The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 96. 5 Things You Can Do Today to Start Your Blog Tomorrow

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

If you are ready to start your blog, we are giving our 5 top tips on this episode! Between deciding on your niche and having the right mindset and all of the tips in between, we are breaking down these down so that you can feel confident in starting your blog. Tune in to hear all of our tips and be sure to check out the show notes for more information!If you are ready to start your blog, join the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp today!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode96

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. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Well, it's mid-October. So we are heading into a really busy time of year with all the holidays coming up. So today's episode is going to be a quick one, but it's going to have a lot of takeaways. And today we are talking about what you can do today to start a blog tomorrow. So if you hit play on this episode, it's likely that you're at that place that you're asking yourself, okay, I think I want to start a blog. What do I do? And Jennifer and I want to give you some really tangible things that you can do today to set yourself up to start a blog tomorrow. So we're just going to dive right in.

Number one, decide your niche and your audience. If you've heard us say that once, you've heard us say that 1000 times probably, but it truly is one of the most foundational pieces that you can do to prepare yourself to start your blog. Sit down with yourself, get out a pen and paper or open up a Google Doc or whatever you use and really brainstorm a list of like three to five main topics that you could cover in blog post ideas. And I want this to just be kind of like a brain dump at first. Just lay it all down. What are you going to write about? What do you think you're going to do? And then ask yourself where the themes lie. What do I think I can write on most of the time? The reason why you want to narrow this down and

why this is important is because when you are talking to a specific group of people, you are going to be able to create content much easier and people are going to know who you are much faster when you are more streamlined with what you're talking about and who you're talking to. So that is why this is... It truly is one of the key foundations when it comes to starting a blog. So if you're like, I want to start a blog, but I don't know where to start, this is where you start. You sit down, you make this list of ideas, and knowing where your purpose and direction is and how you can narrow that down. And I want you to spend some time doing this. All these five things that we're going to talk about today, you should be able to do within a day. And blocking off like a couple hours to do this, I think could be really helpful

and give you some really great insight with how you can move forward. Instead of just thinking about starting a blog, you're actually going to put action into this today. And so sit down, decide your niche, decide who you're talking to. And then you can move on to step number two. Yeah. And step number two is dependent on step number one. Once you have that list of topics, once you have that list of blog posts, ideas, once you know, or at least have a really good idea of who you're going to be talking to, it will help you figure out what your name is going to be for your blog. And when we talk about naming your blog, that is going to be what the URL is going to be of your website.

That's going to be what you call your website. And that's most likely what you're going to use as your social media handle as well. So it's important to take a little time to think about this and think it through and be really confident about the name that you choose. You can change your name later. Amy and I have both done that, but we don't necessarily recommend it. It can be done, but it comes with a little bit of pain. So what we would like to do is save you some pain right now and just help you understand that taking the time to choose the right name up front is important. So you can start to look on the internet and see if you have some ideas,

make sure that nobody else is using them. And just be really mindful of a few things as you choose a name for your blog. You want it to be pretty simple. You want it to be clear. And you want it to be easy for people to remember. Things that are spelled in a cute way, they can be fun. But overall, that can be a little difficult because then people are like, Oh, I want to find this website. And then they can't find it because they don't know how you spelled it. You could use your name potentially. A lot of people like to do that. But you have to think about what your long term goals are with your website. And if you think you might want to sell it or be able to be separated from that website someday, you might not want to use your name. So really think this through. And a lot of times, naming it something that makes sense to the topic

is really helpful because then people are like, oh, that's what I'm going to get when I get here. Like my blog is Slow Cooker Gourmet. You're going to get gourmet slow cooker recipes. So make it as clear as you can. But the other thing that's important is what's meaningful to you and what will you be excited about sharing with people? That's another piece that's really important. So take the time, figure out a name that you like,

that will be meaningful to your audience. And that is first and foremost, actually available as well. So choose a name that you're going to like for the long run. Number three is decide why you are doing this. And I think that there are a lot of things that you could come up with here. It could be time freedom. It can be monetary goals. Maybe you need to make some money. Maybe you just really miss being creative. Or maybe you have a business that you want to have an online space for. What I want to encourage you with is this, is that goals look different for each and every blogger, for each and every person. And there is no right or wrong goal.

And I also want you to think outside the box. And if you have this big goal in your heart, and you're like, Oh, I could never achieve that. I don't want you to tell yourself that you can't do that today. I want you to write that down anyways. I want you to think big. I want you to think big picture. I want you to think if there was nothing holding you back, what could I achieve? I want you to really foster this belief of success today. And you are at the starting line. You're at this place that really the world is your oyster. And you're at that starting line that you can go at your own speed and do what you want to do. You're going to have a roadmap. You're going to have the way to do that. And you're going to start with these five foundations.

