Today I’ve made a decision to start this personal blog in a different way than I started mygreatonlinebusiness.com. I’m challenging myself to get it reasonably running within 4 weeks.

As I said before, I need to make an income online to pay the bills for my new apartment, that’s why I’m trying to boost this blog.

You might think, this blog is already getting some traffic due to the interviews and the comments. But it’s way below what I want, so I’ll treat this as a new beginning for this blog.

From my experience in working with young entrepreneurs I understand the importance of skipping steps and working with a mentor or joining a training program. When you’ve found a good membership or a passionate mentor you’re able to skip steps and build your business faster.

But more importantly, you’ll won’t get trapped by common mistakes, because other people tell you how to avoid them.

Navid Moazzez, a good friend of mine, told me about a training program that teaches you how to build a blog that earns money. It’s called the Quick Start Challenge by Dean Holland.

Sounds good and interesting, though not too unique. There are other programs teaching you how to make money with blogging – and they look more serious.

After all, it could be exactly what I’m searching for, since I did research about ways to make money with this blog. And since personal recommendation works for me and I trust Navid, I’m going to try this challenge.

I’ll publish a weekly update on my status and at the end I’ll do a review on that training program. So make sure that you sign up for my newsletter to get the updates directly when they’re published.

Who’s Dean Holland?

The Quick Start Challenge is a program created by Dean Holland. He became an entrepreneur to escape the rat race of working 9-to-5. He got up at 5:30am and came home at 6pm, a way of living that sounds familiar to me – and that I want to quit as well. He says in the training program that he had $60.000 stacked in loans and credit cards.

To be honest I don’t believe that he had that much debt, but I can identify myself with the story of escaping a 9-to-5 job.

Dean works as a mentor for internet marketing for more than 3 years and helps his students to build their own successful online businesses. They all supposingly make an income online thanks to Dean’s help.

What I like about his mindset is, that he starts with small goals. It simply doesn’t make sense when you try to make $10.000 per month online though you haven’t made a single buck before. Dean get’s it right to the point. Start with $1 and then increase your revenue.

This is very similar to my mindset. When you want to make an income online, you need to start small. You won’t make a dime when you directly target thousands of dollars.

To make an income online, he invested in mentors. Sounds familiar?

His mentor was Alex Jeffreys, a famous internet marketer. Of course Alex had a mentor as well, who’s knowledge he taught to Dean. That’s why Dean got the knowledge not only from Alex Jeffreys, but also from Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham. Those are some really huge names and that’s what makes me confident about the quality of Dean’s Quick Start Challenge.

Since they all have one thing in common: the make an income online!

The First Week – Getting Started

As I bought the QSC I didn’t know that it includes upsells. I just purchased the most basic version, since I think membership programs should be valuable without any upsells.

This cheapest version already is full of content.

There are 4 modules containing videos from Dean Holland. The modules are guiding me step by step towards my goal of making money with my blog.

The first module focusses on the mindest and getting started with blogging. It gives practical advice on what you can write about on your blog and he explains, why it’s important to be accessible as a person online.

Dean discusses the actual state of the internet, where people tend to trust other people more than marketing of big companies or brands. Just look at Amazon. I bet you’ve read customer reviews before buying a product and I bet that negative customer reviews prevented you from buying a certain product. Even though we don’t know the people writing the customer reviews, we believe them.

That’s exactly the human behaviour we can utilize for our blogs. People like to get recommendations for products by other people. But they don’t like to be sold! That’s why blogs should always focus on people instead on products and that’s the reason why Dean tells you to be yourself. 

First Challenge – Start Your Own Blog

So, the first challenge in the QSC is to create a blog. The blog will be your personal platform which you build your business around to make an income online.

Obviously I’ve already done this, but if you have not blog so far, you should do this in week one.

There are several things you need to know before you can install your own blog.

1. Every website and thus every blog needs a domain. I suggest that you use your own name in the domain, because that allows you to brand yourself and make yourself memorable.
2. You need to have webspace for your blog. This means you pay a webhost to make your blog online accessible. I recommend using Bluehost, since you can manage your domains there as well, it’s easy to install WordPress with Bluehost, they’re reliable and it’s only $4,95 per month.
3. After you got your webspace, you need to install WordPress. Bluehost offers an easy installation via Cpanel, so you won’t need any technical knowledge for this.
4. Go out and buy a premium theme. You want your blog to look unique, since you are a unique person. I love the Genesis Framework, which is easy to use for beginners. But I can also recommend Themeforest for premium themes.

When you’ve done those steps, you can start with publishing your first content.

Dean Holland recommends starting with an About Page. The purpose of this page is to tell your visitors what your blog is about and to introduce yourself. You also should create a contact page, since you want to interact with people and to get in touch with them.

After you’ve done that, you can go on and publish your first blog post. I recommend that you write about your current situation and your goals for your blog. Be personal, because that makes people trust you.

Let Me Help You

To help you get started, I’d like to help you with setting up your WordPress blog.

Installing a blog might be pretty scary if you don’t have any experience with webhosts, WordPress or whatsoever. When you leave a comment beneath this post and share this post to a social network of your choice, I’m installing WordPress for you!

No, you don’t have to pay me anything. I just want to help you to get started on your journey and I want to build relationships with people I don’t know yet. These are the things I’ll help you with:

1. Organize a webhosting account for you. I recommend Bluehost, it’s $4,95 per month, very reliable and easy to use.
2. Help you select a domain name and set it up for you.
3. Install WordPress on your Bluehost account.
4. Install a FREE copy of the premium Genesis Framework, so that you’re ready to go.

With this setup you are ready to start your blog. The Genesis Framework is a very robust and highly customizable theme, which gives you lots of options for the future. Though it’s easy to start with, which makes it a good theme for beginners.

I can offer this for free, because Bluehost pays me a small commission when you purchase your account via my affiliate link. That’s why you get this offer for free.

First Impression

The first impression of Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge is positive, even more positive than I expected. I think it can really help me to make an income online and to live the lifestyle of my dreams.

At first I was scared by the spammy looking sales page, but the module 1 really delivers good content. Dean Holland shares a lot of knowledge about the state of the internet and about getting yourself out in the wild.

I’m really looking forward to attack week 2 of this challenge!

Do you have any experiences with the Quick Start Challenge? Do you want to join on that challenge and let me install your WordPress blog? Just leave a comment below the post, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

All the best,

Jan