Morning!
Well, yet again, okay, it's NOT morning. No where near morning, actually. No indeed, instead….it's afternoon! Not only that…it's 'way afternoon! My kids are home already! And I didn't get my blog post done yet!
All together now – wheeee!
You see, I'm yielding to my Just Freakin' DO IT mantra – I have half-baked ideas done, but the only way to make them into gourmet meals is to simply put them out there.
So….I've prelaunched my forums (yay!) and I'm working my Virtual Coach site and all in all, it's been nifty neat and grand to boot.
And now I have the time required to finally write today's blog post!
So let's get to it now, shall we?
When last I wrote about Black Belt Blogging, I covered a brief smatter of what Yellow Belt Bloggers must know. It includes starting to learn about:
1.) Blog security
2.) Social Networking
3.) Starting A List
Well, the next belt level for my Barbara Ling Black Belt Blogging adventure is Green!
As I had earlier described, to earn a Black Belt in blogging, you have to progress thru:
- White Belt – Utter Beginner
- Yellow Belt – Newbie with some confidnce
- Green Belt – Proactive voice in the niche
- Brown Belt – Knows and pursues the definitive personal path
- Black Belt – A Master of Blogging.
And as I covered yellow belts the last post, let's now bravely and boldly delve into what Green Belt Bloggers need to know!
It includes:
1.) Hosting Your Own Blog on Your Own Site
I firmly believe that sites like WordPress.com and Blogger.com and other free blogging resources are great for newbies as a training and proving ground.
But when you become entirely serious about your blog or site, you simply *need* to take ownership and *control* of your site.
The benefits are limitless – you can choose what plugins to add, you can craft your site to look *exactly* as you desire, and much much more.
But even more important…taking ownership of your blog and site requires you to *expand* your comfort boundaries.
And while perhaps uncomfortable…the gifts that will deliver to you in the future are magnificent indeed.
How to Migrate your Blog from WordPress.com to a Personal Domain
is one resource for that, and this video can also shed light on how to do it.
Next, a Green Belt blogger will start to:
2.) Establishing A Presence In Niche Forums and Communities
Like men and women cannot live by mere coffee alone (well, okay, I can, but I digress), bloggers cannot exist in personal vacuums as well.
In other words…
A Green Belt Blogger now has the confidence to begin networking and establishing a presence in niche communities and forums.
Niche forums are where your customers will gather…so it only makes sense that you begin to showcase your knowledge and answer questions from other forum members.
It's easy to find forums – just search at
and you'll be on your way!
Of course, there's much more to mastering forum participation than that – there's creating your forum signature, there's forum etiquette and much much more. But the above should certainly help.
Another key skill Green Belt Bloggers will learn is:
3.) Learning About Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is all about making money from other people's products (OPP).
You don't have to sell only what you create, of course…you can use affiliate marketing to write about products and then include your affiliate link to Amazon.com, for example.
Or you can see what products are related on Clickbank, and promote those.
You can use affiliate products to sponsor your newsletter!
Lots of great things you can do with affiliate marketing indeed.
The above three skills touch on the bare minimum what Green Belt Bloggers need to give themselves permission to attain their coveted level.
After all, a Green Belt is more than half way to a Black Belt!
What do you think?
Grow strong,
Barbara Ling
Get Started Here
You’ll love what you learn… Promise!