Tuesday 1 April 2014

Guest Post:: Lisa from Mummy Manifesto talks e-courses...




What makes me Squee?

Well lots of things in my little world make me squee but one thing in particular that floats my boat is blogging e-courses by bloggers.

Blogging is addictive.

And it is addictive because like green smoothies, selfies and iPhone photography apps, there is always that next big thing in the online world.

You want your tribe of people who come to visit you day after day and to bring more friends with them. You want people to like what you stand for and what you can offer to the world.

The reasons for blogging are varied but usually revolve around sharing stories, finding a voice, visual inspiration or teaching a passion or skill.

But blogging can sometimes be a little disheartening, especially if you see other bloggers getting more comments than you, more traffic or their social media follower numbers are off the charts, while you are still trying to get your mum to like your Facebook blog page.

So I have been blogging for almost 2 years now and have joined in a few free “Improve your blog” emails as well as paying for more experienced blog improvement email courses that make you sit up and inspire you to “go pro” with your blog. I love learning about other people’s passions, creative businesses and how they achieve their goals.

Is blogging a passion for you and can you make decent money out of your blog?


Most of us want to do both and that is where most of these courses are designed to make the most of that opportunity. Think Darren Rowse, (Problogger) Holly Becker (décor8) Natalie Sisson (The SuitcaseEntreprenuer), Marie Forleo (B-School).

* I started learning with American interior design blogger Holly Becker’s Bloggingyour Way 8 week course and then later on Blog Boss 4 week course.

Both of these courses were set up for new & intermediate bloggers to become professional blogging businesses. I felt like I was at university or college again. Each week there was guest posters, podcasts, webinars, exercises to be posted into forums, lessons providing answers to all blogging questions involving social media, content creation, blog critiques etc.   The price was also affordable to a blogger not earning a huge amount of income. They were designed with the interior design blogger in mind and I failed the design exercises miserably (which was rather embarrassing) as I am no graphic designer or creative but still got so much out of these courses in relation to my blog.

 * Natalie Sisson (The Suitcase Entrepreneur) has a free 30 day blogging challenge to get you thinking beyond your blog and creating a lifestyle such as a professional travel blogger or online entrepreneur. This course is more about email marketing, building your email list, creating products or content you can turn into gold for your readers.

* MarieForleo is a marketing genius. She has created a really amazing product by giving away heaps of free content in her Marie TV You-tube videos & blogs and then her elusive online B-school runs once a year for entrepreneurs who wish to “go-pro” and take the next step in their business. A few blogging friends have recently started B-school and already are making changes to their online mindset.

* Everyone in the blogging world knows Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame. Darren gives away a huge amount of free content on his blogs and then uses e-books, paid communities and blog conferences to create income from his blogs.. I have met Darren and he is a lovely, quiet, unassuming guy who really has changed the way Australia sees blogging today.

The Reality Check

While I have completed 1 or 2 of these courses, I am no blogging guru or bringing in thousands of dollars in blogging sales. My problem has always been the time management issue of kid wrangling three young children, a husband with his own business and my need to keep my nursing registration current with shifts on the weekends.  I blog & write at night while my family sleeps. At the moment, blogging floats between being my hobby as well as getting paid for sponsored posts or freelance articles.

I think you can definitely make income from selling products/services associated with your blog but you need to treat it like a business and you need to act as if there is no fallback plan or security blanket holding you back from achieving success.  I also think that if you can’t afford these e-courses while starting out you can easily find other bloggers with an income model that you can duplicate and adapt it to your blog. 


MummyManifesto Blog  (http://www.mummymanifesto.com)
Instagram @mummymanifesto



Some blogging e-courses that you might be interested in:


American:


Holly Becker at Décor8: Blogging Your Way & Blog Boss (http://www.decor8blog.com)

Australian Blogging Courses:


Australian Writers Centre (http://www.thewriterscentre.com)

Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily/Kate: Secret Bloggers Business E-Course (http://www.secretbloggersbusiness.com)

The Media Maid/Katrina Chambers (http://www.katrinaleechambers.com)

Meet Me at Mikes/Pip Licolne ( http://www.meetmeatmikes.com )

Spaces In Between/Rachel : Bright Eyed & BlogHearted   (http://wwww.inspacesbetween.com)

Coping With Jane: Jane Copeland  (http://www.copingwithjane.com )


A note from Ash:

Thanks for this great piece Lisa. I am sure your info will be useful and interesting for many established and emerging bloggers. I have done Pip Lincolne's Blog with Pip course and found it super inspiring and really helped me improve my techie know-how as well as plugging me in with a fab community of bloggers. 






5 comments:

  1. Bookmarking this post Ash, I'm sure I'm going to want to come back to it at this point, super! I did click on the inspaces between link, it has an extra w - does that make it the extra-wide world wide web?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for having me on the blog today Ashley-xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha! I'll fix it when I'm at my computer today. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comment! All props to Lisa for this one! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your great work. Fantastic piece. Xx

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment! Your comment will be visible after approval from Ashley.