Meera Kothand - The Blog Startup: Proven Strategies to Launch Smart and Exponentially Grow Your Audience, Brand, and Income without Losing Your Sanity or Crying Bucketloads of Tears

THE BLOG STARTUP

Proven Strategies to Launch Smart and Exponentially Grow Your Audience, Brand, and Income without Losing Your Sanity or Crying Bucketloads of Tears

THE BLOG STARTUP

Proven Strategies to Launch Smart and Exponentially Grow Your Audience, Brand, and Income without Losing Your Sanity or Crying Bucketloads of Tears

MEERA KOTHAND

WWW.MEERAKOTHAND.COM

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Five- and six-figure blogs

The laptop lifestyle

With all this hoopla about money-making blogs, youd think that you were the only weirdo who wasnt consistently raking in the profits from your blog, right?

The only one struggling in the trenches to see some progress

Any progress at all on your blog

You feel like youve tried every possible strategy, but things arent moving as fast as youd like.

What was supposed to be a fun and exciting venture is now sucking the life out of you. Its exhausting, depressing, and discouraging. Maybe youre not even sure if its worth the effort.

Lets have a reality check for a second.

How much do bloggers actually make?

There are a couple of surveys on how much money bloggers make on average.

In 2012, Blogging.org surveyed one thousand US bloggers about their earnings. Of those surveyed, 81% never even made $100 from blogging and only 2% were making $150K+.

Another survey, done by iBlogMagazine for their 2015 Womens Blogging Industry & Business Annual Report, found that most bloggers are making less than $2,500 an entire year from their blogs.

So the vast majority of bloggers make very little from their blogs.

Its not just you. And its not supposed to be drop-hat easy like people would like you to believe.

But there are a series of steps you can take to

a. make your blog a sticky audience magnet;

b. position you as an authority or expert and someone your audience trusts; and

c. prepare your blog to make money.

There are things you can do to make the process faster and cut down on the number of mistakes you make, so that you dont have to backtrack and realize youve wasted six months doing something simply because it was a trend or fad.

You can work like a digital slave to start and grow your blog, but all those hours don't matter if you don't have a plan for success or a clear road map to follow.

Thats exactly what this book is going to help you with!

THIS BOOK VS. OTHER BLOGGING BOOKS

You may have noticed there are thousands of blogging books out there.

Several on Amazon alone.

What makes this book different from the rest?

ONE

There are of plenty of false promises going around in the online space.

Youre made to believe that some strategies will work for everyone, even beginners like you. There are sweeping statements that make you think youll enjoy the same results as someone three years ahead of you who has an existing audience.

Ive learned from my own experiences, and from working with hundreds of students and clients, that some strategies just plain dont work for beginners. But this doesnt stop people from pushing them toward you. At the same time, the things that work best arent pointed out or discussed because theyre not exciting, sensational, or popular.

Youll know what these are, and this book will point every one of those out.

TWO

This isnt a book thats going to pat you on the back and promise you that you too can make $10,000 a month in the first ninety days. This book isnt going to sugarcoat anything either.

Blogging is not a magic pill. As much as its romanticized as the secret to a freedom or laptop lifestyle, a lot of work goes into it. With the number of online businesses popping up these days, you would think it was easy. But its both easier and more difficult at the same time.

Its easier because there are fewer barriers to entry. You used to need to know how to code or hire a developer who cost thousands to get a decent website. Thats not the case today.

But its also more difficult because the old rules of building a business online are changing, and you need a new mindset to navigate the online space.

Why?

In March 2019, over 4.4 million blog posts were published every day.

Competition is immense!

Why should someone read your blog when there are millions out there? Why should they buy from you instead of someone else?

Its ok if you dont have the answers to these questions yet (read on and youll get ideas!). But acknowledging the question makes you at least consider what you have to work toward.

BLOGS DONT MAKE MONEY

Lets be honest for a second.

Many of us want to get started with internet marketing because were fascinated with all the golden promises weve heard, intrigued by those income reports weve read, and want to scratch that itch of Can I really make money online?

But unless you use ads as a monetization strategy, blogs dont make money.

Businesses do.

Your blog is not a business. It would be really difficult and you would need a huge amount of traffic to be able to make money from the ads alone on your blog.

So when people say, My blog makes 10K a month, they have a solid business in the background working for them.

They have a business model. They have their core or brand that is responsible for attracting people to them.

There are two ways to approach blogging when youre starting out.

You need to decide if youre starting content first or offer first?

In Method 1, you start with no product or service and create content to attract, grow, and nurture your audience. Your blog serves as a content hub to get people in the door.

You get permission to be in touch with them via email.

You find out what type of content makes your audience tick.

Once you start attracting an audience, you promote your own digital or affiliate products or offer the services that are most aligned with their needs and your skill set or expertise.

Thats what I didthe content first model.

In Method 2, you have existing products and services and your blog serves to support your business.

Can you see the difference between both methods?

Even if you start with Method 1like I didyou will eventually need to transition to Method 2 as you start to grow your income.

You need to figure out

The types of problems you want to solve for your audience.

Your Business Model (Your pathway to making money. Because if you dont monetize, you dont have a business.)

Your core or essence (Your brand, which will be responsible for attracting your ideal readers or buyers.)

Now, blogging is a huge topic, and theres no way Ill be able to cover all of it in detail in this book. But no matter what type of blog you are starting, there are some core components that you need to focus on if you want to make money with your blog.

This book introduces you to these nonnegotiable core components in the form of bite-sized strategies and pro tips.