Becoming a Blogging Genius

With just 15 minutes a day, you can become a blogging pro, as Michelle Ward suggests on *startupnation.com*. By starting small—choosing a platform, writing posts, and brainstorming ideas—you can build a strong foundation. As you advance, integrate RSS feeds, promote on social media, and engage with other bloggers to grow your reach and community.

While perusing through the Friends of Ricki Facebook page, I stumbled upon another super useful article from www.startupnation.com. Check it out! With just 15 minutes devoted to it per day you can become a blogging genius in no time.

Read what Michelle Ward had to say:

Since I had to build my coaching business from my day-job cubicle, I was practically forced to promote the business solely through social media. Thankfully, I decided right away to start blogging, and found a fantastic outlet for my creativity. It's a wonderful way to connect with like-minded people around the world, a non-sleazy way to build my expertise, and the kick-assest of ways to have prospective clients get a 360 degree view into my personality, coaching style and passions. Score!

When you hear the term "blogging", you might be fearful of a time-consuming process that would never, ever fit into your life. However, in just 15 minutes a day, you can do it. And not only can you do it, but you can become quite the blogging genius while you are at it.

To that end, here are some 15-minute ways for you to start and build your blog, no matter where you are in the process:

BEGINNER

Research the popular blogging platforms (tumblr, Blogger, Squarespace, Typepad and WordPress) to see what works best for you. If you know you're only going to post via video, you might want to start your own YouTube or Vimeo channel instead!
Check out this educational website where you can find helpful online and PDF guides, WordPress Video Tutorials, and other handy blogging tools to help you start an online presence of your own.
Open up a new Word doc and write a new post daily, even if nobody sees it. Once you have a few posts written, you might start to see a theme develop, or a name pop out at you. You can always copy & paste it into your blog later if you're stuck on a name or deciding which platform to use!
Choose a name for your blog by writing down the themes/title ideas you'll wanna post about and start brainstorming from there.
Open up an account on the blogging platform of your choice!
Write down all the post ideas you have in your head and keep 'em someplace safe. Then, pick the one that seems the most fun/easiest to start with!
Repeat the mantra, "Nobody will see this unless I send them to it." Blogging is so saturated right now that I promise your blog will be private - even if you don't set it as such - until you start telling people about it!
Record an About Me video or write an About Me post. If you're having trouble, answer the question, "What would I want a new friend to know about me?"
Write a post and hit "publish." Celebrate!

INTERMEDIATE

Start using an RSS feed, like Google Reader or BlogLovin, to find blogs you'll love and keep track of your favorites quickly and easily.
Spiff up your sidebar and build your connections by adding links back to your favorite blogs.
Put links/widgets to your social media accounts in your sidebar.
Create drafts of all your post ideas in the back-end of your blog. Leave 'em there for a rainy day.
Schedule two promotional tweets for each blog post you put up on the day it goes up, linking back to it.
Protect yourself with a Creative Commons license. It'll give you a spiffy code to put on your blog so people know if/how you want your content shared.
Contact one blogger and ask to do a guest post on their blog.
Comment on a blog post that resonated with you, going beyond, "Thanks for the great post!"
Sign up for twitterfeed to automatically feed your new blog posts to your social networks.
Start a weekly series so your readers know what to expect on certain days, and to entice them to visit you then.
Host a giveaway! (Hint: lots of Etsy artists are willing & excited to provide the product!)
Add Copyblogger, Problogger and Blogcast FM to your RSS feed. Read/listen religiously.
Sign up for a blogging e-course, like Create Content That Gets Clicked or Blog Love.
Participate in a huge blogging communityproject, like Nanowrimo or reverb. Some only happen once a year, so keep your eyes open on your favorite blogs (and their sidebars!) for info on upcoming projects.

ADVANCED

Create a button for your own blog that others can grab and share on theirs.
Give yourself an advertising budgetand spend it on your favorite blog(s). Remember, the people that are gonna love your blog probably already love the popular blogs you're reading!
Create a custom header, or hire someone to do it for you.
Write a Start Here page, pointing to your most relevant/favorite/kick-assest posts.
Connect your blog to Google Analytics to get the best back-end data.
Use relevant twitter hashtags to drive tweeples who are looking for the topics you write about back to your blog.
Create a MailChimp account to have pretty emails go out to those who subscribe to your blog via email.

Just 15 minutes a day and you're on your way to being a blogging genius! And yes, I said genius. It's not an exaggeration. That's gonna be you!!

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