I have an apology to make….to Annabel from getinthehotstop.com for stealing her work. The original 51 steps was written by her over at her blog and I thought they were so helpful that I shamelessly and unrepentantly stole most of them.

Why Read? (830 Words)

Now as it happens I used her steps to help me out when rebranding my own site however I have chosen a few of them and decided to answer them again at 2am under the influence are far too many drugs of a dubious nature (Diet Coke). Though I have not answered them particularly sensibly I can highly recommend the original list here, though you might get a bit of a giggle from my sweetner induced insights.

The List.

1. Pick a topic. – I will take Lifestyle Design, Business and Sexy, Sexy Money.

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2. Work out your unique selling point – How about some decent design, paired with a smidgen of humor and some off the wall observations that hopefully help.

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3. Decide how to explain to other people what you do - I plan to tattoo the words lifestyle design, business and sexy money onto my readers foreheads.

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4. Define your goals clearly – Become mega mega mega rich and avoid going to jail.

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5. Come up with a slogan that sums up in as few words as possible what people will find on your blog – I’ll tell you what they won’t find…drugs.

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6. Work out what static information you need on your blog ~ for example about, contact and legal. – About, Resources, Newsletter, DEFINATELY LEGAL, Free Beer.

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7. Sort out what your values are – Valuable content, High quality chocolate used in cakes.

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8. Embrace branding - I did, very tenderly.

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9. Decide how you want people to describe you – Hero/Superman/Opera Singer

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10. Choose a photo of you that you can use on your blog and all social media – Ok, so not that one then.

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11. Be consistent with your image and chose a photo that suits your branding image ~ for example friendly, trustworthy, professional and interesting. – What are you trying to say, I am not friendly enough?

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12. Remain consistent in everything you do and say online. Inconsistency is confusing and will scare people away. – I’m pretty sure I scare most of my readers most of the time anyway.

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13. Check out some websites and work out what you like and dislike about them. – Dislike exilelifestyle.com because Colin is way more popular than I am. (I mean seriously, look at his hair people, how can you trust someone with hair like that.)

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14. If you’re creating an online business invest in it and outsource jobs you can’t do. Unless you’re an experienced project manager, Internet technician, writer, graphic designer, business planner, marketer and branding expert you’ll need help in some of those areas if you want to get good results fast. – I presume I am experienced in all those things, others may disagree but dammit I am doing it all anyway.

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15. Write a detailed brief for your graphic and web designers outlining your goals, target audience, site design guidelines, topic, categories, sub-categories and static pages in as much detail as possible. – Can’t I just open up illustrator, that usually works.

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16. Outsource jobs you can’t do well. – Anyone needs design help, I am your man/boy/slave.

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17. Trust your gut. If you’re not 100% sure find someone else. It may take time but that’s better than spending money on something sub-standard that doesn’t get you results. - Your gut says me, trust it.

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18. Be prepared to spend time on all of this. If could take months but it’s worth planning it properly and avoiding costly mistakes and wasted time – Mine took a weekend and a few 6 packs of Red Bull, doing it properly would take a few months.

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19. Refine the initial design until you’re 100% happy with it. - I am never 100% happy with any of my designs, it is a problem I have. Constant tweaking is my heroin, I am weak.

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20. Watch your language and check the wording. – Hell no, not on this blog, spell checker is for sissies.

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21. Have a soft launch. – Never really been one for the softly softly approach. More the “hit it with everything, oh God that hurts” approach.

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22. Make sure your blog isn’t marked as private and submit it to the major search engines - Ahh, you must be referring to my other “Private” blog, it was shut down by police.

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23. Put up your first blog post. – Way ahead of you.

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24. Brainstorm for post topics and come up with some eye-catching headlines that will make people want to read them - LOOK!!! READ THIS OR MILDLY ILL TEMPERED NEWTS WILL NIBBLE YOUR TOES AT NIGHT. That should do for a decent title.

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25. Start networking and find a blogging buddy who will keep you going when times get tough – Any takers? Come on now, I don’t bite…much.

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26. Commit to a time frame and set goals - 1 week, 6000 readers.

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27. Interact with your readers – reply to their comments, read their feedback  and show them you care. – Readers, I care.

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28. Don’t worry about not knowing everything about blogging. – Good, I know nothing.

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Help Me Out

I give all this advice out for free and so if you like what I write and it helped you, please help me out by letting others know. On this site, it has been scientifically proven that by doing so you will become instantly twice as attractive to the opposite sex. Can’t argue with science.

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