ProBlogger: The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021

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The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021 Posted: 29 Dec 2020 04:00 PM PST The post The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021 appeared first on ProBlogger. The world needs YOU. Right now. We currently find ourselves in a crazy time with COVID-19 – all that is meaning for us in the world we're living in, the effect on our lives this coming year and the unforeseeable changes for many years to come. With so many people impacted, the economy damaged and a completely new set of circumstances and challenges we all have to face. For many, 2020 was filled with fear, uncertainty and a sense of overwhelm and paralysis. Right now, the world needs hope, positivity and practical solutions to new and emerging problems.  We need places where we can come together, and where community and belonging can happen. Particularly in this time where physically people are physically isolated, the world needs virtual spaces and safe spaces where they can find that belonging.  The world needs YOU.  And you need a blog to provide you the platform and home-base for your content and your community – to make the world a better place.   Why Should You Start a Blog?   1. Improve Other People's Lives One of the big benefits of blogging is the potential to make the world we live in a better place. And while not all blogs do this, many do in their own small way. My blogs are about photography and blogging. They're not topics that will make a major difference on a global scale. But I know that after publishing content every day for 15 years my blogs have made a difference to the lives of many. A few years ago I shared a post here on ProBlogger about how a person came up to me recently at a conference and credited ProBlogger with saving their marriage. And others shared how they'd build significant businesses through coming across things we'd published. Blogging can change your life as a blogger in many ways. But the experience is even more meaningful and rewarding when you realise it can be also used to inspire, educate, and give others a sense of belonging. It also provides lots of opportunities to shine the light and lend your voice to other worthwhile causes. One of my own highlights from blogging came when I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania and see the work of an amazing organisation working with people with disabilities in that country. Being able to use my blogs to give a voice to this worthy cause was an amazing opportunity.   In ProBlogger's Ultimate Guide to Start a Blog Course, we go deep on the topic of motivation and uncovering your 'WHY'. Having a clear and compelling purpose for your blogging will sustain you and your audience through the hard times.    2. Build Community Isolation has really brought home to me the fact that we humans are social creatures. We need community to sustain us, just as a blog needs a community to sustain it. By building a community around your blog you are not only creating something beneficial for others, but for yourself too. As I look back over the almost 20 years I've been blogging, many of the highlights have been about the people I've had the opportunity to meet and interact with. Years of creating useful content, growing your brand, building an audience and establishing trust with that audience opens the door for many friendships, collaborations and other opportunities. You never quite know where these relationships might lead you. Some may lead to financially rewarding opportunities. But more often than not it leads to lasting friendships, and a real sense of belonging in dynamic and supportive communities.   3. Make Money A blog is your special place on the internet that you own and which you can build into a business. One of the reasons I'm giving for starting a blog is it can be financially profitable. I'm not saying every blog will be profitable. But many bloggers have grown income streams from their blogging, both directly and indirectly. I'm amazed at how blogs have provided an income for my family over the years. Not every blogger who sets out to make money blogging reaches a full-time level. But it is possible to build significant income from blogging.  Further Reading: Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging? [7 Things I Know About Making Money from Blogging] As well as making money directly from your blog, you can also use the profile a blog can bring to promote your existing business or to sell your own services as a freelancer, coach, speaker, etc. Blogs allow you to: grow your profile be found via search engines and social media (most importantly) build your brand, credibility, authority and trust with potential clients And I've lost count of how many times I've seen bloggers use their blog's profile to land more traditional employment. (In these cases, their blog became their resume.) Note: I explore reasons why businesses should start blogging in this podcast. The other aspect of growing profit from a blog is it can also become an asset you can potentially sell at some point.   4. Self-Improvement and Personal Development While blogging unexpectedly became the basis for my business, and has opened up amazing opportunities for me to earn an income, one of the biggest benefits to getting into this space is the same reason I got into it. Blogging has given me a place to express myself. Something very powerful happens when you get into the habit of ordering and writing down your thoughts, ideas, stories and opinions. People have been doing this for centuries in private diaries and journals. But to put some of these things into a public forum for others to interact with has been a very positive experience for me. Having a place to express myself has given me many personal benefits. In researching and writing thousands of articles over the years I have: Learned so much about the topics I write about Identified, sharpened and deepened my ideas and opinions Refined my voice Grown my writing and communication skills Built discipline Found a creative outlet Confronted fears and doubts and grown in confidence. This list could go on. But the bottom line is I'm much better as a person for having a blog.   