How to start blogging/a channel – Straight Fire Life

Every successful project can be broken down into a series of easy to achieve blocks. Avengers: Endgame is the biggest box office hit of all time, but it too was filmed 1 scene at a time. Online success is a long term process that can be broken down into 18 easily actionable steps, each with its own outcomes. By implementing each step optimally, success will be inevitable. Not meeting the timetable laid out below will only mean slower growth - that's all! A website, blog or channel is line a bamboo tree. For the first 2 years of the bamboo's life, nothing can be seen. All the growth happens under the soil. Then, one day, magically, the bamboo sends a shoot above the ground and suddenly you can see the tree grow exponentially in front of your eyes. For the first 3-4 months, do not expect too much from the website or channel. Sure, you may strike it lucky, in which case, please let me know the site or channel name so that I can study your success and improve mine, but in general, you should see a few months with very little feedback, a small trickle, followed by a raging storm. By the end of the 18 steps, you should be able to get 100,000 page views and replace your income. Compounding truly is the 8th wonder! Main goals for these action steps A football player does not worry about the whole match but makes sure that the next action he will take is the best ever. By reducing a match into a series of incremental decisions and steps with clearly defined goals, success is all but assured. Quick legal disclaimer: This has been placed here to make sure you see it. Straight Fire Life cannot guarantee that every single site/blog/ or channel will be succesful if these steps are followed to the letter. This is not a promise or a guarantee and is provided only as a roadmap that has worked. The action steps, the timeline and the outcomes should only be taken as a benchmark to help min goal setting rather than providing an expectation of success. There are thousands of niche and business ideas, which when combined with personal drive and chemistry or timing means that it is impossible to actually predict how well your business or niche will perform. These action steps have been developed by reverse engineering sites such as Income School and Authority Hacker and incorporate our own experiences and those of friends. Your own niche or business will only work based on your hard work and skill. Not all who start down this journey will succeed and it may take 2-3 tries or more to develop a full understanding of what does and does not work. Only those who put in the time and effort consistently will stand a chance of succeeding. These action steps work best when using a checklist to confirm that you have taken each step. We do maintain a members' list who will receive the latest version of this checklist upon registering. If you find that you are half-way the list and you have not yet received any visitors, pop us a message and we will have a look at your site or channel to see where you might be getting stuck. Action list: Establish yourself online and claim your stake.Polish your site and start your social media trickles.Grind through the unrewarding middle.Grind some more.Start pinning!Review the posts and update.Review the email list.Outsource an article.Try a sales email.Collaborate!Prepare your drip campaign and grind some more!Review and Refine your posts!Review the drip campaign!Look for new affiliates.Grind, grind again.Launch your course or info product.Review your sales funnel.Cruise, rinse and repeat. Action 1: Establish yourself, claim your corner of the internet Required Steps: Research your niche ideaDevelop the initial conceptDevelop your "brand plan"Develop the "hit list"Study your competitionStart your websiteReserve you domain nameSource a website providerSetup the site with theme, basic header and faviconDesign the site, add the categories, build up the menusWrite up the legal stuff for the siteWrite up your basic EAT infoWrite up your first Resource PageWrite up 10 Response Posts, at least, 20 at mostWrite up 3-5 Staple PostsAdd the required Images to the site. Tangible results: 10-15 posts Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 0 pageviews - maybe a few bots or friends who are curious, but nothing serious.Income: $0 Action 2: Polish up your site, increase visibility via social media and YouTube (if not focusing on a channel only) Required Steps: Finish the odds and ends on the site, polish the posts already up, add a gear or best practices pageFinish the Staple Posts, push 10 Pillar PostsQueue up 10 YouTube videosStart your Pinterest and/or Instagram feedsPrepare your second hit listThis list should include focus on the type of posts that would do bestLow competition, go for more Response PostsHarder competition - push Pillar Posts you will need themPrepare a lead magnet to get emails from visitors. Dangle it out there. Tangible results: 30-40 posts10 videosLead magnet and email list Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 0 pageviews - maybe a few bots or friends who are curious, but nothing serious.Income: $0 Action 3: Grind through the unrewarding middle Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hits. This is to keep the funnel full - maybe you do not feel like publishing on a specific topic. By having many ideas you can always find something of interestAdd another 10-20 posts. This is the content churn stage. You have to output about 20 posts per monthDevelop another 10 YouTube videos. Maybe research a slightly controversial topic. Find a topical news piece if possible and launch a video in that area but in your niche - so if you are doing a gardening website and there is a storm on its way, perhaps have a video on how to prepare the garden for the storm or how to recover from the stormLearn how ads work on a website but do not add them yet Tangible results: 40-50 posts20-30 videos Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 75-125 pageviews.Income: $0 Action 4: Keep grinding away Required Steps: Establish your publishing routine - aim for at least 10 posts a month and 5 videos (1 per week) but aim for 20 posts and 10 videos. The routine should be getting easier and posts should come out fasterResearch affiliate products and place links on your gear/best practices/resource pages. Amazon seems to give you 3 months for your first 3 sales. Now is a