Since I started with my first WordPress blog back in October 2005, I’ve been in love.

My first blog was a sports blog where I gave my funny (sometimes) opinions (all the time) on sports. I loved doing it for two years. At the time, sports blogging was still young so it was great to be a part of that. I made some money off it from advertisements. Not a whole bunch, but enough to pay for my domain and hosting every year.

(I did some searching and found my old blog in the digital archives. Wow looking at it brings back a lot of great memories.)

Even when I went through my phase of “What should I do with my life?”, I knew I wanted to have a blog of some sort. I love the ability to communicate through a blog. I love the community and meeting others writing about the same topic. I loved how it wasn’t static like a website and the newest content would always be on top.

Last year, I wrote a post last year about 10 reasons to start a blog today and I still believe all 10 are great reasons to start a blog.

Don’t start a blog thinking about money though. That’s a mistake many make, including myself. Don’t get me wrong, money can be made from your blog or because of your blog.

However, if you’re starting a blog with the sole focus of making money, you’ll lose sight of the other amazing benefits.

Starting a blog should be around a topic you enjoy. It could be an outlet for your creative writing, a collection of your travel stories, sharing your newborn baby with friends and relatives, your favorite dessert recipes or yoga for kids. Seriously the possibilities are endless.

When you start a blog, you will get so many benefits that money can’t buy.[click to tweet]

Here are just some reasons:

1) You will meet a variety of great people

Whether it be through comments, e-mails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people on-line. And by meet people, I mean legitimately form genuine relationships.

Bloggers are some of the nicest people out there. The blogging community is friendly, encouraging, and genuinely cheering for you to succeed. You can join that by having your own blog.

I’m not comfortable networking in a big room full of people I don’t know. So having an online presence is a much easier way for me to meet people so when we do meet face-to-face it’s like seeing an old friend.

2) You can reach unlimited people all over the world

If you’re talking to the person sitting across from you while having coffee, you can only share your message with that one person. If you’re doing a speech, you can only share your message with however many people are in the room.

If you have a blog, you can reach an unlimited amount of people all over the world. You could be sleeping or on vacation for a week, and still share your knowledge, expertise or advice with anyone who wants it.

3) It is a great creative outlet

Some people like to knit, paint, or play a musical instrument. I like everything about blogging. By having a blog I get to be creative. My blog is my online piece of real estate. It started as a blank page, and I was able to design it however I wanted. I love that.

Writing has become a great outlet for me too. I used to hate writing in high school and college, but mainly cause I was writing about essays I didn’t enjoy. Now I enjoy taking what’s in my mind, organizing it in a blog post, and sharing it here. It’s very satisfying.

4) It can lead to a book deal

Do you dream of having your book published and on shelves of major bookstores? Start a blog first.

If you can start a blog and build a huge audience, your chances of getting published increase dramatically over having no blog, no audience, and just a book idea.

Pamela Slim has a book called Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur (great book), which started out as a blog by the same name. She didn’t start the blog with the intention of writing a book, but later was approached to write a book on her expertise.

Another blog to book is 1000 Awesome Things, by Neil Patel.

Neil started posting awesome things every weekday, the site grew, got a book deal, and it turned into a New York Times #1 bestseller.

In this post on Tim Ferris’ blog, a first time author wrote about how he got a seven figure book deal.

And remember that, in a very real way, publishers aren’t buying just the idea. They’re buying your “platform” (blog readers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc.). Remember this term and use it.

And you can begin to get those readers, followers, and fans from your platform - a WordPress blog.

5) It changes YOU

I started blogging as a personal tool to journal the changes that I was making and sharing that. But somewhere along the line, blogging began to change me. It has allowed me to tap into parts of me that make me feel alive.

While there are many articles written about why you should blog to grow your business or become an expert or make a whole bunch of money… the best recommendations are still found in the personal realization that blogging changes you – the writer.

Setup Your Own WordPress Blog Before You Sleep Tonight

If you’re looking for an easy way to create a web presence and start sharing your ideas online, the best way to do this is to create a blog.

