KOI LUNCH & LEARNS | HOLLY HURD | 6.2.20
BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS
Have you ever thought of starting a blog but don’t know where to begin? Do you want your blog to help you grow your business? VentureMom, Holly Hurd, has been blogging for almost ten year, and can show you how to create a successful blog. If you want to express yourself, share your knowledge, help your sales or make money -- a blog may be for you.
You will learn how to:
Choose a topic perfect for you
Come up with a great name
Get your blog set up and online
Create content that people want to read
Find your following
Holly Hurd is the founder of VentureMom.com, a blog and platform devoted to sharing the stories of women who have their own businesses in order to inspire others to do the same. Holly has interviewed hundreds of women on her blog, making her uniquely qualified to speak on blogging and the small business start-up.In her book, VentureMom: From Idea to Income in Just 12 Weeks, Holly gives female founders a step by step guide to creating their own income.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT:
Holly:
I will just start chatting. They have preparing me, it's fun to be with you people. And I a little bit about that. I go was going a motivational book and I didn't have a publisher. I didn't have a platform and I didn't have much of a chance of getting a book published. And when I was doing my 10 ways to find your fulfillment, I wanted to pepper it with stories of women who I thought were fulfilled. And in my world, those women were entrepreneurs. And so I started doing them for this fictitious book I was going to write. And what I found was I loved writing their stories and sharing their stories with other people. And I, and I started thinking, well, why don't I put this out in the form of a blog? Because at that thing was becoming really a Vogue and it was free and easy.
Holly:
And I could just write my speech of this profile of this woman who had a business venture venture was her baby. So venture mom, you're the mother of your venture. That's where I came up with the name. And that's actually where I came up with my tagline. Your business is your baby. Because what I found was in talking to men, the feel, they, they actually feel like they are long baby into the world when they start a business. So by starting a blog, I was able to build a platform, gather a following, and build a presence online that eventually I was able to get my book published. It didn't come out in the form of a motivational book. It came out, you know, I interviewed, and over the course of those interviews, I realized they all kind of have the same path to building their business.
Holly:
Came up with from idea to income is 12 weeks. And that was my book. But back to my blog this year, I imagine my life without my blog. And I decided I wanted to share with other people how easy it was it is and how much it can help you. So that's my mission in 2020. So if yourself, why do I want to start a blog? There's so many reasons you might want to share a journey that you're going through. You may want to journal something that you're experiencing. Hey, you have a skill that you want to educate other people and find people like you. I was very in that or ship. So when I started my blog, I met so many other people. There were also entrepreneurs. Dan did my group of people that I knew. You might start a blog and many people do, Oh, your business.
Holly:
And I'll talk more about this later, but when you are promoting your business, you want it to be patient. So you don't, Hey, buy my product, buy my product in each blog, you do talk about what how you can use product or how a client has used your product. And meeting new people. I, I, through my blog have been so enjoyable and it's such an amazing effect on my life. And I think if you start a blog around something that you love, you'll meet amazing people doing what you're doing. So what do you want to blog about? There are three photographs and I each one and sort of give you some ideas of what you could blog about. So the woman on the left with the suitcase and the two little girls, and, you know, I love to use pictures of my, each of your blog should have photograph.
Holly:
Everything is so visual now. So either photographs, even you could, as far as have videos, but this blog, this photograph could represent a blog about suitcases or things you use to travel 8% a blog about raising twins. It might represent a blog about being a single woman and moving to a new town. It might represent a blog about baby gear. I see she's got harness on with a baby on the front. So this picture could be any number of subjects. The people on the right could be a blog about what to do with your grandkids, fun activities with your grandkids. It might be a blog about teaching your child, how to cook and fun recipes. It might be a blog of parenting. It might be a blog about cooking utensils or family life. The photograph on the bottom, right, is more of a decorating.
Holly:
I think of this might be a decorating blog and it might be how to hang artwork. Maybe you're an artist and you want to show how you would hang different artwork. It might be a blog about introducing color into your room. It might be a blog about homework stations. Cause you see they're two desks back there. It might be a blog about travel and incorporating pieces that you've collected along your travels into your home decor. So the, the subjects are endless. So it could be a passion. You have, it should be some, well, it could be something, you know, but it also might be something that you discover. So maybe you're going to a new place town and you want to write about, you discovered a restaurant, a workout place, a jogging trail, a, you know, new place to serve. It could be what you discover in raising a child, a baby, a it could be what you discover while you're on a diet or while you're trying to gain weight.
