The business model of coaching isn’t reserved for famous experts or those who have a PhD and can tout decades of experience and endless publications. Any niche leader who wants to utilize the Internet as their platform for working with groups and individuals can create and sell coaching programs.

It’s really not very different from putting out a digital info product, except in the way it can be delivered (and even then, sometimes there may be no difference). Don’t let the concept of becoming a coach intimidate you.

In order to thrive with this business model, though, you need to understand what decisions you’ll need to make, such as pricing and delivery – and learn what makes this a wonderful experience for your client so that they’ll continue buying coaching sessions from you and spread the word of your coaching to others.

Decide on Your Online Teaching Method

The first thing you want to do when planning your online coaching business is to select a teaching method that works best for you. There are a few different aspects to this decision.

First, you need to decide what type of coaching you will offer in terms of the number of participants. You can choose to have a one on one coaching arrangement with each client, or offer group coaching if the topic allows for it.

Next, you will need to decide how you want the coaching to proceed. You can develop coaching programs that are dripped out to your customers in a way where they are prerecorded or prewritten.

Or, you can choose to have a live coaching session with your client or group. If you choose to deliver your coaching advice in a live setting, then you can decide what kind of tool you would like to use to connect you with your customer.

There are a number of different types of tools, including Zoom, Skype, and more. Some of them are free and some of them have paid tiers. You may not need more than the free version – but if you do, make sure that the one you are paying for has all of the features that you require.

Set Up Your Coaching Workspace

Whether you are recording the coaching or conducting it live, you’ll want to have a workspace that not only reflects professionalism to your client in terms of background, but also gives you the proper surroundings to work free of clutter.

When you’re in a messy workspace, it serves as a distraction for both you and your client. You want to choose a space where you’ll be comfortable physically. Make sure you have ergonomic furniture and good lighting so that you don’t strain your eyes.

If you don’t feel as if your background is clean or nice enough looking, you can always buy a screen or room divider on a site like Amazon that has the look you want. Worst case scenario, just record or hold your session in front of a blank wall.

You may want to get a whiteboard with markers that you can hang on the wall and be able to jot things down for your coaching client, or draw something to showcase an idea or concept.

Position Yourself as a Go to Expert

When you are going to launch a coaching program where you recruit clients, you have to be confident enough to position yourself as an authority figure in your niche. You can’t be shy about your expertise.

It doesn’t matter if there are dozens of other leaders in that niche. You have to be willing and able to add your name to that list so that your prospective client has a choice about who they hire as an online coach.

You don’t have to go so far as to say you are the absolute best in the business. What you can do is be transparent with your site visitors about why you chose to be a coach, what you can do for them, etc.

Branding will be a benefit to you online because it gives you the opportunity to set yourself apart for what you want to be known for. You can develop a unique selling proposition (USP) that helps people differentiate you from what other coaches have to offer.

Price Your Offer Competitively and Professionally

Pricing is one sticking point that many online entrepreneurs struggle with, regardless of which business model they choose. You will have to put a number on your coaching sessions, no matter how intimidating the process seems.

Keep in mind that coaching, whether it is one on one or in a group setting, is a step above simply purchasing a digital info product and being left on your own to implement it.

With coaching, the client is able to have a little more handholding and feedback on what they should do as well as what they may be doing wrong. So it should be priced at more than what an info product would cost.

You can scout out coaching programs from your competitors and see what the going rate is in your niche. You have to make sure that the coaching is comparable. For example, if they are offering half an hour, and you plan to offer an hour, then that will affect the pricing plan.

If you are just starting out, you’ll want to be competitive with your pricing, yet still choose a professional number. Underpricing your coaching program doesn’t always impress the prospective client.

It may make them see you as a lesser coach. Sometimes, people are willing to pay a little more for someone who values their skill and talent. They may not want the bottom of the barrel, yet they still want a good deal.

Put Your Client at Ease Before Their Session

When you do have clients who have signed up for coaching, you will want to put them at ease before their session. For many of your customers, this will be their first experience in hiring a coach of any kind.

The first thing they need to know is that coaching with you will be conducted in confidentiality. They need to feel reassured that you will not create videos and discuss their problems and personal issues with the general public.

Another thing you need to do is make sure that you understand their expectations. Be sure and talk to them before they sign up for coaching about what they hope to see from your guidance.

That way, you’ll be able to meet their needs without having to guess at what they want to achieve. In most cases, coaching will be a hybrid of established lessons, mixed with those that are tailored for each individual.

You need to discuss with your coaching client the things they need to do ahead of time, before each session in order to be prepared. What do they need to show up with, or what do they need to be thinking about?

They don’t want to sit and waste a bunch of time brainstorming while on the coaching call. If they have these preliminary requirements mapped out, they will be able to show up and immediately begin discussing them with you without hesitation.

You also want to make sure that you, as a coach, are prepared before each session. Time is valuable for everyone, not just you. They need to know that they can get on a coaching call with you and you will not be searching for supplies or scripts that you want to work from.

Show Your Clients That You’re Present for Their Needs

Whenever someone signs up for coaching, it’s usually because they don’t want to take a journey alone. They need that extra handholding and guidance that comes from hiring a coach to tailor their mission for them.

You want to prove to your clients that you are there for them and that you are tuned into their needs. That means that there are moments where you will focus on listening to what they have to say, rather than speaking over them or interrupting them.

You don’t want to be multitasking during the coaching session. If you are constantly looking away from the camera at your computer to do something else, or otherwise not focused on them during the session, they will feel as if your attention is being misdirected and they aren’t getting their money’s worth.

Have Positive Energy That Motivates Your Client

The people who are hiring you to conduct coaching sessions with them may be coming to you in a state where they lack confidence or the right mindset to succeed with their goals.

It is imperative that you show up ready to serve them with an attitude that supports them when they are feeling down or unsure of themselves. Even if you have had a rough day, you should show up to your coaching sessions with an abundance of positive energy.

If you come to the coaching session feeling unsure of yourself as a coach or burdened by negativity, it will be visible and apparent to your client. They will be more apt to purchase additional coaching sessions from you if they leave feeling as if they are uplifted and ready to tackle the world.

Each of your coaching sessions should end on a good note. You want to boost their mood before they hang up with you so that they are armed with enough confidence and positivity to carry out the action steps that will put them closer to their goals.

Supplement Text with Images, Audios and Video Components

Regardless of whether you conduct live video coaching sessions or you create the coaching programs ahead of time, you want to use a variety of media formats. Using live video interaction does not replace supplemental learning materials.

You can use a mixture of image, audio, and video components to help explain a certain concept or simply give them something they can see, watch or listen to after the coaching session is over to reinforce the lesson.

You can use infographics, slide presentations, screen capture videos, podcast episodes and more to add additional elements to your coaching program. It’s really not very different from someone who signs up for a class where a professor teaches a lesson, but the student also has additional materials such as a textbook or workbook.

Sell More Sessions

When you attract a client to your coaching program, you don’t want to simply sell one coaching session. You want to have repeated business with each client or group. In order to achieve that, you have to have some way of enticing them to purchase more.

You can start by developing package deals for your coaching program. Instead of just charging $100 for a single coaching session, you could have a package deal where they get $50 off if they purchase five sessions.

You can have different tiers for this, too. For example, if you wanted to, you could have an even steeper discount if the client purchased a package of 10 coaching sessions. Or, you can have a deal where if they purchase a certain number of sessions, they get one free.

Another thing you can do in regards to increasing your profits in your coaching business is to develop certain upgrades for your coaching program. For example, you might have a coaching program where you help someone through the process of launching their own digital info product.

An upgrade idea for that might be for you to personally evaluate their product thoroughly and give feedback on what they could do different or better. You might be able to throw in certain services, such as copywriting or graphics for their site.

Prepare for Coaching Interruptions

Make sure that when you are getting ready for your coaching business, you’re also preparing for things that can get in the way of it. If you are writing an info product, interruptions aren’t as damaging.

But if you are on a live coaching call with one or more individuals, interruptions and delays can make it appear unprofessional. There are some things that you may not be able to avoid.