If you’ve wanted to start your own, but unsure how, this tutorial is for you.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

1. Get a domain name and web hosting for your site
2. Easily install WordPress and get all of your content up on the web. I take you every step of the way.
3. Configure your settings and site so it looks more professional
4. Optimize your site with plugins and widgets
5. Create your first post, page, and a simple contact form

I recommend you follow along in order I present it below.

Back from Blog World New York! I survived. I had a great time. I’m not a conference newbie anymore!

The three days of the conference went by fairly quick. The weather cooperated for the most part throughout the week. Just some periods of rain that never lasted too long.

The wi-fi in the conference, however, did not cooperate at times. You’d think wi-fi would be a high priority for a conference of people who spend so much time online.

That still didn’t put a damper on a great event.

I know I didn’t accomplish as much as I would have liked out of it, but it was my first ever conference, so I’m still happy with what I got out of it.

Here is my experience.

The Sessions

Pat Flynn talks affiliate marketing the SMART way

When I arrived the very first day, I was holding a schedule of the sessions like a freshman trying to find out which room to go to. I had some major flashbacks. Luckily everything was easy to find.

Every hour there was another great speaker sharing their expertise. At one time there were up to twelve sessions going on, so I had to really choose which ones I wanted to listen to. For the other sessions, an option was to purchase a virtual ticket to listen to any session at a later time.

I read some suggestions to not try and do as many sessions as you can, but every time slot I found a session I really wanted to attend.

Reading the content it is great, but it’s more powerful to listen to them talk about it for an hour. Some session were so good I wished it would have lasted longer.

I’m going to share some knowledge from some of my more favorite sessions (in order of when I attended them).

Continue Reading…

Note: At the end of the post, be sure to sign up for valuable free webinar with a special guest, Danny Iny. He’s going to share how he grew his blog from 140 monthly readers to 14,000 in less than a year, how he writes amazing 1,000+ word blog posts in less than an hour, and more.

I wrote about 9 ways you can build a blog that matters and 10 reasons to start a blog today. I love to talk blogging so I was happy to get great feedback about it.

If you’re still waiting to start your blog, let me share a cool opportunity that came from having a blog.

My friend Annie Andre has a great blog called Practical Adventure-olgy. A couple months ago she got contacted by a certain cable network to film an episode of one their shows. How did they find her blog? Through Google! Luckily she has a video that explains what her blog is about. She’s under contract now and can’t reveal more details and I promised I wouldn’t either. Still I’m so excited for her.

Okay back to the topic today…

So you have started a blog now and you want more than your mom and dad to read it. Maybe you’re stuck at ten visitors a day.

We would all love to get more traffic, readers, subscribers, and customers sooner than later.

What if I said you grow your blog massively through one strategy.

Would that be something you’d be interested in?

What’s the #1 thing to do? Get more Twitter followers? No. Facebook Likes? No. Work on your SEO? No. Get Tim Ferris to retweet your post? No, but that would be awesome.

The #1 way to get your blog seen, get more traffic, and turn them into customers is to write guest posts.

Continue Reading…

Every blogger starts from the same line. Those who don’t quit get rewarded.

In my last post, I talked about ways to grow your blog, but after I hit publish, I realized I left out those who don’t have a blog yet.

When I started blogging, I didn’t know the great benefits that would come out of it. I just knew I wanted to have a blog that mattered.

Today’s post, I’ll cover some of the rewards you can get from blogging. Some I’ve experienced already and others I’ve seen happen.

You might be interested in blogging, but need that last push to get started. You might see bloggers having fun and you want to experience it.

If you were on the fence about blogging, I hope I’ll have you convinced afterwards.

1. You will meet a variety of great people.

Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gotten to know some awesome people online. Not only do I love what they write and what they’re doing, but I love getting to know them.

When I went to Las Vegas to get married, a blogger I’ve gotten to know, Steve Roy from Ending the Grind was out there at the same time. We set up a time to meet and we literally just walked around the Wynn/Encore casino and talked.

