A 30-Day Step-By-Step Plan for Building the Blog of Your Dreams
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Introducing an all-inclusive, proven roadmap for going from an “idea”… to building a blog that lets you control your income, choose your schedule, and help provide for your family — while enjoying more time with them.
Best part: it’s the perfect way to build a blog EVEN IF …
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You have kids (endless cycle of school, sports, and activities!)
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You have a job (and you, ahem, don’t love it...)
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You only have 1-2 hours a night to focus on building a blog
You’ll read all about my plan just a bit further down this page … but let me introduce myself first!
For over 14 years now, we’ve made a VERY comfortable living from blogging. (In fact, we built it to the point where we earned $30,000 per MONTH from blogging alone for over 2 years — yes you read that right!)
But we’re not just bloggers: we’re blogging teachers too. Pete and I have used our experiences to teach over 200,000+ aspiring bloggers how to build the life of their dreams with a successful blog.
Today, I want to tell you about how I started from scratch and built up a blog that lets me live my life how I want, and pays me to do it.
And then I want to show you how you can do the same — by giving you our tried-and-tested, step-by-step system for going from just a dream in your head…to building a successful, sustainable, and FUN blogging business of your own.
Some of this is stuff I have never shared publicly before…and I am SO excited about this!
But first…I want to give you an example of what it is that makes blogging so great … and what’s possible when you really apply yourself.
Ready? Okay, picture this ...
As you get dressed, you scroll through some of the new blog comments you’ve had. You’re feeling good, so you decide to head out for an early workout. You’re feeling great and it’s only 7 am! You shower, make a cup of coffee and get started with your day.
It’s one you’ve been planning in your head for a while, so you’re excited to work on it. As you sit there typing away on your laptop, you slip into ‘the zone’ — you’re feeling productive and busy, yet not stressed out. Just the way you like it!
A few hours slip by, and before you know it it’s lunchtime. It’s nice out, so you eat outside (why not?), taking the time to read a few pages of that new book you’re into.
Feeling refreshed, you head back in for another session on the blog. After checking a few new comments that have come in, your phone buzzes with a new email — you’ve just been offered a new sponsored post opportunity!
This is a brand you have been wanting to work with for ages — and now you’ll have the chance!
Your blog is your business and you’re focused on making it work for you.
You check your watch; it’s 2:57 pm. You head out to do whatever you want for a couple of hours since you have no boss to answer to (aside from yourself).
Once you’re home that evening, you have a nice dinner, and enjoy some leisurely, uninterrupted family time. And then, before you get in bed, you spend a few minutes making plans for tomorrow’s work.
As you wind down and get ready for bed, you smile — it’s been another good day. And best of all, you got to spend more time with your family… and you were in total control of your own schedule!
How did that sound? Pretty good, right?
Well… what if I told you that you could do that?
It’s true. When you have your own blogging business, days like this really happen!
But that’s not all. Because sure, a blog lets you enjoy these great “every day” experiences…
But...they’re nothing compared to some of the awesome perks you can enjoy from being a blogger!
Private events at Disneyland and Disney World - New Attractions and Events:
A project with OxiClean, when an entire film crew came out to our house to shoot a video:
A trip to the Justice headquarters to see their new clothing line and view a fashion show (all expenses paid for the whole family):
Meeting and working with Kelly Ripa and Motrin on an NYC shoot (all expenses paid for the whole family):
And on top of all the experiences, we’ve received some amazing products to feature…everything from laptops, drones, camera equipment, vacuums, appliances, a swing set, a year-long new vehicle loaner, and more!
And all of this has been 100% because of our blog!
But perhaps the best perk of all is the what it can do for your life after you get your blogging business established:
You call the shots about when you work.
You can decide whether to work hard for more income…or take it easy that month.
Most importantly, you can be there for your family all of the time…and you’ll never have to miss a game, a school event, or stress about missing work when your family needs you. Creating a successful blogging business means you are you own boss, and get to decide everything about you business.
Now, you’re probably looking at some of the things I’ve done with my blog, and thinking that there’s no way YOU could get to this level.
But that’s simply not true.
In fact, there is NOTHING special about what I did that someone else (like you) couldn’t do also.