For example, if the Internet happens to go out in your area, you may not have a way around that. But if there’s anything you can do, such as getting on your smartphone and using data, you should do it to avoid missing a coaching call.

Some things, such as interruptions by family that lives with you or even pets, can be handled ahead of time so that you don’t have to deal with them in the middle of a call. You need to make sure that everyone understands the boundaries and that you have done everything possible, such as feeding or taking the dog out before your call so that they are not whining while you are on with a client.

Illness is another thing that can interrupt your coaching business. It’s inevitable that everyone will suffer from a minor or major illness at some time. If you are not feeling well, or need to take off for some reason, make sure you notify your client as soon as possible and make up the session with them.

In the world of online marketing, there are products and there are challenges. A challenge, in this regard, is not a negative thing such as an obstacle is. Instead, a challenge is an event where you are able to push yourself in order to achieve a goal.

For some people, having others lead them in a challenge where they can build camaraderie with others is very motivating. As a senior online marketer, you can use a challenge to your benefit in two different ways.

First, you can host a challenge in order to get more subscribers and to showcase your expertise. Second, you can host a paid challenge where you charge for entry and guidance.

One of the great things about hosting a challenge is that your lessons do not necessarily have to be completed ahead of time. So you could start today and work on the challenge as you go.

Challenges can have daily or even weekly content for participants to absorb. You can give them how-to tutorials, motivational tips and inspiration, and have check-ins to gauge how participants are coming along.

Challenges Increase Engagement and Excitement

When you are the host of a challenge event, it excites your core audience because it’s an opportunity for them to achieve something they’ve been struggling with. They know they won’t be alone and they know they will have an expert helping them along the way.

If you’re using this event to build a list, then you may want to host a free challenge so that you get more subscribers onboard to test out your leadership and knowledge. Your reputation will only grow as participants in the challenge exchange comments and share their successes and struggles.

In these moments, you will either have social proof that what you are teaching is working or the opportunity to help get a subscriber on the right track for all to see. This is a good way for nervous senior online entrepreneurs to build confidence in their ability to lead, too.

You can host your challenge publicly or privately. If you host it privately, others will not be able to see the engagement. However, it makes it more exclusive. It gives people a reason to get on your list to have access.

And just like a marathon where the streets are lined with others cheering them on, your participants will enjoy receiving the support of others who have joined in to have access to your guidance so they can meet their goals.

Get Them to Declare Their Goals and Hold Them Accountable

One thing you never want to do is leave a challenge wide open to where participants have no set finish line. You want them to have a measurable goal that can be attained through your leadership in this event.

Otherwise, they may not achieve the milestones they need to complete their goal, leaving them feeling disappointed in the challenge – and in you. Early on in the event, after you explain what the process will be and how it will work, you want to have each participant declare a specific goal.

They can do this publicly or privately with you, but you need to be able to see where they want to go so that you can help them get there. You’ll also be able to see if their goal is unrealistic or too easy.

Don’t let them set a vague goal. It need to be specific, like the completion of a 50-page eBook, the loss of 20 pounds, or 100 sales of their first fiction publication. It needs to be detailed.

Some will need you to help them set their goals for the timeframe within which they’ll be working. For example, if you are hosting a weight loss challenge, and they need to lose 100 pounds total, you would help them set a mini goal for the 60 day challenge.

Your challenge can be any length that you want. It can be a set number of days or a certain number of lessons. It can also be to achieve one specific goal without a timeframe, such as writing and publishing the first fiction novel.

They can always go at their own pace. Different participants will have different time available to devote to the challenge, so it’s best not to force them to stay on a certain timeline to complete the challenge lessons.

Once the reader has set their goal and conveyed it to you, you’ll need to hold them accountable as time goes on. This does not mean you routinely scold them to the point where they feel shame and guilt.

It simply means you are able to motivate them and remind them of what they want to achieve, and why. Knowing why they have set their goals is important for you to be able to tap in to the emotions that will help drive them.

Periodically within your challenge, you might have everyone check in with their current milestones to see who is struggling and who is ahead of the curve. Often, you will be able to use the participants who are succeeding as examples and even fellow leaders who can assist you with the needs of those who are being left behind.

Your challenge group will be like a community for them, rather than an individual journey. The camaraderie they will enjoy is part of what will make your blog feel like “home” to them online.

Showcase Your Expertise By Providing Guidance Throughout

As the challenge host, it will be your job to help them achieve a goal that they otherwise couldn’t do on their own. They may have taken courses, read books, and tested things that just didn’t work out.

They’ll be looking to you for the right information that holds the key to their success. Therefore, before you even get started with your challenge, you need to have your lesson plans mapped out.

You can create a course of your own for this challenge, curate lessons from other individuals who have given good advice to the public, or use a hybrid model of the two. Always make sure that you are giving credit to other leaders if you are pulling their advice (not their content) into your challenge.

This does not negate your own leadership and expertise. It merely shows that you are good at sourcing the best information for their needs. One thing you don’t want to do in a challenge situation is throw too much at your audience at once.

Your lessons should be bite sized and easy to implement. Because these people have struggled with their goal in the past, they will already have a mindset of defeat. You want to give them baby steps to absorb so that they accumulate many small successes along the way.

This will boost their confidence and allow them to reach the finish line easier. So for instance, if you were hosting a challenge about how to publish your first info product, you wouldn’t just have lessons for product creation, sales copy, affiliate recruitment, etc.

Each one of those topics would be broken down into miniature lessons for your participants. For info product creation, you would have one lesson on idea brainstorming.

You might even have multiple lessons on that if you have different methods of brainstorming, so they’re not all grouped into one. You would have another lesson on outlining your product.

Another lesson could talk about how to format the book or course. If there are multiple ways to do something, then you would split those ideas up into separate lessons rather than present a buffet of choices all at once.

You never want them to end a day in your challenge feeling overwhelmed and confused. Each lesson should be clear and concise. Don’t worry if the lesson seems short.

This is more doable for your audience than if you presented them with hour long lessons every day that they would find hard to work into their schedule. Every time your audience reaches out to you through the group or in a one on one email, you want to take account of what it is they’re asking for help with.

At times, you will realize that your lesson has missed the mark in some way. Maybe it wasn’t clear, or a question went left unanswered. These are opportunities for you to create additional bonus lessons to share with your audience.

This is one reason why it works to create your challenge as you go. If you did a lesson on brainstorming your info product, and received several questions about that topic, you would be able to create an additional lesson to send out the following day, rather than moving onto the next topic.

Then, after the challenge is complete, future participants would find everything laid out in a logical order. After the initial challenge is complete, you can bring on a second wave of participants, or leave it open for people to join at any time.

Make a Big Deal Out of the Winners and Participants

Whenever people sign up to participate in any event, they like to be recognized for their hard work. Even those who are shy and take a back seat to public engagement usually like to be acknowledged by the host.

Consider it like a dinner party where you would greet every guest upon arrival and thank them for coming at the end. It’s no different when hosting a challenge. You want to welcome everyone and individually get to know your participants so that you can offer personalized assistance.

Be sure to keep the confidentiality of each of your participants during the challenge. There will be some who feel more than comfortable sharing everything with the group. There will also be those who privately communicate with you because they are shy or simply don’t want their information put out there.

If someone asks a personal question they need help with via email, either ask them if it’s okay to share with the group – or, if the question needs to be turned into a complete lesson, make sure you do it anonymously.

Anytime a participant helps a fellow participant or answers a question that you feel is beneficial for the group, make sure you give them credit and thank them publicly for stepping in to lift up those who are struggling.

They will be the ones who are making your challenge that much more special. They will be cultivating the feeling of community that you want your challenge participants to experience.

At the end of the challenge, you may have people who have achieves their goals or won a competition, if you set your challenge up to have a leaderboard of some sort. Sometimes, having winners wouldn’t be feasible.

But other times, it might help push your audience to perform. For example, you could do one for the most pounds lost, the most sales for an info product creation, etc. But if you are in a niche like relationships, there’s no measurable goals you can use to determine who has won ahead of others.

You want to make a big deal out of those who win. You can have prizes, recognition, etc. If you’re teaching your participants how to publish their first fiction book, then you might pay for them to have some promotional graphics made or simply write a review blog post about their upcoming release.

