DIY-Business Building a Blog for You and Your Business Seminar, 2024
Topics Covered: Blogging Strategies, SEO Optimization, Content Creation, Social Media Integration, AI Tools, Customer Engagement
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (NA) - Food (NA) - Speaker Content (4/5) - Networking Opportunity (3/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5)
Initial Conference Overview: My colleague invited me to this event. I didn’t know much of what to expect, and typically don’t like zoom events… however, since this event is hosted out of NYC, it’s at 6:30am my time. I usually wake up early, so this event worked out alright with my schedule. It was one hour and so I decided to attend - and even take notes directly to here. Typically when I go to events, I handwrite notes in a journal, then later rewrite them online. This was a new experience, as I took notes directly during the seminar :)
Photo Collage & Commentary
Bullet Point Notes from Event:
What is a blog?
regularly updated, often run by an individual or small group, written informally and conversation style.
relates to a particular topic and has personal commentary
a place to store information and experiences
photos, hyperlinks, videos
often uses a personal tone to better connect with the audience.
Reasons to Start a Blog:
Share your opinions, passions, and a glimpse into your life
Teach others what you know
Build an email list
Develop your personal brand as an expert.
Sell products or services.
———————————— MOST BLOGS COMBINE THESE REASONS
How to Build a Blogging Business:
When you have a long-term audience already, they will trust what you bring in and show them. You can monetize this by selling things. Ideally its valuable and you monetize the traffic.
You need to be strategic about how to set it up for success.
Blogging can be fulfilling but committing.
Consistency is important. Separate different pockets, you need time and ideas. Especially now, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs, why should they come to yours? You must have something interesting and useful for them.
Find the niche and choose the specific audience to focus on. There is no “one for all”. Even in medicine.
Make it so they can not find this information elsewhere, this is your speciality.
If so many blogs are on recipes, what is your speciality? “Recipes for Diabetes?”, “Recipes for Teens”
FIND A NICHE
Make yours a speciality and have quality/information.
You can look at Google KeyWords to see trending words.
While I feel like this is strategic… but also a bit “chasing trends” and revealing you’re not an expert at all, if not done very carefully. IMO, I think you should just write what you’re interested in and believe, despite what is trending… though, I guess I could see a world where you need to keep finding topics to write about, so you write on trending topics. Then it’s like a career and task. It feels like this removes the “desire” and passion from the experience.
MONETIZATION
Build a loyal audience, not just a large one.
You can make the most money blogging by selling physical products. Let the products be the center.
If you want to make money, you have to go to Blogger.com and go to “AdSense”.
It will tell you how to calculate your pay, everything there.
Blog Name, Start the Blog, Select Theme, Create Content that Converts, Promote your Content (Facebook, IG, Google, Pinterest, Youtube…)
Make Money with blogging/advertising: Google AdSense, Media.net, Medicine, Adthrive, Sponsored Posts, Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Again, Flexoffers, CJ Affiliates, Shareasale, Sell your Own Services, Sell Your Products, Digital Products, Membership (VIP)
Ten Tips:
Host your own blog
Have a professional looking website
Pick your favorite social medias
Think about readers, not yourself. Focus on helping them solve a problem.
Search Post Titles
Take a Course
Advertising, Affiliate Marketing.
Know your ROI, time, energy
Readers are Smart
Promote Your content
More Advices:
In your blog, have your title and then the description about the blog. Consider using colors strategically. As well as columns.
One column is updating constantly, one stays there forever.
Left Side: posts, name, activities
Right Side: shows the books she wrote, her bio…
right when you go to the blog, you can see that. Also you can see all of the article topics right there.
Posts have images that pair with them.
Don’t make it too complicated. You want people to look at what you post there. Make it simple, so people can focus on the message that you want to show them.
Many people don’t have time to read long articles, so make sure your information isn’t too long
However, if you are teaching things to people, its good to have step by step instructions for them.