Holly:
And it also could be about what you're doing. So maybe you're moving into a new house and you want to blog about decorating that house or meeting your neighbors. You certainly can blog about your product. So let's say your product is this plastic whisk that these two women are using. So you would blog about a recipe and how you use the whisk. Maybe you each have your blog posts, you blog once a week and each week you give a new recipe and show how you use your product, which is the Wist in each [inaudible]. So that was my point before that, you're not just saying, buy this great whisk. You're saying, okay, here's the recipe that we really love and you need our whiskey to make it. And here's how you use it. You might blog about your service. So let's say you teach cooking classes.
Holly:
Well, again, you might share a class that you taught on how to make bread. And you say, I use my whisk to, I use the whisk from my friend and here's where she sells it to make this wonderful bread. And here's the recipe. And if you want to sign up for my cooking class online or in person, here's how you sign up, but you're, you're giving them something the recipe, and maybe you're showing them a technique. So it's not just, you know, sign up for my cooking class. In every blog post it's giving them something that they get to know you that's, your blog will allow your followers to get to know who you are and want to keep following your blog. Each, you know, they don't want to miss a post. So I like to advise my, my I coach women on how to start a blog and men too.
Holly:
You know, and, and what they, how they can get set up. But I suggest you learn from other bloggers. So look at things that you like now, there are a lot of lifestyle blogs. This is an example of a really popular one. And she calls herself cup of Joe and notice her logo. And the O of the, of is a picture of, I think that's the Brooklyn bridge. So you can probably ascertain and the photo of her with her child. This is a mom who's sharing lifestyle stories in her blog. And her toolbar is broken down by a style design, travel shop, and two examples of what she's blogging about. How are you doing? And she shows her baby falling over the what us travel destinations are you going to? So she probably talks about travel destinations with her focus on family.
Holly:
You get to know a blogger and you learn what their lane is. So when you have a blog, you want to stay in your lane, this is a blogger workout, mommy.com and her tagline fitness secrets from a badass single mom. So her banner at the top tells you a lot about what this blog is about. And when you develop your banner and your logo, you want people to understand your voice. So here's a picture of this. She's a mom of four boys. She's kind of, you know, a bad ass single mom. And so she's blogs about helping people work out in their garage and she has what, what things you can buy. And she monetizes her blog by selling those items probably on an Amazon page. And then here's, you know, it's very sort of funny and in your face, mrs. Badass is one fit mommy.
Holly:
So her, that blog post is about one of her clients and how she's gotten her into shape. And I'm sure, you know, the woman is happy with that, that name. And, you know, she wouldn't have put it out there if she wasn't. And I don't know if you can see her icons are kettlebells, which is really cute. So you sort of get the vibe of this blog from her banner and her tagline, another blogger that I like, and that I've learned a lot from is Mackenzie Hiran and her blog is called design darling. And this is a lifestyle blog. She started blogging in college. And so at that point in time, she felt blogged about college things. But when she moved to the city, she blogged about what she was wearing in the city and restaurants, where she was going well, then she got a boyfriend and got engaged and got married on Nantucket.
Holly:
So she blogged about her wedding. Well, now she has a baby. So she's blogging about she's blogging about baby products and she monetizes her blog with an Amazon page where you can buy baby products and baby gear and everything you need through pregnancy gluten-free mom. This is a woman who has a gluten free child. So she had to learn how to make gluten-free, you know, recipes and over the course of learning, she started to blog about it. And she developed a huge following because you know, I'm a gluten-free mom, too. I have a child who has to be gluten free, and I love her recipes. So if you notice her toolbar starting a gluten free diet, so she's educating her followers on how to do it. And then she has recipes that are broken down by category. So let's say you have free child, or you're gluten free, and you want to learn how to make gluten-free pancakes, she's categorized. And this is something you'll do in your blog. You'll choose your category. So she's chosen her categories by courses and meals. You see breakfast, appetizers, soups, pasta main course. She also does holidays. So, and then she also has by dietary concerns. So when you do a blog post, you'll choose the category. So your followers, when they come back and you've got hundreds of blog posts, they can search by category.