It doesn’t have to be a monetary prize. Recognition and acknowledgment can go a long way, too. While you want to highlight those who have succeeded with your advice and pushed themselves to achieve their goals, you always want to make sure that others who failed in the task do not feel ashamed or left behind.

They may be suffering from guilt or frustration at their lack of being able to succeed when everyone else around them seems to have achieved their goal. Make sure you acknowledge the advances they have made toward their goal, and offer to stay in touch and help them until they reach the finish line.

Have an Ending That Leads to More Great Things

As your first challenge, and subsequent challenges come to an end, you want to snowball your success into something more. If you have hosted a free challenge, then you can parlay this expertise you have shared freely into sales of your paid, and more advanced courses.

This is one reason why it’s so important to share extreme value in your free gifts and free challenges. If you are willing to give a lot of value at no cost, customers will trust you and be willing to send you money for a paid product.

You now have a list of subscribers who have participated in your challenge. You can turn these into profits in the future by recommending courses and tools that others have put on the marketplace as well.

As an affiliate marketer, they will be able to trust your advice and want to spend money on things you recommend because you have stayed above the board throughout your challenge in guiding them previously.

Always make sure that you never stray from giving good advice, even after the challenge is complete. You don’t want to ruin your reputation after you have worked so hard to prove your worth to your target audience.

One thing you can do is continue rolling out more courses that are created as challenges. You don’t have to simply sell video modules or eBook courses for them to consume on their own.

Many people will love and appreciate the challenge format, where they are drip fed lessons along the way, and have the opportunity to engage with you and others who are on the same journey.

If this format works well for you, then you might want to leave your first challenge as a free option, and subsequent ones as paid challenges. You can even have tiers of challenge participants if you would like to.

For example, a top-tier entry into your challenge, which costs a little more, might include a phone or zoom consultation once a week. Instead of having winners who were acknowledged, you might offer some perks to different tiers.

For example, an upper tier participant who completed his or her goal might receive a set of five customized blog posts they can use, or a review of their product in its finished form.

What you don’t want to do is complete your hosted challenge, only to disappear into the background of your niche when it’s over. You want to stay at the forefront as a leader, always developing new lessons to help guide your audience.

You don’t have to do another challenge. You can create eBooks, courses, offer both individual and group coaching, and more. Keep the momentum going and you will develop a loyal fanbase who is eager to consume everything you put out.

Try to have a game plan for your follow up monetization strategy before you even create your first challenge. This first one can be used for list building and branding. But subsequent ones should deliver a monetary reward for you.

This can snowball into more online income if you create an entire line of challenges. Make sure you emphasize the personal care and consideration they will receive when they sign up, because this is one area often lacking in a consumer’s journey of learning how to do something.

Regardless of which niche you’re in, or which business model, there’s a high chance that content will be the foundation of how you brand yourself, generate traffic and convert visitors into sales.

The volume of content you need to succeed is enormous, ranging from lead magnets to info products, email autoresponders and more. While many of your competitors are struggling to figure out what to say, and what to do with their content, you want to have a plan in place so that your content marketing is strategic and effective.

Very little thought goes into most marketers’ content. They might look for a keyword phrase, but that’s about all they do. If you take 30 days to set up a systematic approach to your content creation and usage, you’ll be outperforming your competitors right out of the gate.

The following tasks include a mix of action-oriented steps and tactical decisions that will help you attract the lion’s share of audience attention in your niche. It will also speed up the implementation of your content creation and usage so that you’re leading the way in terms of consistency and creativity.

Day 1: Have a Customer Avatar in Mind for Your Content Marketing Strategy

One of the most important things you can do before creating content is to think about who you are writing or recording it for. Many marketers make the mistake of coming up with an idea and writing it for their own point of view.

But as a niche marketing leader, you may have a different viewpoint than that of the person following you. For example, you may be coming at a topic from a position of experience and expertise, while your reader is uninformed about the topic and needs more clarification.

One thing that can help you create content with your reader in mind is to come up with an avatar of the individuals who will be consuming your written and recorded words. There are many things you can consider when you begin developing this avatar.

For example you can take into consideration their gender, age, financial status, marital status, geographic location, interests, and more. You can even factor in specific things such as pain points or successes that they may have experienced in the past.

Once you have this avatar, or multiple avatars in place, it will help you create content that is more targeted to your readers, rather than just spoken from a position of authority in the niche. Your audience will feel as if you “get them” more than if you simply stated facts or shared ideas from your sole perspective.

Day 2: Create a Content Marketing Schedule You Can Work With

When it comes to creating a viable content marketing strategy, consistency will be your biggest blunder if you neglect to include it in your planning stages. Whether you are looking to cater to search bots or human visitors, both will want to see frequent content coming from the leaders they respect and listen to.

Don’t feel as if you have to publish dozens of pieces of content each and every day. Daily content is definitely a goal to aim for, but even if you can’t publish content that frequently, putting yourself on a consistent schedule, such as three days per week to publish blog posts, it will go far in establishing your commitment to guide your audience.

It’s better for you to devote yourself to a schedule that has fewer days, but allows you to thoughtfully and thoroughly create content that your audience appreciates than it is to force the process to be so rushed that you are frantically slapping up subpar content just to stick to a schedule.

Day 3: Analyze Your Content Creation Skills in Four Media Formats

On this day, you need to see where you truly stand when it comes to your content creation skills. There is no shame in admitting that you don’t have what it takes at this time to write well, create videos that appeal to your audience, churn out images, or record audio files.

All of these skills can be learned and improved upon, as long as you know where you’re starting and what needs to be worked on. A good way to examine this is to have an honest critique provided to you from friends or acquaintances who are willing to be blunt.

The last thing you want is for someone to tell you that your content is good, when inside they are really cringing. If you don’t know anyone personally who can do this, you may want to ask a wider audience in a marketing forum to provide you with constructive criticism for a sample that you upload.

With your written content, it will need to be conversational for an online audience, yet polished enough that it looks professional at the same time. For audio files, it needs to be free and clear of any impediments that will irritate a listening audience, such as too many “um” pauses or sounds such as sipping your coffee.

With images and graphics, the only thing that can really hold you back here is whether or not your finished work looks like an amateur created it. There are templates online that can help you learn how to create and work with graphics.

Video is one of the most consumed media formats in this day and age. You have to get the timing right, the lighting, the sound, and the message itself to a place where your audience responds well to it.

Day 4: Use Content to Help Your Site Rank in the SERPs

One way you want to use your content strategically is to help you boost your website in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines are definitely looking for consistency with how often you publish, but they also want relevancy and quality.

Many marketers make the mistake of shooting for a certain word count, and focus more on how often their keyword phrases are used then they do the actual value of the content piece.

Your reader is never going to absorb a well written and valuable article that is 300 words and scoff add it because you didn’t add 500 more words of fluff and filler. However, it is important that you commit to providing your readers with enough information that they can walk away feeling fulfilled.

It is important to learn how to set up your content for SEO purposes. And that will include utilizing keyword phrases strategically so that search engines know who to present your content to.

But you never want to focus on the technical aspect alone. In fact, when you adhere to a content strategy that includes ensuring a level of quality is met for your readers, it can help you rise in the SERPs because your content will be shared and have backlinks pointing to it that are organic due to an impressed audience.

Day 5: Create Content That Proves Your Worth to Your Audience

Quality is an issue that can be different things to different people. Some people may be content with very little value, but that’s not the audience that you want to cater to. Your goal is to overdeliver to your visitors so that even the hardest to please individuals walk away satisfied.

A good piece of content not only provides facts and data to your readers, but it also weaves personality throughout and addresses the visitors’ needs, whether emotional or otherwise.

There are many people in the online universe who are competing for the attention of your site visitors. When you sit down to create a piece of content for them, you have to understand how you can keep eyes on your content when others are vying for the same thing.

Good content not only educates and informs an audience, but it inspires and motivates them to take action on what you have just shared. If you can do that with each and every piece you deliver, you will be changing lives and helping people achieve their goals.