good time to add the links.Place ads on your site (Google/Ezoic) Tangible results: 50-60 posts20-30 videos10-15 pinsYour first income from Ads Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 100-150 pageviews Income: $2, if your your Earnings per Thousand Pageviews is around $15 - this is highly dependent on your actual pageviews and niche Action 5: Start pinning away! Required Steps: Pin your best articles on PinterestJoin a few platforms such as Quora and Reddit and setup your personal profile. Include a link to your siteProvide a couple of quality answers on these platforms - you DO NOT want to get sucked into this type of social media but you do want to catch a few people outside of Google.Churn our your posts and videos Tangible results: 70-80 posts30-35 videos50-70 pinsAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 200-250 pageviews - Income: $4 Action 6: Review and update Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsFigure out which pages are doing slightly better and study what attracts you to themUpdate 10 posts with this information and keep track of themKeep publishing 20 posts.Do the same for your pins / Instagram posts / YouTube videos Tangible results: 90-100 posts35-50 videos80-90 pinsAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 300 pageviews - it will be hard not to check every single day!Income: $5 - Pizza Day! Action 7: Review your email list Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsReview your mailing list.Do you have 30 names or more?Which lead magnet seemed to work best?Send out a general email to your list and advertise your next blog or YouTube video. Tangible results: 100+ posts50+ videos100+ pinsMailing listAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 750 pageviews - best leave the Analytics for Friday afternoons.Income: $15.00 Action 8: Consider outsourcing Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsSpend time on Freelancer, Upwork and similar platformsPay for 1 outsourced article based on your hit listCheck your affiliate income you should have a deal Tangible results: 110+ posts55+ videos110+ pinsMailing listAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 1,000-1,500 pageviewsIncome: $30.00 Action 9: Email Sales Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsDevelop a sales page for your affiliate productTrial out 1 affiliate product on your email list.You are testing the open ratesYou are testing the click though ratesYou want to refine your Salescopy. Tangible results: 120+ posts60+ videos120+ pinsMailing listAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 3,000 pageviewsIncome: $60.00 Action 10: Collaboration day! Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsApproach a YouTuber in your niche and offer a cross-collaborationLook for someone your own size or slightly largerStand your ground. You have your audience after allDevelop a drip campaign Tangible results: 130+ posts65+ videos130+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 5,000Income: $100.00 Action 11: Drip and grind away some more Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsApproach a YouTuber in your niche and offer a cross-collaborationDevelop a landing page specifically for this collaborationDevelop a drip campaign Tangible results: 140+ posts70+ videos140+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 9,000 pageviews Income: $200.00 Action 12: Review and Refine Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsApproach a YouTuber in your niche and offer a cross-collaborationReview the most successful posts and videos. What works for them? Focus on that tone/format/niche area Tangible results: 150+ posts75+ videos150+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 12,000 pageviewsIncome: $250.00 Action 13: Review the drip campaign Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsReview your drip campaign. Is it successful? Tweak as necessaryCheck your pageview stats Which pages are the most successful?Which new pages are doing great?Add in a topical post or video to capture a current trend Tangible results: 160+ posts80+ videos160+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 28,000 pageviewsIncome: $750.00 Action 14: Look for new affiliates Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsReview your affiliate links.Some will be underperforming - maybe 0 clicks. Figure out why?Luxury product?Bad writing?Poor image?Needs a "How to" post or video?Some programs may offer better rewardsCheck the conversion rate. A lower cut with a higher conversion rate can be better. Tangible results: 170+ posts85+ videos170+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 35,000 pageviewsIncome: $1,000.00 Action 15: Grind away some more Required Steps: Review the progress on your brand planResearch more hitsChurn out some contentDo a collaborationRun a new email sales campaignFinalize your course or info product Tangible results: 180+ posts90+ videos180+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 45,000 pageviewsIncome: $1,200 Action 16: Launch your course or info product! Required Steps: Tweak your course or info productRun it past a few friends to make sure it is 100% polished and then polish it some more until you are sick of it. Tangible results: 190+ posts95+ videos190+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignA course or info product making passive incomeAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 50,000 pageviewsIncome: $1,700.00EPMP: This should jump once your course is launched Action 17: Review your sales funnel Required Steps: Do a collaboration to advertise your course/info productDo A/B testing on your funnelsImprove sales conversion Tangible results: 200+ posts100+ videos200+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignA course or info product making passive incomeAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 60,000 pageviewsIncome: $2,000.00 Action 18: Cruise, Rinse and repeat Required Steps: Review your post/videos that workPublish more of the same type of posts/videos, vary the contentsDo a collaboration with someone newReview another channel or blogWork on your course some moreLook into new ad suppliers such as adthrive Tangible results: 210+ posts105+ videos210+ pinsMailing listDrip campaignA course or info product making passive incomeAds throughout the siteAffiliate monetization on your resources pages Expected Outcomes: Traffic: 100,000 pageviewsIncome: $4,000+