Holly:
So another example wit and whimsy, and you know, it's a simple name, but you recognize she's got a logo, her colors, this is a lifestyle blog. She talks about books and beauty her banner across the top with the toolbar, but then her choices meet me where she talks about who she is, start shopping. So she sells the thing she blogs about, and then she's got a simply subscribe. So you'll want to figure out what you're putting on your home page for your followers to sign up for your blog or newsletter. You, if you want to shop, have a shop page and you want to have an about page. So they learn who it's radar, she's a lifer style blog. And she has things categorized about, you know, she has home about shop. She has a holiday, she has books. She does recipes.
Holly:
How in contact, this instance is an example where she blogged about pink sweaters that she likes, and then you can choose the pink sweater and shop for it. Oh, this is a great one. So this gal loves architecture and art and museums, and, you know, think architecture digest. So she had no idea like myself where her blog would take her, but she just started blogging about things that she found interesting. And she would research them and she started the blog. She calls it quintessence. And you notice her colors are this beautiful blue, which these, these tiles frame, her blog, and then this orange, which is her color. And I want to point out her tagline living well with style and substance. And it's a picture of her on her phone, her blog posts, profile, decorators, architects, artists, and she just started blogging. She about 10 years ago and she just started putting it out there.
Holly:
She got a very large following. And now she is asked to fly all over the world and talk at design conferences. So her blog led to a speaking career, which is very exciting for her. And she's met great, a great number of people in her field in something she's interested about. And she even started a television show around design. So first thing you need to do is get set up. And this is the this is where you get started. So a good blog name, I've sh I've shared with you a couple of examples. In my book, I have a chapter on naming your business or your blog. And the one thing I suggest that my clients do is make a list of words that are related to what you're doing. So let's say you're having a gardening blog. You might say green thumb trees, plants planting, growing.
Holly:
And then, so that's one list. The next list, you make a personal things that are personal to you. And this might be the street you live on your grandmother's name, your team, mascot, your college colors, your, you know, anything that's fun or meaningful to you, places where you vacation and then create catchy combinations. So I like alliteration. I like puns. So gather things together and make a list of things that's speak to you and then gather feedback. So share your name with your family, your friends, your cohorts, and ask them what they think. And then check the domain availability. So let's say you came up with Gail's green thumb and your business or blog is going to be all about window boxes and pots. And, and you want to share different window boxes and maybe your businesses, you actually plant people's window boxes and their pots around their house.
Holly:
So the blog would be sharing those window boxes, pictures of before and after, and maybe sharing the plants that you put in them. So let's say it's called Gale's green thumb. And if you check the domain of availability, maybe Gail's green thumb is taken. So you could add your state. Let's say, you're from New York. Maybe you do. Gail's green thumb and Y or New York city, or you want something that is available. And if it's too common, you might want to switch it up. So these are the things I suggest when you're trying to come up with your blog name. Now you want to brand yourself and this doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. There are free. If you Google free logos, you can get you just type in your name or your business. And they will within minutes, shoot back some clip art that you can use for your logo.
Holly:
If you don't want any clip art, I suggest that you choose two colors that speak to you. Be aware that certain colors go with certain businesses. So if you think of our orange and yellow, think Wendy's McDonald's burger King, those are food colors. If you think of blue and black, those are more like Navy blue. Those are more business colors. So think IBM and also I want you to choose two fonts. So if you've got a children's, let's say you're going to review children's books. That's what your blog is going to be about. And it's going to be called Cassie's castle. And you're going to review children's books and each of your blog posts, and then you're going to sell the books in your Amazon store connected to your blog. You could choose a really fun font that would be whimsical and childlike, right?
Holly:
I wouldn't think you would choose blue and black and block letters for a children's book blog. You might choose, you know, pink and orange and a fun, a fun font. And you can find fonts, you know, that come with your, they come with your computer or your software. You can also buy fonts. So if something, you know, just Google fonts, free fonts, or, you know, but it can be really easy. And let's say, it's, you're going with Cassie. Your name is Cassie or your daughter's name is Cassie. And Cassie's castle that doesn't really tell your audience what you do. So in that case, I have a tagline Cassie's castle. And you might have it be favorite children's books or, or children's books for your castle, or I don't know, thinking off the top of my head, but you might want a tagline, like some of the taglines I shared with you and the blogs I just showed you.