Day 6: Develop a Content Piece Worth Signing Up to Your List For

One of the most important pieces of content that you will create for your business is that of a lead magnet or opt in freebie offer. This is a tempting report or series of articles or videos that you create in an effort to build your email subscriber list.

There are not many things that people feel interested in that to hand over their name and email address. Most are sick of spammers and the way in which their contact details are handled.

You have to make sure that the lead magnet you create is of high caliber content and a slant that makes the risk worth it for them. Spend some time investigating their most harrowing problems and present a targeted solution as your enticement offer.

Day 7: Let Content Marketing Turn a Profit for You

Whenever you are developing your content, part of your marketing strategy should be to always look at how it can be monetized. For some odd reason, many marketers create tons of content for their blogs, emails, and social media profiles, only to fail at making sure it has some sort of profit generator attached to it.

Whether it drives people back to your site for a product review for which you are an affiliate, adds them to a subscriber list so that you can earn from them overtime, helps you earn ad revenue, or sends them directly to a product that you created, you want to create and publish your content with the intent to earn money from it.

It doesn’t have to be a direct or instant sale. You can monetize content by creating a series of engaging pieces that build trust and loyalty with your audience, allowing them to spend money with you in the near future.

Day 8: Learn How to Write a Proper Review Piece

One of the best ways to monetize your content is to review products. These can be digital or tangible products, but you have to know the right way to review a product in order to help the reader lower their defenses and convince them to buy.

Every consumer has a wall up that needs to be broken through in an effort to sway them into a purchase. You need to find out what the reservations are and address them individually.

Sometimes, it’s not just about the benefits of a product, but the hesitation they feel about making sure they are spending their money on the right product. It might be a price point, brand or vendor, or even a personal recommendation that tips them over the edge and allows them to open up their wallet.

Day 9: Create a Swipe File of Effective Content Headlines

Because you will be developing content on an ongoing basis for many different areas of your business, it’s important that you figure out ways to hasten the process. One of those strategies is to create a swipe file that you can pull from and tweak whenever you need effective headlines that will convert.

You can pull swipe files together based on content that you have seen online from your competitors, using list of action or power words, or even by brainstorming words, phrases, and sentences based on knowledge you gained by studying how to be an effective copywriter.

Day 10: Use Low Content Publishing in Your Marketing Efforts

Content that you publish online is not always long. You may be used to developing long blog posts in an effort to appease the search engines, or even to thoroughly educate and inform your readers.

But not all content has to be lengthy. There are many effective low content pieces that you can publish online for your audience that will help them achieve their goals. These may include things like checklists, cheat sheets, journals, and other printables that they can download and use to track or change things.

Day 11: Find Ways to Educate, Motivate or Entertain Your Readers

When you create new content for your audience, you want to do one of three things. Educating and informing them about your niche topic is important for you to do as a leading expert.

They will be turning to you for ideas and insight because they feel they can’t trust other sources. Facts alone are not enough to help them. You will need to motivate and inspire them to take action on the information you provide to them.

This is how they will actually make changes in their life and succeed with their goals. It’s also important that you entertain your readers. That doesn’t mean you have to become a comedian and make them laugh.

Entertainment can be more than just laughter. It’s a way for the audience to bond with you and feel as if they know you on a different level. Just make sure you have plenty of your own personality woven into your content so that whether they are reading an email from you or watching a video that you have created, they feel as if the content was made just for them on some level.

Day 12: Make Sure Your Content Marketing Includes Social Sharing Options

Content marketing is about more than just the creation of the content itself. You can create hundreds or even thousands of pages of articles, but if you don’t know how to use them strategically, they will not benefit your business.

One of the most effective strategies online is to create content that gets shared by your audience with others. Not only does the content have to be valuable and amazing enough that it makes people want to share it, but you have to make sure you provide them with a strategy to do it easily.

If you have a blog that you are using for content marketing, you want to install a plug in that enables social sharing buttons for sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other places.

You can place the social sharing buttons above and below your blog post. You can even have them floating with the reader as they scroll down through your post. Just make sure you remind them to share your content with those who may enjoy it, because the call to action you deliver maybe the reminder they need to take action.

Day 13: Get Good at Storytelling for Increased Content Appeal

Storytelling is an important art that you need to master for your content marketing strategy. This is not a strategy where you have to make up stories out of thin air. For most nonfiction niches, it’s about sharing your own experiences and connecting them with those of your audience.

Not only are you able to paint a picture of what they are going through to show that you can empathize or sympathize with them, but you are also able to help them envision what their life will be like if they can achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves with your help.

Day 14: Set a Goal for Each Piece of Content You Create

Just as your audience has a goal in mind when they turn to you, you should have a goal for every piece of content that you create. It’s not enough to simply assume everything you create will help you gain exposure.

Instead, you want to have a specific goal about whether you want to use this piece of content as a way to elevate your expertise, help you build a list of subscribers, or convince someone to purchase something through your link.

If you have a goal in mind before you begin creating the content, it helps you with your outlining process and in allowing the information to unfold in the best way possible. Sometimes, you may have more than one goal associated with your content, and that is okay, too.

Day 15: Tips for Sharing Your Content on Facebook

When you create content, you can either create it on your blog or elsewhere and then share it on social media, or you can create it directly on social media itself. Facebook is still one of the most popular social media sites for niche content.

When you create content and share it on this social site, make sure you pair it with an image so that it stands out in everyone’s feed better. You can also format the text so that it has bold or italic lettering if you want to.

Don’t go crazy with tagging people, but if there is someone who it makes sense to tag because they are mentioned in the content, for example, that’s okay. You can share your content on this site on your personal profile, your page, or in a group that you create or that has allowed others to post in it.

Day 16: How to Make the Most of Hashtags for Content Marketing

When you create content, part of your strategy needs to be to help it get found by the right audience. Online, that is often done with keywords and hashtags when you are using sites such as social media.

A hashtag is simply a # sign followed by a keyword or phrase that you want people to use when searching for your content. For example, if you wrote a blog post about the keto diet, you might use the following hashtags: #ketodiet, #ketodiettips, #ketodietsuccess, etc.

On most of the social media platforms, you can search for popular hashtags that are being used for your niche. Make a list of what is included and then pick and choose each one that can be used in every piece of content that you create.

Day 17: Set a Budget for Content Marketing Elements You’re Not Good At

When you are developing your own systems and strategies for any part of your business, part of what you want to do is set aside a budget for things you may need to outsource or acquire tools for.

With content creation, you may want to invest in certain tools that can help you in the editing and polishing your written work, such as Pro Writing Aid. Or, you may want a tool such as Camtasia to help you create amazing videos.

There are tools for audio as well as images. Many of these tools have free options, but in order to fully utilize them, you will have to pay a minimal monthly or annual fee. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, then you can set aside a budget to outsource the work to a freelance individual.

Day 18: Learn How to Utilize Free and Paid Online Content Creation Tools

if you don’t have the ability to save up for tools yet, you want to start with some free versions that can help you improve and quicken your content creation. Grammarly is a free writing tool that can help you with spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

When and if you want to level up, you can consider a premium or business account that will help you with more advanced writing issues. Canva is another tool that has both a free and paid option.

Using this tool, you can create graphics that you need for your content such as blog images, social media images, eCovers for your lead magnets and info products, and more.

If you can’t afford Camtasia yet, you can start with the freeware version called CamStudio. using this, you can edit and perfect your videos, whether you are using screen capture or on camera methods.

If you are creating audio content, you will want to use a tool like Audacity. This is a free tool that you can use to edit, add special effects, and improve sound quality for your audio files.

Day 19: Pay Attention to Success Metrics for Content

The creation of your content is not the sole indicator of whether or not your content strategy is successful. You can’t just look at the volume of content that you are putting out.

You have to look at the metrics it generates to see whether or not the content you are creating is performing to the best of its ability. If it’s not, you will be able to tweak your efforts until it does.

You will be looking for things such as whether or not your audience engaged with your content, how often and how many people shared it with others, and what the comments and feedback were about your pieces.

When you start seeing an analysis of all of the little details, such as where your readers bounced from your site while reading your blog post, or where they exited a video that you created, it will help you understand more about the kind of content they respond best to.