Should YOU start a blog in 2021? Unfortunately, I can't answer that question for you. But I can say that, on a personal level, starting a blog was one of the most amazing things I've even done. Blogging changed the trajectory of my life in many ways. It helped me grow and develop on a personal level. It helped me start and grow a business that has given our family income we never expected to have. It opened opportunity for community, friendship and collaborations with wonderful people. It gave me ways to do something meaningful that in small ways allows me to make a difference for others. I hope this inspires you to join us in starting a blog in 2021. Reserve your spot in our FREE Ultimate Guide Start a Blog course that kicks off Friday 15 January. The course guides you through 7 steps to starting and launching your blog – from getting clear on your blogging purpose to defining your niche; choosing your domain name and setting up hosting; all the way through to launching your blog and thinking about your social media and email marketing. Throughout January I will be hosting Live check-ins and Q&A sessions for students of the course who are working on starting their blogs.  Then on Sunday 7 February we will help you launch your blog to the world with International Start a Blog Day – where we celebrate all of our students new blogs, giving them exposure to the broader ProBlogger audience and their first page views. Register here to join us in January and start your blog in 2021! The post The Best Reason to Start a Blog in 2021 appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: How to Set SMART Goals for Your Blog in 2021

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How to Set SMART Goals for Your Blog in 2021 Posted: 17 Dec 2020 03:00 AM PST The post How to Set SMART Goals for Your Blog in 2021 appeared first on ProBlogger. This post is based on episode 218 of the ProBlogger podcast. It's been a very long year, and like most people you probably can't wait for it to be over. And with the new year just around the corner, now is a good time to set yourself some blogging goals for 2021. Setting goals is important if you want to grow your blog. It will help you focus your time and energy on what's most important. And knowing what you'll be achieving will give you some added incentive to keep going. Getting SMART about setting goals There's a lot of information out there about goals and how to set them. One of the most popular methods is to base them on the SMART acronym, which stands for smart, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. And that's the one I'll be referring to in this post. But I'll be attaching a few more words to some of those letters to make it more specific to blogging. S is for… To start, your goals should be as specific as possible. Don't set vague goals like, "I want more traffic for my blog," or, "I want more money from my blog," or, "I want to post more often." How much more traffic do you want? How much more money do you want? How often do you want to post? Instead, work out exactly what you want to achieve: "I want to double the amount of traffic I had this year." "I want to make $50,000." "I want to publish a new post every week." Not only are these goals far more specific, they also satisfy another criterion that starts with 's' – significant. As I said earlier, setting goals is important if you want to grow your blog. But don't start making them just for the sake of it. You should be setting significant goals that will get you closer to your long-term goals. Want to make a million dollars from blogging? You probably won't get there in a year, but you can certainly set yourself a goal ("I want to make $50,000.") that gets you closer to that lucrative figure. Want to get a book deal? You may not get one this year, but you can certainly set yourself a goal ("I want to publish a new post every week.") that will get you closer. You should also come up with goals that are significant to you. Maybe you want to make $50,000 so you can buy a new car or your first home. Now that goal is a lot more significant, and you're going to be more motivated to achieve it. M is for… Next, your goals need to be measurable. As Peter Drucker once said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." The specific goals I mentioned in the previous section are also measurable because it's easy to work out whether or not you achieved them. At the end of the year you'll know whether you doubled your traffic, made $50,000 or posted something new every week. Not only that, you can work out how well you're tracking and, if necessary, make some adjustments. Let's say your goal is to earn $50,000 in a year. That works out to be $4,166 a month, or $137 a day. And so at any time during the year you can compare how much you've made with how much you should have made to see how well you're meeting your target. And when you're planning your goals, keep another M word in mind – meaningful. You're far more likely to achieve your goal if it means something to you. I once talked to a blogger whose goal was to raise $10,000 for school of orphans in Africa. It had nothing to do with growing her blog, but she'd visited the orphanage a few years before so it was a meaningful goal for her. A is for… Your goals should stretch you, and make you work hard. But they should also be achievable based on the situation you're in. If you can only blog in the evenings because of work and family commitments, you probably shouldn't set a goal to publish a new blog post every day. Even publishing once a week might be pushing things too far. You may be better off setting a goal to publish a post once a fortnight to start with, and then see how well you're tracking after a couple of months. Setting goals you can't actually reach can actually hurt your blog. You may be far less motivated to keep going, and even if you do keep going the quality of your content may drop, which can damage your brand. By all means stretch yourself, but don't bite off more than you can chew. When you're creating your goals, take the time and resources you have into account. What you'd like to be a one-year goal may need to become one of your long-term goals instead ­– at least to begin with. And if you're part of a team, then your goals should also be agreed-upon. That