F.O.C.U.S. on Your Blog | Blogging Tips

A few months ago, I stumbled across a web series called MentorMonday hosted by Paul C Brunson, a well-known matchmaker who’s been featured on OWN, Essence, and such.  #MentorMonday provides community and expert advice on entrepreneurship, life, and relationship related topics. During the 1-hour live video chat, viewers hear personal stories, receive one-on-one mentorship as well as contribute to the conversation through video and chat. My first taste of MentorMonday was a session featuring The Tylers, the couple behind the super successful blog Black and Married with Kids. I’ve been hooked ever since.

The focus of MentorMonday isn’t always on blogging, but I always walk away with something I can apply to building my blog.  One of those takeaways was presented during a MentorMonday session about entrepreneurship and mentorship with special guest Marcus Howard.  Marcus is a success entrepreneur who now mentors 30 and under  CEOs through his company Antermology, Inc.

The session was called Getting F.O.C.U.S.ed on Mentorship, and FOCUS was the acronym used to outline how to see success in your entrepreneurial efforts.  While this acronym applies to any venture, I thought I’d add my 2 cents – well maybe $2 – on how you can get FOCUSed on YOUR blog.

F – Find your Passion.  What is your ‘why’ for starting a blog? If it’s just to get free products, quit while you’re ahead.  I’m not saying that you won’t get free products, or that I don’t like getting free products, but that’s not going to be enough to sustain you or your blog for the long run.  You need to really evaluate what you’re passionate about, why you want to write a blog about it, and will you still want to talk about it in 2 years, 5 years, and beyond.  Even if you treat your blog as a business, you still need to be passionate about it. Blogging is all about sharing your passion, which leads you to your purpose, and then you match your purpose to a means for profit.

O – Organize Your T.E.A.M. For most bloggers, this is a solo effort.  So here TEAM stands for time, energy, actions, and money.  On any given day, where are you spending those resources towards your blog?

• I feel that amount of time spent is less important than having a dedicated time to spend – a schedule basically.  Schedule time to write posts or record content, check emails, post to social media, and solicit opportunities.
• Don’t waste energy on why so-and-so has more followers than you, was selected for a certain opportunity that you applied for, and so on – as if you are more deserving of their blessings than they are. Instead, find out how they did it, and how you can do what they did to get where they’re going.
• Actions speak louder than words. In the case of blogging, actions are words. There’s nothing worse than someone saying they are a blogger, but when you go to their blog – they haven’t posted content in months (or years).  Well maybe sending someone an email and never getting a response – yes, that’s definitely worse.  Consistent action is key when it comes to blogging because people need to know you are there before they will engage.
• Many bloggers to want to make money from their blog and aren’t sure where to spend their money. Here’s a post that has 5 great tips on where to invest. In addition, attending events/conferences, trademarking your brand, editing software, and camera/lighting are also things to invest in.  But be mindful of incurring debt to purchase these things, because it may take some time to make that money back – which can be discouraging and stressful.  Make the best of what you have and can afford now, use free yet effective tools, and then reinvest any income received into making these larger purchases.

C – Commit to a Plan. Research some of your favorite blogs and bloggers, and see if they share their ‘how to start a blog’ story.  Most bloggers started the same way generally speaking, but then there may be certain things that are niche-specific.  So look at blogs in general, and blogs in your niche.  And then build your plan based on those best practices. ‘Don’t reinvent the wheel, just grease it.’ Once you come up with the plan, do ‘maintenance’ on the plan to ensure it’s working well and adjust accordingly.

Marcus L Howard, founder of Antermology, Inc

U – Utilize a Mentor. There’s no reason why you should have to go at it alone.  So many successful bloggers are willing to share what they know, whether it’s one-on-one assistance, blogs dedicated to helping bloggers or blogging webinars.  And it doesn’t always mean its free.  Let me repeat that – IT ISN’T ALWAYS FREE.  You don’t always want free advice – remember that you get what you pay for.  The value of what you’ll receive will likely be more than what you’ll spend on a webinar hosted by a successful blogger who will share in depth tips on blogging. Or maybe its not money that you spend, but your time and skills on behalf of the mentor. I personally have been mentored by being a guest blogger on several successful blogs.  I learned so much for them, and I’ve built relationships with those ladies so that if I do have a question I know I can use them as a resource.

S – Suspend Your Disbelief. Often times we feel like we have to achieve a certain amount of success because we can say ‘I am a blogger’ versus ‘I am trying to be a blogger’. Why? Maybe because we don’t really believe that we ever will be a successful blogger.  We don’t believe we are an expert or reliable source in our niche because we don’t have the readership to follow.  But the fact is that you are, and you have to believe that and tell other people that you are. Then let your content support that.

Are you ready to get FOCUSed on your blog? Which of these elements are you going to start working on? Do you have more tips about these pointers to share? Comment below!