You will be able to see whether they like longer or shorter pieces of content in terms of word count, what time length they are willing to sit through to absorb information, what color patterns they notice more in a feed so that they can engage with your social media content, etc.

Day 20: Develop an Editorial Plan for Your Content

In order to achieve your goals for consistency with content creation, you will need to put yourself on an editorial schedule. This will not only dictate what days your content is published, but also on what platform it will be placed on.

You can organize your content publishing schedule so that topics are rotated to keep things fresh for your audience, and then type of slant or media format is also strategically placed within your calendar to mix things up.

Day 21: Polish Your Content to Perfection

It’s good to have tools that you can use to perfect your content, but some of what you will be doing in terms of polishing it to perfection will be up to you during the creation process.

For example, you can’t just absorb information in regurgitate it back to your audience. It’s your responsibility to do some fact checking to ensure that the information you are conveying is accurate.

Another thing you need to do is proofread your work and notate any sources or citations where it makes sense to do so. It’s okay for an expert to have outside sources that they utilize for their audience, so don’t feel like you have to cover that up.

Day 22: Curate Content Instead of Plagiarizing It

One way that you can leverage the expertise of others is to curate content from around the web. Curation is a way of pulling in snippets of content from other producers, making sure to give them credit, and then expanding on everything that you have created with commentary of your own.

This is much better than what many online marketers do, simply lifting content from other people’s websites and sharing it as their own. There’s no excuse for stealing from others when curation is a viable option for you.

Day 23: Make Sure Your Content Marketing Strategy Includes Personality

Personality is one of the most important things you can inject into your content to really make it take off. We spoke of using it in the form of entertainment previously, but whether or not you are entertaining or simply informing and enlightening your audience, a personality must shine through in order to help you form a bond with your target audience.

Some ways you can do this are by weaving your own personal stories into the content to show that you understand what they are going through, cheering the members of your community on publicly with their permission, and utilizing multimedia format content so that they can get to know you in terms of the way you look, your voice, your mannerisms, and your tone.

Day 24: Split Test Your Content Creations

When you create content online, if you have time (and you should make time), you should begin the process of split testing certain pieces to see which strategies or elements work better than others.

Split testing is simply pitting two different things against one another to see which one emerges as a top performer. You only want to alter one thing at a time so that you can pinpoint the exact changes that make a difference.

Day 25: Weed Out What’s Not Working for Your Content Marketing Strategy

Increasing the churn out of content that is working well for you is only part of the equation. You also need to weed out what’s not working with your content strategy. You might find that your audience does not respond well on certain channels or platforms.

It’s better to focus your efforts on places where they do hang out and are likely to notice your content. Another thing you may notice is that certain media formats are not engaging for your audience, such as a preference for video over text or vice versa.

You may also start to gain a better understanding about what types of slants and what tone your content should take for your target audience. Even with something like personal development, you can have a slant that is coddling when it motivates or one that kicks their butt into gear.

Day 26: Engaging Your Audience for Increased Content Success

Part of your content marketing strategy will be to maximize the engagement with your audience. This is a two way street. Many marketers believe they can simply sit back and watch comments, shares, and other forms of engagement take place without participating.

But ideally, you are helping to form those bonds with your audience by responding to their comments whenever possible. This is easier when you are just starting out and have a smaller audience, but you should do it as long as you can and periodically engage with several people in the comments section even once they grow to an enormous number because this shows that you still care about their opinions.

Day 27: Use PLR as a Content Marketing Springboard

If you are trying to publish an enormous amount of content for one or more niches, you may want to utilize private label rights (PLR) as a tool that can help you. This is pre-written content that is sold to more than one buyer.

When you buy PLR, which comes in many different formats including text, video, audio, and images, you usually have the right to put your name on the content as if you created it and edit it to your liking.

Day 28: Take Content You’ve Created and Repurpose It

Another great way to improve your content marketing strategy is to simply repurpose what you have already created. For example, if you wrote a blog post that is getting great engagement from your audience, you can take that and use it as a transcript to create a video or video series as well as a podcast.

You can also take the content and summarize it in the form of an infographic that can be shared on sites like Instagram or Pinterest. You can also repurpose video, graphics, and audio and turn them into text based content pieces as well.

This allows you to capture the interest of a wider audience. While you may have many loyal blog readers who are content with the written word, you may be missing out on a larger audience that is logged into YouTube and searching for video content instead.

Day 29: Make Sure Your Content Is Mobile-Friendly

While you are making sure that your content is perfectly polished, well written, and valuable to your audience, you also want to ensure that they are able to access it adequately.

This means making sure that your content shows up correctly for mobile users. If you are using a blog theme that you selected, make sure it is responsive for mobile readers and all browsers.

Day 30: Measure the Success of Your Content

Every so often, you want to stop and spend a day taking stock of all of the content that you have been publishing to see which direction you need to take next. You may need to continue on the same path, or your content may need to take a new direction, such as different topics, improved media, or even more in depth than what you had been serving to them before.

Online entrepreneurs want to build a successful business and grow their brand in the fastest time possible. There are many parts necessary to achieve this, but the most important is cutting through the noise and knowing what to focus on to make that happen.

Whether you’re a newcomer to online marketing or a seasoned entrepreneur, there will be times when you suddenly realize you have too many plates spinning in the air at once.

You’re overwhelmed by all of your responsibilities, endless tasks, a number of projects and countless ideas, making it hard for you to figure out what you should focus your attention on in that moment.

Once you learn how to prioritize and simplify your business dealings, you’ll not only see your success grow, but your personal satisfaction with this career will soar. Whittling down your task list and fine tuning your focus will free you up to serve your audience in the best way possible.

Be the Source of Endless Value Your Customers Are Seeking

If you don’t offer value, then you have nothing to offer. Why would an audience want to give you their time or their money if they’re not receiving something beneficial to them in return?

When you have something to give that people need or want, including insight and expertise, they’re going to seek you out. But some marketers don’t grasp what value means, and instead of learning to serve their customers, they waste time churning out products that get ignored in the marketplace.

To a customer, value means there’s a benefit that’s worth them giving up what’s important to them – their time or money. There are many choices for consumers today in the same niche that you’re in.

That’s why you want to be sure that your offer creates endless value. It’s a no-brainer because it’s just too good to pass up. You may not know how to create endless value. It’s a lot easier than you think.

You need to focus on going above and beyond when you’re creating your products or developing your services. If you create info products, this might be something like including bonuses you didn’t mention on the sales page.

The customer gets what he ordered and discovers that he also got these additional benefits from other items that you included. He’s delighted. He got his value and then some because you went the extra mile.

He’s going to remember that in the future and when he has a similar need, your brand is going to be the one he thinks of. Your business can be a source of value by answering customer support emails.

Some marketers ignore this. They take the money from the customer from the sale and as far as they’re concerned, the transaction is done and the deal is closed. But when a customer reaches out to you, whether it’s for a negative or positive reason, they’re opening the door for a connection.

Many irritated or unhappy people have been turned into loyal customers simply because a marketer took the time to respond. You can create value when you provide helpful tips if you’re promoting someone else’s product.

For example, when you’re promoting something as an affiliate, take the time to include a helpful tip or two on the topic. It could be that you’re promoting a business course and you know some things that could also help when they’re using that course.

Tell them about that and then encourage them to click a link you have on the topic in order to get more helpful advice. Even if the person doesn’t buy that particular product, they’re going to stay on your list because you provided value.

Communicate with Your Audience Regularly

When you’re first building an online business (and even if you have an established one), you must have an audience – your subscribers and customers. The right type of communication allows you to retain them.

Communication simplified just means that you’re engaging with the people who are or may potentially be interested in your business. It’s important that the sites you choose to promote your business or offers are ones that your audience frequents.

There’s a usually difference between the places young adults and older ones spend time online. Knowing that difference lets you get your products in front of people who are more likely to buy.

You need to create a communication style that’s personal. People who are addressed by name are more likely to engage with your company than someone who’s called “dear customer.”

