Yesterday I did a video interview with Eric Hamm at Blogopolis Blueprint on the topic of standing out from the crowd as a blogger. It goes for around 15 minutes and in it I talk about a number of techniques that bloggers can consider to find their own unique voice as a blogger and differentiate themselves.
I’m going to post a post in the next few days with a similar focus to this interview - expanding upon some of what I covered.
In chatting with Eric and his co-blogger Sean Platt I found that they’ve just released an useful resource for new bloggers called the Blogopolis Blueprint. I asked Eric if i could get a copy of it for review and he was kind enough to give me access.
The Blogopolis Blueprint is designed for those who are either about to start a blog or who have recently started one. It doesn’t pretend to be for anyone with advanced knowledge of blogging but rather Sean and Eric have put it out there with the Pre-Blogger and New-Blogger in mind.
It focuses upon a variety of topics of interest to these new bloggers including:
- A history of blogging - short but good background
- Features of Blogs - some qualities that blogs have
- Getting Started - some general tips on getting going with blogging
- Comments - tips on leaving them on other blogs and hosting them on your own
- Blogging with a Buddy/Collaborative blogging (something Eric and Sean are great at)
- Guest Posting - as a way to grow your blog
- Planning for successful blogging - some things to add into your plan as you move forward
- Secrets of Success - keys to remember as you blog
This e-book teaching component is 46 pages long and a good solid introduction to blogging.
Also bundled with the teaching are two other components.
1. WordPress Quick Start Guide - which is a more practical 24 page guide to getting going with an introduction to platforms, suggestions on finding a niche, hosting and domains, a guide to selecting a blog platforms, some suggestions on getting the perfect theme for your blog and some suggestions on essential plugins.
2. The Blueprint Workbook - this is designed to help you take what you’ve learned from the other components of this Blueprint kit and to apply it. So often these online teaching resources share great principles but don’t actually give you a way forward. This workbook gives you a variety of practical ways to bed down what you’re learning as you read the ebook. It gives questions to ask yourself corresponding with each chapter in the ebook.
My Verdict on Blogopolis Blueprint
Let me say it again - Blogopolis Blueprint is a resource for beginners. If you’ve been blogging a year or more and have a handle on the basics you probably won’t find this as useful as some of the other resources on the market which help you take your blog to the next level (Blog Mastermind would be a better place to start if that’s you).
However if you’re starting or about to start blogging and have no idea where to start then this is worth considering. Unlike some other resources on the market this is not a membership site where you get ongoing interaction and teaching - however it also is a one off payment rather than a monthly one so cheaper than membership sites.
One of the things I like about this resource is that it has both the more general teaching about principles of good blogging as well as some practical tips and then the questions for helping you to unpack it. The only thing I’d like to see added would be some ‘homework’ or takeaway ‘tasks’ for each chapter. The ‘workbook’ does give some steps to get started - but perhaps some further exercises for each chapter would be helpful. Other than that I think it’s a good investment for new bloggers.
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