I'm going to make a very bold statement . . . Are you ready for it?

I hope it doesn't sound Cocky. Ok, here goes . . .

Over the last 4 years of blogging (wow, it has been 4 years), I've come to understand blogging so well that I'm confident that if I start a blog, it WILL be successful!

Seriously. When I started my biology blog, I KNEW FOR A FACT that there was no way for it to fail.

Why?

Because I had done my research, I had my unique angle, and I understand what it takes to make a blog a success.

That being said, when someone asks me about blogging, one of the things I say is that there is no guarantee of success. How does that make sense?

Simple – Based on what I've seen over the last 4 years in trying to help others start successful blogs, I realize that for every 100 people that come to me for help, only a handful of them EVER take ENOUGH ACTION to make it happen.

One of the things I've been trying to think through is how to motivate people (even more) to take the right kind of action, because I know what it can do for them.

Then I met a special someone (no, it's not what you think. Just keep reading and stop jumping to conclusions. Jeez 😉 )

My New Project

Cassandre BeccaiAllow me to introduce you to Cassandre Beccai. However, let me give you a little bit of the backstory . . .

I'd been browsing around Facebook and I found out that a friend of mine had a website where she sold natural hair products that she created herself.

I decided to do a little investigating, and what I saw completely amazed me.

She had a significant local following (in my small little town), people were passionate about what she was doing. Part of the reason why they were so excited was because her hair was amazing, and it was the result of the products she made herself.

Then . . . I checked out her website even further and saw that although she had no “official Blog Training“, she was doing a lot of the things I was teaching people to do, and she was doing it NATURALLY (get it? If you didn't get the cheesy joke, read this section over again).

  • She had an eBook and was giving it away for free in exchange for people opting in to her list.
  • She was writing content regularly and posting it to her website
  • She was active in online communities where people were passionate about her niche (Natural Hair)
  • She was letting her personality shine through what she was doing, without even thinking about it.
  • SHE WAS WORKING HARD! Let me say that again. SHE WAS WORKING HARD!

This just completely blew me away, so much so that I decided to help her out.

So, we had a meeting in the library at the school where I worked, and I was amazed at her enthusiasm and how she had done all those things simply because she saw other successful people doing them, and figured that if she followed successful people, she would be successful.

It's like something I like to say – “If you follow success, success will follow you”. Wow, that sounded pretty good. You can quote me on that one 😉

But there was some problems:

  • She was on some weird website builder platform that was terrible for site functionality and SEO.
  • Although she was doing a lot of work, there were MANY things that could be done better to accelerate her success.

Eventually, I decided that I had to take her on as a Serious student. I've tried to stay away from any intense one-on-one mentoring like this in the past, but this time it seemed like a very worthwhile project.

Why?

Because her vision was about more than just natural hair. It was about being the best you that God created you to be. When I heard that, I couldn't hold back my enthusiasm.

The Agreement

After discussing it for a while, we came up with an agreement:

  • I'm going to mentor her very closely. We would meet every two weeks to see where she is and discuss the next steps.
  • She would have access to my offline resources (video studio, equipment, etc). This was relatively easy because she lives here.
  • She would have access to my online resources (my assistant for transcription, project management system, and courses).
  • She would be the one doing all the content generation at a minimum of 3 videos weekly (Youtube is the platform of choice)
  • She would be the one actively working on building the online community.
  • Of course, there's a financial part to the arrangement, but those details aren't important 😉

So the overall idea was simple – she takes care of all the important stuff and I make sure the technology doesn't get in her way, in addition to helping her with strategic planning. This won't add TOO MUCH to my plate because I have systems in place to deal with a lot of the stuff already.

Oh, there's one more thing. I had to make it beneficial to YOU.

I would use this project as an ongoing case study for you, so that you can see the things we do from DAY 1 to build an awesome blog, and online business in another niche that has NOTHING to do online.

A lot of people start multiple projects online with the hopes that one becomes successful. If one does become successful, they share it with their audience and say – Hey, look at what I can do.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing that, but I want you to be there from the very beginning.

The Action Taking

Last week, we got together in my home studio and recorded 6 VIDEOS within the span of 3 HOURS. Yes, that's enough content for 2 WEEKS done in 3 hours. It's all about batch processing.

What amazed me was that we were able to do ALL the videos with NO double takes. I've never seen anything like that. She's a natural!

Then, we set up her blog on WordPress (of course), installed the Delicious Magazine Theme from Woothemes, and I must say – I think it looks pretty Awesome.

Yesterday, we took time to set it up, make it look “cute” (her word), and added some of the content that she wrote in the past to fill out the blog a little bit.

For photos, we're using Canstockphoto (as I have a subscription there).

The plan for launch day was simple:

  • Post the video to the blog at 8am (transcript included – for SEO of course).
  • Share it on the Social networks.
  • She was to contact other people in her niche and let them know about it.
  • Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride

You see, I knew (from doing some preliminary research) that this is a hot topic for many women all around the world and that based on her experience, she could help so many people accomplish their goals, and I was excited about being able to help her do that, and build a massive business.

Our Goal

Yes, we're setting goals, and this one is going to be quite a lofty one – 1000 Daily views. Why 1000? Because I like the sound of it. It poses a challenge, and it gives us something concrete to work towards.

Will we meet our goal? I think so, but if we don't, we'll definitely share it with you.

There are also some other goals that we're setting, but those will unfold as time goes on. The main goal right now has to do with building an audience, because once you have an audience, and a solid plan (which we do), you can make money.

The Traffic Generation Strategy

I love keeping things simple, so our traffic generation strategy reflects that. Here it is:

  • Post videos regularly to Youtube. Make sure they are optimized for driving traffic back to her blog.
  • Networking with others in her niche. This can be other bloggers, communities, etc.
  • Sharing content on Facebook
That's pretty much it. Do this over and over and over and . . . you get the point!

What YOU can expect

As I mentioned, one of the requirements for this project was for me to be able to share it with you, and for you to see a successful blog in the making.

Why? So that you can apply the same principles to your blog and be successful. Not only that, I want you to be inspired to see how well a blog can do in another niche not related to online business.

So, stay tuned as we chart the successes, failures, and cool experiences. I will probably get her on a podcast to share how things are going.

In the mean time, go ahead and check out Cassandre Beccai. When you do, let her know that you found out about it from Leslie at Become A Blogger.

Question for today: What are some cool things you've done to help launch your blog?

About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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