Kicking off my new website to focus on franchises and business advice was the easy part. I wanted to learn WordPress which is a great piece of software. I also wanted to find out for myself how the blogging community works. The hard part is knowing how to get started.However, help is to hand isnt it – I just go to Mr Google? So flushed with new found enthusiasm I hashtagged the image below to death on my instagram channel (franchiseguru) to see what tips I might get from other, hopefully experienced bloggers.
Depressing!
I didnt get a single tip, or comment. Do bloggers not monitor blogging hashtags? Is instagram the right medium to ask for help? Do established bloggers prefer not to help new bloggers?
Right there in that moment it reminded me of why I love the franchise industry. You invest in a franchise and all the answers are right there for you, so is the initial training and so too is the ongoing support and answers to every question you need answers to. Unwittingly I had strayed from the safety fo the franchise industry in my new quest and walked right into the main benefit of not going it alone!
Anyway, I’m recording my journey as a new blogger on this website. Trying to show people that you can learn a new skill alongside working full time even if it isn’t a franchise business. At the moment I’m doing all the wordpress training online following a course on Lynda.com. The blogging knowledge is proving to be hard earned!
I intend to publically fail and publically overcome the setbacks. But my first setback is the lack of people helping on instagram. I doubt that the blogging community see me as competition. So I posted the same appeal on a pro blogging channel and had the same response! A secretive bunch these bloggers! Where as franchisors are in the business of helping people replicate their model, not so in blog land I can tell you! More likely I’m looking in the wrong place for help. I come from a world where franchise executives and companies help each other, but do pro bloggers actively help newbie bloggers – seems not?
At this moment in time I can see they don’t on instagram or on one of the biggest blogging channels out there. I’ll try again elsewhere and you can see what happens on my next blog! Maybe someone will point out something I’ve done wrong on Instagram in the meantime. But hey that’s kind of the point of my new blog anyway! Overcoming challenges is part of every business.
Who helped you when you started out and what did you do to get the knowledge required?