Mommy Ginger
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Create a Blog and BRAND It!

MG Blog Series

Today was a light day! I got to squeeze in time for learning. I was watching and listening to videos from the Teachable summit. For 2017, I want to create a course, but I don’t know what course to create and share with you. This endeavour is something new to me. I felt confused as to where to start and how to start. I then remembered that 8 years ago, blogging was also new to me. It moved me to think about how I started blogging, and to think of the factors that made me get to where I am today. I’m pretty happy that I have gotten this far in blogging, and I attribute a big part of it to branding. Create blogs with great branding, and you’ll go places!

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What is good branding? When you create blogs, consider thinking about the following:

1. Define a blogging objective.

What is the main thing or specific thing that you want people to do, learn or read from your blog. It is important that you have this in mind 24/7 when you create blogs. The topics that you choose, the videos that you make or even the picture or font that you use should be with aligned with the mood, tone or feel of the objective of the blog. Everything should be consistent. Consistency will come in when you have a clear objective.

2. Check on what you can offer that others cannot.

Uniqueness is a big part of the game. All of us can be a certain type of blogger (mom blogger, travel blogger, etc.). What sets you apart can be how you craft your content, the tools and methods of how you relay your message, the tone of your message, and the chosen angle of your message. These are all dependent on what particular niche you are trying to talk to. Knowing your readers really well is what makes you know of your “uniqueness”.  Truly listening and engaging with them will steer you towards the direction you alone will be taking.

3. Don’t forget offline marketing.

Talking to people offline is as important as chatting with them via social media. Building trust or just getting to know people who are part of your chosen community or niche is one big factor for successful branding. People should know who you are as a person. They will trust you more once you connect with them in both the online and offline world. This is especially true when you don’t have your own flock of brand believers who will tell others of who your are and your story.

These are just some tips that worked for me. Do you know of other tips that may have worked for you to develop a good brand. Share them with me please at the comments section below.

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Blogging and Earning Thousands of Dollars

MG Blog Series

I met with a friend earlier today. We talked about how I was and how she was. She mentioned that she was focusing on her blog since she was making around $1000 a month. “Whaaaaat?!” I couldn’t believe my ears. Then, she went on to say that in good months, she would actually earn more, around close to $2000. I nearly fell of my seat. The $2000 would probably be one contract for me that spans 6 months. And she quickly said that she was nothing compared to others out there who are earning way beyond what she is getting. “Whaaaaat?!”, I said again in disbelief. I would have sworn I said “Whaaaaat?!” quite a few times during that conversation, dubbing it my word for the day. I found it bewildering that I have been in this industry for the longest time and yet, I still learn new things!

This conversation got me thinking. Why didn’t I think about all maximizing monetizing my blog?! haha! And the other thought was, I need to tell the world (maybe not the world)… or probably just those who have a knack and talent for it, that yes, you can earn through blogging.

Talking about blogging and earning has been an issue for some. It was probably because some scenarios that involve discussing blogging and earning touched on ethics. But most of the scenarios, where pure talent, passion and effort come into play (which doesn’t involve ethics), shouldn’t be an issue. A person with unquestionable talent in writing, who uses that skill to create a blog,, should be given the opportunity to earn from it and make it his or her profession. To tell you honestly, I now at least have a handful of people (2 of which I am pretty sure) who earn a living by writing down relevant and useful content.

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Hopefully now, the non-believers are believers, the more pressing issue (because we need to start blogging A-S-A-P) is where do we start? I suggest that you better start quickly and make things happen and to START, check out the WordPress Blogging Basics Course.

The WordPress Blogging Basics Course was created by my friend, Marv De Leon — a very skilled, talented, brand builder. He built his brand with the main intent to help freelancers focus and live a life pursuing their craft. Now, why do I say you need to take this course? In this WordPress Blogging Basics Course, you will learn…

tips about blogging, why blogging is still relevant for you and your business today
practical tips on how to start your first blog with WordPress — the most robust blogging tool in the market today
the key elements and essentials of a powerful WordPress blog
the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
how to create a WordPress blog, step-by-step, and publish your first blog post in under 10 minutes
more about writing a killer blog post that your readers will love and share with their friends
how to effectively market and monetize your WordPress blog
tips on building a blogging empire from the nation’s award-winning bloggers

These are just some of the benefits of signing up for this course. You can read more about it by clicking on Register now!

Register Now

 

If you have the time and if you really want to make things happen next year, start now! Really, what’s stopping you? There are a lot of things in my life that I have said YES to. I never regretted saying YES. All of these are things that you learn from and learning is always a good investment.

