ramsay taplin on starting and building a successfu with timestamps YoutubeScribe.com

[0:04] Hey, guys and girls!  So this is another bonus lesson.
[0:07] And this time we're talking about the topic of starting
a new blog from scratch because I know many people
[0:13] would struggle with that.
[0:15] And I have an awesome guest, its Ramsey, hi!
[0:18] Hi, thanks for having me!
[0:21] He's the founder of blog Tyrant... do I spell
everything well by the way?
[0:25] Yeah, perfect. Blog Tyrant, sound good.
[0:28] What about the name?
[0:29] Yeah, yeah...
[0:30] Ramsey?
[0:31] Ramsey.
[0:31] Okay, great. I think with my terrible English accent
people can forgive me if I do something wrong.
[0:38] Okay, so let's jump right in.
[0:41] Tell us a little bit about your experience starting
new blogs and not just for yourself because
[0:46] I know you've helped a ton of people, your
readers, you have a lot of materials in that
[0:50] you've helped your readers.
[0:52] But I'm interested in like the kind of face-to-face communications.
[0:55] How many blogs did you start and, like, where at these blogs right now?
[1:00] Just a little bit of credibility.
[1:02] Yeah, sure. So I started my first blog when I was
in high school and that was like a personal blog
[1:08] that was back in the days of... I don't know if you
remember Angelfire and GeoCities and these all
[1:14] very old blogging platforms...
[1:15] There was like flaming text and marquees,
it was very old school.
[1:20] But, I started my first blog back then and
kind of dabbled with that for a little while.
[1:26] And then it was... I was in uni, really kind of dissatisfied with my uni degree.
[1:32] And didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.
[1:35] And it was sort of ban that everyday instead
of going to the lectures or the tutorials I'd go
[1:39] to the computer rooms and I'd work on blogs.
[1:44] And it was in my second or third year that I
ended up selling one of those for five figures.
[1:49] And that was sort of the starting point for me where I
realized that I could you know maybe make a little bit
[1:55] of a living from this.
[1:57] At that time blogging was still really kind of
new.
[2:00] And I sort of had the sense that it was going to
be an exciting platform and, you know, something
[2:06] that could be quite powerful.
[2:07] So I dropped out a uni, I had two subjects left to go.
[2:11] My parents really hated that idea.
[2:14] But I started working on blogs and it
wasn't all, like, smooth sailing.
[2:18] Like, I wasn't a 100%-working just as
a professional blogger.
[2:23] I used that money basically to play a little Counter
Strike you need a lot of subway and I just do a lot of
[2:28] good stuff with it.
[2:29] So I was still very young.
[2:30] But, yeah, since that time I've sold a couple more
for five figures and it was yeah really trying to figure
[2:38] out how I could work full time from home.
[2:39] That was really what I wanted to do.
[2:41] And so I had a web-design business for a little while.
[2:44] We worked with clients and sort of had more
of a content marketing, blogging focus than
[2:49] just regular old web designs.
[2:50] And helping them learn to use content- and in
blogging-style approach for their businesses
[2:57] whether it was a physical business like an antique
store or whether it was a a solely online shop.
[3:04] Yeah, so that was how it all started and then
somewhere in there I created blog Tyrant to
[3:08] sort of share the experiments that we were doing.
[3:11] And for whatever reason that took off, yeah.
[3:14] Okay, I was reading blog Tyrant for quite a few
years now.
[3:19] It's the one of the, like, not so many blogs
that stay alive for a long period of time
[3:24] because we've seen many blogs come and go.
[3:27] Okay, so let's talk about starting out and the
first thing is to actually create this thing.
[3:34] And I  know many people go for easy ways, like
just register an account at Medium, at Tumblr,
[3:41] at WordPress.com, Blogger.com, blah, blah, blah.
[3:44] Some people even try to use, like, free
website builders like Wix for that.
[3:48] So what do you think, like, what do you
think about these things?
[3:52] I think, like, those things are fine.
[3:54] And I think if you want to kind of practice blogging
or you have it for a hobby,  it's a good idea to get
[4:00] used to the, you know, the way those things work,
and how those platforms function and, you know,
[4:05] how to insert links, and all the basic stuff like that.
[4:09] But I think over the years, especially since running
blog Tyrant, one of the big things I've seen is that
[4:14] people who start those blogs on those platforms,
free platforms, often end up in trouble.
[4:20] And it's usually two things.
[4:21] #1. They realize that they don't have full
control over it, they don't control the effort,
[4:26] they don't own, you know, the platform, they
 can't make changes to the back-end.