Remember that you can always change and update things later. The only thing you can not change is the title. So Please, please, try to think about that. What is the best title for your blog? If you change it, you delete the blog.
Blogs are totally customizable, you can add images, colors, backgrounds.
After You Have Created Your First Blog:
Remember to change your template, colors, etc.
Adjust everything to look nice together.
Add FAQ
Post about other brands on your website to make money when you get commission.
Do a service like writing on events for your clients or customers.
How to use AI for your blogs:
Get AI to help you figure out your topics and audiences
Plan core content categories
prepare tips, prepare articles
help you write the content, but don’t use it 100%. Make sure you review it
Generate ideas for initial articles that will help you trend on SEO
Develop posts on a schedule. Do it and know how often/when you will post.
Optimize for SEO
conduct research to understand what customers are searching for, “how to” “common mistakes”
use tools like “google keyword planner” or find keywords
Include keywords naturally in your blog post, headings, and meta descriptions
I’d like to use Ai also/instead, just to have it read over my blog in the end as a final review tool. To see if anything stands out for the better or worse. I dont’ like to start with AI I like to use AI as a proofreader/editor, that’s just me though. Sometimes starting with AI can be really draining. You forget how to rely on yourself. At least the strategy of “Ai… help me write a blog about t____, I just think it’s training your brain to be a bit lazy and too cookie cutter”
I like to have AI help me find more resources and sources that I can go search further.
optimize images and use alt text, as well as interlinking posts to improve SEO
Actionable takeaway, what can they start on now?
Create valuable resources and get people to subscribe so they follow you.
The United States Small Business Administration is here to help you.
Next workshop is “How to Boost Your Holiday Revenue Sales”
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - NA
NA: I’m almost never enticed to attend zoom events... but this was at a convenient time of day + a good friend invited me, so, I joined.
FOOD - NA
NA: But I did make myself tea, brand: Many Worlds Tavern. It’s a fruity cinnamon tea that I got a Pax West a month ago hahah. It’s like a “gamer tea company”. It’s super good: “Sacred Spring/ Hibiscus, Cinnamon, and Plum” (it was promoted to taste like sangria hahaha. I don’t drink alcohol anymore… but Sangria is/was one of my favorites, so this is a good drink haha).
SPEAKER CONTENT - 4/5
Room for Improvement: The first half was super fantastic. Some of it felt a bit like “common knowledge” for people who are familiar with blogs, but some people are learning things for the first time. I think she did a good job explaining lots of uses for blogs and their goals. There was a big section just teaching how to make blogs on a specific website, and the website looked very dated. It wasn’t useful for people not using that website for the most part (like, me, I dont use that website). So I wish that part had been a bit more generic. Also, I thought the uses provided on how to use AI were decent, but, I dont always agree that “STARTING” with AI is the best choice. Sometimes, you can get started with things that seem obvious to you, and then clean it up with AI. Part of me thinks that works so much better. When you start with AI, you feel like you’re back in school following instructions for a project. I like having AI be my “helpful friend” who like “double checks” my work and points out things that would make it even better… especially after really defining to myself and AI what I’m trying to make, by having clear examples and a sample thrown together. Just seems like it’s a better plan for longterm sustainability, with AI in general - blogs or anything.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 3/5
Room for Improvement: Lately I’m extremely not in the mood to network. I’m finding I’m just enjoying keeping to myself, learning, and taking my time. One guy posted his linkedin, his info, and some things about himself in the chat. I thought that was smart. Probably a few people added him. So, I like that he started that trend (though no one else did the same). Even so, I think people who are in the mood to network are smart to do so.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 5/5
Allow me to Elaborate: Even “half” of something like this being super informative is valuable. It’s always useful to attend events and learn… ontop of that, their next event is about maximizing sales in the holiday season. This is a useful topic. I also like the time of day of this event, it’s nice to start the day with this educational information.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