means not only letting everyone know about the goals you'd like to achieve, but also getting them to take those goals on board so you can all work together to achieve them. R is for… Chances are you'll be making a number of goals for the year. But once you've created them all, check to make sure they're all still relevant. You may find that some of them clash with others, or have already been covered in other goals. And some may just be a little bit before their time. Back in 2015, one of my goals was to run an event in the US. We have a lot of readers in the US, and so I thought it would be a worthwhile goal. But when I looked at all the goals I wanted to achieve that year, I could see that the work involved in running an event in the US would affect some of my other goals. And so I decided to put that particular goal on hold. Two years later I took another look at my list of goals, and I could see how we could run that US event. In the intervening years I'd met some people who could help us make it a reality. So I freed up some time in my own schedule to work on it, and the result was our Success Incubator event. Just because a goal isn't relevant at the moment doesn't mean you should discard it completely. You may simply need more resources, contacts or prep work to make it a success. T is for… Finally, your goals should be time-bound. In other words, they need deadlines. This not only makes your goals specific and measurable, it also helps you work out how you're going to reach your goal. For example, if your goal is to publish a blog post every Friday then you can work backwards to work out when you need to finish your research, when you need to finish the first draft, and so on. One tip with deadlines: Try to space them out, rather than putting them all at the end of the year. That way you won't be facing a pile of deadlines at a time when you should be winding down rather than speeding up. Spacing them out also means you'll be achieving goals regularly, which can do wonders for your motivation. Over to you What are your goals for 2021? And what long-term goals will they be helping you achieve? Let us know in the comments.   Photo by Ricardo Arce on Unsplash The post How to Set SMART Goals for Your Blog in 2021 appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: 5 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Blog

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5 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Blog Posted: 10 Dec 2020 03:00 AM PST The post 5 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.  This post is based on episode 90 of the ProBlogger podcast. Over the past couple of weeks I've talked about two of the most important things you'll ever do as an entrepreneur: starting, which is all about acting on your ideas rather than just thinking about them persisting, which is all about not giving up when things get tough. Unfortunately, not every idea you have will be a success, no matter how long you try to make it work. And so I'd like to wrap up this little series by talking about when you might be better off quitting. Digging in the wrong spot In last week's post I told you about the Cavanagh brothers, and how they earned themselves a fortune in gold by not giving up when so many other had. It's a great example of persistence, but only because they were rewarded for their hard work. If they didn't find any gold, it would be a story about how they should have given up and moved up the creek with the rest of the miners instead of wasting all that time and effort. Like it or not, some ideas will have you digging in the wrong spot. And no matter how long you stick at it, you'll never find the gold you're looking for. But how can you tell when you should quit and move on rather than dig your heels in and keep going? Question time As I said last week, there have been times over the years when I've felt like quitting. And to help me decide whether I should quit or keep going I asked myself four questions. 1. "Am I enjoying it?" Does the blog, project or business you're working on give you energy? Is it something you enjoy? Now I'm not saying you should quit immediately if you answer either question with "No". (That's why I ask myself the other three questions I'm about to tell you about.) But if you feel that what you're doing is sucking all the energy and joy out of your life, it may well be worth considering. 2. "Am I good at it?" Take an objective look at the work you're doing. Do you think you're good at what you do? Are you producing a high-quality product or service? (It's probably worth asking other people what they think at this point because it can be hard to be objective about your own work.) If the consensus is that you are good at what you do and you are producing a high-quality product or service, then it might be best to keep going despite everything else. 3. "Is there demand for what I'm doing?" You might be feeling a little despondent about your blog. But try to forget about that for a moment and think about its potential. What could your blog be like in the future? Is there a demand for what you're producing? And is that demand likely to grow? You might not be having much luck with your blog right now simply because you're a little ahead of the curve. Wouldn't it be worth sticking with so that when everyone else catches up yours will be the blog everyone comes to for help and advice? Of course, if there isn't a demand for what you're doing, or that demand will eventually peter out because you're blogging about something that has disappeared or is about to (e.g. Google+), then it may well be time to quit. 4. "Are people responding to what I'm doing?" What do other people think of your blog? What are your audience numbers like? Are you getting lots of comments? Are your posts getting shared on social media? Now's the time to look beyond the feedback you're getting from people and at the cold hard facts (or stats) such as how much traffic you're getting and how much you're earning. Let's face it: If you've been blogging for 10 years in the hope of becoming a full-time blogger but still aren't earning enough to quit your day job, it may be a sign that you need to think of something else. I know of many bloggers who probably should have given up years ago because they're investing