[4:31] And that becomes a really big limitation and
then migrating your website or your free website
[4:36] to your own platform is a bit of a hassle.
[4:39] And the second thing is that often
those platforms disappear.
[4:43] You know, you've seen with MySpace or with some
of those older platforms like I was talking about
[4:50] at the start of the talk, like AngelFire and GeoCities.
[4:54] Those were enormous back then and people
were saying "you should do with your whole
[4:57] business on there."
[4:57] And even in the last few years we've seen, like,
Foursquare or Periscope and some of those things,
[5:02] they come up and go down.
[5:03] And I think if you invest your whole... You
know, if you're trying to start a business,
[5:07] if you're trying to run a successful online blog
or business you kind of want to give it a little bit
[5:11] more authority than that.
[5:12] And so, it seems to be now for the last 10 years at
least the best things to have your own domain name,
[5:18] your own host.
[5:20] Only fully controlled, fully owned your asset whether
it's WordPress or something else that kind of doesn't
[5:25] matter as much.
[5:26] But really making sure you're set up on your own
posts and your own... like, a proper good host,
[5:31] and your own domain name.
[5:33] I think that's the best way to get set up
for long term success.
[5:36] And there's a lot of changes happening to the
Internet and how those things are going to function,
[5:39] particularly with American changes to the laws and things like that.
[5:42] But I think that is the best kind of most
stable approach at this point in time.
[5:46] Okay, you've mentioned the domain names and
hosting - where do you get these, does it matter?
[5:51] Because there are so many hosting companies
and so many, like, domain name registrars.
[5:57] How do people go about this?
[6:00] Yeah, I think, I mean with domain names, it's maybe
a little bit different, you want something that's been
[6:04] around for a long time.
[6:07] One of the things I've noticed working with
clients is heaps of the domain name registrars
[6:10] don't have a lot of security protocols.
[6:13] So I found one the other day where you can't lock
your domain name which seemed crazy to me.
[6:18] Some of them don't have two-factor authentication.
[6:21] So I think, like, even just basic security principles like
that are a good thing to consider with domain names.
[6:27] With the host, I always say you should look
for someone that has 24/7 support.
[6:33] Because when you're really starting out you need
someone on your side to help you out with this.
[6:37] You know, some of those server set-up
things can be a little bit complicated.
[6:41] Especially if it's all new to you, and if your blog gets
hacked or there's downtime, you need to get a talk
[6:46] to support.
[6:47] So look for something that's got good support.
[6:49] At the very beginning, like, unless you're a huge
company, if you're just an individual I don't think
[6:54] it's.. there's no need to get, like, a dedicated
server or VPS, or anything like that.
[6:58] Just go for some shared hosting, save the money,
build it up and then over time if you need more,
[7:04] you know, power, you can get a Content Delivery
Network, you can upgrade to a you know, more
[7:09] powerful host.
[7:09] That migrations a lot more easier
than going from a free to a paid.
[7:13] But, yeah, I think saving money and making sure
you've got good support probably the only things
[7:17] you really need to think about in the beginning.
[7:20] Yeah, I also like how you transition in transitioned
into adding more and more stuff to your blog.
[7:26] Because actually that's the next thing that we're
going to talk about it's MVB - Minimum Viable blog.
[7:32] So once you have the domain name,
once you have that hosting...
[7:36] By the way, can you just recommend any domain name
registrar that pops on your head, same with hosting.
[7:42] We won't have any affiliate links so
people will know it's kind of sincere.
[7:47] And then talk about, like, what do people need
to do to make sure their blog is up and running
[7:54] and they don't need to waste time
adding more and more stuff.
[7:57] So they're kind of good to go, good to start
and then add more stuff as they go.
[8:01] So, one good domain name registrar that
pops into my head is namecheap.com.
[8:06] We use them, you know, for a number of years,
they've been fine, they seem to have good security.
[8:11] I don't use them for all of my businesses but
a lot of clients and stuff use that and it seems
[8:16] to be pretty solid.
[8:18] As to the blog... Like, setting you blog up, you know,
what's the minimum, what should you do at the start,
[8:24] how do you not waste your time...
[8:26] I think one of the big things that I've been feeling
lately and seeing online with changes to the way
[8:31] blogs run and the way Google indexes
things and sort of all the...
[8:35] You know, the different kind of trends that are happening
is that you really have to have some kind of authority.
[8:42] And it  doesn't really mean necessarily you have
to be the best in your field or you have to have all
[8:47] the greatest qualifications or whatever.