And so don't hold yourself back by telling yourself that you can't do it, first and foremost. It's okay to have big goals. It's okay if those goals are kind of scary. It's okay if those goals might not be what your best friend's goals are or what your parents' goals are for you, or even what your spouse might want you to do. It's okay if you have this goal and whatever that may be. I'm not going to fill in the blank there today because I think that we all have different things.

Jennifer right away knew that she wanted to start a business. She wanted a blogging business. For me, it was time freedom. I wanted to be here with my kids. So both of those goals are great. They're different. They're completely different. And it's okay to have them be different.

It's also okay if your goals change as you continue on. So when I started, I didn't have a monetary goal at all, really. It was really just to be able to make some money for my family and be able to stay home. But as my kids are growing, and as I have more time to work on my blog, then those monetary goals can change a little bit. So just ask yourself today, today, what is the thing that I want to achieve by taking the time and energy to start a blog? That doesn't need to be your answer in a year. It doesn't need to be your answer in six months. But I really do think that at the start of this journey,

if you don't know why you're doing it, then you're not going to stick with it. If you don't have the ideas in your mind of what you're working towards, then you're just going to kind of be floundering. And on the days that it feels hard, it's going to be a lot easier to give up when you forget what you're actually working for. Yeah, exactly. And that's why we always say to write it down. Because when you're having one of those hard days, you have to come back and you have to read through what you wrote on day one and remind yourself why you're doing this. And everybody has hard days. Literally everybody. We all have them. We all have days that we're like, I don't want to do this. I don't think that it's realistic to tell you that every day as a

blogger is easy and fun. So we're going to talk about mindset here in a little bit. I'm getting ahead of myself. Yeah. So talking about being realistic, I think this next one, number four, is sometimes one of the most difficult because we are going to tell you, you need to sit down and look at your calendar and take a time inventory. And this hard for I think most of us to do because when we get excited about something or we want to take on something new, we're like, I'm just going to figure out how to get it done. But you have to be willing to actually look at what's on your plate, make a plan, look at your calendar and actually look where you have openings

in your calendar to work on your blog. Because we don't want you to take on something new and be unrealistic about the amount of time it takes to make it happen. Because that can be really frustrating. So ask yourself, look at your commitments that you have every week. What do you have to do? What do you want to do? And what can wait?

What can you put off until later? What do you want to do? And what can wait? What can you put off until later? And do you have five to 10 hours a week that you can work on your blog? That's a minimum. If you're gonna start on your blog, you're gonna have to have at least five or 10 hours a week

to be able to make progress on it. Anything less and you're really just gonna spin your wheels because every time you get started, you're gonna stop and then you're gonna have to start over again. So look at your calendar. And what we recommend is actually block off chunks of time, whether it's an hour, two hours, four hours, a weekend, whatever it is, being realistic and actually putting it in your calendar is what's going to be able to make it happen. And it's going to make you have to make some hard decisions possibly. Do I want to A, go do this? Or do I B, want to work on my blog?

And sometimes it might mean that you have to work on your blog when you don't want to. It's just like a lot of other things in life. So when you do those things that go towards your bigger goal, it ends up fueling that fire and that excitement. And it starts to feel good because you're making progress on something that you really want to do. And making progress here is our goal. So that's why we're saying at least 5 to 10 hours a week. And that may look different from week to week, but be realistic over the next few weeks. Because what we don't want you to do is jump in and then feel completely overwhelmed because you have nowhere in your schedule to work on your blog at all. Right. Right. And I think that ties into our last point here, which is getting in the right mindset.

And we tell you the 5 to 10 hours a week because we are talking to people who want to blog and create a business blogging. That's our target audience. So when we talk about who we're talking to, that's who we're talking to. There are a lot of hobby bloggers out there and people who are doing this for fun. And that's amazing. And that's wonderful. But we are really here to help the people who want to create a business doing this. So it doesn't mean that those of you listening who just want to have a hobby blog can't learn things. That's not what I mean at all. But it is like some of these things that we're saying is, okay, spend this amount of time and do these things to grow your blogging business. That's

the goal. So getting in that mindset, first and foremost, knowing that you're starting a business and believing yourself in that. This is going to be so fun and so exciting, but it won't come without challenges. And I don't tell you that to be negative in any way. But I think that that's important to know that you are going to be a business owner. When you're a blogger and you buy that domain name, you get your website up and running. You're a business owner. And that's amazing. I want to say that. What I think is so amazing is that we're sitting at home and we're doing these amazing things in our lives. And we're here for our kids or we're volunteering in ways that make us feel important or

insert thing there. But we're also business owners. We get to have both. And that's a really beautiful thing. We live in a really awesome day and age that that's possible. You are going to hit some roadblocks though. And once again, that's not to be negative, but it's just, I think, setting you up with realistic expectations. Because as with any business, as with anything that is worth working towards, you're going to have to build the resilience to get through the hard times and to get through the building years. Blogging is definitely not something that is accomplished in a month or two. It is a long game. It is a marathon, not a sprint. You're going to have months most likely that you are building and growing this, that you

