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Blogging Advice

20 Best Tips from Jon Morrow (The God of Blogging)

By 01/05/2013January 28th, 201722 Comments

This week I was lucky enough to be on a 2 1/2 hour webinar with Jon Morrow (The God of Blogging – no joke). The webinar was about how to go from 0 – 10,000 blog subscribers.

Jon used to write for Copyblogger (here’s a not-to-be-missed post I wrote as a result of reading that blog). Now he’s started his own blog and it’s fabulous.

So here are the best tips I learned:

1. There is no such thing as free traffic.

2. To get traffic, you either pay for ads or you blog, which equals trading time for traffic.

20 Best Blogging Tips from Jon Morrow (The God of Traffic)

 source

3. 20 hours a week is really what it takes. If you can’t commit that time, you’ll never build the momentum to build a popular blog.

4. You need to understand that you will not earn anything for the first few months.

5. You must enjoy writing – sitting down in front of your computer to write. If you don’t like it, you’ll simply sabotage yourself down the road. And by the way you don’t need to be a brilliant writer, you just need to be able to get your ideas out there in a way that people can understand you. And you have to enjoy it enough so that you’ll continue to get up day after day and write.

6. The rule of thumb for how much money you can make is: Take the annual income you want to earn and divide by 50. In other words, 2000 subscribers is $100,000 per year.

7. 49% of bloggers have less than 50 subscribers.

8. The number of bloggers that have more than 10,000, in the survey that I did, only 1 did. It’s less than 1%.

9. 15 out of 150 were between 1000 – 5000.

10. The harder something is to do, the bigger the rewards are.

11. Choose a mass market topic – first place that bloggers fail is they are blogging about a topic no one else is interested in.

12. It’s best if you’re obsessed. Your topic needs to be something you think about all the time, you read magazines, you subscribe to everything you can.

13. Nothing is more valuable then email subscribers.

14. You need to send your subscribers cool stuff.

15. You need to overwhelm them with how generous you are.

16. You need to show your readers how much you care. You know the saying, ‘No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.’

17. Focus on the results you’re going to get people.

18. Write long and insanely valuable posts. It’s a proven fact, long posts get more traffic than short posts. At least 1,500 words. The longer the post, the more traffic it’ll get.

19. People do not read posts before sharing them. What they do is look down the post and decide whether they think it’s valuable. Which post do you think is the most valuable?  3 ways to get more traffic vs. 47 ways to get more traffic.

20. If you can only write one valuable post every week or every month it’s way better than one mediocre post every day.

These tips were just a drop in the bucket. He went on to explain how we could become one of his students.

I tried but this particular class was for beginner bloggers only.

So I asked if he would consult with me. And lucky me, he said he would make an exception (even though he does not consult with the public anymore).

I booked a one hour consultation ($1000).

20 Best Blogging Tips from Jon Morow (The God of Blogging)Oh, and by the way, if you don’t own this handy little cheat sheet for headlines (above) get it here ASAP. It’s responsible for so many of the headlines I’ve written, for example:

What Everyone Should Know About Gray

This Colour Mistake will Make Your House Look Bad

What Nobody Tells You About Publishing eBooks

The Shocking Truth about Your Ceilings

Danger: The First 24 Hours After you Take Possession

Are you going to start a blog in 2013?

Here’s a list of my best tips if that is your plan.

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.

Download my eBook, How to Choose Paint Colours – It’s All in the Undertones to get my complete step-by-step system on how to get colour to do what you want.

To make sure the undertones in your home are right, get some large samples!

If you would like to learn how to choose colour with confidence, become a True Colour Expert.

 

 

22 Comments

  • teresa says:

    great post. Fyi, the link to the the Truth about Your Ceilings took me to Everything You Should Know about Gray.

  • Karen says:

    You are one of my favorite blogs because of the information you share!
    Karen

  • Traci Zeller says:

    This was fabulous! Of course, I already think your blog is amazing but I cannot wait to see what happens after this consult. I want the scoop!! xoxo!

