What’s up, friend
Yesterday, you learned how to build the right blogging mindset, which is crucial before you step further into your blogging journey.
Here is a quick recap of you have learned yesterday:
- Avoid relying on SEO too much. Build an email list instead in order to have sustainable traffic channel
- Starting a new blog means starting a new business. Therefore, you need capital
- Have a creator mindset and offer a value
- Focus on conversion instead of traffic
In today’s lesson, I will add one more point to strengthen your foundation, with a deeper coverage.
Up until this point, you already know that starting a blog equals to starting a business. The good news is that you don’t need a million of funding to get started. Neither needing to pitch a VC.
You can start your blog business with less than $100. I am pretty sure that the number is not a real issue for most people. Especially if you have a job.
$100 could be your best investment and have a big potential to change your life.
No, my friend. I am not going to make a sales pitch here. Easy. In fact, I am not selling anything in this course*.
I just want to remind you once again that you need to spend money to start a new business.
The Difference Between Blog and Other Business Types
Friend, did you know what “blog” stands for?
Or, did you even know that “blog” is an abbreviation?
Yes. Blog is an abbreviation. It stands for “web log”.
Blog is a type of website that contains a log of information, specific topics, or opinions. People used to use a blog as a personal diary to share what’s on their mind, hoping someone on the internet find and read it.
During my college period, I used my blog to re-write what I learned from the books I read or what my lecturers taught me in the class.
I used my own words to better understand the theories and concepts that my books and lecturers had taught me.
Don’t ask me about the sentences I used on my blog posts. They didn’t even deserve a read. But I got the point.
Trust me. If I could go back to that period and found you reading my blog posts, I would go hide somewhere and never show my face again.
Even when I thought my blog posts were awful, I still got some readers. Some of them even found my blog posts useful.
And you know what?
I got a new nickname that my friends gave me after they knew that I had a blog: Aliko the blogger. Since then, most of my college mates recognized me as “a blogger”.
Fast forward today, some of my friends still recognize me as a blogger. Even those who are not from the same campus as me.
What I am trying to say here is that as soon as your blog has gone live, you need to get ready to be called “a blogger”.
But chances are, no one will recognize you as a blogger since you are a new blogger. To have them recognize you as a blogger, you need to promote yourself and your blog.
You need to build a personal brand. You need people to recognize you as a blogger.
But friend, I can tell you that being a blogger is not enough. You need a more specific “nickname”. You need a more specific area to blog about. You need a niche.
Yes. A niche.
A niche is more than just a topic you want to blog about. It’s the approach you will take, the audience you want to build, and the way you will talk about to your audience.
A niche is also how to position yourself as an expert.
Yes, you need to be an expert in order to be successful with your blog.
Friend, I know what’s on your mind.
“But I am not an expert at anything, Aliko”.
That’s what’s on your mind when I say “expert”. Right?
Don’t get intimidated by the word. Being an expert doesn’t mean you have to be super knowledgeable.
In this case, you just need to understand how to do something or how to use something and teach others how.
I brave calling myself a WordPress expert as I understand how to use WordPress. I can use WordPress to create a blog. I can use WordPress to create an online store. I can use WordPress to create an online forum.
On top of that, I also can teach you how to create those types of websites with WordPress.
But if you ask me to create a plugin for WordPress, I can’t do that. Why? Because I am not a programmer.
Similarly. A photography expert doesn’t need to have the ability to create a camera. That’s the manufacturers’ job.
A Photoshop expert doesn’t need to have the ability to create Photoshop. That’s Adobe’s job.
A spreadsheet expert doesn’t need to have the ability to create spreadsheet software. That’s software developers’ job.
A social media expert doesn’t need to have the ability to create a social media platform. That’s the programmers’ job.
And so on.
As a blogger, a creator, your job is to master a thing and teach others about it via your blog posts.
Once you understand this concept, you will be able to offer value. And once you already have a value to offer, it becomes easier for you to promote your blog.
