Purpose, Plan, Performance, Persistence and Payoff.
5 Days of Homeschool Blogging Basics.
Day 1 Purpose.
Homeschool and blog. Who’d do that?
I use to think that too, but I didn’t realize that I already was homeschooling and blogging before I jumped ship to the WordPress platform.
Let me back up though because in my 5 days of beginner how tos about homeschool blogging basics, I want to share not only how stoked I am about blogging, but also share tidbits of experience that I’ve learned as I finish up my second year.
Some of you have loyally “followed” (saying this loosely and you’ll see why) since I had articles over at my New Bee site and Dynamic 2 Moms site (not WordPress platforms).
I was sharing tidbits, but my purpose was not growing my audience.
I wasn’t focused on building my blog audience because I was conducting live homeschooling workshops then.
Yes, I know it sounds insane that I didn’t have a place for folks to sign up, but again my purpose was different then. I was mentoring to a local group of homeschool moms in person.
Mission to Mechanics of Blogging
What I am trying to say in all this background information is that the step to building a blog successfully is to zero in on a purpose for your blog. That is the starting point.
See, when I had a purpose, then I could formulate a plan.
Too, I knew that I had to have a platform and host that spoke seo (search engine optimization, which I will explain on Day 3. Performance), but that also gave me credibility as a blogger. And no, I don’t like techie things.
A mission though along with understanding some of the basic mechanics of all those technical things are what spurred my blog to reach close to 75K page views within four months of starting.
No, I didn’t know it then that reaching page views like that wasn’t normal within the first few months of blogging.
I am grateful too that an elite group of homeschool bloggers, iHomeschool Network invited me to part of their group early on and no doubt has contributed some to my growth.
It takes quality content to grow fast and of course being part of a top-notch blogging group with camaraderie like iHN only spurred me on to learning faster.
Okay, I told you I ran from technical things (still do), but I had to stop and face the technical guru in me because start up choices made a difference in my blog growing faster.
The bottom line is you have to answer what is the purpose of your blog and what is the best way to get there.
At this point too, I want you to know that I had a purpose other than just having a place to track my homeschool journey.
Writing this series is about me wanting more than just a place to share my homeschool journey when I started my blog.
I am not sharing tips about using any blogging platform and just using my blog as a diary. I wanted more.
When I decided to step back from conducting workshops in person, I still wanted a voice in the homeschooling community. That is one of my purposes for blogging.
Too, I knew that my personal experience was far beyond helping just new homeschool moms.
There are many blogs of homeschooling journeys starting out, but I had one graduating son and the second son behind him.
What good does keeping this experience to myself do? The seasoned veteran homeschool moms can seem to be far and few between.
Also, one of my greatest loves for planners and how uniquely I organized it was something I couldn’t wait to share with a larger audience.
Purpose to Passion to Profits
I sharpened my vision because sticking to my purpose is what holds me day to day blogging.
What about profits? Oh sure I am all for them!
A genuine blogger would tell you that in the course of being passionate about their purpose that if they could make some blogging dollars, it would be a sweet payoff. (pun intended, okay, okay)
However, profits simply cannot be the first purpose. From passion comes profits.
Let me say that again. From what you are most passionate about comes profit. I’ll explain why in a minute.
Percolating Blog Purpose
I love coffee any oh way you serve it up and like coffee, my purpose started percolating. It has to percolate for a while to get the right brew.
Look at these points to answer about your purpose.
- Do I want my blog to be a place to share just about my journey? If so, then many of these thing I am saying won’t apply. I wanted more so I approached it professionally.
- Do I want to go from passion to profit? If so, start with the right order. Give first.
- How will I give back to the homeschooling community? When you are generous, people know that and flock to your blog because you have been gracious and generous in giving of your time, tidbits and experience. It’s important to me that my blogging voice express just who I am because I do care about people other than just profits. Don’t just blog about general things that everybody knows. You are not giving away all your experience when you hone in and give the specifics about how to solve a problem whether it’s homeschool related or not. Think about giving first.
- What will my blogging topics be about? There is a WHOLE array of things that fall under homeschooling, from how-tos, to crafts, to special needs, to curriculum to homeschooling overseas to homeschooling an only child.
- What is your purpose regarding topics?
- What is your passion that you could write endless topics about? I will expand on this in Day 2. Plan.
You know my fond love for quotes because they are like tiny bullets of dynamite and I fill my mind with inspirational quotes daily.
So this is one quote I have shared in one of my workshops and it really applies here to Day 1. Purpose.
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
Lewis Carroll
Or in this case, if you don’t know where you are going any old platform, host, or theme will do. Think about it!
First comes your purpose, then passion by giving back. I will be talking more about profits on Day 5. Payoff.
And grab this free Mission Statement for your blog planner.
It comes from my Forever Blog Planner set. Of course, I love my Forever Blog Planner.
Download the Free Homeschool Blogging Mission Statement
Stick around, I am just getting stoked and have so much more to tell you!
Hugs and love ya,
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