Just last week in Taipei, I met Matthew Hooper, who I met through Twitter one day when I first started and got to know him throughout the year. We just happen to be back visiting Taipei at the same time. Matt, a Canadian, actually lived in Taipei for eight years and met his wife here. Plus he worked with Eleanor at a language school many years ago. Small world!!

I know I’ll meet more in person in the near future.

I’ve read stories of people who’ve attended Blog World or World Domination Summit and finally met long time blogging friends, and made new ones.

You know what I’ve found too? Bloggers are some of the nicest people out there.

If you want to know how to reach out to bloggers, read Adrienne Smith’s post about how to do it.

2. Blogging is a great creative outlet

A blog is like a blank canvas. It’s up to your imagination how you want it to look. It could look like a Jackson Pollack if you wanted it to (not recommended).

When customizing my Standard Theme, I spent countless hours on it. I probably could have spent more if I didn’t stop myself. I enjoyed every creative minute of it.

Writing is obviously a great creative outlet. You take a bunch of ideas and make it into something that evokes an emotion in readers.

People have different ways to unleash their creativity, and right now blogging is my favorite way.

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I’m in Taipei, Taiwan now still recovering from jet lag. How do I know I still have jet lag? Every day I wake up around 7:30am wide awake! Back at home, that never happens. I actually enjoy it though. More jet lag for me please.

Taipei is a place close to my heart. I was born in Florida, but shortly after we came back here to live for a couple years. Starting in 2007, I lived here for 1.5 years studying Chinese and just looking to get away from my boring life back at home. I left with here so many unforgettable memories.

I also met a girl, who ended up being my wife.

The last time I came was last year February - April, and this time coming back brought back lots of memories for this blog. Why?

I started this blog, Get Busy Living, in Taipei.

It all happened in the second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, in the food court. Unusual I know.

I had the domain for years, but it wasn’t until my time in Taipei that I really got serious about blogging and knew what I wanted to write about.

I’ll explain why the food court played such an important role.

Later, I’ll share how I’ve grown this blog from nothing to how you see it today. I get asked all the time about it, though I still feel I have so much to learn. However, I know I’ve done something right if people are asking.

I hope my experience can help many of you are looking to start a blog, or grow you blog in 2012. At the end, there’s a great new course for those looking for further help.

Started in February 2011

Last year when I came for two months, Eleanor was working four days a week at a bookstore called Page One, in Taipei 101.

It’s the centerpiece of Taipei. It’s a must stop for any tourist visiting Taipei. It’s probably my favorite building in the whole world. Every year it has some pretty cool fireworks on New Year’s Eve (Youtube).

The building is mainly used for office space but there are five floor of shops.

When she came to work, I came with her. I wasn’t going to stay at home. That’s too boring!

So what did I do while she worked? I’d go down to the first floor where the massive food court is located.

I love the food courts in Taipei. They’re nicer and cleaner than your typical American mall food court. There is a huge selection of Asian food with some American imports such as Subway, McDonald’s, and Cold Stone.

It’s pretty comfortable down there with lots of lighting and tables. The food court became my office for those two months.

I’d bring my iPad and wireless keyboard. I’d start at 11am and it’d be quiet except for employees getting ready for the lunch rush.

By 12pm, the place would be buzzing with office workers, tourists, locals, and shoppers all eating. I’d stay there until about 12:30pm, then would go upstairs and read books waiting for Eleanor’s lunch break at 1pm.

Then afterwards, she’d go back to work and I’d stay there until 6pm when she got off of work.

That was my schedule four days a week for nearly two months.

I liked working down there. The noise didn’t bother me. It actually energized me. Every time I’d sit right by the Coldstone, which wasn’t smart cause I’d stare at it all the time, however I preferred the tables in that area.

That’s where I began to immerse myself learning everything I could about blogging and took action.

Before I know it, it’s almost been a year and I’m writing a post sharing my tips. It didn’t happen overnight. I started in that food court and I continued that same commitment to learning and improving when I came back home.

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