Holly:
But then there's your, and then you might, if you go on the logo, making shopped or clip art, you might find a cartoon castle that you could put to the left Cassie's castle in your fun font and your two colors, and then your tagline below and the really fun whimsical font. And there's your banner, which that's going to be your branding. So branding doesn't have to be difficult, but I like for you to have it so that you become recognizable. Here are some examples that I really like. So traveling mom.com and the top, right? And her tagline, if you can see it is we've been there. And the Oh of the mom is a compass. So you get so much out of this logo. So traveling mom, she's telling you just with her name, that it's, her blog is all about traveling as a mom, the compass says she's going all over.
Holly:
And the we've been there, kind of lets you know, okay, I'm a mom and I've traveled with kids. And this blog is going to tell you how to, how, how it really is, right? I'm 60 and me, this is a great font. The colors are purple and white. And that just tells you what it's like being 60. That's what the blog is about. Prime women. She's chosen black and purple and prime women might be a little confusing, but then she's saying redefining the over 50 woman. So you learn, if you're over 50, you want to follow this blog. It sounds like something I'd like to read and she's gonna share fun things for me. Over 50 Esther bloom, she chose this gold and black and she used her signature of her first name, bloom and black letters. And then her education below, she's a nutritionist, the local Balt, their colors are this lime green and black.
Holly:
And they use their, it's not really a tagline. It's sort of a description, luxury home consignment. And they are an online consignment shop. So they're very definitive in what their branding is and what they do. And it's all right there in their logo. So I suggest to you to create a really great logo, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect and it, you can do it very simply with two colors, two fonts and a tagline. So now we get to the technical side and this is where a lot of beginners get hung up.
Holly:
I use WordPress for venture mom.com. And this is an example of how I would post a block. And I know this looks like a lot, but I've circled three things that I use to post the first circle on the left. And I, you know, I had my tech gal give me training. I threw venture mom. I offer two hours of training with our tech team. And once you have that, it's sort of like riding a bike. You, you get it and you're not going to be stumbled or you won't stumble. And even if you do, you have people there to help you. So the circle on the left, if I wanted to add a new blog, I would click add new this blank. It would come up blank where it says, what would venture mom, where this would be blank, but I would type in what would venture mom wear for a women's pitch night?
Holly:
And I would type that in. Then I would insert this photograph. That's a, that's a photograph. I did have my graphic intern develop that. But you could put a photograph there. Let's say you're doing Cassie's castle. And you would say this week we're talking about the ducklings that cross the pond or whatever book that is. And you would have a picture of the book on the right. So the circle in the middle shows you how easy it is. This works like word. You can do italics bold, you can center it. You can insert a link. So this setting up the blog post it's fairly easy. The circle on the right shows you this gives you a life so you can post immediately or you can set it, you can schedule it. So let's say you're traveling or you've got, you know, a crazy month.
Holly:
Let's say you're doing Cassie's castle. You can write. And you blog once month, once a week, you could set up and write your four blog posts over the first weekend of the month. And then you can queue them up so that you could schedule them to go out Monday at noon the first Monday of each week. Because I'm going to tell you, once you start blogging, first of all, you'll be addicted because it's so much fun. But second of all, your followers will miss you. So if you don't show up on Monday at noon, and that's when you usually show up in their email box, they literally will think that you died because they're so used to getting your blog and your Cassie's castle book review for their children. If they don't see it, they're like, Oh my God, something happened to her. So the scheduling on WordPress and these other ones that I mentioned as well, okay.
Holly:
Allow you to make sure you stay on track. And I do suggest that you have a schedule and stick to it. So the structure and some people get confused about blog versus website. So I always suggest a website and the reason I with, with a blog integrated into it. And the reason I do that is because if you use Blogspot, your you're URL would be like, mine would be Blogspot dot venture, mom.com. I like you to have, I have m.com. So you want to structure it so that it's mrs. Blanding's dot com. And then I would have four pages home where like Lynn burn, she's a writer and you see her tagline is writer, content, strategist. And this is her home page. If you click on well, I don't know if she has about, but most people, mrs. Blandings does you want to talk about your story?
