Hey ladies. Welcome back to a new episode. You're listening to the Boss City Bloggers Podcast. Hi, I'm Genesis, your host and this is where we will talk all about how to start, grow and monetize your blog by simplifying the process so strategizing with intention and creating a plan for profits. How do I know the frameworks I teach undeniably work because I spent years following all of the blog guru strategies and it kept me stuck at making $0 in my blogging business.
Once I decided to black out the noise, I created my own framework that allowed me to quit my job in two months, book out my business in four months and hit six figures in under 17 months. All by defying the rules. Now I help female bloggers like you do the exact same. Recognizing a gap in how bloggers try to grow and monetize their new blog, I set out to create never seen before affordable blog coaching that is fully customized to your blogging business.
This ensures that you will be put on a fast track to make money blogging the right way. A unique approach using blogging and SEO strategies to expand your reach, sell more with ease and and relax while the sales come in while you're sleeping or shopping for groceries and a blogging membership for bloggers called the Blogging Ladies Membership who want to start their own blog, create their own offers to sell and make money on autopilot.
Truth is, we don't turn our heads away from the real talk here. I share with you all of the truth secrets, strategies and step by step action plans that I've tried and tested with myself and all of my clients. Ready to grow and monetize your blogging business? Check out my free masterclass in the show notes below called Six Figure Blogging Secrets and learn the exact strategies that I've used to build my blog to six figures. Now let's tune in to today's episode.
Welcome back to the free class called Back to Blogging Basics. Today we're going to be getting clear on your blog's direction again. So nice to meet you, I'm Jen. I been blogging and blog coaching for about four years now and I'm just a girl who started a blog with a 2010 MacBook that barely works. I had a very hard time making my blog a success, but I constantly went back to the basics and eventually something stuck. So here is what we'll be covering today.
We will be developing a growth mindset and how to start a blog the correct way. This time we will rethink your niche and your ideal blog reader and branding. We will be putting together an entire new branding pack. And no, I won't be pitching a product at the end. This is for free value. You are in the right place if you've been blogging for some time but you have no clear direction on where your blog is headed.
You work hours and hours on your blog every day and you feel like it's just not working out for you. You feel like your blog could be better. Your messaging and brand could be better. You want to develop a growth mindset by going back to the basics and rethinking some things. And you want to restart a blog the correct way by putting the necessary prep work before you start a blog that empowers so now let's talk about developing a growth mindset.
How to Develop a Growth Mindset As a Blogger Having a good mindset is very important. Becoming a blogger doesn't begin with the success of your blogging business. It starts with you and a huge shift in your mindset. The right mindset gives you a huge advantage when starting an online blogging business. To succeed, you need to be creative, consistent and resilient to keep moving forward, to keep moving towards the goals that you have for your blog.
The good news is that you're not stuck with the same old mindset that you were born with. You can change your attitude and thoughts and you have to become more like a successful blogger. Developing the mindset of a successful blogging business owner starts with paying very close attention to your thoughts, habits and day to day behaviors. Here's my truth. This is how I developed a growth mindset.
The past year I got so caught up in what other business owners were doing that I started to mimic their messaging. Started to do things in my business only because they were like oof. Then I realized that I need to self reflect and develop a growth mindset. I laid in bed for for hours and hours and hours one night thinking about my business and what I could do to become better. My conclusion was that I needed to rebrand my entire business.
I no longer aligned with the content that I was putting out there. I no longer like the messaging in my blogging business that I was portraying to the world. So I took a few days to think about the rebrand. This self reflection and growth mindset allowed me to recreate a blogging business that I truly felt aligned with.
It allowed me to attract more people to my brand, bring in more blog traffic and sign three new blog coaching clients and a high ticket course this week alone without the self reflection. I would have been stuck in the same place putting content out there that I hated copying others $5,000 marketing, messaging and doing strategies just because of other businesses. Said to what I realized is that the answers are all within us. All along. The words, the marketing strategies, the success.
It's within us already and what we have to do is self reflect and develop that growth mindset. Developing a growth mindset means that you believe that you can change for the better. Learn to strike healthy balance between self criticism and pushing yourself to improve. If what you're doing isn't working, you have to believe that you can learn to do it better or try a different approach. You always need to be looking for ways that you can improve your blogging business.
The answer is within you and you only. How I do this is by going back to the blogging basics. So let's start a blog again and how to restart your blog by reflecting on it all. Here's what we will discuss in this Finding your blog's purpose Niching down Knowing your IRA and giving value Branding Website Tips Putting together your blogging business plan let's head back to the blogging basics now. So step one is to know the purpose of your blog.