[8:48] But your blog needs to kind communicate some
kind of authority, I think, from the very very first
[8:55] kind of day.
[8:56] So I think instead of wasting time with, like, features
and widgets and any kind of technology like that,
[9:02] you should focus on figuring out how your blog is
going to communicate some authority.
[9:08] So I mean we talked about a little bit of,
you know, the kind of pages you put on
[9:11] an About page, News, Start Here page, Contact
page, you know, all those kind of minimum things
[9:17] where you can communicate with your
story, the blog story.
[9:21] But also show to Google that you're
not like just some spam blog.
[9:25] Show the readers that you, you know, there's an
actual real person behind it and there's a story
[9:30] behind it, and you have some reason to be running it.
[9:34] So I think in that sense simplicity is really
 important as well.
[9:37] I think sometimes bloggers spend so much time
getting, like, slideshows or slider galleries or parallax
[9:45] effects and all this kind of pop-up stuff.
[9:47] Like, that stuff really doesn't matter that's
something you can tweak and change as you go.
[9:52] But in the beginning, I think what you want,
especially if you're talking about blogging,
[9:56] you need simplicity and something that kind of
really helps you show readers what your blog does.
[10:02] So I always talk about it as like a funnel or a focus.
[10:05] I think from the very beginning when you launch
a blog, you should know what outcome you want.
[10:11] You know, for every time you get a reader, you should
have an idea about what action you want them to take.
[10:16] And it doesn't have to be complicated, it might
be signing up to a mailing list or purchasing
[10:21] a product that you've got.
[10:22] But sort of everything that you add at your blog at
the beginning should just be kind of getting people
[10:27] towards that aim.
[10:28] So I think you know the minimum kind of five
pages that people talk about on a website
[10:32] is really all you need.
[10:33] And if you're communicating your story and your
brand, you know those kind of basic elements
[10:39] very early on.
[10:40] I think that's probably a good place to start.
[10:42] Yeah, my friend was actually launching a
blog a month ago or so and he asked me
[10:47] if he should, like, publish ten quality articles
create, like, quality featured images for all of them,
[10:56] hire a designer to make a unique design that would look
different from all those WordPress templates and stuff.
[11:04] And actually I was kind of lost, like,
what to suggest him.
[11:08] But they liked your tip about kind of
credibility and authority.
[11:13] So you kind of... you want people when they
land on your blog, you want them already to
[11:18] see that you're investing effort there.
[11:20] So it's always better of course to invest
more effort, right?
[11:23] Yeah, like, this is actually a tip I learned from
an SEO consultant called Marie Haynes.
[11:27] I had a Skype chat with her a little while ago to get
some advice on some areas of blog Tyrant actually.
[11:33] And she was really big and like really kind of
emphasized with me this point that, like, you
[11:39] have to be able to instantly show a reader
what your blog does, and who you are, and
[11:45] what it's about, and where they go when they get there.
[11:47] And that's something I always thought that I did
kind of well.
[11:49] But when Marie had a look at it she was like, "Well, this
is kind of confusing and this is kind of confusing, you
[11:54] really need to focus this down."
[11:55] So yeah, those things are really important.
[11:59] And in terms of, like, the content, you
know, one post versus ten posts...
[12:02] I get that question all the time and I think, like,
the biggest thing that I've seen with launching,
[12:07] you know, blogs myself or saying readers
do it, or clients do it, is like...
[12:11] It doesn't really matter as long as you know
what your goal is for that particular blog.
[12:16] And I think most of the time I've seen some
really cool blogs like a guy called Billy Murphy
[12:20] launched a blog a few years ago.
[12:22] He had one post on it, and it was "How
to buy a second-hand Ferrari," I think.
[12:26] Then it was like a beautiful long post, like, "I don't
care about cars at all, I don't want to buy a Ferrari"
[12:31] but I read it, I was interested in it.
[12:34] And it was a really cool story and it got a lot
of attention, he got a lot of subscribers off
[12:38] the back of that.
[12:39] And another one that comes to mind is John
Morrow who's just like a blogging legend.
[12:43] I used to work CopyBlogger and ProBlogger, he
launched his site I remember without any posts.
[12:48] It was just a video and an email subscription box.
[12:52] And his little video just did a kind of a spiel and
a bit of a promotion about what's coming why
[12:57] it's gonna be so good, why you want to be on board.
[12:58] And that's how he launched... I think it was
SmartBloggger.com.