But I want to prove it to you. So let me quickly show you how I got from where you are now…to where I am today.
But let me tell you something surprising:
When I started blogging in 2006, it was actually HARDER to succeed as a blogger than it is today!
See, nowadays you can start a blog in literally a few hours, for just a few dollars … and with social media, you can have your first traffic just as fast.
There’s also plenty of content online that can shortcut your way to success (like I’m about to show you a bit further down this article).
And the amount of readers and traffic you have access to has EXPLODED with the rise of social media platforms.
But when I started, it was not like that at all!
Blogging was really a fringe thing … and there weren’t that many people who were doing well at it.
It’s A Lovely Life started out around 2006 as a little website (back then it was called "No Excuse Budget") where I shared tips on budgeting and saving money, in my spare time.
(Don't laugh...this was a cutting edge design for 2007! 😂)
I didn’t really know how to make it into a business. All I really knew was that I had some goals for myself:
Our real estate business was not MY passion… and wanted to do something that I was passionate about instead.
I wanted to have full control over my income and work where and when I chose.
I wanted to stop having so much “mom guilt” about how little time I was spending with my kids…and be able to enjoy life with them.
And I knew my husband Pete was working hard at our business…and I really wanted to take some of the stress off him, and help provide for our family.
I had this vague dream that blogging could do all of that…but when I faced reality, it didn’t seem possible.
See, I knew I had some ideas I wanted to share, and I thought blogging would be a good way to do it.
But in the real world, I kept running into the same problems:
- I’d work really hard on a blog post … and then get zero comments.
- I’d run into a technical problem, and spend hours trying to fix it…and even then I wouldn’t be able to solve it, and I’d feel frustrated that I wasted my time.
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I always felt like I had no time to work on my blog.
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When I tried to do things like reach out for guest posts or opportunities, I was afraid nobody would listen to me.
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And most of all, I had no idea how to monetize the blog — and turn all my hard work into an income that fairly rewarded me for my effort!
But I stuck with it…and slowly, I started to see some successes here and there. Every now and then, I’d get accepted for a new post network…or I’d land a guest post…or I’d discover a new way to bring in more followers from Pinterest.
And over time, I began to realize that there was a hidden secret to blogging which I’d been overlooking.
In fact, this secret held the key to possibly finally breaking through to that success I dreamed of…
But my experience showed me it wasn’t like that at all.
When I’d just focused on creating good content, sure, I had good stuff to say — but there was nobody reading it, and I wasn’t making any money!
Instead, I discovered that successful blogs have these things in common:
- Great Content (producing things that people actually want to read)
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Traffic (Site Visitors)
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Well-Defined Monetization Plan (A clear way to make money)
It became crystal clear to me that if I focused on these 3 things, I could be really successful.
What happened next, changed our lives forever
I began to put everything I had into figuring these 3 things out.
Things like...
- What do my readers want?
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How can I inspire, educate, or entertain my readers so they want to keep coming back?
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What can I do better or differently than others in my niche?
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How much content do I need to produce?
- Where will my site visitors come from?
- Where are they currently spending their time?
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How do I get them from where they are currently “hanging out online” to my blog?
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Once they get to my blog, how can I get them to come back over and over again?
- What technical strategies can I put in place so that I will show up in the search engines?
- What is the best way for ME to make money with my blog?
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Is this working for others or do I have to figure out something new or innovative?
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How much money can I make with my blog?
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At what income level can I forget about our real estate business and focus on my blog full-time?
A funny thing happened when I got clarity on the 3 things I needed to focus on…
My blogging business took off!
This clarity and focus was all I needed to go from being pulled in million different directions to figuring it all out.
I started researching and reading EVERYTHING I could find on content creation, traffic strategies and techniques, and monetization.
I networked with lots of other bloggers that were starting to figure this all out too.
I invested in training in all 3 of these areas.
I took everything I learned from thousands (I’m not exaggerating) of hours of research, added what I knew, and came up with a system that worked perfectly for my blog.
The end result was a blogging business that made our family an AMAZING income, gave us the freedom to live/travel/work as we chose, and provided many opportunities that were so unique that money couldn’t even buy.
I spent years and years learning it all by trial and error…and making a LOT of mistakes along the way!!!