According to Webster's, purpose is intentionally or deliberately working towards an aim or a goal. Purposeful blogging based on conviction gives you motivation. Blogging without purpose can leave you and your readers feeling frustrated and lost. Today I want you to identify how a blog will support your current business mission, vision and values. How a blog will support the growth of your new business idea what the competitive landscape looks like and how you're filling a unique need.
Why your audience will and should care about your blog and ultimately your business. Turn your blog into the catalyst that drives you toward your goals. Identify your purpose and then write with conviction. Getting clear on your purpose will open up the floodgates and and allow you to connect with your audience, all while building your brand and your profitability. Step 2 Identify your niche and create your reader avatar so what is a niche and why is it a critical part of successful blogging?
A niche refers to a specific segment of the online market that you want to focus your blog on. The segment is well defined so that your topic appeals to particular people, not a general audience. Why? Blogging to a general audience isn't as profitable because you'll end up attracting the wrong people and wasting time. Niche blogging is laser focused.
Every niche brings a unique audience and once you decide on which niche to build your business on, it will affect your Overall branding, products and design. Because deciding on which niche your brand belongs to you is super important. Take all the time you need. Choose a niche that's based on two things, things that you love and things that you could bring you more success. A blog that is niche down will grow faster than a blog that covers several topics.
You want to position yourself as an expert in your specific niche. So how do you identify your niche? Number one, write down your passions. Number two, write down what you're most knowledgeable about. Number three, now pick something that you feel like you could write several books on. So how do you identify your niche? So what you want to do is write down your passions, write down your niche and what you know a lot of. So I. I'm passionate about helping others, working from home and blogging.
I know a lot of business blogging, making money from home. So my niche blogging. Now we need to identify your ideal reader. A blog that is written for anyone will not appeal to anybody. For an example, I could say my ideal blog reader is a female who wants to start a blog versus my ideal blog reader is a middle aged introvert female who lives in the United States who is passionate about starting a blog but struggles with building her website and monetizing. So can you choose the right one?
This one. So now you want to write down these. So take a second and screenshot this and this. You basically want to get clear on who this person is by diving in really deep. And this. Step three is branding and website design tips. Branding is all about how you make your website visitors feel. Today we're going to chat about why you need to focus on your blog's brand before you even build your blog's website. So number one, it helps you stand out.
No matter your industry or audience, you'll always have competition. Branding helps you establish how you're different and unique. Being yourself is a great way to stand out and a great place to start building your brand. Though your competition might have a similar product or service, the way that you connect and resonate with people will make you stand out and reach those your competition might not be reaching. It creates a consistent experience.
Consistency is essential for your audience to understand who you are and what you're about. No matter how they interact with you, your audience should be receiving the same message. Three Builds brand recognition. Establishing a consistent message and look will give you a distinct style that people will automatically recognize as yours. Whether they're scrolling on Instagram or Pinterest, they'll know instantly that the graphic or information is yours.
Making them more likely to interact and trust the piece. To create this recognition, you need to consistently and constantly be showing up for your audience through your feed, newsletters, Pinterest, the list goes on. 4. Sparks a connection Sparking an emotional connection with your audience can be difficult but very powerful to your business. Emotional connection is what changes a prospective client into brand enthusiast and repeat customer.
An emotionally connected and invested audience is more likely to trust and buy from you rather than from a random person they know nothing about. So how do we brand our blog? So we have the components of your brand. Your name, slogan, logo, colors, your product or service. So let's get more into detail of these and take a look inside. So your blog name. This is the most important step. You really need to spend your time on this to really get it right.
Your name should reflect your vision and values. Describe what your blog is about should be unique. So what to consider if it's available? Look to see if you can use a.com extension you want to google it? Keep it short timeless, spelled, easily descriptive of your blog. Keywords Reflects who you are, vision and values and keep it original. So a slogan will allow your brand to be identifiable by any of your readers. What to consider Think of it as a one sentence elevator pitch.
Describe what you do and make it memorable. What messaging do you want your readers to take away from it? Words that represent who you are. Words that represent your vision, values, mission and goals. Keep it unique. Examples. I'm loving it. Just do it. Your logo Also another way to make your readers remember you. You need to spend time to really get this right. You can create your own in Canva for free or you can ask me to do it for you.