[13:02] So yeah I think definitely having that focus from the
beginning knowing what you're trying to communicate
[13:07] is more important than any kind of the way
it looks and those things, in the beginning.
[13:11] Okay, yeah, John Morrow was totally a legend.
[13:13] I took his course like five years ago...
[13:16] Oh, really? Yeah, cool.
[13:18] Yeah, I'm kind of student of John, really good stuff.
[13:22] Okay, so you mentioned blogging goals.
[13:25] Let's talk about blogging goals.
[13:27] Because from my experience, for me, well,
probably because I started with zero
[13:32] experience and was doing whatever felt right.
[13:35] But my blogging goals shifted all the time.
[13:37] And again, as my blog was growing,
my blogging goals also shifted.
[13:41] So what are the right goals from the day one as
you, like, set up a blog and it's ready for you to
[13:47] publish articles?
[13:47] What do you do, do you focus on consistently
writing every day, do you focus on building
[13:52] email list, do you focus on certain traffic numbers
by certain date? What do you think about this?
[13:58] Man, I'm not the most disciplined person in
the world, so talking about goals is a little bit...
[14:03] I think for me one of the big things has been, and this is
something Chris Ducker, kind of, got in my brain early on
[14:10] was that you should really try to work
smarter not harder.
[14:14] And I think that's something that's really possible
now on the internet more than it was in, like,
[14:19] a physical business or a bricks and mortar business.
[14:22] So he has this thing, he says where you
should be working on your business not in it.
[14:26] And I think that's something that applies
to blogging really well is, like...
[14:31] It's really easy to get online in the morning,
open up your blog and spend all day working.
[14:38] And then have nothing to show for it by the end of
the day because you've been tweaking with fonts
[14:42] or typography or, you know, changing, you know,
working on loading speed or all these kind of
[14:47] social media things that you can get confused with.
[14:50] And I think it's really important in terms of goals
to figure out, like, actually what your goals are,
[14:55] what do you want to achieve.
[14:57] So, you know, less about how much
you write or how often you write.
[15:01] I think you need to focus on outcomes.
[15:04] And so one thing I always recommend is that
you should do at least one test per month.
[15:09] So let's say, if your goal at the beginning of your
blog is to get a thousand email subscribers,
[15:15] that's your focus, you have a time frame for that.
[15:18] And that would be different depending on the niche,
the blog, and the person - whether they're doing
[15:22] a full-time or part-time.
[15:23] You have to be honest with yourself about those things.
[15:25] But every month at least run one and try to make
your blog better towards that outcome.
[15:31] So whether it's making your landing page convert
a little bit better with different colors or different
[15:37] lengths or different, you know, loading
speeds, all those kind of things.
[15:40] I think every month try and improve on your specific
goal by doing at least one test and improving.
[15:47] You know that I've seen a lot of bloggers who have
500 or 1,000 blog posts, who work really-really hard
[15:52] but don't get any traffic don't make
any sales or these kind of things.
[15:55] And I think the goals there are a little bit
kind of backwards.
[15:58] I think you have to figure out what you're trying
to achieve and then get a little bit better at that
[16:01] each month.
[16:02] So in... like you said for your business,
your goals are constantly changing.
[16:05] And I think it's really important to do that.
[16:08] You know, some people test too much
and that can be another kind of trap.
[16:12] You know, you're always doing multivariate
tests or split-tests and you never actually do
[16:16] any content creation.
[16:17] But really you should be figuring out the curve goals.
[16:19] I want to get 1,000 subscribers this first month
or these first six months, and that rate needs to
[16:25] be improving all the time.
[16:26] So I think that's how you develop your goals.
[16:28] Yeah, what are the common goals that people
usually set for themselves, from your experience?
[16:34] And it from your personal experience and from your
experience with communicating with your audiences.
[16:40] Yeah, I think, like, one of the biggest things these
people have very general goals about that stuff.
[16:44] So I know, like, we did a blogging survey last week or
the week before, we published some results from there.
[16:50] And that was really interesting, like, a lot of
people want to make money from their blog,
[16:55] whether it's full-time or part-time.
[16:57] But then the next question showed that most
people work... I remember percentage,
[17:02] it was, like, 40% of people work less
than five hours on their blog a week.
[17:06] So there's, like, some conflicting information there.
[17:09] So definitely I think when you're developing your goals,
they need just be specific and have a time-frame.
[17:14] So I think you should at least focus on
having 1,000 email subscribers.