Holly:
And you want to be very personal here. Like I started blogging about women's entrepreneurship because I support women and I, I was an entrepreneur and I met these great women and I want to help other women become entrepreneurs. So please read my blog where each week I share the story of a different woman who started a business. That's the kind of thing you want to say on your homepage. You want to be very personal and you know, conversational and say, Hey, it's great to meet you guys. I'm so excited. You're here each week. I'm going to share a new children's book on my Cassie's castle. And then you have a page that is the blog, and this will be the blog roll. So as they scroll down, they'll get last week's blog post and the week before, and then you want to have a contact page or a subscribe page where people can reach out to you.
Holly:
You choose your categories. Blogs automatically archive by month. Now what to write about content is King. We've all heard that. So this is a two women who write about launching their children into the world, into either boarding school or college. So each one of their blogs is about that process. And when I talked about staying in your lane, like these two women would not write about beauty products. That's not what their blog is about. They are writing about raising fears and college, JJ kids switching them into the world. So this is an example, last minute items, not on the college packing list they got. So they hook what can Katie Kirk and other people have featured them. And they speak a lot around the country around United, but they stay in their lane. So they're not talking about beauty products or gardening. They're talking about, you know, travel things. Your kids need things for setting up the dorm, emotional things you go through. They talked a lot about you know, homesickness and how to deal with that. So find your boy.
Holly:
Here's another cooking blog. And I love the name of it. It's very simple and fun. It's a takeoff on a pinch of salt. It's called the pinch of yum. They have three pages about recipes and shop, and then you can subscribe in the top. So they're they, and there's a blog post there, the latest and greatest creamy Thai sweet potato Curry. And this is a husband and wife who just share recipes. That's, that's their blog. Here's a store that uses their blog to bring traffic into the shop and also to sell the items. So it's a decorating store and I love before and after. So if you, your blog you know, before and after like a gardening blog, you could show the empty garden, the empty yeah. Mmm window box. The example I was using before, and then the after, after it's been here are these so leather stools, and then they breed covered them.
Holly:
These wonderful handles on them. And then they also sell those online shop. So the blog is working in two ways to draw traffic to their shop online and also their bricks and mortar shop. So more about what to write about projects. This blog post about a decorator is written by a decorator who decorated a along Island farmhouse and the picture it use artwork. It might be about this artist. It might be about a folk painting treatment on the walls. So in decorating this room, this designer has multiple ideas about what to write and she could one week write about using art in your decor and how in this one particular project, we chose this artist because we liked it for this reason. And you know, she's educating her audience on how to use art. She might blog about this wonderful black and white drum.
Holly:
And she might say, say, I sourced this drum from a vendor in Indiana who makes them by hand and he custom and carbs each one and like to buy one, you know, about how she uses it, is it as next to a chair. So if you're, if your business or you want to blog about projects, the idea posts are, so you might blog about products. This is a shop in Charleston, South Carolina, and they blog about their ProSource their products from all over the world. Well, beads are hand Africa. Okay? So in the blog post, she talks about how source them, how they're made the women that make these beads. And then she even shows people wearing the beads and how you would use them with, for an outfit. There are a million blog posts about products, more than just buy the product. So you want to engage the reader. And in this day and age, people want to know the source of the products and a story behind the products.
Holly:
He's Esther Bloom's shop page, where you can buy the juicer, the beef jerky, the barley grass juice powder, and probably each one of these products that she recommends for her nutrition clients she blogged about. So take the barley grass juice powder. That's a blog post where she probably said, I'm recommending barley grass juice powder to one of my clients who has this issue. And the barley grass juice powder is going to help him with see, and by the way, click here and you can buy it. But you know, she's sharing the products that she recommends to her clients. So if you have a service business, each one of the products that you recommend to your clients could be a blog.
Holly:
Here's another example of what to blog about people. So many of you may know this, this character Iris, with the black round glasses, this is a store abou again, and she's blocked Iris. Who's wearing these wonderful carved bracelets. So in the blog post, she's telling you a little bit about Iris and who she is and how she loves to wear these bracelets. So if your blog is about window boxes, you might say, one of my clients has this wonderful farmhouse, obviously get permission to use pictures of anyone's home or faces that say they have this wonderful farmhouse. And we crafted these window boxes and she wanted the colors purple and white to go with her white farmhouse. Here's how it looked. Right? So the people that you're working with either in your selling your products or in a service venture, you can blog about people. Here's an example. This would be like Cassie's castle, it's called Amy's bookshelf. And she simply reads books and blogs about them in a book review. And you can see she, the photos she uses are a picture of the book and they're her reading glasses. And then she writes her book review. And then I'm sure you can buy those books. In her shop page, back to cup of Joe, you can see she blogs about a lot of different things. She blogs about books, kids, clothes, products, clothes, adjuncts.
