Do you see scam as a bad thing? Better than remain intimidated by it, it’s best to learn how a con artist teaches you about blogging. That’s undoubtedly an unconventional approach to this, though. Yet, it doesn’t mean this teaches you how to do bad things against fellow business owners. Instead, learn their tactics for our own benefit.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Please understand that I monetize the blog through these. Rest assured that whatever I promote here works because I use them myself. 🙂

Let’s admit it. Everyone fears scam or being scammed, including you. Either of which isn’t a great thing to happen, even if it’s not us. It could be our family members, relatives, friends, or any other random persons out there. 

They lost a lot of money because of gambling future with impulsive, poor decisions. Scams remain at their peak, splurging numbers of victims every single day.

In fact, I reviewed one of the worst Ponzi schemes in history. You know the Zeek Rewards. I guess you know about that. Familiar, at least.

But have you asked yourself why people are so convinced to spend a dime on it?

Have you tried to review the scenario before and after you ended up saying yes to whatever this person offers you?

Why are so convinced with the offer even without seeing the product per se? Is it because of the impression or the way he explained to you things? 

That’s the mystery we want to uncover. From there, we’ll use the tactics scammers do in line with building our own online asset, the blog.

We don’t want to build businesses like that. That’s for sure. We don’t want to make our customers feel like they’re dumbfounded or left speechless after investing their time, effort, and money on us.

Instead, we simply use the tactics they often do to lure victims and apply them on our own businesses.

For what?

We want to dig into their strategies specifically why they’re so effective. What’s with them? What specific tactics they often use and how does that help us understand the value of legitimate content marketing? 

How A Con Artist Teaches You About Blogging?

In this post, we tackle the unconventional ways to learn how to start a blog employing the same tactics as the con artists do to their victims. Why? 

It’s because they are so amazing at it that they’re able to convince people this and that product is amazing even if it doesn’t even exist. 

I asked myself many times why there are still more and more victims in today’s advancing technology and more aware of these schemes. Later, I found out something, leaving me in awe. Just wow. How could they do that?

So, there’s something in it. And that’s what we’re going to find out. On the other hand, we still delve into the specifics of building your own platform – your blog – from scratch, i.e. the things you need to do, etc. 

Build Blog That Awes Your Market

In building our platform, we wanted to leave a lasting impression on our audience. Con artists dress well to look elegant, convincing, successful, confident, and above all, legitimate. 

Similarly, whatever it is we’re targeting and regardless of our niches, it’s best to leave an impressive impression to them. Even if it’s their first time to land at your site, they seem to notice you aren’t bulls*****g them. 

Con artists use an identical strategy to their offers. They sound so good that the products they sell look enticing, prompting us to open our wallets and pay for it.

Plus, their mastery of mimicking the victims and emotional approach are like the cherry on top.

This is what I observed from my parents, who are into television offers about 50% off items.

For years, they have been buying this and that stuff, without much thinking. To them, buying itself is akin to inner satisfaction. 

As soon as the item arrives at home, they always have these complaints. But they still repeat the behavior of buying whatever is offered on TV and complained. That’s been the cycle at home, which I am aware is unhealthy at all. 

Using the same concept, con artists always leave a lasting impression on their target market to the point that the “30-day money back guarantee” or “the best $5 worth fishnet” sound so expensive. 

Whatever they offer leaves these people listening on the radio, watching television, or reading the ads or printed material in awe. That’s what they do. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Always leave a lasting impression on your target audience regardless of the niche you belong to. [/su_note]

Study Your Arena (Blogosphere)

Why do we blog in the first place? Why do we have to do all these bunches of things, if we don’t know why? The list of questions goes on. Name them. You have to know exactly what you want. Con artists do. 

They know every inch of what they’re dealing with. On top of that, they don’t do anything that isn’t calculated at all. Never. 

Con artists, in every arena they are in, already determined in advance the pros and cons, as well as the opportunities they have when they do risk, if necessary. 

Again, they only do a certain if they know exactly what they’re dealing in advance. They may be reckless, but it’s always a calculated risk. 

They don’t jump into this and that business without analyzing every more they take. Generally, they ensure the success of every business dealing no matter what. 

On the contrary, here comes the newbie, unfortunately, it’s you, buying domains and web hosting packages in advance without really knowing what you want with them. As a result, you wasted lots of money brought by impulsivity. *clucks*

I always hear people like you saying, “Oh my gosh, I just made a mistake. My domain name doesn’t match my niche.”

I hear that almost every time, my friend. The more frequent they consult me with that, the more I get annoyed by it. 

Why would you immediately open your PayPal and buy these assets without thinking much about what you could do with it?

Unless if it’s YourName.com, it’s alright. If you have HandlePetCare.com, and you found out your niche is about health and wellness, then you’re in trouble.

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Always know why you want to build your blog. Determine your pros and cons of your niche. Study about it before you buy web hosting packages and set up a website. This saves you $100+ worth of mistakes.[/su_note]

Pros Of Blogging

1. Blogging gives you an outlet to express yourself. 

Obviously, it’s your site. Thus, you can do anything on it. There’s no limit on expressing your experiences on something online. 

