Elite Blog Academy® is an intense, in-depth blogging course that can and will take your blog to the next level. It starts with the premise that you have already set up at least a basic blog and understand the fundamentals of blogging. The doors for Elite Blog Academy® are currently closed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get started on your blogging journey right away. In fact, if you are just starting out, you probably wouldn’t be ready for EBA® just yet anyway!
If you are interested in blogging for profit, or would like to be ready to enroll in EBA® the next time our doors open, the following steps will help you get started.
1. SET UP A SELF-HOSTED BLOG ON WORDPRESS
Elite Blog Academy® is meant to be a hands-on course, which means in order to benefit you will need to have a real live blog to work with, not just an idea for one. If you haven’t already, you will need to set up your self-hosted blog on WordPress. This is pretty easy to do, especially when you use the detailed step-by-step tutorial found HERE.
Furthermore, if your blog is currently hosted on Blogger or WordPress.com, I would strongly recommend that you make the transition to being self-hosted on WordPress, and do it sooner rather than later.
2. SET UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
Once you have set up your blog, you will also want to set up some basic accounts on social media to correspond with your website, including a Facebook page, a Twitter profile, and a Pinterest Business Account. Depending on your niche, you may also want to set up accounts for Google+, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
3. INSTALL A FEW BASIC PLUGINS
The best feature of WordPress is that there are an almost infinite number of plugins available to install that can help you do almost anything on your blog, from fighting spam to building your email list to keeping track of your analytics and helping you easily add advertising or affiliate links.
Here are a few that I recommend:
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- Akismet or Antispam Bee – An anti-spam plugin is probably the very first plugin you will want to install, as spam comments will begin to show up almost immediately.
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- Bottom of Every Post – This plugin does one thing, and that thing is to add some content to the end of each of your posts.
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- Google Analytics Dashboard– Google Analytics Dashboard gives you the ability to view your Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard. You can also allow other users to see the same dashboard information when they are logged in or embed parts of the data into posts or as part of your theme.
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- WP Supercache – A caching plugin that helps your site load faster.
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- Yoast SEO – Yoast WordPress SEO is the most complete SEO plugin available for WordPress. It offers everything you need to optimize your site.
4. GET COMFORTABLE WITH BLOGGING
Once you’ve set up your blog, it is important to get comfortable with the process of blogging. Don’t worry about creating the perfect blog design just yet, but instead work on writing blog posts and creating content for your site. Try to figure out what you feel comfortable writing about, how often you would like to write, as well as whether you think the topic you picked is a good one.
I would strongly consider reading one or more of the following books:
- How to Blog for Profit: Without Selling Your Soul–-jam packed full of practical tips, HTBFP is the very best place to start once you’ve got your blog set up. It will walk you through the process of creating content, building traffic, and then learning how to monetize.
- WordPress to Go—a great resource to help you get more comfortable with the WordPress platform.
- ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income—one of the original books on blogging, this was the first book I read when I started and it taught me SO much! While it is now a little dated, it still has some really great tips!
5. SET ASIDE TIME
Once you’ve got your blog set up, you will need to set aside time to work on it! Give yourself at least 5-10 hours per week to work on writing blog posts and creating content. Don’t worry at first about getting readers–just worry about finding your voice, discovering exactly what you most want to write about, and about making sure your content rocks.
Once you are ready, and once the doors have opened again, Elite Blog Academy® can show you, step-by-step, exactly how to refine your message, grow your audience, monetize your platform, and build your business. To join the waiting list, visit the EBA® website by filling in the form below.