[17:19] I think with all the changes that have happened
with email and with what Google and Gmail done
[17:23] with email and tabs, it's more difficult
than it used to be to get open rates.
[17:27] But still email is the, you know, in my experience, the
best way to get traffic to your blog post early on.
[17:36] So you're focusing on like 1,000 email subscribers
and then you set a traffic goal.
[17:40] You have to figure out what's useful for your...
[17:43] This is what I think it's really difficult to say like,
"You should get a 100,000 visitors a month
[17:46] or you should get a million."
[17:48] Because there are some niches where, you
know, if you're selling, you know, a surgery,
[17:55] if you're a surgeon, one surgery might cost $40,000.
[17:59] So you only need two or three visitors a month
to make that a profitable business.
[18:04] So you really need to set it based on your
industry and what you're trying to achieve.
[18:08] But definitely focusing on email subscribers
straight away and having a specific time-frame.
[18:13] Write those things down like if you're trying to make
$100,000, is it $100,000 in the first year or by year two?
[18:19] Have you taken into account that most businesses
don't return a profit and then that you're gonna have
[18:24] to spend some money to set the business
 up, those things.
[18:26] So yeah, really, I think analyzing that based
on your particular niche is really important.
[18:31] You can use, you know... you can talk
to other bloggers to get that.
[18:34] You'll be surprised how many people are forthcoming
with that information, get some mentors.
[18:38] And then all the analytics tools like
yours, and Google Traffic Estimator,
[18:42] and those things can help you kind of figure
out what is the right number, I think.
[18:45] Yeah, I love the tip that email lists should
be pretty much a goal for everyone.
[18:51] I think every blogger will agree that you should
start building your email list from day one.
[18:56] And you also mentioned that John Morrow
basically when he launched his blog, he had just
[19:02] a Subscribe form and, like, What's Coming,
blah blah blah.
[19:06] But again for for listeners, how would you
recommend building their email list from day one?
[19:13] What should they do?
[19:14] Because it's such a important focus.
[19:17] I think this is one of the things that a lot of bloggers
miss is that you really need to start at the end
[19:23] when it comes to launching a blog.
[19:26] So a lot of people here... or you can make money from
blogging, or blogging can help me grow my existing
[19:30] business, or blogging can get some attention to my
particular cause that I'm interested in, or whatever,
[19:35] you know, your particular work is.
[19:37] There's a lot of people who blog as part
of their marketing role for a company.
[19:42] So they have some vague idea that it's good
or that it's powerful that it can make money.
[19:46] But I think when you're launching a blog, you
really need to write down specifically and spend
[19:51] some time figuring out what exactly someone's
going to do when they visit your blog.
[19:56] And that's the big thing that I think most
bloggers miss with the mailing list is that
[20:01] yes, you might have great content and then you slap on
an opt-in form and you expect people to subscribe to it.
[20:07] But there's so much great content everywhere now,
like, every website you read has great content.
[20:13] Everybody's doing a long-form content.
[20:15] There's websites like Vox, or the New York Times, or,
you know, whatever, a New Yorker that have incredible
[20:22] long-form articles every day, it's really-really like...
[20:26] I think it was Glenn from ViperChill the other day
saying we've reached content saturation in that sense.
[20:31] And so I think if you want to get people on your
mailing list you have to really have some distinct
[20:36] offering that you give them.
[20:38] And it has to be really closely related
to what your blogs about.
[20:42] So you can't have a blog about fishing or about
sport and then have a mailing list offering that's
[20:49] about photography.
[20:50] Like, it has to be really tightly linked.
[20:53] And I think... this one example that I use
all the time is the vintage cars example.
[20:57] So if you have a blog that's about how to build
a vintage car or how to restore a vintage car,
[21:03] you might have like a really long-form piece about,
the ultimate guide to restoring a vintage car.
[21:09] And if you break that post down, you know,
that could be 10,000-15,000 words, and you
[21:13] break that post down and you look at the wheels, and
the windshield, and how to buy it, and the mechanics,
[21:18] and how to find a mechanic.
[21:20] And so when you have a mailing list, what you
should really be doing is enhancing that content.
[21:25] So, you know, the content that you write should
be brilliant and helpful  and long and complete.
[21:30] But then also your mailing list should give
people an option to go further, to go deeper
[21:34] with that kind of thing.
[21:35] So if it's about the vintage cars, you might talk
then about how to sell it, give you tips on how
[21:41] to sell the vintage car once you've completed it.
[21:43] But the mailing list and the offering that you have on
your mailing list or the bribe it has to be really closely
[21:49] related to the content that you create.