Simply write it down on the Content Management System (CMS) you use, i.e., WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly, Blogger, among others, and hit publish. That’s it.

2. It opens opportunities to build networks. 

There’s no doubt that the most effective way to connect with other people of the same interest, aside from social media, is blogging. Through your site, you invite people to read your content and whatever you have in mind. 

Even con artists rely on influential people. When they present their business, they show this person promoting it, the deal between parties closes immediately without questions asked. 

The same thing with building your online platform. You always keep in mind that you want to leave your audience in awe. AT ALL TIMES. Thus, never produce crap, my friend. 

Further, you have to open your blogging networks, too. If you don’t have, spend time to search for people with the same interests as you.

Don’t be a solo blogger. Find ways to have people to support you and your endeavors. I learned this the hard way.

In my case, I pay for Wealthy Affiliate for business-minded folks, while spending time with amazing blogging folks at Blogging Traffic Community. Aside from these, you have forums like Reddit, Quora, and even Tumblr or Disqus could work, too. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Always build communities on various platforms. You have Facebook groups, Pinterest tribes, LinkedIn connections, Wealthy Affiliate network, Instagram collaborators, etc. [/su_note]

3. It allows you to make money online.  

Blogging is a big and effective jumpstart when it comes to making money online. That’s because the internet opens an endless list of opportunities you can do. 

There’s affiliate marketing, guest blogging, and other means to monetize your blogs. We’ll delve into these opportunities online in a while.

Additionally, if you’re a freelance writer like me, having a website becomes a reference to your employment.

Your potential clients hire you by reviewing your content and your writing skills upon recruitment. Lots of my employers did these over the years. 

As a result, I made my first $500 per month as a content writer for various websites. Technically, I became their outsourced virtual writer for blogs they own. 

Click the image to download your 2 FREE Guides to brand yourself as an irresistible writer this year.

4. It allows your strengths to be exposed to billions of internet users.

Setting aside the writing prowess, which is pretty obvious, you have photography, designing, and other skills tested when you start blogging. 

As a matter of fact, I never knew I could design my own website and know a bit of coding, HTML, editing videos, podcasting, a lot of stuff related to expanding my blog. I could say, I did them all. 

This is true to most bloggers out there. At first, you thought that when you start blogging, you only deal with enhancing your writing skills. It’s not. In fact, it’s just a pinkie of the blogosphere. 

You have to learn deeper about writing content because your readability index is also tested. Not only that, but you also have to deal with the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your website and your posts. 

You also have the optimization of your entire site to boost site grade and rankings. You use various tools to ensure your site runs fast to prevent bounce rates.

FYI, bounce rates are users leaving your site without conversions or below 1 minute after they land on your page).

As you immerse with the realm of blogging, subsequently, you discovered you still have to design your own pins, featured images, call to action buttons, free takeaways (PDFs, for example), etc. 

5. Blogging, by itself, lets you show your 100% truest self.

Even if you’re a typical silent kid in the family, once you open your laptop and write everything you have in mind, that’s unstoppable. I tell you that. 

In my case, I have always felt lonely in the real world because I’m convinced nobody could understand how my mind works. 

A typical INTJ personality, I am very aware that only a few people could apprehend whatever I’m saying.

If not, they’re forcing themselves to understand the depths of my thinking, often resulting in being labeled as a weirdo at school.

“You’re definitely crazy, odd, and nerdy, Mecyll.” This is what they usually tell me.

Which is why I feel grateful I have my blog wherein I could put my thoughts into words so others could read and appreciate.

Whatever I say, they read. That makes it significant, ensuring my sanity while I’m alive. That’s all I could say about this.

Make Money Opportunities

As I mentioned earlier, blogging opens that opportunity for you to increase your income stream.

If you’re working full-time, certainly, it helps you earn some side income, which eventually becomes a profitable business and a passive income. 

Often, bloggers at this stage, leave their full-time jobs and continue thriving online since they earn more than working for somebody else with a minimum payment just like the 95% of people around the world. 

Among the popular ways to monetize your blog are the following: 

• Affiliate marketing
• Create courses via Teachable or Udemy
• Email marketing
• Sponsored posts
• Income from advertisements

Self-Expression

When you blog, it isn’t about business all the time. For sure, it’s related to your chosen niche. But the writing style is loud in every reader’s eyes.

The way you write your content is unique and only you can do it. Nobody else can. 

With that being said, it’s the best way to express your values in every content you write per week or a few times a month.

Depending on your writing and publishing schedules, blogging remains your key to say everything you know about a thing or a person. 

These are the very reasons for bloggers getting paid for reviews and sponsored ads.

If they happen to be a YouTuber, they also receive extra pay for reviewing their products and/or services, with a condition that these payment methods don’t compromise their freedom to say a thing. 

Yet, we all know this isn’t the case for all bloggers because of the terms agreed between the company and them. Well, this is the dark side of blogging, actually. We’ll discuss it later as well.

Leverage Writing Skills

In blogging, the ones I pinpointed below are the few means to leverage your writing skills to ensure an increased conversion. Otherwise, your audience finds you boring. 

Learning how to write killer content.

If we refer back to the 10 traits of killer content, we know the following traits are a must to ensure high-quality of our posts, which is at the same time, greatly based on Google’s standards. 