Holly:
So once you've set up your, your set up, you've got your, you've got your website set up, you've got your blog branding. You know how to do posts and you started blogging. Now you need to find your following. So you need a posting schedule. And this is where I talked about. If, if you, if you miss a blog posts, they wonder what happened to you. So this is my blog schedule. So on Tuesdays I blog, what would venture mom wear? And I include products that women entrepreneurs have offered. So my lane is all about women's entrepreneurship. So what would venture mom, where I'm going to wear these products that are offered by women Wednesday as a coveted collection? So I take, like I would take at BU and choking it's in the bracelets and you know, that they offer. So it's a coveted collection that a female founder is offering Thursday is where I feature a women owned business.
Holly:
So I might feature Cassie's castle and say, this is a woman who started a blog and here's how she did it. And here's a picture of her. And here's her logo on Friday. I do the inside scoop. And this is where I share blog posts from other people. So don't get overwhelmed. I've been doing this awhile. I suggest you start with one blog a week, pick your day and pick your time and try to meet that every week, find your following. So once you have your, your brand, what you're going to blog about, you obviously want followers. So the first thing to do is ask all your friends and follow, you know, friends and family and neighbors. Please follow my blog. Then you're going to want to set up your social media channels. And there are a lot, choose the ones, you know, choose two or three.
Holly:
You don't have to have all of them. If you're offering a business service where, you know, maybe your career counseling, you absolutely want LinkedIn and Facebook probably, but Instagram, Pinterest, maybe if you're a children's books, you definitely want Facebook and maybe Twitter and Instagram, LinkedIn. No, you're maybe not. If you're a decorator, you absolutely want Pinterest. You want to brand each one of the, these with an, or I always get this question. And I want to answer that here, the way that I do my blog post have a newsletter and I use MailChimp, but there's constant contact and other things that you can use. So on blog page, when people subscribe, they are subscribing to my newsletter. So I send them the newsletter and I have a read more. Then they click on the read more and they go to my website. The full blog blogs should be about 200 to 500 words. Another question I get pertains to grim. They're like, well, why can't I just, Instagram blogging is a longer form. Instagram you're limited by numbers, but you should certainly doing your Cassie's. When you're reviewing the book, you should certainly post it on Instagram and say, go to my blog to learn more about my review on the duckling book. So you're driving everything to your website, through your social media channels and through your newsletter.
Holly:
I'm going to end by saying, enjoy the process. I mean, I really love sharing my stories of women who have started their own business. I got to my mission. And so, you know, write down what your is with the blog. And if you ever get, and what to write about, if you go back to your mission, Diaz will flow. So I say, love what you share and have fun. So I'm happy to any questions that anyone has.
Jon:
I have a question. How, how did you start? How did you start this in the first place? I mean, did you do a lot of writing before you started blogging or was blogging? Just one of those things where you, maybe you saw it happening and you said, Hey, I just, that looks good. I want to do that.
Holly:
Yeah. My story, like many of the women that I interview, I came from finance. I was a trader and I ran a hedge fund, but it was my own. And I was an entrepreneur. You know, I just, I, wasn't a writer. You look back at some of my early blog posts and I cringe a little bit. And you know, I meet a lot of, a lot of people who are scared. Listen, everyone's scared and you just have to put it out there. I wrote my first blog post. It took me two weeks to hit the send button because I was afraid of what people would think like, who am I, who's going to read it. I'm not a writer. I'm not, you know, this was kind of just a hobby. And I also wanted to support these women. So I said, well, I'm just going to share this story.
Holly:
And maybe someone will use them to plant their window boxes. And I love for me. I love the idea of how women came up with an idea, came up with their name, started their business. So it was all about supporting these women. And for me meeting these women and hearing their business story. So those people who aren't writers I say, just get started. I improved so much over the course of writing. And it's funny. I thought I would do one to one a month. That was my plan is sent the first one back. And they were like, Oh my God, I love that story. You have to buy all my aunt, my cousin, my neighbor, me, I have so many women friends who have started their own businesses and you should profile them. So then I went to once a week now I have over 300 stories of women. Who've started their own businesses.