By engaging with your audience, you create trust, which goes beyond them seeing you as someone who’s just looking for a sale. Engaging with them builds a relationship. The stronger the relationship, the more long-term loyalty you’ll end up building.

That’s why you should communicate with your audience, but you need to know where you should communicate with them. Working online, you need an email autoresponder list.

Even if you have zero customers, you should still set one up. Out of all the communication opportunities, creating a list is the most important. Because instead of waiting to see if they contact you, you’ll be able to reach out to them.

They might also be more likely to buy from a link provided in an email than via social media. You also have an opportunity to introduce new or more products, learn what they respond to and get a better conversation rate.

Communicate through your blog posts. Give your audience something that benefits them. You can do this by giving them takeaways. Share guidance on how to help their lives or business.

Teach them what you know or what you’re learning. Offer a live tutorial to help customers with the product or services that you’re offering to them. Comment to them and respond to questions.

This allows the audience to feel like they’re getting to know you. Be active on the social media sites where your audience hangs out. Share things that are relevant, or helpful and give a sneak peek into your life.

Don’t constantly push products or sales. Whatever communication style you’re using, you need to create a schedule for this. If you show up randomly, then eventually your audience disappears.

Even if you only update once a month, you need to do so consistently so that your audience knows when to expect the content. If you need to, you can schedule in advance to keep up the consistency.

Always Look for Ways to Monetize Your Message

Your branding success and profits increase the more you get your message in front of an audience. While you certainly don’t want to come across as a pushy salesman, you do want to build your business, and there are subtle ways to do this.

To start, make sure you’re always looking for ways to monetize your message. It doesn’t matter where the customer is getting the message from—whether it’s through an email list, on your blog or on social media.

Whenever you monetize a message online, you’ll want to choose ones that you know are high value. Because the more value they give, the more important these offers become to the customer.

When they get one product that benefits them, they’ll be looking for more. There are some things you’re going to want to watch out for when you’re monetizing because it could backfire on you.

As you look for ways to monetize, don’t just choose any random product if you’re an affiliate. A bad product will cost you customers – even if the product isn’t yours. If you value profit over customers, then you’re more apt to pick products that don’t necessarily deliver on their promises.

If you do get involved with an affiliate program or you’re in a partnership with another marketer, it’s imperative that the products you choose are ones that will be useful to your audience.

You also want to make sure you’re promoting someone who’s ethical if you’re monetizing as part of a partnership. Never blindly recommend something. If you don’t know that person or you have no experience with that product, buy it yourself first and test it out.

When you post a blog, see if there are any recommendations you can make. If you make a video tutorial, add any links to the products you used or mention in the description.

Make sure that you add links to your own products, too. For example, if you have a welcome series, then have a link from the email linking to that product offer or to a blog post tutorial that mentions and links out to the product.

You can find ways to monetize your blog post with text and image links, your podcasts with verbal recommendations, your videos, your social media presence, and your email autoresponder list.

Be Immune to What the Competition Is Doing

It’s common for marketers to think about their competition, especially when they see a competitor in the same niche having a lot of success. With so much competition, you’re bound to run up against someone who’s working on the same idea that you are – or they have a product that’s a lot like yours.

While it’s common to think about the competition, there’s a difference between occasionally thinking about your competitors and dwelling on them to the point where it causes problems in your own productivity.

If you’re wondering what they’re doing more often than not – or you’re experiencing a heavy burden of envy, then you’re too focused on things outside of your own business growth.

You’ll know this is what you’re doing if you’ve ever had the thought that your competition is the reason why your customer base is low or if you’ve spent time thinking that they’re succeeding because they have more money to spend on ads, a bigger customer base, more employees and things like that.

Thought it can be difficult to fathom, your competition really isn’t the enemy of your brand. If there’s a business that’s thriving and they’re offering similar products or services in the same niche that you’re in, all it means is that the market is good for whatever it is you have to offer.

Don’t let your attention get diverted away from focusing on your projects so that you’re thinking rashly or taking action steps based on what some other business is doing. Not only can this cause you stress, but it can also cost you financially in the long run.

It starts to create some negative thinking. The next thing you know, you’re caught up in the comparison game and you end up stuck in that awful headspace. You start to feel that what you’re doing compared to what the competition is doing isn’t good enough.

Plus, there’s another downside to paying attention to what others are doing. Seeing what another business is working on can cause you to stop doing whatever it is that you’d planned to do.

You might get focused on the fact a similar product is already out there or it’s already been done, so there’s no need for you to create a similar one. You end up quitting before you even really got started.

What you may fail to realize is that someone may prefer to hear the message from you. You might explain it in a better way or simplify it and it clicks with that person, so they buy from you instead of your competitor.

Focus on Self Satisfaction Through Goal Completion

As you complete a goal, it brings self-satisfaction. You’ll be happy and accomplished about the things that you’ve achieved. Studies have shown that people who set and reach goals obtain more success than those who don’t.

When you complete milestones, they help contribute to your long term goals for your business. As you achieve each one, it can bring you closer to the strategy that you’ve planned as the outcome for your business and your future.

Completing goals give you a sense of mastery. You set out to do something and you did it. You’ll be able to see the results of your efforts. You’ll see a subscriber list that’s grown from zero to thousands – and a bank account that’s thriving.

Goals are rarely completed in just one move. Instead, they’re built of several smaller steps and each of these steps that you complete gives you a sense of self satisfaction. That helps you develop the confidence that you need as an entrepreneur.

Each time you finish a goal, you strengthen the mindset or belief in yourself that you’ve got this – that you can do what you set out to accomplish. You’ll want to focus on the improvement that you experience or the personal growth that you go through as a result of completing your goals.

You’re not the same person that you were when you first set out to do the task or project. You grew in terms of skills and knowledge – and you gained wisdom as you worked.

Part of that self satisfaction stems from the fact that overcoming obstacles and accomplishing the goals has allowed you to see that you can handle things that you never thought you would be able to.

As you complete the goals, it becomes a motivating factor that keeps you on track and keeps pushing you forward. Because you get a sense of satisfaction, it triggers the reward center of the brain and you can become addicted to setting and achieving your goals and finding success, which is a good thing.

When you decide to set your goals, start by knowing what your why is. That’s the reason that will help you keep going when you want to quit. Keep that before you so that you can focus on how you’ll feel once you do reach the end of that goal.

Reaching a business goal gives you a self-esteem boost and it also helps develop a can-do attitude. The more goals you set and complete, the more likely you are to set and reach bigger goals going forward.

When your mind is swirling at all of the various things happening in your business, take a step back and get a good overview of what’s important in your business. Taking care of your customers is going to further your success.

Learning how to communicate with them and be a strong presence will create loyalty to you. Learn how to monetize those messages and never leave money on the table simply because you’re so frazzled, you forget.

Keep your focus on what you’re doing – not your competitors, unless it’s simply to ensure you’re leading the pack. Work on your goals and have a plan to achieve them. With these simple success strategies, you will grow further and faster than if you tried to do too much, all at once.

There are many individuals who have a desire to launch a blog, but the unknown territory and technical tasks of setting one up keeps them from pursuing it. Instead of overwhelming yourself by trying to do it all in one sitting, you can break the tasks up so that over the course of four weeks, you chip away at what needs to be done to completion.

This style of working on a project not only lets you remove the pressure, but it also helps you take your time in learning how to do things right. If you’re in too much of a rush, you’ll likely miss steps, do something wrong, or do it blindly without understanding the reasoning behind it.

This list of thirty days of instructions assumes you have already chosen a niche and bought a domain to connect to your hosting account. It picks up specifically at the blog installation point of the process and carries you through the maintenance of your WordPress blog over time.

Day 1: Install WordPress Using QuickInstall

Before you can set anything up on your blog, it first has to be installed on your domain. Open up your cPanel and scroll down to the Software section. Click on the QuickInstall button.

This takes you to QuickInstall, where you can create an account. You want to choose the free WordPress option – not the paid choices. Once you click it, it will ask for some domain information, including where you want the blog located (directly on the dot com domain or at a URL such as yourdomain.com/blog).