1. Comprehensive
2. Contains relevant images
3. Has an infographic
4. High-quality external links
5. Effective snippets
6. High readability index
7. High-quality content
8. Free from grammatical mistakes
9. Effective SEO basics
10. Well-thought of conclusion 

This is what we talked about in the previous post, right? Months ago, when I wrote about the 10 important traits of killer content, I realized how toilsome blogging is, generally. 

If you think life could be a bit easier when you choose to blog versus working full-time, it’s not like that at the beginning. Even con artists live a hard life. 

The difference between you and them is that they’re confident even at the toughest moments of their life. They know what they’re after, and definitely the money they want to obtain no matter what. 

Whereas, you, the newbie blogger and even if you are a seasoned blogger, have self-esteem issues and immense self-doubt preventing you from doing something and procrastinate. Am I making sense to you, my friend? 

You always have to write constantly killer posts to prevent your audience from getting disappointed with what you’re producing on your site. Certainly, Google demands that from you, too. 

Use of emotions for delivery

Con artists are great at this. They employ emotional tactics to ensure their victims are trapped. 

According to Maria Konnikova, author of “The Confidence Game,” she mentioned that con artists make use of the victim’s vulnerability and weaknesses and use them at their advantage. 

If they need to act just to be perceived convincing, they would. Konnikova revealed the con artist’s way to put people at ease by telling their so-called flaws or their own version of vulnerability. That’s how desperate these people are. 

In our case, as business owners, we don’t have to do this for the sake of conning people. It’s not the point of this post. 

What I’m trying to say here is to inculcate emotions in our content as part of the vital ingredient for effective delivery of the message you’re conveying. 

If the con artists are able to convince people to buy a non-existent product, how much more us?

We have a legitimate website, legitimate courses, and other offers for our audience, but why can’t we convert passersby into loyal fans? 

What’s wrong? 

I remember Dan Lok, a Chinese-Canadian magnate, saying, “People don’t buy products. They buy stories.” What does he mean by that? Simple. People don’t buy by logic, but by heart. 

Once you do these things, you will eventually see an increase in your leads; there will be higher conversion rates, and sooner or later, stable passive income.

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Improve your content delivery in every post you write by adding emotional texts. For example, “I understand how you feel,” or something like, “Are you getting tired from working 9 to 5?” These provoke vulnerability of your audience. [/su_note]

Learning Other Skills

During the early course of your blogging life, you will discover there’s a bigger picture of what you thought blogging is. 

Earlier, specifically during the time you bought your first web hosting packages, you thought blogging is all about writing content and having impressively designed landing pages with awesome layout. 

Yes, it does. In fact, I bought Digital Pro Theme from StudioPress Themes for this blog because, again, I want to leave a lasting impression on my target market.

The only way to do that is to invest in a Gutenberg-ready website theme to save a lot of time versus free WordPress themes. 

You write posts for your audience, hoping people will read and appreciate. But, you know, there are billions of blogs published every single day. How can you beat that? 

Thus, you need to expand your skills even if you don’t want to. Otherwise, you have to spend some money and hire someone who can do that for you.

Indeed, you just started out, why would spend more if you can do it by yourself, right?

• Designing 
• Photography
• Videography
• Social media strategy

Online Exposure

We need Google to back us up. Which is why we need to know how to tell Google we exist.

This is where the concepts of SEO for both Google and Pinterest, as well as social media, playing the essential roles of bolstering our web traffic.

Learning each platform requires a lot of time, but we’ll include those in this post. That’s for sure. Don’t worry. We will discuss it further. 

Cons of blogging

1. Expensive startup 

This is true if you opt for professional-level of blogging. For instance, I spent around $100 for web hosting packages (hosting + .com domain), and StudioPress Theme. Yet, it’s still worth it. 

2. Takes Lots Of Effort

You will notice how toilsome blogging is, especially at the beginning of the endeavor. Once you choose to get serious with it, you will notice the change of your lifestyle. 

Aside from working for someone else, you’re also working for your own. You spend a lot of time setting up your website, making sure you like the design, images, the site icon, everything. 

Not only the basics of the website, but you also have to deal with the email list for conversions. So, you sign up on Mailchimp, my favorite email service provider, to collect the emails. 

In addition to that, you have to deal with the SEO side of blogging. Thus, installing plugins, even knowing the basics of coding for the sake of it, is a must for you to thrive. 

Lots of tasks to set everything. However, once the site runs at its optimal state, you see the results of your hard work. 

Whenever I remember those times in late 2018 and early 2019, I smile recalling the sleepless nights setting up my site to the point I was exhausted and frustrated I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. 

Today, as of this writing, I feel grateful I survived the tough moments of my life as a blogger. Above all, I start to see my revenue rising from $0 to $200+ in my first month of serious blogging.

3. Information About It Overwhelms 

Whenever I hover to Wealthy Affiliate dashboard, I see lots of people asking this and that about setting website and a whole bunch of technical information about blogging. 

I thought, “Wow, I suddenly realized how tough for beginners to learn the overall picture – the entire complexity – of blogging is.” 

There are tons of information to take in. For beginners, it’s a lot to ingest in one sitting. Definitely, it requires time to understand everything about starting a blog, and monetizing it. 

