Back To Basics – I’m Bloggin’ Here!

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back to basic blogging

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I’m getting back to basics in my blogging. Why? Because I’ve gone too long without writing a blog post.


Getting Back To Basics

When I started this blog and published my first post, I knew my posting schedule would probably be erratic. I’m not too good at being punctual or disciplined. So I knew that it would probably be hard for me to stay on schedule. Any schedule.

But I never thought I would take a year off! Or has it been a year and a half?

I was stuck on the other side of the country in the Fall of 2020 because of the pandemic. It started with the loss of a loved one. Then, just because when it rains it pours, more issues and problems piled on and it was very difficult to handle things from 2,000 miles away. They were the worst three months of my life.

So when I finally got back to the West Coast and rejoined my wife, I thought I would take a little time off before I started blogging and marketing again or anything else for that matter. Then I thought – hmm, I’m still feeling really down for a bunch of reasons, maybe I could use a little more downtime. Soon, I realized I was depressed. And I was having a hard time getting anything done.


This Is Not A Testimonial

Don’t worry, this isn’t a before and after story or a recommendation for some meditation course. I’m also not saying I’ve bounced back from the blues by repeating some mantra 50 times a day.

But it does look like I need to get myself and my life in gear, even if I start slow. I can’t just wait for things to get better before I take action, so I need to start working on starting over and try to build some momentum.

I guess you could say I’m “restarting the restart”.

Ugh. That was meant as a reference to The Princess Bride. Terrible joke. Does anyone else even remember that movie? Just me?


Back To My Blog Plans

So what am I doing differently? Well, I’ve taken down all the advertising banners that I used to sprinkle through my posts. I will probably make changes to the sidebar ads too, or at least use better targeting strategies when I put them back and add some more things like giveaways.

I’m also taking down my free offer pop-ups for the time being.

I hope this will force me to work on the real basics of blogging – content. Content in the form of high quality posts.

I’ve read that Google doesn’t really pay attention to a new blog until it has 50 posts. But they have to be high-quality posts to attract organic traffic. You need to rank on the first page of Google for the keywords you focus on. That’s what I’ll be working on – posts that my visitors and Google consider high quality.


What Is High Quality?

So, what makes content “high quality”? I think it’s content that people enjoy reading (or watching, or listening to)…. and that Google finds to be focused and on-topic, probably helpful, and definitely original.

a basic blogging deskWhile I’ve been on this extended sabbatical, I haven’t been in a state of mind to be creative or to write productively. In fact, this rambling post has taken a couple of weeks to slowly put together. But, I have continued to do research and learn. I’ve also acquired new tools and purchased new training materials. Hopefully, I’ve learned some things that will help me to create high-quality content. Now it becomes a matter of putting in the hours.

I’ve learned more about SEO, and even though all of the posts on my blog so far have shown green in Yoast for both readability and SEO, I’ve realized there are a lot of things I still need to do in both on-page and off-page SEO.

Now it’s time to do those things, apply those lessons, and put myself out to the world, again.

It can be hard to start doing regular things when your world, and who’s in it, has been changed by a virus pandemic, an illness, an accident, or a crime. You never know.


Here’s My Plan

I’m going to try to focus on building up blog content with helpful and informative posts until I have better traffic. Once I see traffic to my site increasing, I’ll start building my list(s) with educational downloads like free eBooks and free memberships to training sites and marketing-related online software.

But, I have to be careful to keep my focus on the blog and attracting traffic through my posts before I start working on my email auto-responder series, or working on product sites or working on membership sites. Specially don’t do them all at one time!

To use an analogy, building an online business can be an uphill battle. Like rolling a big rock up a hill. If you have to roll a boulder up a hill, it’s not easy (I remember that pushing a motorcycle up a hill in my youth wasn’t easy). But trying to roll 3 or 4 boulders (or motorcycles) up a hill at the same time is just about impossible. You’ll probably never get anywhere.

Back to the plan I’m planning…

Once I am making progress on building my list, I’ll re-monetize my blog site with more strategically placed lead magnets, new offers, and hopefully some automated systems in place to move people into and through one of several funnels.


Speaking Of Funnels

Funnels are all the craze right now. For good reason. They have proven their value. I’ve purchased several page builders and funnel builders. There seems to be a belief that with the right funnel builder you can or even should develop a funnel that will rake in prospects, customers, and sales as soon as it’s published.

Understand that most successful internet marketers do not expect their next funnel to be a success out of the gate. They expect to tweak it, rewrite the copy, alter the design, and test and track the results of each and every change. And they’re going to do these things over and over until they have optimized every detail of their new funnel/new campaign. Then and only then do they untie the purse strings and ramp up their campaign.


It’s Not The Tool, It’s The Process

back to the basics of bloggingEven if you are paying $97 (or more) per month, you still have to test, track, and edit before you know if you have a profitable funnel on your hands. I pay $20 a month for one funnel builder. I pay $270 a year for a page builder that is very good for funnels. And I paid about $1500 (in installments) for a lifetime membership to a page builder and funnel builder suite.

The $20 a month funnel builder doesn’t have as many features, but it can make as many sales as the higher-priced ones.

I’ve also invested in some other new tools, and I’ve been buying Enterprise and Agency licenses so I can do outsourcing work for other marketers. But mainly I’m hoping the new software tools I’ve invested in will help me take my blog and my marketing business to the next level.

One More Change

There’s one more really big change that I’ll need to make. Video.

Not only do I need to start using video, I need to start using video everywhere. I wanted to wait until I had a chance to get some work done on my choppers (teeth) before pointing the camera at me.

Maybe I’ll use a still photo of me in the corner of the video. Or maybe I’ll try keeping my microphone in front of my mouth until I’ve gotten some work done in my pie hole. In the Fall of ‘19 I broke two teeth. Boom! Gone! I’ll leave out the details but the gaps are pretty obvious.

I don’t know yet, my wife and I are discussing whether I should get a couple of implants to fill in the empty spots and then get the rest “capped” as they used to call it. I’m leaning toward the full arch.


Tell Me About It…Please?

OK, I’ll wrap this up. But before you go, I want to invite you to leave me a comment.

I’d love to hear about your business experiences and how you overcame some of the hurdles you’ve encountered. Tell us about them in the comments.

And, let me know if you’ve seen The Princess Bride!

‘Til next time,

Dave Hodges with water background

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