all their time and energy for very little reward. Weigh up all the answers The idea behind these questions is get an overall picture of how you and your blog are doing? I like to associate each question with a word: "Am I enjoying it?" – energy "Am I good at it?" – quality "Is there a demand for what I'm doing?" – potential "Are people responding to what I'm doing?" – results. And it's important to look at all four answer when deciding whether or not you should quit. For example, a lot of bloggers quit simply because they don't enjoy it and it's sapping their energy. But they may be oblivious to how good they are, and how many people are hanging off their every word. An alternative to quitting If you've asked yourself these four questions, and quitting still seems like the best option, I'd like you to ask yourself one last question before you pull the plug: “Could I pivot instead?” Yes, it might be time to quit this blog, project or even business. But chances are it still has a lot of value, and you may be able to use some of it in another project. I've met a lot of successful entrepreneurs over the years. And I can't think of any who have achieved their success by travelling in a straight line. Most (if not all) of them have done it by pivoting and changing direction. I believe that to be a successful entrepreneur you need to be able to not only persist with the task at hand, but also spot new opportunities and quickly change direction to pursue them. Over to you Are you thinking of quitting something? What were your answers to the four questions? And could you pivot rather than quit completely? Let's talk about it in the comments.   Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The post 5 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: Why You Should Keep Going with Your Blog

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Why You Should Keep Going with Your Blog Posted: 03 Dec 2020 03:00 AM PST The post Why You Should Keep Going with Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger. This post is based on episode 89 of the ProBlogger podcast. Last week I talked about 'starting', and why it's the most important thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur. This week I'm going to talk about the second most important thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur. And like so many of life's lessons, there's a story that captures the idea perfectly. But this story isn't mine. It's actually one I came across while researching a project in high school. But it's one that really resonated with me, and I hope you'll find it just as useful. A tale of two brothers The year was 1851, and the Cavanagh brothers stood by a bend in a creek that had optimistically been named Golden Point by gold prospectors in days gone by. The two brothers had been digging in their claim for days, along with around 600 other miners. Numerous miners had already found gold at this particular bend and made good (but not spectacular) money from their finds, which is why so many miners were there. Most of that gold had been found in the top meter or so of sandy ground, which was relatively easy to get through. But below that was a hard layer of clay, and getting through that was backbreaking work. The miners were also hearing rumours of richer pickings further up the creek. And so it wasn't long before the entire area around the brothers' claim was littered with abandoned holes, all about a meter deep. But the two brothers stayed. They believed there was still gold to be found, and began the arduous task of digging into the hard clay that had sent everyone else packing. They moved to an abandoned claim from another miner and began digging. Inch by inch they chipped away at the clay, only to find more of it. They went to bed that night with nothing but sore backs. The next day they started digging again. Again they chipped away at the layer of clay inch by inch, only to find more of it underneath. As sunset approached, the brothers finally broke through the last of the clay. The hole was now around two meters deep, and at the bottom they discovered an old creek bed that was centuries old. More importantly, they found pockets of gold that had been washed down from the mountains for hundreds of years. The brothers worked feverishly through the night until their lamps gave out. The next day they woke early and assessed their work. In the light of day, the full reality of what they'd uncovered began to sink in. There was gold below that clay—and lots of it. In that day alone the Cavanagh brothers found 27 kilograms worth more than £3,500, which was more than enough to set them up for life. Word of their success spread quickly. A month later there were 10,000 miners working in that area around Golden Point, who I imagine started digging a lot deeper than they normally would. And the wider Ballarat area (just a few hours from where I live here in Australia) became the richest gold field in the world. Sometimes you need to keep digging… As I said, I learned about the Cavanagh brothers back in high school. And while I don't even know their first names, I often think about them, and how they kept going when so many others had given up. I also think about how their persistence not only led them to their fortune, but also encouraged others to try something new (i.e. dig deeper). People who saw them digging and probably thought they were crazy before were now doing the same. Which is why persevering is the second most important thing you'll do as an entrepreneur. Sometimes you need to do a lot of digging before you find success. But when things get tough, and people start abandoning their 'claim' and moving on to the next big thing, it can be tempting to do the same. There have been times when I've felt a bit like the Cavanagh brothers. (As a blogger, I mean. I don't like physical labor, and would never grab a pick and start digging into clay.) I've seen plenty of bloggers come and go over the years. Like me, they saw the opportunity to build something significant. But at soon as things got tough, they gave up and abandoned their blogs. And there have been times when I've thought about giving up too. I've seen a lot of bloggers abandon their work after deciding they'd be more successful on other platforms. Back when I started