I mean, it’s not like I really had a choice. There just weren’t any blogging specific resources out there that put all of the pieces together.
So, all those things I talked about above? Yep…I was basically forced to figure them all out myself!
Now here’s what you might be thinking...“Well it worked for you Heather, so maybe that’s what I should do too?”
No!!! Don’t do that.
In fact, there are three huge problems with this approach which almost derailed me completely…and they happen to be the reason that most bloggers never “make it” in blogging.
Take a look at these quickly, and then decide for yourself if you think that “figuring it out yourself” is worth it …
(Or, 3 Reasons Most Bloggers Fail)
This one’s obvious: figuring it all out on your own is expensive…and slow.
In my case, it took me over a decade to get to where I am now!
Besides, I could afford to do “trial and error” because Pete and I had enough money from our real estate business to support us (even though we had to work very hard for it).
But I’m guessing you don’t really want to spend over a decade building up your blog, spending a lot of money, and making a lot of mistakes like I did.
You might think that once you know how to write a post, get more traffic, and puts some ads on your blog, you’ll be set.
But in reality, I learned that there are so many things I never knew that I didn’t know:
- Why SEO is critically important for a profitable blog — and how to get it right
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What the five most popular income systems are on a blog (and when you should use each)
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How to actually set up your blog as a business — and when you should consider incorporating or starting an LLC
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And (literally) hundreds more.
I don’t know about you, but I had no idea about any of that stuff when I started out … but I came to realize it was all very, very important!
And that’s the danger with figuring it out yourself: you just don’t know what you don’t know.
(Good news: I have an answer for every one of those things … info on where to find them is a little further down this post!)
Finally, the reason that “going at it alone” is hard is that when you don’t have a plan, you can feel like you’re just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
Like I said, when I started out, the blogging world wasn’t like it is now. There weren’t many successful bloggers. There wasn’t quality training on how to do it. And many of the revenue strategies used now didn’t even exist back then!
In short, it was very demotivating, putting in all that work…and not knowing if it was going to pay off, or if I was even doing the right things.
Many of the people who started blogs at the same time as me — in fact, most people who start them even now — gave up for that reason.
Now when I started getting successful with my blogging business, I was excited!
And I also knew there were plenty of people like me who wanted to build a successful blog, but they didn’t know HOW to make that happen.
And I Wanted to do Something to Help Them.
So...Pete and I Decided to Change Our Long-Term Policy and Started Telling People How Much We Were Making.
But when I thought about what it felt like for me ten years ago, I would have loved to have something like that to aim for.
Also, I had personally been motivated in the past few years by seeing other blogs that shared their incomes.
So we started publishing “Blog Income Reports” on our blog, to show people how we were doing, and encourage other bloggers.
(This was our first income report that we published in March 2017)
To be honest, I wasn’t sure how people would react. Would our readers think we were bragging?
But we found something surprising...
People LOVED the income reports and we started getting great comments!
In fact, I was surprised — there was a LOT more interest than I’d expected!
At about the same time we started a Facebook group to help bloggers get their own blogs started.
This took on a life of its own!
It felt so good to help others get their blogs started.
But, our students wanted more!
They wanted to know much more than how to start a blog…
They wanted to know HOW to make their blogs successful (making money and impacting lives).
So I had an idea...I turned to Pete one day and asked him:
“Why don’t we put everything we’ve learned into a course?”
I realized I had the chance to save other aspiring bloggers from having to figure it all out themselves like I did.
I could put all the best of what I’d learned into the course … and leave out all the mistakes and methods that didn’t work. So it’d be just one huge shortcut for anyone who wanted to build their own successful blog.
Unlike any other resources out there, it would cover ALL THREE of the keys of successful blogging:
- Content
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Traffic
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Monetization
It would be designed for people in the same situation I was: busy, with only 1-2 hours a night to work on it, a family, a demanding job, or all of the above.
It would give a step-by-step, actionable plan…complete with small assignments that would kick you into gear and almost force you to make progress.
And all taught by two bloggers who didn’t just blog for a year or two in the past and then get into teaching. Bloggers that were actively blogging RIGHT NOW.
Well…I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what we decided to do.
