My 5 Step Plan to Neverland
(Part 2!)

Welcome back to My 5 Step Plan to Neverland, Part 2!

If you missed Part 1, you can catch up here. 

Or, if you'd rather listen to the audio version, you can do so here!

3. Build Your Home

Let’s talk about your website. Your website is your home base. It’s the online space where people can drop in and say hello and get to know you.

I love building blogs and websites, because you can create an atmosphere through design that tells your readers about your brand, your personality, and so forth.

I like to imagine my home page as my living room, that warm space where I’m inviting them in, and asking them to stay awhile.  
Sometimes when I talk about the importance of having a website, people’s eyes can grow wide as words like “branding” and “design” can sound really overwhelming. But I promise it doesn’t have to be.

Simply ask yourself this question: what do I want my readers and audience to feel when they come to my blog or website?

Jot down words that come to mind.

“Warm, cozy, safe."

“Excited, inspired, colorful!”

As you envision how you want people to feel as they enter your site, you may have some colors and images that come to mind too. Write all of those down. A great designer will be able to help you create and capture everything that you're envisioning on your blog or website. As you all know, I offer design services, so if you’re interested in working together, totally reach out, but otherwise, I would just encourage you to take these thoughts, spend some time brainstorming, and then once you capture the essence of what you wish to create, share those few, simple words, with your designer.

(Or, if you don't plan on hiring someone for the job, check out these great DIY Tips for launching your blog or website!)    

4. provide exceptional content and 
unforgettable value

At the end of the day, it matters far less what your website looks like, than it does compared to what kind of content and value you’re giving your readers!

You want to enrich your readers lives, answer their questions, and solve their pain points. So again, these are some great questions to ask yourself:

-What do my readers struggle with?
-What would they like assistance with?
-What do they worry about?
-What do they want a solution for?

The deeper you know your avatar (the person you’re writing for) and can pin-point exactly what she needs, the better you can serve your audience.

The next question to ask yourself is, “How often am I going to post?”

Posting 3 or 5 times a week is great for getting a ton of content out, but you can get really burned out, really, really fast.

When I launched Crown of Beauty, I was much more focused on quality, rather than quantity. I spent a lot of time preparing, perfecting, and pouring my heart into a few core articles with key-word optimization, and slowly built upward from there. Sometimes, just one great post, can speak so much louder  than 30 half-hearted ones.

So remember to focus on providing exceptional value and building true connection and community! 

Another tip? You'll absolutely want to collect email addresses so you have a way to continually stay in contact with readers, build up trust and relationship, and then when it’s time for you to start releasing paid products and services in the future, you can shoot them an email, they'll be excited to see you in their inbox since you've spent time building relationship with you, and some of your readers will be excited to gobble up whatever you have to offer! 

5. Create Your Business Plan

The fifth and final step is to create your business plan.

Ideally, you would do this before even launching your blog or website, but I know some of you are already in the thick of it, so no worries if you’re just now getting around to this.

If you desire to earn income from your blog or website, creating a business plan is vital. You’re not going to just “stumble” into income generation. It’s important to have a clear idea of how you plan on earning your income...is it going to be through paid advertisements, sponsored posts, self-published products, services, affiliate links and partnerships, or a combination of all of the above?  

You might be thinking, “Ah! Livy, slow down, this is way too much to process! I don’t even know what half of those things are, how am I supposed to come up with some kind of crazy plan for all of this?” 

I hear you. But please don’t fret my dear, because I’m always just an email away. And if you’d like to learn more about how to create a blogging or website business plan, we can absolutely plan a one-on-one Skype chat!

And who knows? I might even devote an entire Podcast episode to this topic in the future. Let me know if you're interested, and I’ll see what I can do. ;) Because I’m creating this content specifically for you, and I'd love to answer your questions! So let me know what you’d like to see in future episodes and articles, submit your questions, and we’ll continue walking on this journey together!   

Next, we’ll be talking about what to do when Captain Hook shows up and tries to destroy your Neverland Dreams. 

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