I love how Marv placed this in his announcement:

THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR…

People who won’t commit to finish the training

Those who will not commit to taking action and apply what they learned from the training

People who who don’t have the patience and think that blogging is a “get rich quick” scheme

I know we are talking of thousands of dollars here, but blogging isn’t a get-rich-quickly strategy. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance. The name of the game is consistency. If you don’t decide to place time and effort into it, don’t even try. It’s a commitment. All of the professional bloggers I know will give you the same advice. If you place your heart into it, it is something that will give you fulfilment and financial success.

So again, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you start by enrolling in this course: WORDPRESS BLOGGING BASICS

 

Register Now

PS. See you tomorrow for our WEBINAR! Just click on the image to register!

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Monetizing your Blog

First of all, I would like to thank all of those who attended our Facebook Live Session about Monetizing your Blog. For those who want to view it, here it is! Thank heavens for Facebook’s embed functionality!

I hope that you learned a lot from what we shared with you. I’d like to add a few more things and stress on parts that we didn’t have time to focus on due to time limitations, but before that, please don’t forget that the offer for Php 200 off on WORDPRESS BLOGGING BASICS for the Early Bird Rate will end on Wednesday. The CODE is WORDPRESS!

THINGS THAT I FAILED TO MENTION

Since I was panicking because I had to be at a meeting, I failed to mention some important points about earning from your blog. First of all, define what your objective is for your blog. Those with unclear objectives oftentimes fail. Also, please do not make earning money an end goal for putting up a blog. The end goal should be bigger than that. We, bloggers or “soon-to-be-bloggers” are given a huge opportunity to change the world — to fix things, to share ideas, to help make the world a better place. Money should not be END, but the means to an END.

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Also, think of your blogs as your own personal newspaper or letter or journal. Yes, you can write about anything under the sun, but be responsible. Your intentions may be good, but sometimes, the interpretation of others or how people perceived and absorb the information may be different. I know that whatever action your reader takes after reading your blog may not be your responsibility, but let’s try to avoid starting fights, insulting people, etc. That’s just my opinion.

This is also linked to earning from your blog, because brands, advertisers and possible partners will always partner with bloggers with the same values. If you share the same values with a brand, you will possibly and more likely be chosen as a partner blogger or commissioned to write about their products.

Some of the things that you can Earn From as a Blogger

Advertising Space: You can places ads that are situated in certain areas of your blog. How you earn from these ads are either from a monthly rate booked by an advertiser or through either Pay Per Click or Cost Per Mille. What you get from Pay Per Click (PPC) ads differ based on the amount of traffic your website gets. Check on what percentage of those who visit a site actually click on ads for blogs that are of the same genre as you. This will give you an idea on how much you can earn with the traffic that you have. Cost per Mille advertising (CPM) is when you earn based on the number of impressions (page views) you get. You earn from every 1000 impressions.

Sponsored Posts / Text Link Ads / In Text Ads  / Advertising Widgets: Sponsored posts are a thing here in the Philippines. Most of the brands ask for this and pricing again depends on the number of people who read your posts. Text Link Ads are a bit related to sponsored post since this allows you to place text based ads within the text of your articles. Cliking on those words will send you directly to a brand’s page or social media account or a lead page. In text ads are the same as text link ads but are usually more obvious than Text Link Ads. And advertising widgets are widgets that you install in your site and display a mixture of different kinds of ad types (affiliate, PPC, etc.)

Affiliate Marketing: A blogger earns commission for every product sold. There are different ways that a brand can go about doing this: using a code, using a link, a widget, etc.

Audio Advertising where you are paid every time someone plays and ad on your site (Pay per Play or PPP).  These ads usually play a video that can’t be stopped or stopped only after a few seconds.

Cross-sell services: We shouldn’t look at our blogs as the “product or the service” that we offer. We can take a step back and see if our blog is actually a tool that we can use to cross-sell other services like coaching, an ebook, a book, a workshop, etc.

The other way that you can earn are through Pop up Ads, creating membership sites, create some kind of listing in your site and earn though listing fees, ask for donations or you can eventually sell your website.  Brands sometimes look for an existing site so that they need not build new content.

Please do let me know if you have more questions on blogging and I’ll be happy to answer them for you. Also, again, we are looking forward to seeing you on August 20 for WORDPRESS BLOGGING BASICS. Sign up now and get Php 200 off!