I will go deeper about how to add value in the next lesson. But for today, let’s focus on finding your expertise to tackle your hesitation first.
An Easy Way to Find Your Expertise
From what I have elaborated above, you should already know who an expert is. Now, let’s find out what area you are an expert at.
Remember again. Just because someone is a photography expert, it doesn’t mean that he or she can create a camera. But if you ask her/him to take a great photo, she/he can definitely do it.
Why? Because it’s what she/he usually does.
And if you ask her/him to teach you how to take a great photo, they can also do so.
Why? Because she/he has the knowledge about it.
But, friend. A crucial thing to note.
Being a photography expert is not enough. You need to be more specific on which type of photography you are really an expert at.
Instead of “how to take a great photo”, you should go with “how to take photos of beautiful landscapes with an iPhone” or “how to take photos that tell a story”.
The more specific, the better. The nicknames “iPhone photographer” and “storytelling photographer” are better than merely a “photographer”.
You will need your nickname aka expertise aka niche to give your blog a focus. By giving your blog a focus, it becomes easier for you to determine what content you want to plan and write, the design you want to apply, and, most importantly, the audience you want to go after.
Now let’s take the above illustration into a real case to find your expertise. Your niche.
Ideally, the easiest way to find your expertise is by taking a look at your hobby. When you have a hobby, you have knowledge about it. If you already have the knowledge, you just need a little push to become an expert.
I blog about WordPress because I love the software. And most importantly, I have the knowledge to share with my blog readers.
If you don’t have a hobby, it’s okay.
Let’s take a different approach to find your expertise.
I have the following questions that you need to answer:
- What was an interest from your childhood that you find exciting?
- Do you have something that you want to learn?
- What is one achievement that you are incredibly proud of?
- What is a deeply held value of yours?
Answer the above questions carefully. It’s okay if a question takes long to answer. I will wait 🙂
Once you are done answering the questions, you should now have a clear idea or two for what you could start a blog about.
If you still have no idea, it’s okay. Let’s try another approach.
For this approach, you can use a piece of paper and a pen to jot things down. This usually helps a lot.
List out things you find easy to do. Such as:
- Design
- Cooking
- Parenting
- Fitness
- Running
- Hiking
- Creating social media content
- Planning a trip
- Managing personal finance
- Etc.
Write down a list of 5 things you like spending your free time on. Rank them in true importance on a scale of 1-10.
On the item that has the highest scale, ask the following question:
Do you really want to learn everything related to it? From basic to advanced. You need to answer this question honestly as you will position yourself as an expert who guides your audience.
If the answer to the above question is yes, you can pick it as your blog niche.
If you think you are an introvert to become an expert (nervous enough). Think of this.
Position yourself as someone who wants to get out of a state. A state that sucks. The state can be:
- Someone who wants to get out of their 9-5 job
- Someone who is trying to make money from her/his hobby
- Someone who is trying to make her/his first online business
- Someone who is struggle growing her/his business
- Etc.
Whichever your current state is, you are not the only one in that state. There are other people somewhere who are in the same state as you and they need help.
… and the one that can help them is you.
You have the ability and responsibility to serve them with the gifts that God has given you.
You have been blessed with talents, ideas, and unique abilities that have gotten you to where you are in life. And these gifts were given to you so you could share them with others.
Be a leader in your niche and guide them who need your help!
Think of the following quote by one of my favorite online marketers, Russell Brunson.
“You don’t have to be the most knowledgeable person in the world on your topic, you just have to be one chapter ahead of the people you’re helping. There will always be people in the world who are more advanced than you are. That’s fine. You can learn from them, but don’t let it stop you from helping the ones who are a chapter or two behind you.”
By the way, I have a book recommendation (this is an affiliate link) you can read to be more confident with your expertise.
P.S. * I said that I don’t sell anything in this course. Indeed. I don’t sell anything, but I recommend some things. That’s how affiliate marketing works. You earn money by recommending products.
There is a fundamental difference between selling and recommending 🙂