[21:51] And you should really think about at the
 beginning, I think, when you start your blog:
[21:54] okay, what am I going to write about but
also what is my mailing list going to have.
[21:57] That's going to make people interested in that as well.
[22:00] Do you think that the first piece of content that
people should create for their blog should be
[22:05] actually this opt-in bribe?
[22:08] Yeah, that's really interesting, I think,
like, I've seen it work a few times.
[22:12] I think again it depends a little bit
on the niche.
[22:16] But if you have, like, if you're into long-
form content and you want to write...
[22:20] I think one of the best examples of this, I don't know
if you know a guy called Mehdi, StrongLifts.com?
[22:25] No, I don't think so.
[22:26] So I really recommend everybody to check out
StrongLifts.com whether you're interested in
[22:32] weightlifting or not.
[22:34] It's an absolutely incredible brand that Mehdi
created just for this long-form content.
[22:38] He's now got one of the most successful 
iPhone apps for fitness, he was featured
[22:43] on an Apple TV commercial.
[22:46] If you type in "benchpress" or "deadlift" or "how
to benchpress," any of those massive keywords
[22:52] in Google, he's one of two for all of them.
[22:55] And one of the things that I noticed is, like, he has,
like, an introduction to the article and then he has,
[23:01] like, a content section that is enormous it takes up your
whole screen you have to scroll through the contents.
[23:08] And so he uses, like, these massive articles that he
creates, his library of information just about one topic.
[23:14] And then he uses the mailing list to enhance
that, to give people more information about
[23:19] that, or to stay up to date when that particular
section is going to be updated or has new tips
[23:24] on your formation.
[23:25] But I think definitely you have to have something on
your website for, you know, a multitude of reasons
[23:31] like social sharing, and Google, and stuff,
just to start getting that ball rolling
[23:36] but definitely tying the mailing list with that.
[23:38] Yeah, this is great advice.
[23:41] Yeah, so we talked about one of the important
things that you should do when starting out.
[23:47] It's start to somehow think on building your list.
[23:50] I think not even necessarily the list but an audience.
[23:53] Because, for example, for us at Ahrefs, it's quite
hard to build an email list because we publish
[23:59] articles on different topics.
[24:00] And it's hard to stay relevant to all our
email subscribers.
[24:03] So this topic they might be relevant, another topic that
we send them - might not, and we'll start losing them.
[24:09] So instead of email list we're kind of
using our customer base.
[24:12] We try to convert people into our customers
and this is how we keep up with them .
[24:16] So in our case we're building an audience
around our tool and it also works for our blog.
[24:21] So it's kind of email list and not email list.
[24:25] But, like, what are the other things that
should be your focus in the early days?
[24:29] Because again when I was talking with my friend, he was
asking me all sorts of questions that I couldn't answer.
[24:34] Like, again should he publish one article
and start promoting it as hell or should he
[24:41] publish, like, a certain number of articles so the people
would come... when he starts promoting them,
[24:46] people will come to his blog and see that
something is already happening there,
[24:50] that it's not just a brand new blog.
[24:52] Like, why should the focus be in the early days?
[24:55] Yeah, I think people worry too much about the blog looking empty.
[24:58] I don't think that really matters.
[25:00] I think definitely, you know, it has to look complete and
finished before you launch it.
[25:06] And again, you have to have some kind
of strategy on there.
[25:09] But I don't think you have to have 10 blog posts.
[25:11] I think it's very rare that a new reader or visitor
will come to your blog and then go back and
[25:19] look through all your archives.
[25:20] Only some visitors do that.
[25:23] You know, as you know most visitors come
through a single post or a single page that
[25:27] you've created.
[25:28] And it's, you know... they might have a
little click around but it's very rare that
[25:31] someone's gonna go back and look at the old stuff.
[25:33] So I don't think too much emphasis should be on that.
[25:36] I think kind of like the Billy Murphy example 
before or the John Morrow example...
[25:40] But really you want to just have something
extraordinary on there.
[25:45] And one thing that I always reference is this book
called "How Brands Grow" by Professor Byron Sharp
[25:51] from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute,
you can get on Amazon.
[25:54] This is... the whole premise of the book is about
marketing science and marketing truths.
[25:59] So these guys instead of relying on, you
know, marketing myths or ideas that we
[26:05] all have about loyalty and all that stuff.
[26:07] These guys just looked at data and they tried to
figure out what is the most effective thing to do
[26:12] when growing a brand.
