If I Was Starting out as a Blogger From Scratch, These Are the Resources and Tools I’d Use
— To fast-track my way to reaching millions of people
I got the Ghostbusters call for help.
“Can you talk to my sister-in-law about writing? She wants to start blogging and could use some help as she has just lost her job at the local university.”
Whenever I get these requests, it’s nice to make them helpful for more than one person. Lots of people want to know where to get started with blogging and even making money online.
If I was starting out from scratch, this is the guide I’d pay a lot of money for to get started and know what resources and tools could be used. (There will be no affiliate links, secret commissions, hidden agendas, or BS — thank you!)
Blogging Is Long-Term, Not a Shortcut to Next Week’s Rent
This article is written for my friend’s sister-in-law and the first step to this whole blogging game is to remember it’s a long-term pursuit and not a shortcut to pay next week’s rent.
Whatever you do in blogging, it’s going to take you time.
So if you are unemployed or need money right away, blogging is a bad idea to generate cash quickly. Getting a job and supplementing that with blogging is a better short-term approach until you have made some progress and figured out your blogging process.
The quickest way to kill a blogging dream is to attach financial expectations.
Let’s get to the tools and resources.
1. An Unconventional Online Course
If I was starting again as a blogger then I’d do a course. There are many basics I completely stuffed up that could have helped me early on.
A short writing course is a good way to get an overview of what you’re about to do. There are two courses I recommend:
2. A Writers’ Group
Being around people who have the same interest and goal as you is incredibly helpful, especially if you’re a bit down after losing your job.
There are two options: free groups and paid groups.
Free groups, generally speaking, are full of amateurs who would rather complain and have no clue about blogging. I’d stay clear of these free groups as much as possible.
Paid blogger groups are curated and the price of entry rules out the bloggers who are not serious. I have been in a few writer groups but by far the one that is recommended a lot, and which I had the pleasure of being in for a day, was Ninja Writers Club by Shaunta Grimes.
The reason I love this group is because Shaunta is a real human being that has had some incredible struggles. She’s not your typical blogger with a laptop sitting on the beach and a Lambo parked in the basement.
Listening to Shaunta makes you think, “I can do this if she can.” That’s a comforting thought if the world of blogging seems like it’s not made for you, combined with the backdrop of these uncertain times we’re facing.
The people in the group come from all walks of life too. One member of the group was in their 80s if I recall and asked more questions than the young whippersnappers sipping their Kool-Aid.
3. A Platform to Write On
There are so many places you can write. This platform is by far the easiest to use for non-technical, big-eared dumbos like me. Websites, hosting, shopping carts, apps, etc. are all just one giant distraction that will overwhelm you.
Choose a platform like this to write on so you can hurry up and get started.
4. A Social Media Channel to Experiment With
The typical writer starting out accidentally signs up to too many social media platforms to market their content. This is a disaster. Pick one social media to be on and focus your time there.
Social media is for marketing and testing content ideas.
I recommend LinkedIn because you can reach a lot of people for free and build an audience pretty quickly. I use LinkedIn to test headlines, content ideas, and points of view. If one sentence gets 184,963 views on LinkedIn then I know it’s going to make a good headline. Here’s a recent example that I turned into a blog post.
5. An Email Service Provider
You can’t send mass emails from your typical Gmail or Outlook email account. An email service provider allows you to collect the email addresses of your readers and send them regular emails.
I use ConvertKit because it’s simple to use. It’s not the cheapest option, but for me, I am happy to pay a slight premium for simplicity. (Okay and Tim Ferriss uses it too. ***Blushes and turns red***)
If I was starting an email list again then I’d email the list once per week. For a long time, I collected people’s email addresses and then never emailed them. When I finally did, those people who subscribed were like “who’s this guy with a military haircut and chubby cheeks?” Those people who hadn’t heard from me in, like, forever, promptly unsubscribed.
Not talking to your email list is a wasted opportunity.
The best email to send your email list is a summary of one piece of content you published that week. I send my email out on Friday night, right before the weekend, so people have something to read when they are chillaxing.
6. A Grammar and Spelling Checker
There is only one tool apart from the free Microsoft Word disaster: Grammarly.
I’ve been using it for six years straight and it helps me look slightly smart and as though I actually showed up to English class, even though I didn’t. Writing that is mostly error-free respects the reader.
Worship thy reader to get thy reader’s love.
7. A Gorgeous Website Made by Keanu Reeves
I started out with a Wordpress site because my buddy showed me how to use it with a few helpful videos, and I’d been publishing on a Wordpress site before shifting over to here. There are three problems with Wordpress:
1. Endless customizations
You will be wasting your time customizing forever if given the chance. Wordpress makes this black hole easy to fall into.
2. Plugins
Wordpress websites can have a plugin installed for just about anything. The most common plugins help your site get found in Google using the secret handshake, black magic of SEO. You’ll need at least one plugin and that will bring on compatibility issues.
In simple terms, the Wordpress version you have installed and the plugin version you have installed will play havoc with your patience. An old version of a plugin won’t work on a new version of Wordpress and vice versa.
3. A web developer
Soon as you start to get serious with Wordpress, you need a web developer. Web developers can quickly charge you a lot of money for messing with something simple like a layout or a button that users click.
My original web developer, who set up my Wordpress website and did the customization, skipped town and then came back and wanted to charge double. It nearly bankrupted me I tell ya. (Joking.)
The answer to the website problem is Squarespace (Keanu Reeves is their mascot). It’s a drag and drop website builder that doesn’t require a web developer and costs peanuts. I will probably move my Wordpress site over when I get a chance.
8. A Paid Newsletter
This option didn’t exist when I started. A paid newsletter is a way to charge a small monthly fee for a personalized piece of writing that can’t be found anywhere else.
What a paid newsletter does is segment the readers who consume your work. People who like you a little will subscribe to your free newsletter and people who are genuine fans will be happy to pay $5 or $10 a month to hear from you. Substack is currently the main tool bloggers are using to do this.
9. Bloggers to Be Inspired By
Why invent the wheel when you can see how others have done it? The writers I wish I could have been introduced to when I started are these peeps:
- Michael Thompson (a shy high-achiever)
- Shannon Ashley (the relatable and all-round people’s choice)
- John DeVore (an incredible essayist)
- Ayodeji Awosika (a guy that tells it how it is)
- Niklas Goke (the smart guy you wish you were related to)
- Sean Kernan (the witty older brother you wish you had, with personality)
- Brianna Wiest (the better than a psychologist friend we all need)
- Helen Cassidy (the elderly woman making 20-year-olds look lazy)
- Jessica Wildfire (the sass and courage we all wish we had)
- Ryan Holiday (the smartest stoic in the room)
Additional Resources to Get You There Faster
If you’re hooked and want to go further, here are a few more free resources that I’ve put together which people have found helpful:
- How I Made $11,000 From Writing in 30 Days
- How I Went From Making $11,000 to $25,000 in a Month From Writing
- A Transparent Look at My Writing Schedule That Produced 30M Views, as Inspiration for Your Own
- How I Write a Stupid Amount of New Content, Effortlessly
Final Thought
If you have lost your job — like my friend’s sister-in-law — or have always wanted to be a blogger, you now have a simple guide you can work from that will fast-track the process and give you the inspiration and knowledge to know that you’ve got this. If I can do it then so can you.
If you’ve always wanted to write, then now is the time.