In my last post, one member asked the following question:<\/p>\n
“Does operating a well-established website like yours require a lot of work? I’m completely new to blogging but I do write in my diary daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my personal experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips for new aspiring blog owners.”<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n Here’s my reply……<\/p>\n Operating a well-established website like LeadsLeap doesn’t require a lot of work. That’s because it is “well-established”. But to start a website like LeadsLeap and bring it from nothing to what it is today requires a lot of planning, strategizing and of course, work!<\/p>\n LeadsLeap wasn’t started as a blog. If it were, it’ll probably not be as successful (I’ll explain why later). It evolved into a blog because blogging is the best way to engage both new and old visitors. Our business is traffic generation for our members, and great contents is our weapon to generate such traffic.<\/p>\n When we started blogging, we already had some 10,000 members. This means we had ready readers to read what we wrote. Also, our blog is designed as a viral blog, where members can convert any blog post into a referral link. This means they can easily share our blog with their audience while building their referrals at the same time. When we started, most of our readers were our own members and their referrals.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to now, we get many traffic from search engines. That’s because LeadsLeap.com has reached a certain authority level, something that will take a new blog months or even years to attain.<\/p>\n Why it is not a good idea to start a blog<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n You see, I’ve heard many people saying “I’d like to start a blog so I can share my personal experience and views online.”. It’s good, if all you care is to have an avenue to share your thoughts, and you are not concerned about making money.<\/p>\n But until your blog becomes established and you start getting some substantial traffic from the search engines, chances are you will be talking (or blogging) to thin air, or perhaps your friends and relatives. The teething stage is often more demoralizing than what you expected, and it can last for months or even a few years. If you are mentally prepared for it, by all means, go start a blog.<\/p>\n Personally I will not start a blog right away if I were an online newbie. Below are some other alternatives I would consider:<\/p>\n Blogging alternative #1 – Start a content website<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n If you are really good in something and you want to share with the world, my advice is to start a content website, not a blog.<\/p>\n Huh? What’s the difference?<\/p>\n You are right. They are essentially the same. A blog or a content website is basically a url with some content in it.<\/p>\n The difference is in the look and feel, and the way information is organized. A blog is like a diary. You add something to it from time to time and old posts tend to be less important than new posts. But a content website is like a book. It ‘s well organized, has different sections and sub-sections and it has complete discussion on a particular topic, not just snap-shots of random thoughts like a blog.<\/p>\n You don’t have to start a 100-page content website over night. You can start with 10-20 pages, and add more over time. What’s important is once you have your initial website ready, you spend most of your time promoting it. If your website really provide a good solution to a problem, its popularity will grow over time.<\/p>\n Also, aim to grow your content website into ‘the encyclopedia’ for your niche, meaning people can find out everything they want to know about your niche. When that happens, you have a true asset that can make you money in different ways over a very long period of time.<\/p>\n Blogging alternative #2 – Start a service website<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Another alternative is to think of some free online service that you can offer, not time-consuming personal service but self-running web-based services.<\/p>\n Say if you are a mortgage expert and you have lots of info to share about mortgages, you can first start a website providing free mortgage tools like mortgage calculators, etc. (I know there are tons of mortgage calculators online. I’m just giving an example.)<\/p>\n The free service is a bait, so that you have something to promote. The next move is to build a list and then a blog, so that you have a list to talk to!<\/p>\n Blogging alternative #3 – Use our List Builder Script<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n One last suggestion is to simply build a list by giving some freebies. You can use our free List Builder Script to do so. Offer something free, promote it, build your list and then start blogging.<\/p>\n My last advice to new bloggers is, bloggers are poor, internet marketers are rich. You need to think and act like a marketer if you want to be a rich blogger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my last post, one member asked the following question: “Does operating a well-established website like yours require a lot of work? I’m completely new to blogging but I do write in my diary daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my personal experience and views online. Please let me know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,11],"tags":[204,203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadsleap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}