieces. Don't miss that though, because that's important. It is the important step before setting up your

blog. That way, when you go to set up your blog someday, you know exactly what you need, who you're talking to, and how you're going to achieve it. Honestly, at this point, I feel like any of us, even as experienced bloggers, can go back through some of these steps. That's how important they are. So thinking back now to the question you asked me at the beginning of this episode, I'm like, this is exactly what I needed. I would have loved to have had somebody walk me through all of these things so that I could better understand my audience, what my purpose was, what my niche was, and what I needed to have technically in order to have a blog that was optimized and sound and ready to go. So I'm excited about the Blog Depot because I feel

like we're going to be able to really help so many people with those things that we would have loved to have had from the very beginning. So because we love you guys so much and we really appreciate you listening to our podcast, we wanted to give you a special offer. So the blog depot is actually only $47 a month and you can join for one month. You can join and stay in month after month. As you work through these different things, it's totally up to you. It's totally at your own pace. But for our very special podcast listeners, we also wanted to give you 50% or half off your first month when you join the blog depot. So for podcast listeners only, if you want to join the blog depot, you can use code. It is UBP50. And we will put this in the show notes along with the link and you can join the blog depot and you get your first month for

half off. So just come try it out. see what you think. We would love to have you. If you have questions and you want to know if this is the right fit for you, we are more than happy to talk through that with you. So just reach out to us. Yep. Anytime you can send us an email, find us on social and connect with us there. We are here to support you and encourage you and help you walk along this blogging journey. Whether you are a beginner, whether you've been blogging for a while, we just want you to know that you're a valuable piece of this community and we couldn't do this without you. So we hope to see some of you in the depot and I hope that you found this episode valuable. If you did, we would love to have a rating and review that helps this podcast grow

and helps us help other people just like you who are wanting to grow their blogs. So thanks for tuning in today and we will see you next week. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog,

join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.