For instance, not everyone understands Google Analytics and Google Search Console. That’s certain. Yet, the only way that keeps them going is the powerful drive in them to learn all these things. 

They are like me in 2014. Blogging is complicated. But then again, I thrived. From there, I would say thanks to myself for surviving the toughest moments. 

4. Testing Our Capabilities So Much

For con artists, it’s not that they are very capable from the beginning. They also have the humble beginnings that led them to where they are now.  Before they became capable of luring victims to $900 million scams, they tried in smaller scales. 

In every scheme they do, they learn something. That ticks them, you know. In every person they dealt with, they realized something very important in their macro-level schemes in the next 5 to 10 years. 

Just as blogging does to you, you can’t expect you can become the best blogger in today’s time overnight. It takes time to develop the skills necessary for that purpose. 

You take time to improve your content delivery, the ability to transform people and convert into leads, and so on and so forth. These are skills requiring constant practice over the years, my friend. 

The way I write now isn’t the same way I did 5 years ago. It’s a developed skill brought by the perseverance of a writer from a non-English speaking country. If you reside in any of the English-speaking countries, you have more advantage. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: To hone your writing skills, search for writing opportunities outside your site. You may temporarily work as a freelance writer for somebody else, or blog on platforms with millions of users every single month. Blogging on Medium or LinkedIn is a great start.[/su_note]

5. Health Issues

Earlier, I mentioned the efforts blogging requires at the beginning of the phase. Yes, it could take a toll on your health, my dear.

Likewise, if left untreated, it could compromise your overall being. I tell you that because I experienced it myself. 

For years, I have been suffering from bulimia. My illness brought me weakness due to nutrient deficiencies, as well as other short-term consequences. It takes a lot more effort to finish one task to the other due to fatigue and all that stuff. 

Because of the stress level, this industry requires me, my symptoms, unfortunately, have gone worse than I ever thought. 

Well, I don’t have to be so detailed about it, but here’s what I can say. Professional-level or serious blogging requires tons of time and effort at its maximum pain threshold. Period. 

If you don’t want to experience this or aren’t prepared, it’s best not to begin with this in the first place. I’m not scaring you. It’s the reality most bloggers like me face every single day. 

I don’t want to roam around the bushes and say BS flatteries about this industry. You can’t hear that from me. However, if you persistently follow my advice, you’re on the right track. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Don’t rush. Take blogging step-by-step and take your time at the beginning of the journey. As time passes, you won’t notice you start to generate results. Otherwise, you end up like me, sick.[/su_note]

How To Start A Blog?

You don’t have to immediately buy web hosting packages like on WP Engine without testing the waters.

As I mentioned before, you can take advantage of Medium or LinkedIn, both of which have already garnered millions of readers. 

Blog On Medium.com Or LinkedIn

These 2 platforms are the ones I tested before I jumped into buying my own domains in 2018. Even with my old domain (already kaput), I published my posts on Medium and/or LinkedIn and have them shared via social media. 

Since Medium has this magazine-like vibe, personal stories or self-development stories thrive more than others.

On the other hand, LinkedIn tends to have more business-related posts performing better than others. 

In both platforms, they are completely free. In fact, on Medium, you can setup your own publication and have it like your landing page, hosted with your own domain name. I’ve seen various publications like The Writing Cooperative using Medium as the CMS.

Choose a domain name

Once you already made up your mind, you can start buying web hosting packages with the domain name that matches your niche. But before that, let me first discuss how to know your niche. 

Why?

This is because I don’t want you to end up choosing the wrong name for your website. To do that, I have here a bit of activity for you to do before you proceed.

Determine Your Niche

Your niche is your industry. In layman’s term, it is the specialized section of your blog. Your position in the blogosphere.

Who are you are a blogger?

What are you blogging about? 

To realize your niche, you have to figure out the following:

1. Your strengths, passion, and interest. 
2. What other blogs of the same niche lack
3. Draw 2 circles intertwined, and see the sweet spot between the 2 circles.

Base your domain name from the nature of your niche. To be safe, I used my own name to allow more flexibility because I am a multipotentialite. I tend to have a lot of interests and having a specific domain name makes me feel restricted. 

Choosing Web Hosting Providers

You have tons of options in terms of choosing the right web hosting providers for your site. The ones below are the ones I use for the blog and the ones that are popular among top bloggers today. 

Namecheap

Among the 4 chosen ones, I use Namecheap for this blog because it’s cheaper than the others. It only costs me around $10 to buy the entire web hosting packages, which is enough for a blogging startup.

For renewals, they ask for around $30. So, that’s enough time for me to save money from monetizing the blog before the renewal fee is scheduled. Within 12 months, I can finally pay the fee seamlessly. 

On top of that, they also have fast customer support. Whenever I have problems with my site, they always respond to my support ticket in a matter of seconds or a minute. That’s how fast they respond. 

Below is a summary of the cost you spend if choose to have your site hosted under Namecheap.

Bluehost

Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income is one of the top endorsers of Bluehost in today’s blogosphere. He has been promoting the web hosting provider since he started blogging and podcasting endeavors. 