But remember, you need to know exactly what you want to portray to your readers with a logo, things to consider, floral, simple colorful fonts, etc. Now let's talk about colors. People. Make up your minds about you and your brand within the first 90 seconds of going on your blog. 62 to 90% of colors 62 to 90% are based off of the colors alone. Colors invoke strong feelings and emotions and can have a very large impact on how a consumer or reader views you and your brand.
With that being said, it's very important to study up on color psychology and maybe you will need to choose a color you won't necessarily favorite, but your ideal reader buyer client will. Branding also has to do with vision, values, voice and visuals. Now let's take a look at these in deep detail. The vision is the long term goals that you have for your blog and business? What do you want your brand blog business to be in five years? It explains why you are doing what you're doing.
Values what are the core values that you have as a blogger, Business owner Human example? If you believe that all women are uniquely beautiful no matter their shape or size and you want to communicate this often in your brand and then people are going to have more connection with you, building a connection is key. You want to build a connection by sharing your core values with your readers. Voice it should not be hard to find your writing voice because it is who you are and how you communicate.
It should come naturally to you. So how do you find your writing voice? Record yourself talking to see how you talk. Your natural personality don't be boring. Put some fun into it. Don't write if you aren't in the mood. Turn away all distractions when you are writing. Remember who you are and who you're talking to. Your ideal reader. Write with a little bit of wine. Alcohol makes your personality heightened and you can go back and edit it when you're sober.
So I think my writing voice is usually like hey girl, we're friends, but let's get straight to the point and be professional. If I tried to like write like somebody else, it probably wouldn't have worked. Your brand voice is also very important when communicating with others. How do you want to be perceived when interacting on your blog, social media channels, DMs, email, phone calls, meetings, networking events, followers and competitors? Now let's talk about visuals.
Your visuals are very important to take into account your colors, fonts, images, graphics, videos the look and feel of your brand. Let's look into some steps to obtaining the visuals. Step one is to select brand colors. I'm going to have you create a Pinterest board and you will save everything that catches your eye. Brand Colors Websites Visuals look and feel look on Pinterest for color palettes. You can also find the exact head hex codes on there and you want to create a mood board.
So here are examples of what you should be looking for. So you want to be finding colors, mood boards and whatever. Step 2 your font pairings Many themes come with good font pairings, but you should be unique anyways. Ways to find Font pairings Use Pinterest Use Google Canva has already some made font pairings in their templates as well. Buying or downloading themes. Many fonts are free and available to download on Google Fonts.
Find custom fonts on creativemarket.com or create your own custom handwritten fonts by using Fontsmith. Examples of font pairings found on Pinterest Step 3 Photos, videos and graphics. You are only allowed to put stock photos on your blog. You aren't actually allowed to take a photo that you find on Google and put it on your site. You can find stock images on Canva for free unsplash. Or you can pay $99 every three months to use my favorite subscription ever for stock images. Hot stock.
It's an amazing investment. Make sure your images are JPG files when you upload them to your blog. Using videos on your site will slow your site down immensely, so just share a link from YouTube if you create videos. So this is an example of the imagery that you want to have on your blog. All these images match each other. It's consistent. It's a consistent brand. I highly recommend that if you do have the money, or when you have the money to invest in a photographer to do some branding photos.
Step four Putting it All Together Creating a Branding pack. A one to two page document that details those key aspects of your branding. What will they include? Font names Colors Hex codes Specific featured colors for buttons and links Logo and other logo variations Some representative imagery icons Social media graphics so here is an example of a mood board that you want to put together before you put together your branding pack.
So as an example, this is what I put together before I built my website and then here are some other ones as well. So some website design tips. Your website needs a clear navigation. It needs to be balanced between simple, stunning and unique. You need to or you can use Showit. I highly recommend using Showit. It's very very easy and you need to have one conversion goal for each page on your website. Step four is putting together your entire back to basics blogging business plan.
Here's the steps. Head down below this video and find the downloaded link for the workbook. Print out the workbook if you can or use an online PDF filler. Reflect on each answer. This workbook should not take you only one day to do this. Should take you several several days to a month to reflect and really get clear. You can do this. I believe in you. So let's connect. I would love to connect with you further.
Follow me on all of my socials right here so you can email me anytime if you have any questions. Helloossladybloggers.com My Facebook is bossladybloggers. I have a page and a group and my Instagram is Boss Ladybloggers. Have a wonderful day. I hope you got tons of value from this free class.