blogging, some of them were already talking about abandoning their blogs and moving to MySpace. And since then I've heard about many bloggers who abandoned their blogs to get on to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or Google Plus. The blogosphere is littered with abandoned blogs. And I sometimes wonder what might have happened if they'd kept digging through the clay rather than abandoning their claim. Persistence doesn't always lead to success, but it's a big part of successful blogging (and success in pretty much every field). … and sometimes you need to move on However, in some situations you may be better off abandoning what you're doing and moving on rather than flogging the proverbial dead horse. Yes, the story of the Cavanagh brothers is a great example of how persistence can pay off. But I'm sure there are other stories about miners who spent far too much time digging in the same spot for little if any reward. That can happen with blogging as well. And in those cases, quitting might actually be the best option. Which is what I'll be talking about in next week's blog post.   Photo by Reuben Juarez on Unsplash The post Why You Should Keep Going with Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: Why You Need to Make ‘Starting’ a Mindset

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Why You Need to Make ‘Starting’ a Mindset Posted: 26 Nov 2020 03:00 AM PST The post Why You Need to Make ‘Starting’ a Mindset appeared first on ProBlogger. This post is based on episode 88 of the ProBlogger podcast. Whereabouts are you on your blogging journey? You may be the very beginning of your journey, and getting ready to create your first blog post. You might be a little further along, and thinking of taking the next step – a second blog perhaps, or maybe a podcast. You might be thinking of launching a course to teach others what you know, or perhaps putting all that knowledge in an eBook and selling it. Whatever stage you're at, there's one thing you can do that will take you further on your journey as an entrepreneur than anything else. Start. A blogger's journey In November 2002 I received an email from a friend with the subject line "Check out this blog". At the time I didn't even know what a 'blog' was, and it would have been easy to just delete his email and move on. But curiosity got the better of me, and I opened it to find the same four words followed by a link to a website – TallSkinnyKiwi.com. I clicked the link. Two hours later, I was completely hooked. Not only on the blog (written by a guy called Andrew Jones), but also on the entire concept of 'blogging'. So much so that on that same day I started a blog of my own. I'd love to say that I took to blogging like the proverbial duck to water, but I'd be lying. I wasn't a great writer. I'd never designed or set up a website before, I didn't know how to code. I had no money for a domain or hosting. I didn't know any other bloggers. (I'd only just leaned what a blogger was.) I was worried about what people would think of my ideas. I didn't have a niche, or any idea what I would write about. But I started it anyway. And it completely changed my life. A few years later I became a full-time blogger. Soon after that I was offered a book deal. I got to speak at conferences around the world. And I had millions of people reading my words every month. And all because I started a blog. The first of many starts But while that's when by life as a blogger started, I've had plenty of other 'starts' over the years. I started writing a book. I started using different social networks, I started business partnerships. I started writing eBooks. I started creating courses. I started a job board. I started an event for bloggers. I started a podcast. And they all contributed to where I am today. Of course, not everything I started was a success. Some things I started never got off the ground, and others fizzled out soon after launch. But it's amazing how many of my 'starts' have created wonderful opportunities for me. A bright idea in the darkness One of those 'starts' actually started at around two in the morning. I was thinking about what I could write about for ProBlogger when an idea popped into my head. I could write a month-long series of posts where each day I'd give my readers a blogging tip and an activity they could do with their own blog to reinforce the concept. I ended up getting out of bed and writing a post announcing a new series of posts I'd be launching called 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. That first series of posts was so successful that it turned into a second series, and then a third. Later it became an eBook that sold more than 20,000 copies. And then I used what I'd written for the eBook to create a 31-part series of podcasts, which are still the most popular episodes I've ever recorded. And that eBook sparked ideas for other eBooks. I've now created more than 30 of them, and they've sold hundreds of thousands of copies over the years. And all because I started that series of blog posts. A lesson So why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to start paying attention to the ideas that you can't get out of your head. Don't just get excited by those ideas. Do something with them. In other words, start. And don't discount the ideas you get after you've started. That first series of blog posts could have been the last. But instead I kept evolving the idea, and it created opportunities for me that I never would have thought possible in that moment at two in the morning. I'd like to wrap up this post with a tweet I put out a while back that still resonates with me. If you've been contemplating doing something but haven't taken it any further, make a start. And keep making starts when those ideas pop into your head. Starting is the most important thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur. And next week I'll be talking about the second most important thing you'll ever do as an entrepreneur. But in the meantime, choose something you've been thinking of starting and actually make a start. And then let us know what it is in the comments.   Photo by Start Digital on Unsplash The post Why You Need to Make ‘Starting’ a Mindset appeared first on ProBlogger.

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