What To Expect From Me This Year – Courses, A Podcast, And More!

Before you stop and check your calendar, let me tell you – yes, I am publishing this post three months into the year. Yes, 2015 is already one quarter over. Yes, most other bloggers published these types of posts at the beginning of the year.

So why the heck am I just getting around to it now?

Well, these past few months I have been extremely busy building up the back-end of my business. This means building and tweaking my email newsletter and autoresponder sequence to increase conversions. While I’ll still be continuing to do this (and probably always will) I’ve finished the bulk of it and now have much more time to dedicate towards other areas.

On top of that, I have recently finished my largest book yet – The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business, Finance, and Life, which is selling well and has been loved by almost everybody who’s read it. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading this honest review of the book on Joy Healey’s website.

Finally, I’ve been automating a lot of tasks that previously required my presence by utilizing tools such as HootSuite.

Many of you know that I am a workaholic and always like to fill time with more work. This is great news for everybody, because it means I can provide more to you by starting other projects. Now that I loosely know what my schedule will be like for this year, here’s what you can expect from me throughout the rest of 2015:

The Help Start My Site Podcast!

Here’s something I never thought I’d say – I’ll be starting a podcast in the very near future! Admittedly, I did run a test podcast about a month ago but I did not publish it anywhere, with the exception of one brief clip which is available on my YouTube channel.

There are a few good reasons why I’ve been wanting to start a real podcast, so here they are in no particular order.:

• Value. I want to provide even more value to my website visitors. Those who are on my email newsletter know that I like to be very involved with my engaged readers, which is exactly why I email so frequently. Providing a podcast will allow me to connect and engage with my readers even further, which is something I’m always looking forward to doing.
• Trust. Many people find it easier to connect with people they can actually hear. I do try to add my own voice to my writing, but it’s not nearly as powerful as actually being able to hear my voice.  When people trust me more, they are more likely to buy from me. Help Start My Site is a business, and the goal of a business is to make money. A podcast will help me achieve this, and I would be lying if I said that money was not one incentive for pursuing this project.
• Traffic. Podcasts are a great way to attract new visitors and build your email list. If I am able to provide a ton of value for my podcast listeners, than I’m willing to bet you a good chunk of them will visit my website to see more of what I have to offer. I’m always looking to expand into areas that other people aren’t bothering to work in, so a podcast will allow me to connect with an entirely new set of people.
• Authority. What blogger doesn’t want to be perceived as an authority in their niche? By taking the time to go above and beyond what other bloggers in my niche are doing, I’m willing to bet you that podcasting will help me grow as an authoritative figure in the blogging space.

A Few More Details…

I do not want to give away a ton right now, but my plan for the podcast is pretty simple. I will publish one episode every Friday for the foreseeable future. While I do not have podcasting experience and I’m certain my first few episodes really won’t be all that great, I’m not one to give up on projects. I am in this for the long-term, and I plan on podcasting consistently for years to come.

As far as podcasting content goes, my ideas are not yet finalized. One thing is for certain – while the podcast will have some sort of structure, it’s going to be pretty laid back. I want to have fun with this, and I want you to have fun listening to it.

Additionally, the content within the podcast will NOT be the same content that’s available on my site.

I am planning to launch this podcast within a month, and will provide more information when that time comes!

Multiple Video Courses

At this point in time, the only real products that I have created have been books. Despite having created five books to date, only two of them are actually in my name and are available for sale here. While I’m going to continue writing books for the foreseeable future, I also want to begin creating educational video courses.

I have been saying this for a long time, but I think we are in a student loan / higher education bubble this is inevitably going to pop. People will begin to wake up and realize that any benefit of going to college is bound to be nullified by the mountain of debt that follows. As a result, I believe more and more people will turn to online education for niche subjects that will not only be of much higher quality than a traditional college course, but cheaper as well.

I believe self-teaching is the next big thing and I want to get in on it. I currently have three courses planned just for this year.

1. Blogging For Profit 

The first course I plan to release is aimed for complete beginners who are new to blogging, and wish to begin doing so with the goal of making money. This course will cover a lot of the same topics I talk about in my book, Blogging for Profit: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting Your Very Own Web Business! but will go into a bit more detail about it all and of course, will have video to actually show you how to do things. Expect this course to be released within 2-3 months.

2. Kindle / eBook Publishing

Having published 5 books on Kindle so far with more on the way, I’ve learned a lot about what goes into making a great Kindle book. This course will cover everything from choosing a topic, to aiding you in the writing process, to formatting, to launching successfully as more. I even plan on creating a section on outsourcing the entire process for those who would rather pay somebody else to create their books for them.

This is going to be a very large course and I expect it to be completed later this year. This course will be designed for serious Kindle publishers, and I may or may not create an eBook on the same topic that does not dive into Kindle publishing so extensively, for those looking to see if self-publishing is right for them.

3. Personal Finance

Personal finance is a topic I have a ton of interest in, but only scratched the basics in The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business, Finance, and Life. I do have plenty of ideas to make this course stand out from the others that are available, but I would prefer to keep those quiet for now as this project will not even be started for a while. It is coming, though.

I do have ideas for other courses, but I can only put out courses so quickly. I’m not one to put out junk, so I want to make sure I have the time to make each of my projects great.

If Conditions Are Right, I May Open A Membership Site

This one is a big if, because I am already taking on a lot of projects this year.

However, if it doesn’t happen this year, than next year I will be launching a members area here on Help Start My Site. This won’t take anything away from the regular stuff I put on here, but it will offer even more to those who are very serious about building their business.

I will talk more about what the membership site will actually contain when the time comes, but there will be various tiers that grant additional benefits. The highest tier will give unlimited access to all of my products as well as weekly group coaching.

Again, this is great news because it will not take anything away from what’s here now. It will only provide more to those who want it.

A Brief Message To Other MMO/Blogging Bloggers…

While this only applies to a small portion of my total audience, a good portion of my commenters is other make money online / blogging bloggers. I have to say that I’d love to work with some of you on some of these projects. I would much rather be your partner than your competitor. Understand however that if you decide to compete with me, I will be working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to blow you out of the water.

This is great for the consumer because it will force you to up your game. I aim to set new standards for authority blogging and let me tell you, I’m pretty good about achieving the goals I set for myself.

Conclusion

You’re here reading this now, which means we have already connected in some way. I’m very thankful for that! I do have one quick favor to ask you though, because I need something from you.

I need you to give your honest feedback on each of these ideas. Which ideas interest you the most? What suggestions do you have? How can I make 2015 an awesome year for both of us?

Please let me know any thoughts, ideas, or opinions you have. I am open to anything. Leave a comment and let me know what you have to say, or email me if you’d prefer to keep it private. I really do value your thoughts.

Finally, if you haven’t already signed up for my email newsletter, I highly recommend doing so right now. Not only do my email subscribers get insider information on everything I’m doing, they also get exclusive coupons for the products I release as well as other exclusive bonuses. You won’t want to miss out, so sign up now!

Thanks for taking the time to read over this, and I can’t wait for what’s in store for us!