It will also ask you for your admin email, blog title, username, first and last names. Once you enter that information, click Install WordPress and seconds later, it will show a message at the top of your screen that says, “Your Install Is Complete – Click here to view your notifications.”

When you click the View Credentials drop down link, it will show you the URL where you’ll log into your new blog, your username and a password they give you. Make sure you copy this information down in a file on your computer so it doesn’t get lost.

Day 2: Log in and Get Familiar with Your Dashboard

Today you’ll spend a moment just logging in and seeing what your dashboard looks like. You don’t want to actually change anything – just get familiar with the dashboard navigation, which is where you’ll see notices right away, and a sidebar on the left.

When you first log in, you’ll see a notification that they’ve emailed you for verification and you’ll also see a note in orange that says Coming Soon Active. This means your site is only showing a “Coming Soon” page and you’ll want to click their link when you’re ready to go live.

Be aware that there is a lot of bloat on an initial WordPress install. Much of what you see, you won’t even be using. We’re going to cover the basics and then as time goes on, you can add features that you feel you need or prefer.

Day 3: Go Straight to the Updates

No matter what day it is, you want to always click on the Updates link in the left sidebar and take care of any updates that need to be handled. This is a security measure that will help keep your new blog safe.

When you click on it, you’ll see some of the bloat that was previously mentioned. You won’t need to set up analytics or audience insight. You don’t need to use OptinMonster or WPForms.

Just scroll down to where it tells you what needs to be updates. You’ll select the item, and click on the Update Plugins or Update Themes button. It will show you when it has successfully updated.

Day 4: Remove the Placeholder Post

In the left sidebar, click the Posts link. This will show you the placeholder post that says Hello world! Click the checkbox and send it to the trash. Some people go through the effort of redoing that post and turning it into something they want to use, but you can just start from scratch.

Day 5: Set Up Your Post Categories

Under the Post tab, you can click the Categories option. This opens up a page where you can set up the hierarchy of topics for your site. First, edit the one that says Uncategorized and turn it into one of your real ones and then add additional categories.

Make a list of the categories you want to have on your blog. For example, if you’re running a work at home blog, then you might have categories for product creation, list building, traffic and more.

You’ll take each idea, enter the name of the category, give it a slug (the URL version which is lowercase and may look like this: product-creation) and choose whether this is a Parent category, or a “child” category.

For example, once you enter your main categories, you’ll be able to create sub (child) categories. You might have a category such as Traffic as a parent category, and the child categories could be organic traffic, paid ads, social traffic, and more. You can also enter a description if you want to.

Day 6: Clean Up the Existing Pages

When you click on the Pages link in your sidebar, you’ll see three pages sitting there – a Privacy Policy in draft mode, a Sample Page, and a WPForms Preview that’s private. If you want to have a privacy policy page, which many affiliates do, you can edit this template to suit your needs.

But the other two pages can be deleted. Or, you can delete all three and start from scratch whenever you want to create your own privacy policy or terms of service pages for your blog.

Day 7: Pick a Theme for Your Blog

You can choose a free or paid theme to your liking. If you want a simple layout that has a righthand sidebar, a header at the top, and the blog posts on the left, you can click on Add Themes and type the words Twenty Ten into your search bar.

When the themes come up, hover over the one you want and you can preview what it will look like when it’s installed (keep in mind you’ll be uploading your own header). If you like what you see, click Install and then Activate.

Once you activate it, it will say “New theme activated” and give you the option of visiting the site to see how it looks.

Day 8: Customize Your Site Identity

When you go to the Appearance and Themes section, you can customize your theme in different ways. On the left sidebar after you choose to customize it, you’ll see site identity, which lets you change the Site Title and Tagline of your site.

Here, you can also upload a site icon, which is a 512 x 512 pixel image that people see in their browser tabs, in bookmarks and on mobile apps. These are also known as Favicons. People used to create the much smaller, but the theme requests 512 x 512 and it crops it and sizes it right for your representation.

After you make the changes you want to these elements, click Publish. The new elements will then be working live on your site. As you’ll notice, you have Colors as the next item in your site customization options, but it’s best to leave it as a white background, since various colorful backgrounds make the content harder to read.

Day 9: Customize Your Header Image

The themes will come with a built-in placeholder for a header. You don’t want to keep these. If you’re using the simple Twenty Ten theme, it will ask you to upload a header that is 940 x 198 pixels.

You can create your own header on a site like Canva or outsource it to a professional graphics designer on a site like Fiverr or Upwork. To upload it, just click Add New Image. You can crop the image and when you approve it, click Publish to make it go live.

Day 10: Customize Your Widgets

You can skip the background image and menus for now. Go to your Widgets section under the appearances section and click on Primary Widget Area. Here, you can reorder, delete or add any widgets that you want to use on your blog.

Click on the Meta block and click Remove. You should be left with a search box, recent comments (which shows engagement on your site), archives (so people can look back at past content), and categories if you want them to be able to navigate easier.

It will also show recent posts, once you have some content live on your site, but it won’t be there at this time. You can click the plus sign to add a widget, such as popular posts, a calendar, tag cloud and more.

For now, just add the custom HTML widget and drag it right below the search box. You’ll be using this later when it’s time for some list building task implementation. For now, it won’t show up as anything on your site. Remember to hit the Publish button before leaving.

Day 11: Delete the Bloated Plugins from Your Blog

When you log in today, click on Plugins in the left sidebar. Scroll down and look at all of the pre-installed plugins they’ve put on your site. You want to Deactivate some of them and delete them.

You can always add things back at a later date once you understand how they can help (or hurt) your site, what they do, and what you need. Start by deactivating and deleting WPForms Lite, OptinMonster, MOJO Marketplace, JetPack, Hello Dolly, and Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights.

If your theme has added other bloated plugins, get rid of them for now, except Akismet, which will help you filter a lot of the spam that invades your blog. You’ll see a big, blue button that says Set up your Akismet account.

If you already have an API key for an account, you can enter that – but otherwise, you’ll sign up for an account and enter your key at that time.

Day 12: Set Up a Contact Form on Your Blog

Go into your dashboard and click on Plugins. Click Add New at the top. Then search for Contact Form 7. There are many different plugins you can use, so if you prefer another one, go with that.

When you find Contact Form 7, click Install Now. Then click Activate. Next, click Settings. You will see some Shortcode that you want to copy. Then, click on the Pages link in the sidebar and choose Add New.

For the Title, enter the words Contact Me. Click the plus sign in the block area and choose Custom HTML. Paste the code there and then publish the page on the righthand sidebar.

If you go view your blog, you should see Contact Me as a page option under the header. Click the page and you should see fields for a name, email, subject and message.

Test the form out by sending a message. If you entered your admin email correctly during the installation of WordPress, you should get the message almost instantaneously.

Day 13: Add a Social Sharing Plugin

You want people to enjoy your blog posts so much that they feel inclined to share it with others. While many may copy and paste the URL into their social media accounts, why not make it easy by using social sharing buttons?

Today, go to the Plugins area and click Add New. In the search box, type the word Social and look at all of your social sharing options. You can click on one like Grow Social and install it, then activate it.

Regardless of which one you choose, you’ll want to then click on Settings for the plugin and set it up the way you want to. For this one, you can choose to have an inline button option or a floating sidebar.

Floating sidebars sometimes annoy visitors because it covers content they’re trying to read. So choose inline. Once you activate that option, you’ll click on the settings for it. Now, you can choose which social networks you’ll provide share buttons for.

It’s important to know where your audience will likely be sharing – such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. You’ll be able to determine how the buttons look – their shape and size, positioning above or below content, and you can add some text such as, “Share this blog!” Save the changes when you’re finished.

Day 14: Set Up the General Settings for Your Blog

Today, you’ll log into your dashboard and scroll to Settings. Click on the General option. Here, you’ll make some determinations about how your site presents itself. You can once again alter the site title and tagline.

If you need to change your admin email, you can do that here. You can choose what role new users are given, such as subscriber, contributor, author, etc. Leave it at the default.

You can change the language if you need to, pick a time zone, choose the date format and time format, pick which day of the week you want the week to begin, and set a cache level. Typically, most of these will just stay at their default – unless you have some sort of change you want to make. If you do alter anything, make sure you click Save Changes.