Like Namecheap, they have incredible support and packages. Yet, they’re expensive. So, if you aren’t on a tight budget, you may opt for Bluehost, especially when your site grows to 100K monthly visitors. 

Below is a summary of the payment when you choose this option.

SiteGround

If Namecheap has the cheapest pricing range and Bluehost as the highest, SiteGround is at the borderline. It’s not that cheap, but it’s not that costly. 

I know Roope Kiuttu, one of the leading bloggers in the Make Money niche, rely on SiteGround for his site Your Online Revenue Ltd.

With superb customer support, he’s able to run his blog with almost 100K monthly visitors without problems. 

To compare, you have here the summary of SiteGround web hosting fees to serve as your reference. 

GoDaddy

Most Filipino bloggers I know choose GoDaddy to host their blogs. Why? It’s because, among the 4 web hosting providers, this is the cheapest option. But the price difference between Namecheap and GoDaddy isn’t that high. 

This supposedly great option, but I don’t like the upsells coming, especially if you already have your domain and want to migrate the hosting. Unlike Namecheap, they charge you for the following: 

• Migrations ($99 per site)
• Backups ($2.99/month)
• SSL Certificates ($63.99/ year)
• And many more!

If you still choose GoDaddy as your web hosting provider, you may refer to the summary of fees you need to pay to keep your blog running. 

Knowing The Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system (CMS) is where you write your content for your site and publish under your control. According to Wikipedia, it’s like the place where you create and/or modify digital content. 

To fully understand what a CMS is, you see below, which is a screenshot of how the WordPress CMS looks like. 

Aside from the popular WordPress, you also have Weebly, Wix, Blogger, and even Medium, and/or LinkedIn are included in the list. 

Part of blogging is knowing the basics of your CMS to have a seamless blogging life. You have to know where to add images, links for your affiliated products, SEO, etc. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Before you jump into buying web hosting packages, you have to determine your niche even the most general you can think of. Otherwise, you end up like me wasted more than $100 with around 5 failed domains. Once you buy a domain and hosting service, ensure it takes off and makes money. Not the other way around. [/su_note]

How To Write Content For The Blog?

After learning the prerequisites of starting a blog, this time, we’ll delve into the content. The lean meat of the site; the so-called the blood of blogging if you will.

From there, we have to refer to Google’s standards, especially after its recent Core Update 2019. 

Why? 

Recently, there are many big websites currently losing 50% of their monthly traffic because of this. If they were affected, how much more small blogs like ours? 

Given, gratifying Google with our killer content is a must to thrive. Basically, what it wants from us are the following:

1. Posts with at least 2,000 words
2. High-quality external links
3. Lots of backlinks 
4. High-quality, research-based content 
5. Average 58% bounce rate for the site

These standards will ensure us to thrive online. However, not all of us have enough courage to write lengthy, high-quality, research-based posts. Am I right? 

If you think Google cares about blogs with lots of published posts, no. When it crawls to your website (via submitted sitemap), it needs to see you have something valuable and worthy content. Not quantity, but quality.

Consequently, most of the people I helped were shocked by this requirement. “How can I write such long posts?” These comments splurged in my inbox, which was really crazy. 

But then, we can’t do anything except for abiding the standards. Besides, we aren’t here to become a mediocre online business owner, right? If we have to possess the spirit of a con artist, we should. 

Remember what I told about a con artist, they leave a lasting impression. That’s our goal.

With that being said, I have here a few suggestions for you to do today before we proceed to post proportioning content. 

What Do You Mean By Post Proportioning?

In our site, we have 70% niche topics (what we’re blogging about) and the remaining 30% comprising the traffic generating topics like this one. For instance, how to blog, how to join affiliate marketing programs, etc. 

These are all traffic generating topics, which are helpful in building web traffic, but not necessarily straying away from our niche.

Again, my suggestions to create a killer content comprise:

1. Refer to 10 traits of killer content.
2. Use the 75 writing tools to ensure flawless content on our site.
3. Follow the healthy proportion of a) traffic generating topics and b) niche topics. 
4. Create a Cornerstone content during the early stages of blog setup.

What Is A Cornerstone Content?

A cornerstone content, as the name suggests, is a killer content related to the niche. It’s the overall basis to what you’re actually blogging about. 

For example, you are in a make money niche. Your cornerstone content should be like “How to make money in a nutshell?” something like that.

Do you understand, my friend? 

Based on Yoast articles, a post or a page can only be considered a cornerstone content if its content summarizes the core of the website.

Further, you can consider this piece of write-up the best among the posts, describing your niche.

In addition to that, it’s also the same post you want to earn the highest rankings and traffic on Google Search Console and Google Analytics. 

According to the same source, it doesn’t contain any form of sales within the content, but a pure discussion. 

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Before you proceed writing your posts, focus on publishing cornerstone contents. When the time Google crawls to your site, the keywords ranked on the search engine matches the niche you belong to. [/su_note]

Early Steps Of Blogging: Site Essentials

Upon building your site, obviously, you need to add some pages before you proceed to the cornerstone content.

If you have it in sequence, here’s what I look like: 

Building killer site = Create pages (about me + contact page) >> Write first cornerstone content (either page or post as long as it’s epic) >> first blog post

How To Write An Impressive About Page?

