Archive for the 'Blog Mastermind' Category
Blog Mastermind….My Thoughts!
May 20th, 2008 Categories: Blog Mastermind
A few months ago I decided that I wanted to start blogging, thinking that it would help me in my real estate business. I had seen a few other Realtors blogging and heard about it so I thought it would open more doors for me.
As part of my monthly marketing I had been writting a monthly real estate newsletter which I mailed off to my clients and/or potential clients. As other contacts were made I would add them to my mailing list.
Mailing and the cost of mailing my newsletter was starting to get to me. That is when I began to look around to see what others were doing, with a focus of reducing my business cost and perhaps expand my audience.
Then I got to musing …..since I am writing why not put it on the Internet and let other see what I am writing. Expand my horizons. I was really looking for feed back.
Writing the newsletter, while rewarding to me, lacked feedback unless I called somebody and asked “Well….what did you think of the last newsletter?”
So this blogging adventure for a person who is 70 something may be looked upon as an old guy going nuts who isn’t going to be around much longer so let the old guy do his thing…..it will give him something to do and he will stay out of trouble.
Well all of that is true but I like new challenges, I like writing (for myself mainly) and I still like to learn and I like to share what I know. I think I just might help somebody out there……wherever there is.
A number of years ago I decided I wanted to learn how to sail. My wife thought I was nuts because I always get sea sick. But off I went and learned how to sail and yes got sea sick quite often.
Where do you start?
I started by typing in the word “blog” in the Internet search section. I wanted to know what blogging was about; who uses it; why did they use it; was it going to be fun or was it something that would be great today and gone tomorrow.
The very first thing I did was to look at the definition. It read that a blog (web log) is a website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, description of events or other material such as graphics and video.
Well this certainly filled the bill for me. I was doing this via a newsletter and other marketing material so my change was simply one of delivery. E-mail was going to be my post office.
I began looking at ”blog” sites. That was an adventure in and of itself and one can find out real fast that you have to put a fence around what you are interested in because if you don’t you will be in the land of “oz”, asking ”Why am I looking at this?????”.
My first realization was that I did not want to build a site from scratch nor did I want a free cookie cutter site . I don’t have the patience to build and I refrain from cookie cutter items because eventually I want to make lots of changes and find that I am limited.
I love to fly fish. But I do not have the patience to make my own flies.
Buzzing in the back of my head I began to realize that maybe someday I may want to make money with my blog site. Oh yes I saw all the advertising of making making 5 or 6 figures monthly income. There are people that do but I want to make enough per month to meet any cost of the blog. (But if 5 or 6 figure income presented itself I certainly would not turn it down).
Investigate, investigate and investigate.
Blog Mastermind (www.blogmastermind.com) was one of the e-instructional sites that roused my curiosity (another was Mastermind Pros: www.mastermindpros.com) and a few others but these two stood out in my mind.
Style was the difference. I liked the way Yaro Starak presented his material and the implication that it was easy to learn if one put some time into the doing. One would call it a soft sale.
I had my blog site built for me. Then I focused on making it work. Because of the style of presentation that is when I signed up for Blog Mastermind program and it was the best thing I have done. I knew absolutely nothing, a novice who felt that he could really get the hang of blogging, have fun and do something constructive.
The weekly e-lessons (this is a 6 month program) are approximately 20-25 minutes in length and one has access to a library of additional information all free. The lessons cover the building of a blog, content development, how to develop traffic and how to make money. Content, traffic and money were my focus. Certainly a lot of book work was made simple and useful.
I realized that the lessons re-introduced me and are centered on how to run a business: plan, analyze, manage, resource control and have the right tools. Add to this the drum beat of testing, measuring and monitoring your blog (work) activities specifically looking to increase traffic flow and your other resources. Also one quickly finds out the importance of developing and maintaining an e-mail list.
The lessons are designed so an individual can succeed. One could not ask for anything more. All that is needed is to take the time and do it.
Ah….the forum. It is suggested repeatedly that individuals participate in the forum group, which I have not done. I have yet to warm up to forums. Later I may change my mind but today I tend to stay out of forums. Simply a personal preference.
What I was looking for and what I finally signed up to do was to find a vehicle that would teach me something about blogging. The price of $ 77 per month appeared reasonable and as best as I could judge was in the ball park of other e-lessons which went as high as $ 99 per month.
I looked at this expenditure as an investment in myself allowing me to work the number of hours per week that I felt comfortable, with the option to make money. The key to me was that I had options.
One of the items stressed in the program was to test, test and do more tests. I did not test the e-lesson program. I simply read about other e-blog programs and decided that Blog Mastermind suited me.
If this were a product, like a can opener, I most certainly would have tested it out but it was more of an educational service and testing I concluded would be difficult.
Once into the program I felt a tinge of being overwhelmed. Too much for a beginner. The terminology and use of words took me a minute to get used to. But there were avenues to help. Yes the forum and of course an extensive library.
I mentioned the extensive library that is offered and for a new comer it is great but also there is a lot of information. If you are like me you have to ponder what is useful to me now. What isn’t.
A mature blogger would think they hit a gold mine. Everything is there. And one can take advantage of the library at any time. It is like a kid being in a candy store.
I think if I were asked for an improvement it would be to divide the system into smaller entities like learning how to swim at the YMCA/YWCA. I would start with lessons for the minnow class and work my way up to the whale class.
Blog Mastermind e-lessons gives one an opportunity to learn blogging, understand what it entails to make it sustainable and what one has to do to make money. If the steps are followed one should do well but it all depends on the individual.
In my case real estate is my focus so I will look at items that generally are real estate related specifically mortgage financing and escrows because these will be benefical to my clients.
Affordable…..yes at $ 77 per month. For some it could be a stretch but overall even those that have to buckle up to meet the cost, eventually they should get their money back if interested in using the blog as an income source. The money spent is an investment in themselves.
Visit Blog Mastermind and see for yourself. It will be worth the time. Simply click here and go: http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/index.php?af=783498
| Currently 4 Comments »