Day 15: Adjust Your Writing Settings

When you log in today, go to Settings and choose the Writing Settings. You’ll be able to select a default category for your posts (perfect for if you accidentally forget to categorize it).

You can set up posting via email if you want to. Most people just log right into their dashboard, so you can leave this as a default. For the Update Services, this is a great place to put multiple URLs for anywhere you want to ping whenever a new post goes live.

If you don’t know what to put here, just Google Ping List 2022 and you should find an updated list of ping sites to copy and paste into this section. This will help search bots find your posts and index them faster. Be sure to click Save Changes at the end!

Day 16: Customize Your Reading Settings

Under the settings tab, go to Reading settings. This is where you’ll choose what visitors see on your site. You can showcase your latest posts (recommended so they see fresh content) or a static page of your choosing (which can confuse some people with navigation).

Select how many blog posts you want shown on each page and in syndication – such as 10. Do you want the full text shown or just an excerpt in the feeds of people who have subscribed via RSS?

Make sure you see an UNchecked box where it says “Search Engine Visibility.” If it’s checked, it will discourage search engines from indexing your site. It should come unchecked, but you never know what theme creator will make the opposite the default. Click Save Changes at the end.

Day 17: Choose How You Want Discussions to Unfold

The discussion settings are up to you. But here’s what many people do. They uncheck everything except the following:

• Allow people to submit comments on new posts.
• Comment author must fill out name and email.
• Enable threaded (nested) comments 5 levels deep.
• Email me whenever anyone posts a comment.
• A comment is held for moderation.
• Comment must be manually approved.

These will help you maintain control over the comments and spam that gets through so that you can only approve viable comments on your blog posts. If you’re not familiar with common spam comments, take time to learn what those are.

When someone posts, “Great post! I can’t wait to read more!” it’s often a spammer who simply wants to create a backlink to their site using the name and URL space. You’ll notice their name is often a keyword phrase.

As you keep scrolling, you’ll see an Avatar section. You can choose to show avatars, choose the rating (G), and a default avatar for yourself. If you want to, you can go to Gravatar and upload a picture there and choose that as your default. Be sure to click Save Changes at the end!

Day 18: Make a Selection for Your Permalinks

You can skip the Media setting and head straight to the Permalink Settings. You’ll see lots of options for how the URL of each blog post will appear in the browser. Plain will give it a number. Others have date and time, month and name, numeric, etc.

You want to choose Post Name. This will include the title of your blog post (keywords and all) in the actual URL. So if you blog post is titled “best diet plans of 2022,” instead of a numeric URL that looks like yourdomain.com/blog/123, it will look like yourdomain.com/blog/best-diet-plans-of-2022.

This is not only better for search bots to understand what your content is about, but it helps the human visitor know what to expect before clicking on a link that someone shared to your site. Click Save Changes when you’re done.

Day 19: Install a WordPress Editorial Calendar

Go to Plugins today and Add New. You want to install and activate one called Editorial Calendar. This will be a great addition to help you manage the content on your blog. With a WordPress blog, you can write and schedule posts to go live ahead of time.

So using a calendar plugin, you’re able to see an overview of topics and drag and drop the posts if you feel they need to be rearranged to a different date and time. This is a great feature if you also have someone else contributing to the blog, such as a virtual assistant or freelance ghostwriter.

You’ll find the calendar under the Posts section. Each date has the words New Post when you hover on it, and when you click that, it allows you to put the title and content as well as the time and status of the post in it.

Day 20: Add an Affiliate Disclosure Notice

To comply with FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regulations, you need to add disclosure statement to your blog if you will be earning as an affiliate for sites like Amazon.

Go to the Appearances section and then Widgets. Amazon says you should add a statement such as, “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases” to your blog and it must be displayed where customers are seeing your links.

So it makes sense to have it in the sidebar, right beside the content instead of on a page of its own. Click on the Plus sign to add a widget and choose the Paragraph option.

Then paste your disclosure statement and drag it to wherever you want visitors to see it. You don’t have to put it at the very top. But don’t bury it below dozens of widgets, either. Make sure you Update it before you leave.

Day 21: Grab Your List Building Code

You should be signed up with an email autoresponder system, like Aweber or GetResponse. On those systems, you can go through and set up a form (either using their template or customizing it however you like).

Make sure it’s the right size to fit your blog sidebar and then grab the HTML code to install it on your blog. You’re going to go to the Widgets area again and choose the Custom HTML widget (if it’s not already installed) so you can paste the code in and see your form once you click Update.

Go to your home page and make sure the form appears under the search box of your sidebar. Test the form to make sure it works in subscribing you to your list. If you don’t test it, you might lose dozens of subscribers due to a small error.

Day 22: Create an About Me Page

Whenever you start building a following online, you’ll want to have some level of transparency about who you are and showcase your passion and expertise to your visitors.

Whenever some consumers become fans of a blog or niche leader, they begin looking for information about them. You want to control the narrative and not let your competitors do all the talking.

Create a page called About Me and in it, tell the followers a bit about yourself. There’s no need to disclose anything deeply personal, unless it’s relevant to your leadership and you feel compelled to, but do try to add a picture and a summary of who you are to help build trust.

Day 23: Add Ads to Your Sidebar

If you want to showcase other sites you own that are relevant, or offers that you’re an affiliate for, you can create or look for banner ads to place on your blog where people can click through and hopefully, help you earn a sale.

Some people put ads under their header, or inside the actual blog posts, too. You can certainly do all of the areas combined, but make sure you’re not allowing your site to become covered in ads to the point where it drowns out your message.

Day 24: Create Your First Blog Post

Your very first blog post will likely be a welcome message to your readers. They’ll want to know what the blog will focus on, how often they should expect new information, and anything else you feel is pertinent to hep them feel a connection right off the bat.

Whenever you create your content, make sure you add the More tag so that the comment area shows up whenever someone lands on your blog and reads a post. If you don’t have the More tag, the reader will absorb all the post and not see anywhere to engage.

Day 25: Socialize Your New Content

Today, you want to take the link to your new blog post and go to various social media sites and apps to share it there. Start with sites like Facebook (on your profile, page or group), and consider including it on Pinterest, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube.

Day 26: Consider an SEO Plugin for Your Site

If you’re concerned about whether or not your blog can rise in the SERPs (search engine results pages) organically, then you may want to consider installing an SEO plugin.

There are many different kinds, and they serve as reminders whenever you create a new post to help you include the information that search bots and human visitors will be looking for.

Day 27: Analyze the Data of Your Blog Visitors

You can install an analytics plugin to give you some answers, or just use the Metrics built into your cPanel to gather some data about your visitors. You can find out what pages they visited, where they were referred from, what country they came from and more.

Day 28: Create a Pillar Blog Post

There are normal, everyday blog posts and then there are pillar blog posts. These are the best posts you can create on evergreen topics in your niche. They should be well researched and thought out, thorough in the content they cover, and good enough to warrant bookmarking or sharing without hesitation.

While quantity is often touted as a way to rise in the ranks on search engine results pages, it’s more about the quality, and having several pillar posts that are considered the very best on that topic will help you more than dozens of low quality posts.

Because they’re longer, you might do something like “101 Ways to Lose Weight Quickly” or “85 Blog Tips Every Newbie Needs to Know.” Consumers love number posts, but it doesn’t have to be one of those.

Day 29: Find Images to Use with Your Niche Content

Blog content can be a daunting read for many. So you want a way to break up the text. Images provide a solution for you. You can either create graphics yourself using tools like Canva, or you can download stock pictures on sites like Pixabay, iStockPhotos or DepositPhotos.

Day 30: Get Your Blog Into Google’s Publisher Center

Google allows you to submit your blog for consideration in Google News. You can go to the Publisher Center and submit your site for consideration. There’s no guarantee they’ll accept it, but it’d be great if your site became an authority for Google to recommend to others.

In order to have a shot at succeeding, you’ll want to wait to do this until you have ample content for them to review and make sure it’s cutting edge and newsworthy. Stay on top of the news coming from your niche and blog about it as soon as possible.