Pete and I got started right away on that course…and we spent months planning, designing, and polishing it off.
And I’m excited to say … it was a MASSIVE SUCCESS.
Since 2017, over 4500 bloggers took the original version of the course which we called Blogging Blastoff!
This program became the catalyst for so many positively changed lives and blogging businesses that were created.
But, things change quickly these days!
Over the past few years, we’ve learned a lot ourselves and we’ve developed and discovered some new strategies that are producing massive results.
We decided it was time to create a new and improved version of the original extremely popular course and we decided to name it Blogging Blastoff 2.0!
Blogging Blastoff 2.0 is an updated training program with a new format designed to teach our blogging system as efficiently as possible.
Our goal with Blogging Blastoff 2.0 is to cut out all the unimportant distractions and provide REAL FOCUS on the areas that you need in order to create a successful blogging business.
We’re so excited because we know that just like the original Blogging Blastoff did, Blogging Blastoff 2.0 will change the game.
Here’s What You’ll Learn in Blogging Blastoff 2.0:
Blogging Blastoff is the ONLY blogging program to focus on all three keys of building a successful blog — content creation, traffic, and monetization — and teach you everything we know about building and running a profitable, popular blog.
In just thirty days (divided into 4 weeks of content) — spending as little as half an hour a day on the course — you’ll go from ZERO knowledge or experience…to a savvy blogger with ALL the tools to build the blog (and lifestyle) of your dreams.
With our STEP-BY-STEP roadmap, you’ll master getting more followers...
monetizing your blog … and hundreds more secrets to handling the ‘business of blogging’ like a pro!
Best of all, everything in this course is TIME-TESTED and PROVEN to work — based on years of experience from two veteran, active bloggers, and thousands of delighted students!
“I made my class fee back the following month”
“I’ve gotten my blog up and running quicker than I had ever thought!”
WE'RE REVEALING EVERYTHING WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BLOG
With this course, we aren’t holding anything back from you! The amount of information in this course is OVER THE TOP — and our students are always blown away by how much value they get.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll discover when you join the course:
- Writing Mouth-Watering Blog Posts That Will Flood Your Blog With Traffic
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Photography For Bloggers - What Bloggers Need To Know About Photography
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Video For Bloggers - What Bloggers Need To Know About Video
- Everything Bloggers Need to Know About YouTube
- Everything Bloggers Need to Know About Pinterest
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Everything Bloggers Need to Know About Instagram
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Everything Bloggers Need to Know About Twitter
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Everything Bloggers Need to Know About Facebook
- Building Your Traffic Engine: Search Engine Optimization
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Building Your Traffic Engine: Social Media
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Turbocharge Your Reach: Sharing & Comment Threads
- Your Blog Post Promotion System
- Growing Your Most Valuable Asset: Your Email List
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Running Paid Ads For Traffic: How To Get Started
- The Motivational Boost
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Laying the Foundations of Blogging Success
- Building The Ideal Blog: Your Layout & Design Blueprint
- Mastering The Business Of Blogging, Part I: Business Structures, Tax & Insurance
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Mastering The Business Of Blogging, Part II: Contracts, Mailing Addresses, Domain Privacy & Common Mistakes
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How To Stay Out Of Trouble: A Crash Course In Compliance
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Living The Pro Blogger Lifestyle, Part 1: Event Coverage
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Living The Pro Blogger Lifestyle, Part 2: Blogging Conferences
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The Fast Track To Success: Getting Your Name Out There
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Your Blog Income Systems: An Overview
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Your Inexhaustible Income Stream: Mastering Email Pitching
- Your Blog Income Systems, Part I: Sponsored & Guest Posts
- Your Blog Income Systems, Part II: Affiliate Marketing
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Your Blog Income Systems, Part III: Product Creation & Sales
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Your Blog Income Systems, Part IV: Social Media, Photos & Video
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Your Blog Income Systems, Part V: Display Ads
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Your Blog Income Systems, Part VI: Bonus Income Streams
The course starts on the 1st day of the month. Each day you’ll get a new module “unlocked” to focus on, broken into several bite-size chunks that take you on average 5 minutes each to go through. (We do it this way so you don’t get overwhelmed by the massive amount of information you’ll be learning!)