ask yourself, is anybody even reading my content? They will come. If you build it, they will come. And just keep reminding yourself of that. They will. Because if you are learning, if you are staying in the process, if you are creating content that people are actually looking for, if you are learning new information all the time and making these thoughtful decisions in your business and for your people who are becoming part of your community, it will happen. It will happen in its own time. And so just believe in yourself enough that this business is worth starting, that this business is worth growing, and that you are is worth starting, that this business is worth

growing, and that you are absolutely worth the work that it takes to put yourself out there in this way and grow this thing that you have likely been thinking about for a really long time. What I've realized in the six years of doing this is that most people who finally get to Jennifer and I, their story goes something like this. I've wanted to start a blog for so long, and I just don't know how to get started. And so we can help you get started. One, you can listen to this podcast. We have a new episode that comes out every single Tuesday that is going to teach you something about blogging. It's going to set you up. Coming up in January, we're going to be celebrating 2 years of this podcast. So you're going to have soon over 100 episodes to go back

through and listen, which is incredible to teach you more about this business of blogging. But if you really do want more handholding, and if you would like Jennifer and I's help in that, we would love to help you. We created a course and it's called The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. And we created this course because of the people that I just mentioned that have wanted to start a blog for a really long time and they don't know where to start. We've given you 5 clear steps to get you started today. But if you want to go deeper and if you want to know, Okay, I really do want to do this.

I'm tired of not betting on myself. I'm tired of thinking about it. And I actually want to put action behind my thoughts. Then we would love to have you in the bootcamp. Our bootcamp is an online course. So you're going to have access to an online course for one year. And this online course walks you through each and every step that you need to do to start your blog. Starting with right what we started with today, talking about your niche. We're going to help you decide what kind of branding, how you can protect yourself legally, giving you guidance on that. And it goes all the way to actually buying your domain, getting hosting because you

need to be on a self-hosted WordPress site if you want to grow a blogging business. Then working through the design pieces, purchasing a theme, helping you create that, helping you build your website. We are in the business of empowering you to create your own website. One, because it's a heck of a lot cheaper to do that

than it is to hire a designer. And two, you're going to be empowered to actually know how to run your website on the back end of things, which is incredibly empowering because there's a lot of people out there that don't know how to do that. And when you understand how your website works, you can save yourself a lot of money in the long run too, because you know where to go to find the answers to fix the issues that will come. Because let's face it, technology is not always the funnest thing that we get to deal

with. And so just having that person there, which is Jennifer and I, to help you navigate some of that technical side of blogging is one what we love to do. We love to take people who are in these beginning stages and give you the confidence that you need to start this journey and remind you of your why, remind you why you started. And we love doing that within the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. So you get access to our online course, and then you get four weeks of Slack support. Slack is what we use to communicate with our students. It is a great platform to use that keeps us just really streamlined and answering questions. You can also network with other people within Slack. So other people who are doing the bootcamp at the same time as you are.

And the bootcamp is always open. And so you can join today. If you're not listening to this episode right at the day it came out, you can still join. It's still available. We're going to have a link in the show notes. And you are going to be able to join us at any time that works best for you. But I want to just put a call to action here. If you know that your goal in 2024 is to start a blog, I am going to encourage you to join the bootcamp sooner than later, because you could have your blog up and running by January 2024 if you started today. We are going to be here to help you. We're going to be here to support you. We've created this course that is going to walk you through every piece that you need. And if you have questions, guess what? You get access to us in Slack.

And that's the most amazing part of it all. That's something that a lot of people are not doing with courses like ours, is you do not have the access to the coaches the way that you have access to us. We are in this with you. You can ask any one of our students who has been through it before. We will not let you fail. We will be here. You can ask us a bajillion questions. We are here to answer each and every one of them happily and with a smile on our face. Because once upon a time, we were right where you were. We were right at the starting point that we didn't know what in the heck we were doing. And neither one... Well, Jennifer didn't have anyone to ask. I had Jennifer to ask when I started. And that was really the heart behind Spark Media and why we started is we really, really do want to give you a piece of that

support right from the start. So you know that you are part of the blogging community. You are part of this industry. And we want to help you join the ranks when it comes to blogging and just help further your passion, your expertise and help you touch more lives with your blog. So there is a link to join us for the bootcamp in the show notes. If you have questions about whether or not the bootcamp would be a good fit for you, please just send us an email. We will put our email also in the show notes. And ask away. We've had people just share their life stories with us in an email, to be honest. And if you are one of those people who's like, I'm not sure that I'm ready, or I'm not sure I can do this, or I'm not sure

that my niche would be something that people would actually be searching for, please send us an email. We would be happy to walk through that with you and help you decide what your next best step is in regards to this goal of blogging. But I hope that this gave you some really tangible steps that you can take moving forward, starting today, to where you can stop thinking about blogging and you can actually just do the darn thing and get started today. So if you have any questions, please email us. We're here to help always. Thanks for listening today. 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.