Whoever said this was easy was lying!

Are you finding yourself discouraged with your attempt atbuilding your online brand? Some have become frustrated and abandoned ship altogether even worse some have left their blogs looking like a digital ghost town. I hope you did not buy into those touting that this would be “easy”. Nothing that has value is ever easy. Yes, it is easy to sign up for a Facebook account, create a Twitter account and shoot a YouTube video. Yes, it is easier than ever before to reach a target audience. But creating quality content and building influence requires something else entirely…passion and dedication. Just to make sure you are covering all the bases, here are 19 20 steps to ensure you make it past the 3 month “flake out” mark that has been claiming many victims.

1. Determine what your unique areas of expertise and passion are.
2. Create a clear vision. Develop a concise positioning statement. (I.E. Your one stop for Austin Real Estate News)
3. Go buy a domain name that people can remember.
4. Make a list and write down at least 52 weeks of blog ideas.
5. Pick the medium that makes sense for you: articles, video, audio or a combination.
6. Set up your blog (I highly recommend WordPress) and install a great theme or work with a web designer to set it up for you (money well spent).
7. Add the appropriate plugins to help you manage you new blog.
8. Make sure that people can easily share your content: Facebook Like feature, tweetmeme feature and other share features.
9. Create a Facebook fan page and polish up your Facebook personal profile.
10. Create your LinkedIn profile and add all the relevant info.
11. Set up your YouTube account.
12. Start posting all your new content.
13. Connect all of your sources together and distribute your message.
14. Generate awareness by reading and commenting on other similar blogs. Be sure to encourage comments and respond on your own blog.
15. Create your Twitter account, spend time finding those in your target market, industry or area of passion.
16. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible.
17. Make sure you advertise your blog/site on all relevant materials – especially your email signature.
18. Request guest posts and comments from other professionals in your industry.
19. Don’t forget to create and cultivate a robust email database using MailChimp or Constant Contact
UPDATE: 20. Great tip from Natassia Bezdeka. Tie it all together with a management program (Hootsuite/Tweetdeck/etc), bit.ly, and Google Analytics to find out what’s getting you the most bang

19 20 items may seem like a lot of work, because it is. Many people have mistakenly thought that building a personal brand online is easy with all of these new tools at our fingertips. What we have seen happen is now that EVERYONE is online, it is critical to develop solid content and spend the time building a community that will listen to you.

So if you are serious, print this out, post it by your desk and execute…every single day.

These are my thoughts, what do you think is missing from the list?

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