I’ve Joined the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program
Further to my post about free courses for bloggers, I’ve taken the plunge and joined a paid mentoring course/program. It’s Blog Mastermind with Yaro Starak, and so far, I’ve found it’s a good fit for me.
I read Yaro’s Free Blog Profits Blueprint Ebook, and found it quite useful. I listed it in the list of Free Ebooks for writers and bloggers in a previous post. When I looked into Blog Mastermind, I was a bit put off by the long sales page, as I’m not a fan of those. But then I found out that Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips is one of the Blog Mastermind mentors. I have enormous respect for Daniel, so that gave me some confidence in the integrity of the program. I researched it fairly thoroughly and read feedback from other participants.
Why I Joined Blog Mastermind
It was a very big decision for me, as I had to part with cold hard cash. It also marked a major commitment to moving my blogging forward, and to achieving my blogging and freeelance writing goals. As you know from my blog, what I am about is growing my writing business, and helping other writers grow their writing business too. I am finding already that being part of Blog Mastermind is giving me some much needed focus in implementing action steps.
I will be tracking my Blog Mastermind journey, warts and all, which may be of interest to some of you. So far, I have signed up for 1 month only, with the option to continue month by month, so I guess I don’t have too much to lose.
The First Week
After some hiccups with payment and resources access which were readily resolved, I’ve spent time exploring the forum. There is a private Blog Mastermind area. While I’m still lurking, I found this very useful as there are areas for networking, asking mentors questions, asking other members for help with day to day blogging etc. There are some bloggers there whose blogs I had been following, so it’s been interesting getting a further insight into how they think and approach things.
While the forum has a community feel, what has been of most interest to me has been the audios. I hate!! heavy sales hype, so I was pleased to find that Yaro has a very relaxed conversational style, with lots of practical tips. I bought an iPod and have downloaded the audios. There will be PDF transcripts of these too. There are also e lessons and videos.
So far, I’m still on Lesson 1. The course is billed as being for beginners to experienced, as there are extra videos and lessons etc. I don’t think I would have been ready to tackle it as a brand new blogger, so the timing is good for me.
My Take on Blog Mastermind - Early Days
So far, I have to say I’m impressed. It’s only Week 1, so the next step is to implement some of the things I’ve learned. I think of it as a business investment. For every investment, there has to be a return, so that will be the crunch point. I feel I have had very good value for my money so far, but I’m also looking to long term benefits. Realistically, that will probably take more than a month to track, so I am thinking about trying it for 3 months. I’ll let you know how I go.
It’s not too late to join our Shared Answers Group Writing Project - Closes August 15, 2007
I look forward to your feedback on this course. I get the free e-mails from Yaro Starak and also from Joel Comm, but I just don’t have the dollars to invest at this time. I value your feedback, though, and will be following your progress.
Laura - It was a big decision, but I’m finding it valuable so far. I’ll be sure to share my progress and thoughts about the program.
‘
I read Yaro’s blog and newsletter and find them helpful. I intend to add monetized blogs to another business I have, so I’m looking forward to following your progress with the Mastermind.
Hi Lillie - It’s great to know I’ll have some people cheering for me… will keep me on my toes too. I’ve gone into it with an open mind, and hope to apply what I learn in a practical way. Will keep you posted as I go through the process.
The key in these new adventures is actually doing the work. It’s one thing to read about the stuff, know that it’s good to do, and then not do the work. The discipline to do the work is a gift, so go for it.
For example, Yaro in the blogging e-book says to leave comments on other blogs. So I set a goal to do ten comments a day for Ten Keyboards (writing blog) and ten a day on Cube Rules (business blog). It’s been very hard to do. Even though I subscribe to more than a hundred blogs, there hasn’t been great content to comment on. Plus, even speed reading the articles takes time.
This is not whining; but doing the work is going to require a good push and commitment to doing the work.
Love to hear about how this goes; go for it!
I also did read his blueprint and liked it. But I think spending money on the course was a bit to much. I also think that starting is god to do by yourself and later on it is good to get some help.
Hi Scot - You’ve hit in on the head. It’s about taking action and implementing the steps. The information overload thing is why I took a step back and decided I needed to be more focused. I’ll certainly let you know how it goes.
Hi Kaj - Welcome to Grow Your Writing Business. It is a financial commitment, so I guess everyone has to weight it up for themselves. There are some brand new bloggers there, and I guess they are going to save a lot of time as we all learned things the hard way. Having said that, I’ve been blogging for 7 months, and felt like I needed to move to the next step, or as you say, was ready “to get some help”.
Hi Yvonne,
I’m glad you are liking the program so far after we sorted out your payment issues.
Hopefully you continue to find value in the program and more important, start to realize some positive results with your blogging too.
Yaro
Hi Yaro - Thanks for stopping by. I think taking action is the big thing. I feel conifident I’ll see some positive results. One of the big things I’ve noticed already is a subtle change in my mindset - all good.
I’ll be very interested in learning how you progress in this program.
Hi Mary Emma
It’s a bit of an unknown quanity as it’s early days, but I feel very confident about the positives, from what I’ve learned already.
I’ll be pretty interested, myself.
@Yvonne, thank you for the warm welcome.
Why did you have the feeling you wanted to go to the next step?
Hi Kaj
Great to see you back. To answer your question about why I want to take my blog to then next level - I want to use it as a professional marketing tool for my writing business. I also want to do professional blogging - for my own clients, for others and paid blogging for a network, so I was looking for something to help me. I found in my researching I was getting overwhelmened with information.
Blog Mastermind takes you back to basics and then through to advanced topics. Plus the networking and support from others in the program is great too. It may not be for everyone, but it’s working for me at the moment, though it’s early days yet, so I’m reserving my judgement on an out and out testimonial at this stage.
@Yvonne: I see your point of all the information. Their is to much. I also find it hard to see which information I should use. I think that something like this will be good for me to, but I think that it is to early. First I have to see what I cabn do with blogging and if it can replace my job I have right now. Or replace it for 1 or 2 days.
Kaj - The Blog Mastermind course asks you to spend 2 hours per day or most days, working on what they teach you. That is a big commitment. However, a lot of bloggers, even those with quite big blogs, also work fulltime, so I think you can do both to see where it leads you. All the best with your blogging goals.
Thanks,
I hope to work it out in the next schoolyear. And get some time time so I can invest some time.
Great. Good luck with your blog plans.
Aug 7th, 2007 at 8:34 am
[…] YOUR WRITING BUSINESS For Freelance Writers Who Mean Business I’ve Joined the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program » Shared Answers - The First Posts are Rolling In - Where’s […]
Aug 26th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
[…] I first announced I’d joined Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind mentoring program, I also promised to keep you updated. Here is my second progress report. Judging […]
Dec 6th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
[…] I’ve Joined the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program and Blog Mastermind Review #2 AND Blog Mastermind Review #3 […]
Dec 31st, 2007 at 4:34 am
[…] I’ve Joined the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program and Blog Mastermind Review #2 AND Blog Mastermind Review #3 […]