Here’s what you’re going to do first. You have to know your target market and review your credentials. 

Upon writing your About Page, you have to say who you are, and what kind of help you can offer. It’s an overview of who you are, generally.

For the latter, you have to know your target market. Who are the people you want to help? To make this a bit easier for you, here’s an exercise. 

Create your own avatar and their daily situation, along with their concerns. Make it brief. One paragraph is enough. Here’s mine:

Jim is a newbie blogger. He wants to quit his job so bad that he started to take action and bought his first domain and web hosting package from a provider. Now, he sits on his laptop and starts writing posts with keywords he researched. As enthusiastic as he was at the beginning, his drive slowly plummeted seeing no results. No conversions, no engagements, no traffic increase. He doesn’t know what to do. He needs help. 

This is an example of what you should do with your niche. Make your market as clearly as possible.

You can’t serve someone without clarity in your service. Your About Page is your first weapon to leave a lasting impression on your audience. 

So, make sure you impress them. 

How To Write An Impressive Contact Page?

A contact page is where your users reach out via email and/or business phone number if you have. Whatever means you have for them, always make sure you make it clear with them the intent of reaching out. 

According to WordStream, it’s very important for every website owner to craft a contact page that is simple to understand, as well as additional links for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), for example. 

If you don’t have any additional links for your FAQs, you simply have a minimalist Contact Page. With a simple message on top and the embedded form. That’s all. No drama.

[su_note note_color=”#fb8b24″]Tip: Make sure you have your About and Contact Pages ready before you proceed in making your first cornerstone content and a few blog posts. When your users land on your page, they won’t have to guess who you are and what you do, as well as how could they reach you out.[/su_note]

Learn The Basics Of SEO

Whew! We’re finally getting in touch with this section in which we climb the next ladder of our early blogging journey.

It’s alright, my friend, we’re taking this step-by-step. Otherwise, everything will surely overwhelm you. 

For a quick recap…

We learned about the prerequisites of blogging and the importance of testing our blog ideas on Medium and LinkedIn. 

Additionally, we also tackled how to determine your niche, options for choosing a domain name, as well as web hosting service provider.

At this junction, we are now at the part where most bloggers struggle. 

What Is SEO?

SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, plays a vital role for Google to understand what your content is about.

If it does, it could give you a spot on the top Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which is the one you see all the time.

Basics Ways To Optimize Site + Content

When it comes to optimization, you need to check if you and Google understand each other. That’s how SEO is about. Also, we know about this is searching keywords, etc. 

Yet, there are neglected areas in which we often take for granted. For example, one of these is the site title, tagline, as well as the snippet – not for the post – for the site. 

Site Title + Site Tagline

When you go to your Themes, you see the option to customize the theme directing you to the backend. You see the General Settings. From there, go to the option where you see the Site Title and Tagline.

Write the site title and tagline. If you opt to hide the tagline, it’s alright because it’s for display. Yet, Google sees it. 

Site Snippet

There’s a difference between the post, page, and site snippet, although you’re doing the same thing in one SEO plugin. Currently, I use the All-In-One SEO Pack, so it’s easier for me to do this. 

All you have to do is go to the General Settings of your plugin. Once you land on it, go to Home Settings and revise your snippet with the keywords related to your niche and your site name. 

Bolster Site Speed + Site Grade

Con artists are known for fast business dealings. They need to act fast. Otherwise, it’d be easier for the authorities and the persons in contact realize they’re in trouble. Why? 

Even if it’s not scheming people, businesses ensure the fast-speed of transactions because they take advantage of impulsivity. If you refer to economics, it’s Impulsive Buying or Impulse Purchase. 

Similarly, you also have to make sure your blog runs fast. Otherwise, your users will leave your site without engaging. Hence, you might have bounce rates, which Google doesn’t like. 

According to the recent Google Core Update 2019, from 68% average bounce rate, it’s going down to 58% as the considerable percentage of non-engaging users. 

What can you do to speed up your site, improving your site grade and rank?

1. Install Autoptimize. Through this plugin, it optimizes your images, data of your site instantly. So, you don’t have to work so hard lowering the image size, etc. At the same time, it boosts site speed. 

1. Have SEMRush Account. This platform helps you identify the pages with broken links and other issues your site has. Thus, it saves you more time instead of reviewing one page to the other looking for issues because SEMRush does it for you.

1. Contact Web Hosting Provider Support. In case if you have done my suggestions and still your site speed remains low, you might have to consider reaching out to your web hosting provider. Ask them to help you out in this issue.

Searching And Using Keywords

Every con artist knows the target and how to lure the victim to its trap. If we were to implement the same principle, especially with our online asset (websites, blogs, and other forms of digital content), we have to know what our audience search on the web. 

When it comes to searching for the right keywords for your post, you have the following basics:

1. Using free keyword search tools, such as Buzzsumo, KeywordTool.io, Google Trends, etc.
2. Utilizing paid keyword search tools, such as Ahrefs, SEMRush, Jaaxy, etc. 
3. Smart use of search engine keyword searches, such as Google Search Results, Pinterest, and other social media hashtags.

Placement Of Keywords In Site Content

As soon as you identify the keywords you want to use for your next content, it’s time to learn where to place them on the site.