  • cathy Z says:

    I agree with Karen – you don’t just share recaps of popular design images, you TEACH us with words and visuals and do it generously. Hands down, this is my favorite blog (and I subscribe to a lot!) BTW, I’m from Chicago, love the Marshall Fields clock 🙂

  • Thank you for the most valuable insight into the blogging ! your generosity in sharing advise is commendable. I love blogging and put my heart and soul into it but it is indeed grueling to raise the number of followers…

  • anon says:

    So I should subscribe to all the decorating blogs I read? I just go directly to the websites and ignore the emails of the ones I am subscribed to. I would subscribe to the others if it helped them financially. Why are subscribers more important than hits on a page?

  • Lauren Tyson says:

    Maria, regarding Tip #6 (i.e., 2,000 subscribers = $100,000), does that assume you are selling a product on the blog (such as an e-book) or does it have to do with selling services (such as consulting),or both? For example, I am a consultant, but don’t yet have an ebook (though realize the importance of creating one). Also, re: Tip #11, pick a mass-market topic, in my study of internet marketing, it was always stressed that having a niche is always best. What is “mass-market” vs. “niche market?” Thank you for your insight.

    • Maria Killam says:

      Yes that’s right. Regarding the mass-market topic, there was a list he mentioned but I missed the whole thing because I had to take a call during the webinar. Having a niche in a ‘mass-market’ category is what’s important. For example this is a design blog but my niche is colour.
      Hope that helps, Maria

  • I can’t imagine he could teach you much you don’t already know and do. In fact, I think you could most likely teach the class…and save yourself $1,000.

    • I had the exact same thought as Linda,lol, I did enjoy the post and the tips though. Thanks as always Maria!

      • Maria Killam says:

        Thanks Linda and Michele. I appreciate the vote of confidence but I think there’s a great deal he could teach me, after all, no one’s calling me the Goddess of Blogging 🙂
        x
        Maria

  • Stacy Naquin says:

    Such an INSPIRING post Maria! Your blog posts always encourage and motivate me…I love your big dreams and your big heart & all the things you learn that you’re always willing to share 😉

    xoxo
    Stacy Naquin
    Happy New Year and may your best days be ahead!

  • GaBi says:

    I do agree with Linda. You are naturaly talented with a big heart. You definitely understand the flow of the enegy what you give out it will come back to you. As you have mentioned you are always working very dilingently / reading books,magazines,attending shows e.t.c/ and this attitude already lead you to the place you are now. Speaking at the big Home shows, your articles at the magazines and lots of your professional advice. As you heard from Vincente Wolf / I was there too / if you put your best and your heart into your project it will pay you back naturaly. I fully understand that we are living right now by the culture of “Hunting money” no matter what! This will pass pretty soon, because everyone is tired of cheating – because the status of the money. Vinners for the long run are going to be only people who give with love without expecting anything to get back. It is already started to work very smoothly look at your friends and students from your classes, they not just admire you, but they can’t wait to read your blog every morning and let your knowledge and expertise pass to another friend who need them and they are calling you to come to consult them because they need professional help.
    You are definitely very precious to find in these times what we are going through right now.
    All the best to you and lot of success

  • marisa says:

    Thanks again for great tips. Hope to improve my blogging this year:)

  • Sharon says:

    Thanks for a great insight into the “real” world of blogging and running a business that depends on contacts. My thoughts have been echoed here many times already – your kind, “sharing” heart is who YOU are. You freely give your subscribers lots of good advice and tips and it is from this heart that you have already garnered many loyal followers who know exactly who to call if they need help, or know someone who needs your help. Trust isn’t always something you can buy, but you are rich with many who already trust you – hopefully that will one day translate into the more $$$ you need to make a living.

  • Cindy says:

    Maria
    Thanks for another super informative post. It is so generous of you to share your expertise.

  • Thanks for posting the 20 best tips. I will be referring to them frequently this year. It was a great webinar! And I’m looking forward to seeing how your blog will blossom after your session with him.

  • Lizzy says:

    Hi Maria
    I am totally changing from the backsplash idea after reading your articles. The counter people just assumed backsplash and I just agreed. I am doing subway tile as you did. Is your subway tile plain white or a creamy white? Love it…
    Thanks!

  • Hana says:

    Couldn’t be more thankful for this post! I just want to share your blog with everyone I know! Thank you!

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