I often get asked, “what is my top tip for creating a successful blog”.

And while that is kind of like asking me which is my favourite pair of shoes, or who is my favourite Hanson brother, there is one thing that I will time and time again recommend to people.

And that is finding, joining or even creating a Mastermind group of other bloggers.

I actually first experienced the power of a Mastermind group back in 2009 (ish??)  when an ex-publishing friend of mine asked if I’d like to join a Google group with a few other people she knew who worked online.

There were a couple of bloggers, the owner of a local swimwear label plus some fellow journalists and freelancers, too.

I had no idea who any of these people where, or what the whole group thing was about, but it sounded like fun so I said yes.

Humble beginnings…

We started off with just a simple weekly whip around email, sharing wins, frustrations, and asking for advice when we needed it.

Then a few months later we moved the group to this new thing called a “facebook group”, and shortly after that most of us met up at an upcoming blogging event, and the rest (as they say) is history.

I got so much out of that group, way more than I could have ever expected.  Everything from killer Facebook tips (one of those tips literally doubled our traffic in just a few months), to second opinions on names and ideas, to advice on how to deal with jerk clients and copy cats, to some of my biggest affiliates and promoters, to reviews on different ad agencies, to better than all of it some of my closest friends (one of the girls from this group and I actually share an office together now).

Sadly, as many of us changed career paths, had babies, moved away or found other life obstacles, the group isn’t very active any more (although I do still catch up with a lot of those women when I can!).

And after a year or so I started to seek out my next support group.

This time it came in the form of a paid and more formally organised Mastermind group for women with businesses online. This was a MASSIVE investment for me (costing almost $2000 a month), but this did include monthly coaching calls with a fantastic business coach, quarterly retreat-style catch-ups and access to some of the smartest, loveliest and most hilarious women I’ve ever met.

And once again finding this group and making this investment almost doubled my business in a pretty short period of time.

So, it’s pretty fair to say that I am a big believer in the power of the Mastermind group. Whether free or paid, organised or more organic.

Actually this is part of the reason why I created the SBB Blog Squad mastermind for bloggers, because I wanted my SBB members to have that same awesome experience.

And this is also why I wanted to share with you all today some of my tips for how to find or create your own Mastermind group, and also how to get the most out of them when you do.

1 – How to find a blogging mastermind group?

PAID OPTIONS

Now if you are happy to pay, then you’ll probably find that most people who teach or coach online also offer some sort of community or mastermind group.

It’s kind of the cool thing to do at the moment (that’s why I have one!).

These will range in price from around $67 per month, to $2000 plus (depending on the topic, level of experience of the coach and how much one-on-one time you get with the leader of the group usually).

So my advice would be to try and find a coach or teacher who has a business that you admire, and also have a personality that you resonate with, and then try to join their group.

FREE OPTIONS

Don’t want to spend money, no worries, you can always find or create a more peer-to-peer style group. This won’t have a coach or expert leading it, or offering their advice, but can still be super useful. Especially if you team up with a good mix of people.

Often you have to be invited to join one of these groups (because making sure everyone is a good personality fit is key to making one of these groups work), or you can always start your own (and I’ll tell you how to do that in just a minute).

ASK FRIENDS & PEERS

Still not sure where to look, or worried about making an investment and not getting what you need.

Then I can recommend getting a second opinion from a friend before you jump in.

If you don’t know many other bloggers (yet!) why not post what you are looking for in some related Facebook groups (there are 100s of free blogging and online business Facebook groups).

Or if you do know a few bloggers already, why not ask them if they’d like to start a mastermind group, or accountability group with you.

These solid gold nut-bags changed my business!

2 – How to create & run a bloggers mastermind group

Creating a bloggers mastermind group actually isn’t super hard, although creating one that is actually highly engaged and valuable does take a bit of effort to get right. So here are some of my top tips to get you started.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

These are going to be people you share a lot with. And often really personal or really sensitive information (aka how much money you make, or your latest bright, shiny idea). And you need to know that you are going to be able to trust these people.

So it’s best to start small, preferably with people you know. And then allow people to recommend and invite new people to the group (but do it slowly!).

SET SOME RULES

You shouldn’t have to do this, but it’s still good practice to set some ground rules around what is, or isn’t OK in your group. One that I can highly recommend is that people in your group help each other for free and don’t sell to each other (because that is what friends do, right?)

TOOLS & RESOURCES

It can be tempting to make everything overly complicated, but I think it’s best to start simple, and with people are already comfortable with, and then add more stuff later if you need.

So this means simply creating a Facebook group (a secret one so you don’t get bombarded with member requests) and inviting people to join it.

It can also be good to have a document with everyone’s contact details uploaded too for easy reference.

Plus if you are planning on having a weekly whip around, or other recurring even happen in the group, I recommend using something like Hootsuite, Buffer or better yet Edgar to have the reminder posts for these all scheduled in.

IRL meet-ups are the best… if they are in Bali then even better!

3 – How to get the most out of your bloggers mastermind group

OK, so you’ve found, joined or created your own Mastermind group. Now what?

Well I have a few tips for this too (of course!)

BE PREPARED TO BE VULNERABLE

You might not feel comfortable doing this straight away, but just like when you are making friendships in real life. It’s not until you share something a bit more personal or private that you can really take your friendship to the next level.

The same goes for these groups.

You have to be prepared to say “Hey, I tried this thing and it didn’t work… help!” or “I’m really stuggling with…”

If you’re in the right group no one will judge you, and you are helping to set the precedent for others to be more open too (this is where the gold is, trust me!)

GIVE MORE THAN YOU GET

Again, just like a friendship, it has to be about how much you give (and not just how much you can take). So make sure you are available to answer others questions, or even just to share great tools, resources or even ideas that you’ve seen with the group.

The more you put into it, the more others will too, and again the more you then will get in return.

MEET IRL

My very last tip would be to try and organise some IRL (In real life) meet ups through out the year too. If you are in a bigger more organised group maybe submit a post to find people near you, or if it’s a smaller group suggest you all meet up for a long weekend of planning, brainstorming and of course bonding too (Karaoke is optional but highly recommended!)

So that’s it, my top tips for how to find or create a blogging mastermind group, and how to get the real valuable stuff out of it when you do.

If this has gotten you all inspired, and you don’t want to start your own then why don’t you check out my SBB Blog Squad (a blogging mastermind for boss bloggers)?

Or hit up some of your blogging besties and start your own. Either way you will not regret it.

That’s a promise!

Are you in a bloggers mastermind group? Got any other hints, tips or tricks to share??