This, in turn, allows Google to understand that whatever your audience searches, you have it. Again, in high-quality.

Basically, you have certain parts to place the keywords within a piece of content, aside from the site snippet.

1. Blog/content title/headline
2. First and last paragraphs of the content
3. Somewhere in the content
4. Slug/URL
5. Alt text within images

Keep in mind that you can’t stuff your content with keywords or Google won’t like you. Just keep the flow of the content, not really forcing the keywords in a paragraph, though the thought doesn’t really fit. Got that? 

Ways To Monitor Traffic

Once your site starts running, you have to understand the value of tracking your site traffic through Google Analytics and Google Search Console (former Webmasters Tool). 

What Are Google Analytics And Google Search Console?

By definition, Google Analytics tracks the way users interact with your site from various traffic sources. On the other hand, Google Search Console tracks how the search engines interact with your site. 

Generally speaking, these 2 are the pulses to determine the number of people engaging to various content on your site (Google Analytics), as well as learning if there are issues to fix for search engines (via Google Search Console).

To install Google Analytics, watch the video below.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWSrpXQDSbk” width=”800″]

On the other hand, watch the video below how to verify your site ownership on Google Search Console as seamlessly as possible.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2PTskXupnM” width=”800″]

How To Promote Your Blog?

Aside from having SEO principles implemented on your site pages, you have to turn your attention to your social media accounts. If you have setup your accounts before, it’s time to bolster the engagement. 

What Is Social Media?

If we refer to Wikipedia for the sake of definition, social media is a computer-generated technology mainly for the creation and distribution of content across various users around the world. 

For me, social media is a group of platforms intended to spread out the message we wrote on our blogs. Simple. It includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Pinterest, on the other hand, is akin to Google as it’s already considered a search engine rather than a social media platform.

Social Media Presence

For every online business, it’s important you have an optimized site or funnel and social media accounts to gather as many leads as you can. 

Your website or blog may generate traffic, but social media can attract market through images posted directing to your site where the main content is. 

Now, the question is, what should you do to prevent yourself from being branded as a scheme or scam? How a con artist teaches you about blogging?

Most con artists, by observation, have a tendency to be pushy. If you are self-aware and cautious, you will observe that this behavior clearly. 

Certainly, we don’t want that to happen in our brand. We want to keep our business as legitimate as possible. How can we do that? 

For social media, most blogging experts recommend the following frequencies for each network: 

• Facebook – 1X to 2X per day
• Instagram – 1X to 2X per day
• Twitter – 1X to 10X per day
• YouTube/Podcast – 1X per week (same day of the week schedule; if you upload the first video on a Saturday, ensure the next videos are uploaded on a Saturday, too)
• Pinterest (now considered a search engine) – 3X to 5X per group board/tribe 

Guest Posts

One of the most effective blog promotions is guest blogging. Just like applying for an affiliate marketing program, you need to have something to present to these big sites like Forbes, HuffPost, Lifehack, among others with half-million or millions of visitors per day. 

This is an example of my guest post for Raelyn Tan, a blogger from Singapore, last April 2019.

Given the size of the sites, they receive the same number of guest blog requests in the department. So, they have to filter the best ones to fill the space and enjoy the spotlight. 

Why do you have to guest blog?

There are many benefits. Among them are the 2 big ones, comprising: 

• Earning authority backlinks
• Sharing exposure to millions of visitors 

1. Earning Authority Backlinks

As I mentioned earlier about the need of a con artist an influencer or someone with power, fame, and authority, you’re earning a backlink by having people read your published content. 

The more backlinks you get, the more authority you achieve. Simple.

2. Sharing Exposure To Millions Of Visitors

Further, you need exposure. The fact you’re under 1 year in the industry, I assume, you aren’t getting enough exposure to what you can provide for your market. 

Regardless of the niche, you have to get a share of these big sites’ monthly visitors through the links you left either in the content or at the author bio.

Tip For Successful Guest Posts

You can’t just submit your posts full of crap. If you apply the same principles most con artists do, they present themselves with oozing confidence and will power as if their product and presence, in general, are legitimate. 

What should you prepare as prerequisites? 

1. Professional-looking website or any platform you can present if you don’t have any blog. You can achieve this through StudioPress Themes.
2. Error-free killer content for both – your site and theirs (the one you’ll submit) with necessary links. I use Grammarly for proofreading. 
3. Short author bio (usually 60 words or below) containing your short description and link to your site or any platform you have 
4. Connection with a writer, optional depending on guest blogging rules (Forbes, HuffPost, and Thought Catalog follow this rule).

Lead Conversions

A killer blog generates leads without a doubt. If you were effective in writing your content, at the same, your professional-looking site supports the need, you can easily turn a mere internet passerby into loyal fans. 

From there, you need an email service provider to store your audience contact information.

Often, you need their first names and email addresses and have these confidential data in CSV provided by the chosen platform. 

Popular Options For Most Bloggers

1. Mailchimp (my favorite, free for 2,000 subs and fewer)
2. ConvertKit (preferable for 10,000+ subscribers)
3. Infusionsoft (blogger’s favorite option with 100,000+ subscribers)

What I use is Mailchimp because it’s free up to 2,000 subscribers, which is enough to make money to pay the paid versions. Which is why I love this service than other existing. In fact, I’m only using the free version to store my contacts.

