We built a video studio for iThemes and WebDesign.com, to be able to roll out new classes and try to put a “face” on what we do … and I decided to do a Welcome video for this blog … here goes!

It’s funny how things work or happen … so I need to work in the back story before getting to the headline.

Back story: I started using blogging because I wanted to share opinions, thoughts, and experiences with others. There was a void. My number 1 strength is Learner, so I eat knowledge for breakfast. I love diving in to learn new things and to stretch myself.

Blogging was my addiction for 6 solid months as I built a blog and my reputation with it. I literally ate, dreamt and breathed my blog.

In the process of building a successful blog, I became somewhat of an authority on the matter. I actually started getting people who wanted to pay me (rather well) to help them with their own blog.

OK … back to the headline …

So here’s my advice … become an expert and authority on/in something.

Invest yourself in a niche area or subject, master it, engulf yourself in it … and people might eventually want to pay you to help them understand it … or do it for them … they might have you speak to their own audience about it … they might even fly you to Phoenix to talk to a group of people about it.

So … how do you get started in becoming an expert?

Dive in. Just start. Somewhere. Anywhere. Take the first step. Buy a book. Listen to a podcast. Read a blog. Google it.

I have this quote memorized: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

So just get started.

I have this theory that a lot of great ideas, plans, strategies and businesses never get started because people don’t even take the first step.

So then the question is … Once I’ve started how do I build an audience?

Yes, your mom will indeed be your first reader and only reader for a long time.

Be content with that.

You build an audience with respect and credibility. I think they might be intertwined actually.

But really, ultimately … you start by writing about something you are personally interested in and passionate about. You do it for yourself, primarily.

If you don’t, it’s synthetic. People will see through it.

I wish you good luck establishing an audience if your primary motivation is to get people to listen to you. I’ve seen people try to do that … they invariably ask about RSS scrapping services that is really called content privacy and theft.

There isn’t a shortcut here, sorry …

But after that (writing for yourself and your mom about a topic that you are passionate about), you build an audience one by one.

You start with your mom. She’s your biggest cheerleader anyway. She’ll tell 1,000 people about it anyway.

You talk intelligently. You hone your ideas, your presentation. You focus and rehearse your point of view where it flows naturally. You become a master of your own ideas.

You also read the book On Writing Well. You follow and study outstanding bloggers.

Along the way, you might think about some of the guerrilla marketing ideas I pursued (and learned from others) for helping people looking for your subject find you online.

Do that … and at some point, people will start following, subscribing, calling, requesting …

Penelope Trunk is one of my all-time favorite columnists. She’s a former client, so I had the privilege to speak to her on a number of occasions as I helped her maintain her gigantic blog.

Anyway, she did a Q&A about blogging and I found this quote to be especially relevant …

Find a very popular topic and then write at the very edge of that topic. If you write in the center, that’s where everyone else is and it will be hard to present something that is unique. If you write at the edge, and throw in stuff not totally related to your topic area, then both you and your readers will find surprise in that intersection of the new stuff and your topic.

I started my first blog over two years ago. I started it because I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences in my career field with others. For the first year, I blogged like crazy. I used every experience I had as blog ideas. To date, that blog has about 700 posts now and we’ve got advertisers (yes, I actually make a little money from it now) and even an editor.

Because of my blog, I got quoted in our state’s newspaper, people in my field found out who I was, and it helped launch my freelance consulting and design business that eventually turned into iThemes.

That first blog was … one of the best career tools of my entire life.

When people ask me about career advice, I tell them this: Go get a domain name and a blog, and start talking about your niche, industry, field, whatever.

Even if you don’t have much experience, talk intelligently about it. Follow other bloggers. Link to their posts. Comment on their posts. Eventually, you’ll have something great to say.

But there is most likely a big void in your niche industry. And I’m not talking about general topics like “marketing” … I’m talking about “marketing for plumbers” or “non-profit marketing” …

Someone needs to fill that space. And it might as well be you.

Been doing some catching up on my feedreads and found some great links related to blogging …

• Penelope, one of my favorite bloggers and a former client, talks about how to be a successful blogger
• 50 Blogging Niches, plus 50 More
• Marketing to Bloggers According to Tim Ferriss

So Google is dominating search even more …

The question is: Are you talking to the search engine powerhouse?

Are you giving Google a roadmap to your content by using the free or cheap resources available on the Web?

Here’s the super simple formula I’ve used for two years of blogging:

WordPress
+ Sitemap Plugin
+ Pretty Permalinks
+ Good Headline Writing
+ SEO-ized Theme
= Better Google Results

It works.

I could show you my first blog’s stats and how I’ve barely even touched it for the last 8 months (hey, I’ve been distracted) and how it still gets 500-600 daily visitors without any real effort on my part now.

Now … I didn’t say you’ll get traffic equivalent of rush hour in L.A.

But … you can get targeted and residual traffic within a niche that happens to be YOUR TARGET MARKET.

This formula … it’s really too simple … because I’ve explained it dozens of times to clients and people still search for the magic bullet … so I’m working on a more complex formula that actually incorporates some sort of quantum physics (or at least some mathematical jargon) I don’t even understand.

I think only then will people stop wasting their time past that simple formula and refocus that energy on creating better content.

This morning I thought I’d get my iPhone upgrade to 2.0 so I could get some cool apps talked about here … but I failed to realize maybe a couple million more people around the globe had the same thought and would clog the pipeline.

Along with a whole bunch of people, I’m getting the -9838 and -4 error messages with iTunes. And of course, my phone is dead … unusable until I can get past the iTunes issue. Well, I guess I can make emergency calls.

FYI, just found this forum post on Apple.com about it….