Jon:
Awesome. Very cool. Okay. It looks like, so I've asked people to just drop questions in the chat, just in case there's connectivity issues or anything like that. So Ellen says if you're launching a nonprofit, but also want to incorporate a blog post, does it matter if your website is.org or.com with respect to linking, to blog spot or other tools like WordPress or social media links?
Holly:
You know what, it doesn't matter. You can say for business. So if your, if your business's plants.org you would have a subscribed to the blog and the followers that subscribe would get your blog posts in their email mailbox, and most everything. You know, if you most, everything is online. And, and I use GoDaddy for hosting. And then I, so I purchased the WordPress, they host my domain. So venture mom.com, Thomas hosted by GoDaddy. And then I purchased the WordPress overlay. So they set it up for me. So it's a WordPress hosted site. And then I branded it, my logo, and then I started posting and they will have help you either go, daddy will help you, or WordPress will help you and even train you.
Holly:
He's a really good one, struggling creativity, any suggestions? Yeah, that's the one, that's my question. That's what it, you know, that's what I'm trying to say to you. It's about the people that you're serving or that interest you think about think about what you're going through. So, so let's say it's a lifestyle blog. If you're a lifestyle blog, the world is your oyster. You can blog about recipes. You can blog about how you're feeling today. You can blog about travel destinations, but I do suggest you find your voice. If you want to blog, you know I'm also happy to consult with anyone offline because it depends on what you're are you blogging to drive traffic to a bricks and mortar? Are you driving blogging to promote your service venture? I don't know. I think this is sort of my thing. I can come up with a million things that you can blog about.
Holly:
And you know, it doesn't, again, it doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have to be long. And the more you write, the more you'll find your voice. I love to help people edit because, you know, I just started doing it and I developed sort of a format. So when I interview people, it's, you know, it's what did you use to do? How did the business come up? Like, what was the Genesis of the business? How did you, what's your name? How did you get set up? So I'm getting my content though, but I had the questions I wanted to, so my content was coming from the person I'm interviewing, but certainly so then my lane about supporting those women. So I do write my stories. So I terms of what does my audience need, and it can't be about me all the time.
Holly:
In fact, I don't like it to be about me, but so if I'm thinking of a woman owned business we'll need right now, she needs help getting her business online or pivoting to be more digital or staying motivated to keep her business going. Or how does she reach new clients? So everything that I want to blog about should be about the benefit to my audience. And I think, you know, that's a sales and marketing, you know, it's always would it, what are they getting out of what you're writing? So if you think in terms of what does my audience need and you list those things, each one of those things could be a blog post.
Jon:
Makes sense. Makes sense. Cool. Mmm. Okay. So I am going to invite people to add any more questions that they have. So the chat and Holly, if it's okay with you, well, it's going to say, I'll share your email address, but I'm looking at your slide and it's right there. So
Holly:
There, and you know, if anyone wants to email me, I'll send them 10 ways to monetize your blog. And I can also, I offer half hour consultations for free. I have a, you can book me. Mmm. If you click on work with Holly on my home page, I offer half hour for free. And you know, I love helping people come up with their name and, and get their, you know, pick their topics and help them craft a a blogging schedule.
Jon:
That's great. So I guess what we'll do here is we'll I'll grab the link and I'll add it on to pretty, yeah. Sorry, the word promote. You gotta let it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll, I'll grab the link from your site and when we put up, so just everybody so that, you know, we'll we'll put up the recording of this webinar and we'll also have a transcript that you can read and share. And on that site, we'll put the, you can book me link on there, so you can book 30 minute consults with Holly directly, or you can go to her site adventure, mom.com, right?
Holly:
Yup. And click on work with Holly, and that takes you to the, you can book me.
Jon:
Awesome. That's great. Very cool. Okay. So everybody thanks so much for joining us and Holly, just thanks a bunch that was extremely enjoyable that the time flew and yeah. Looking forward to seeing what the, what everybody comes up with with, with Holly's guidance here. I think she gave a lot of a lot of good insight into just getting, getting out there and cranking out some, some content, some fun stuff. So yeah. Thanks again, Holly. And until next time everybody take care and yeah. Likewise, anytime take care guys. Bye.