[26:15] And it's kind of like what you were talking about
before with how you work on your content.
[26:20] The most important thing is not to have loyalty, 
it's to have something that is different.
[26:25] And they talk a lot about differentiation.
[26:28] You have to focus on reach and finding new customers.
[26:31] Because, you know, someone who reads blog
Tyrant today, they might subscribe read four or
[26:37] five posts but then what happens is that...
[26:39] You know, the content on blog Tyrant has educated
them, they've started their blog, they've got some
[26:44] ideas about what they want to do with it,
so they no longer read blog Tyrant.
[26:47] So if you just focused on the loyalty side of it,
eventually your business is going to decrease
[26:52] and trail off.
[26:53] So you really need to focus on getting more customers.
[26:56] And acquiring more customers and so the promotion
aspect I think is really really important.
[27:00] Derek Halpern from Social Triggers used
to talk about that a lot as well.
[27:04] The bloggers need to spend less time writing
more time promoting, figuring out how to promote.
[27:08] And that's different in every niche, it's different if you
want to spend money on Facebook Ads or Google
[27:13] AdWords or even Twitter Ads.
[27:16] But definitely in the early days I think a blogger
should figure out how to differentiate their brand
[27:22] from other blogs out there.
[27:24] Because like we were talking about before,
there's so much content now, so you need to
[27:27] have a way to stand out.
[27:29] You don't have to be first, you know, like, this book
also gives examples of McDonald's and Subway.
[27:34] You know, there was one that was first and that
doesn't mean necessarily the most successful.
[27:39] There's plenty of fast-food restaurants doing well.
[27:41] But you have to have some way to stand
out, some way to be different.
[27:44] So and I think your first post in your early posts
and the content that you do, the design you do
[27:50] in the early days should really help you
to build a brand that stands out.
[27:54] That seems to be something that's been really
important for me and my clients over the years.
[27:58] So that's what I definitely focus on figuring out
how to stand out, whether it's the way you write,
[28:03] what you write about, your take on a topic, and then
the branding, the colors, the logos, all those things.
[28:08] And then learning how to promote it.
[28:10] But definitely I don't think you need 10
or 100 posts to begin with.
[28:13] You just need something that will set
you apart from the rest.
[28:17] I think this is amazing advice!
[28:19] So people can forget about email list, they can
forget about, I don't know, design, everything writing.
[28:25] Just focus on how you're going to stand
out and what kind of value, how are you
[28:29] going to differentiate yourself from presumably
hundreds if not thousands of other blogs
[28:34] on the same topic.
[28:35] Because, let's face it, almost every topic is now
taken by someone.
[28:40] And you... these days I think the entry...
the ticket to entry is very high.
[28:47] So it's super hard start a new book and get traction.
[28:50] And just five years ago it was super easy, you could
start a blog pretty much on anything and it took off.
[28:56] And I think, again, people are misled by a lot of
outdated advice, with advice that was written
[29:05] those five years ago when it was too easy.
[29:07] And right now, for example, what you said
about focusing on differentiation, focusing
[29:12] on standing out, what kind of thing
you're going to offer that is unique.
[29:16] I don't see a lot of people offering that
advice. I don't see this, yeah.
[29:21] A lot of people say, build email list, publish
consistently, I don't know, have this email forms...
[29:30] Yeah, so people need to think about how
they're going to stand out in in their niche.
[29:35] Okay, final question before we wrap up.
[29:38] And I think this question could be also
a recap of what we discussed today.
[29:43] Because I want you to name three biggest
mistakes that people do when they starting out
[29:50] or, like, things that lead them astray, like...
[29:54] What should... what they are doing
wrong that they should be doing right?
[29:58] Yeah, definitely I would start with a differentiation on.
[30:00] As you said, that's really important and I think
one really simple exercise that bloggers can do
[30:06] or anyone who's running an online business really, but
especially a content-based one, is just have a look at
[30:13] the last few things that you bookmarked or
shared or sent to your mum on the internet,
[30:19] like, what made that cut through with you.
[30:21] There are a few websites that I've read or a few articles
that I've read in the last couple of months where I'm like,
[30:27] "Oh, that's one of the best things I've ever read."
[30:28] Like, what was it about that story or that article
that really made you kind of notice it.
[30:35] Because there is so much content, you see it
all day on Facebook if you're on Facebook,
[30:40] like, Twitter streams just constant of...
 constantly updated news and it's all great.
[30:44] So you you need to figure out...
[30:45] I mean it's not all great there's a lot
of fake and use and rubbish stuff.