But — this isn’t just “information” that you’ll skim and forget.
At the end of each day, you get a mini-assignment — so you know exactly what you need to do to put the material into practice, and start building a successful blog!
The course works hand in hand with the VIP Blogging Blastoff Facebook Group (see below), which provides you with new friends and a support network to encourage and help you through each day’s coursework.
All in all, with a time investment of around half an hour a day on the course, if you do the work … you’ll start seeing some amazing results.
- The low-down on “sponsored content” — and why brands pay more for it than traditional advertising!
- The most lucrative opportunity in blogging … but why you should actually stay away from it for now
- Who said you can’t make money from social media? Keep your eyes out for these 4 types of paid social media opportunities
- How to make money with “Instagram Takeovers”
- Discover how to sell your images and videos for money — even if you’re not a world class photographer
- Two ways you can make money from ad networks
- And more …
- Our full, detailed system for sponsored posts — a full walkthrough of the process (including what instructions to follow, what information you’ll receive, where to share it, and how to write it)
- How to write a sponsored post without making readers feel like you’re “selling”
- The most important thing you can do RIGHT NOW to break into sponsored posts
- The difference between “nofollow” and “dofollow” links (and why it can endanger your entire blog)
- What should you charge for a sponsored post? (Includes my current rates)
- How to negotiate your fees higher, even if you’ve never negotiated before (includes the simple close I use that forces difficult negotiations to an end — and often gets me exactly what I want)
- My 10-point system for turning a one-off sponsored post into recurring revenue
- Two phrases that will turn off your readers — make sure you don’t have these on your site at all!
- Our tested, highly effective system for landing sponsored post opportunities (cut in front of 90% of the bloggers clamoring for spots with these five simple steps)
- A full list of 40+ sponsored post networks you can join
- How to position your blog to be irresistible to sponsors
- And more …
- Guarantee your success in affiliate marketing with our 4-step process
- Our list of 20+ of the best affiliate networks (this will save you HOURS of time searching)
- Four questions to ask before deciding whether to promote a product or service
- A handy “cheat sheet” of the definitions you’ll run into in affiliate marketing — turn to this and you’ll never look like you’re in over your head
- Our full “toolbox” of tools for success in affiliate marketing (including the first I recommend to ANYONE in this field)
- “FOCUS = SUCCESS”. Discover why this is the #1 thing you need to have stuck on your wall if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing (and it’s not for the reason you think)
- How do you get paid from affiliate networks?
- SPECIAL: an in-depth look at Amazon’s affiliate system … and the most effective way to use it
- How to generate more affiliate income using something you already have on your website
- And more …
- Our 7-step system for profitably creating & selling digital products (we’ve used this exact system to build products that earn us thousands of dollars every month)
- Three kinds of product and the low down on each — which should you create?
- A counterintuitive pricing strategy for massively boosting your profits
- Revealed: the top 7 tools we personally use for product creation
- ADVANCED: How to skyrocket your credibility by offering consulting
- Sales not moving the needle? No problem — we have four foolproof tactics for boosting product sales
- And more …
- How you can make money with social media channels
- Exactly what we charge brands for posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest
- Get started as an influencer right now with our list of 25+ influencer networks you can join
- How much can you charge for your photos?
- An HONEST list of the most important social networks for bloggers (and why Google+ is more important than you think!)
- How we price video packages — and the rules we use to adjust that price
- Four ideas for video content packages you can swipe
- And more …
- Contrary to what most people think, ads aren’t dead — discover the four times it makes sense to use them
- How much can you really expect to make from ads?
- A crash course in advertising lingo, so you’ll look the part when you approach partners
- Our toolkit of tips, tricks and hacks for increasing ad income
- My major word of caution on ads and ad networks
- How much traffic you need to get money from ads (nobody tells you this)!
- Seven premium ad networks to join
- And more …
- Get paid to learn blogging — why and how to become a Virtual Assistant (and what you can earn)
- 5 types of freelance work bloggers can do (you have at least one of these skills already!)
- How to get hired as a freelancer
- Creating and selling stock photography
- Discover what a campaign manager is — and why you may consider becoming one
- Making money as a travel blogger (and not just with sponsored travel content!)
- And more