Others have ConvertKit, Infusionsoft, MailerLite, among others. As far as I know, most top bloggers use ConvertKit after they utilized Mailchimp. 

When they have 10,000+ subscribers, they migrate the contacts to a new paid email service provider.

Typically, they choose ConvertKit. Melyssa Griffin, a former teacher turned entrepreneur, uses this for promoting her stuff via email marketing.

Once the subscribers reach 100,000+, they use Infusionsoft because it has the capacity to handle the enormous amount of subscribers. Michael Hyatt uses this for his company. 

Tips For Effective Email Marketing

Similar to blog promotion via social media, organic search, and guest blogging, email marketing does the same level of promotion; however, it centers on the specific needs of your audience. 

Since they subscribed, you’re certain they’re up for what you can offer to them. If you are in a fashion niche, you share stuff about fashion with them.

The following are ideas about what to send to your audience:

• Welcome message (you may come up with an automated onboarding series)
• New posts
• Affiliate products related to your niche (make sure you don’t sound too sales-y)
• New offer (course, ebook, and other forms of releases)

Start Monetizing Your Blog

After the hurdles in setting up your killer blog, it’s time to make money. Let’s turn your site into a money-making machine. What should you do first? 

You will realize why I have been encouraging you to write killer content and build an impressive platform at the beginner. When you start applying for affiliate marketing programs, it’d be easier. 

Most of them review your site as well as your social media accounts. Especially if you are in search of new clients (for freelancers). On top of that, they also look into the web traffic per month based on your Google Analytics. 

Join Affiliate Marketing Programs

Once you have these prepared, it’s time to join various networks. Keep in mind that when you join programs as an affiliate, you are promoting products you use or you believe. Got that?

You don’t promote products you don’t even believe it works. 

When I started, I joined ShareASale to promote the tools I love using, such as WP Engine + StudioPress Themes and Grammarly.

After a month, I earned my first $25 as an affiliate. In the next few months, I earned $225. For a new affiliate, it’s a great start. 

I have here 15 best affiliate marketing programs to join for beginners. You might check those out to start making money this year.

When Does Financial Freedom Come In?

I understand that your main reason for searching online opportunities like this, starting a blog, is to gain your financial freedom. 

You’re reading my post about “How a con artist teaches you about blogging?” because you want to know the basics of building a platform exactly as I did with mine. 

Now, the question of earning that freedom is answerable in 2 different perspectives.

First, financial freedom comes in when the systems, i.e sales funnel, automated emails, etc. start to generate conversions and income. 

Second, you have more time to do other things you love by delegating menial tasks, such as social media scheduling, writing blog posts, etc. How? You hire someone or a Virtual Assistant to do it for you. 

You will reach this phase, my friend, when you constantly do the tasks and the recommendations I said from the beginning of the post. Consequently, you will be branded as an authority of the niche you belong to. 

Conclusion

In the beginning, your mind was filled with curiosity as to how a con artist teaches you about blogging. How could someone with bad intentions teach something for a legitimate platform?

If most people treat scams as a scary thing, I used it instead as a metaphor or a point of reference to exemplifying my thoughts. It sounded scary, wasn’t it?

Often, bloggers share their intent to teach people how to blog by saying the same thing over and over again. And I’m kind of sick of it.

So, I thought of something you might think as ridiculous as a way to compare 2 different worlds, yet with the same goals. Conversions.

The difference between you and the scammer or a con artist is that you have a great idea but lousy and boring execution. 

Your head is filled with crazy ideas for your site or for your money-making endeavors, but your self-doubts block the way. 

Whereas, the con artists, though they have second thoughts, they overcome it with exuberance with matching the intimidating way of presenting themselves.

From how they look and how they present their ideas, you wouldn’t doubt paying, right? 

Amidst the technological advances, there are still more victims around the world. Why? It’s because of that presence they show to them. 

How about you?

Will you remain a mediocre blogger? Would you allow yourself marketed that way? Or you plan to follow my suggestions and brand yourself as an irresistible blogger, affiliate marketer, content marketer, writer, or author? 

I tell you, my friend. The advice I wrote in this post isn’t inclusive to a specific group of people. As long as you’re a writer, primarily for digital content, you belong to the list of targets. 

That’s because I’m also a writer, blogger, fiction writer, content marketer, and author. I write in various forms. Over the years, I branded myself as an exceptional one, so I bet you’re in awe reading the whole post. 

Just so you know, this has approximately 9,000 words. The one you’re reading now is the lengthiest write-up I wrote. Imagine, writing a post with 9,000 words. Can you believe that? Can you do that? 

I brand myself as an irresistible writer, albeit my emotional struggles. Can you do the same? 

If not, go back to the beginning of the post and review the points I made. You have to go through the ways how a con artist teaches you about blogging the right way. Exemplify a con artist’s way to present themselves, not the scam per se. 

Am I making sense to you? I hope so. Click here.

If you find this post helpful, I appreciate it a lot if you share your thoughts by leaving comments below. You may also share the post to your social media accounts. Thank you a lot. 🙂