[30:48] But in terms of, like, it being compelling and
good content, like, a lot of it's pretty good.
[30:53] So figure out what... when you're looking at how
to differentiate your blog just take notice of what
[30:58] you find to be exceptional, what has stood out for you.
[31:02] And see if you can replicate that but then also
kind of make it unique to your blogging or to your
[31:09] offering as well.
[31:10] That's a really simple way to do it it's like the
competition analysis but for the modern age.
[31:15] The second thing that I would really say is that bloggers
don't seem to treat blogging like a business.
[31:23] If you want to make money from your blog or
if you want to have an extra income stream
[31:27] because, you know, you're trying to support your
family or you're trying to grow your other business.
[31:31] You need to treat it like a business, you know,
it takes consistent work, it takes investment
[31:37] it takes a lot of time, it takes training.
[31:40] You know you have to be willing to learn, you
have to be able to think outside the box.
[31:45] But also, like, you know, sometimes it takes
the first year of a business you make a loss,
[31:52] sometimes the first two years you make a loss.
[31:55] And a good business will have a plan.
[31:57] They'll have, you know, something.... an investment
strategy, they'll reinvest some of the profits they make.
[32:02] And I think bloggers really need to be a little bit more,
especially today where the competition is so high,
[32:07] you need to be a little bit more sophisticated
at treating it like a business.
[32:11] And that means getting help as well from people who
are better than you at things like design or writing.
[32:17] You should really focus just on what you're
good at whether it's growing a business or
[32:20] whether it is, you know, the concept
or the ideas to get some help.
[32:24] Don't try and do everything yourself that's a big pitfall.
[32:27] I think bloggers waste so much time on the little things.
[32:29] But really, like, if you're running a business,
you don't do... if you have a cafe, you don't
[32:34] make the coffee  and do the cleaning and do
the accounting and do everything yourself,
[32:38] it just doesn't work.
[32:38] I mean you could but it just it's not going
to be a profitable business.
[32:43] And the third thing I think is that...
[32:45] I think bloggers don't really realize that
 blogging is a means to an end.
[32:49] It's definitely not very often is blogging
itself the product.
[32:55] And I think maybe it used to be back in
 the old days you could run a personal blog.
[32:59] Someone like Dooce's Heather Armstrong had a really
amazing blog where.. she's a great writer but she kind
[33:05] of just shared her life.
[33:06] And that kind of thing doesn't really work anymore.
[33:08] If you look at the best blogs were they're cooking
blogs or climate change blogs or news blogs,
[33:15] there's always some kind of the content is promoting
some other product or tool or training course.
[33:22] And so I think making that as useful as possible,
the training courses and the products, really trying
[33:27] to help people as much as possible with that.
[33:28] But then realizing that your blog is a promotional
strain, the content on your blog is not necessarily
[33:36] the end result.
[33:36] I don't think the blog itself makes the money,
I think the content helps you to make the money
[33:41] through promotion.
[33:42] So those three things I think are probably the
biggest mistakes I see with new bloggers.
[33:47] Awesome advice and awesome interview!
[33:50] Thanks a lot for sharing all this knowledge.
[33:52] And one last thing that I want to end with is, like,
if people want to learn more from you about
[33:58] starting a blog, about building a blog, what kind
of resources from your blog or from yourself
[34:03] do you recommend?
[34:05] And I will put all the links in the video description.
[34:08] So just name them and you will then send
them to me by email and I will link to them.
[34:13] So what are these resources?
[34:14] Yeah, I think definitely just head to Blogtyrant.com.
[34:17] Firstly, there's a new Start Here page which
gives people, you know, a good place to start.
[34:22] We've got an article called... what's it called now...
[34:27] "How to start a blog (a guide for serious
beginners in 2018)"
[34:30] We update that all the time, that gets
updated every year.
[34:34] And that's got, like, you know, a good amount of
information about, I think it's 5,000 - 7,000 words,
[34:38] on how to start a blog physically and then what
you should do in terms of the first couple of days
[34:43] and weeks, and a bit of a timeline.
[34:45] So that's probably a good place to start.
[34:46] But then also, like, find me on Twitter, if anyone has any
questions, I always try to show up to those as well.
[34:51] Because I know it can be a little bit confusing
and I remember what it was like to start a blog.
[34:54] It was a bit kind of lonely.
[34:56] So feel free to do that as well.
[34:58] Okay, thanks, that's the end of the interview.
[35:01] Thanks for having me.
[35:01] Thanks.

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