Ways To Make Money Online

Creating A Plan Before You Start A Blog

I’ve seen so many people pick a product and jump into making a blog without a plan on how they will drive traffic to that blog or even how they will set themselves apart from the competition. If you don’t have eyes reading your blog who cares what you are saying or what you are selling. You absolutely have to have a plan before you even pick the name, the web address or even start writing content.

So I know in my first post about making money with a blog I said to check out some of the blog hosting sites but please don’t jump into anything yet. I’m going to take you through some simple steps that will help you develop your own unique plan that will set you apart and allow you to cash in. Do you know it’s been estimated that about 80% of shoppers are going online first? That means you have an outstanding opportunity to take sales that would otherwise go to a brick and mortar store.

First of all make sure the subject you chose has an audience that buys products. I learned the hard way just because there are magazines and dummy books selling for an audience doesn’t mean that subject attracts a buying audience. Here is what happened I had a great demographic, the baby boomers, the subject produced lots of magazines and books but when I actually took time to read them hardly anybody was advertising if anyone. At first I thought it was just wide open for me to cash in but I found out I had found a vein of a topic that people weren’t buying from.

The true test is to actually read up on the magazines, the websites, radio and television ads and look for competition, the presence of competitors means people are actually buying something!!

This leads me to my next point which is find out what your target audience is buying. What questions are they asking, read blogs on the subject, make it easy on yourself do a search for frequently asked questions or faq and your subject. You should gather at least 2 – 3 sources that are already answering these questions for you. If you can’t find faqs then you either don’t have a buying audience, they don’t buy online or you will need to dig on the forums. On the other hand if you don’t have a solid 10 question minimum FAQ you probably haven’t done enough research to really get to know your audience.

Look my sister just went through this and had to run around like a crazy woman trying to find out the answers as she went along. She is a wedding officiant (yes, I created her website/blog) and didn’t do the research ahead of time so she sat face to face with people and struggle to answer their questions. Finally after a year and plenty of question answering later she is able to write those questions and answers from memory. If other people have blazed the trail for you save yourself the grief and benefit from what they have learned.

This may sound cliche but what is your unique selling perspective? Especially if you are planning to sell as an affiliate differentiating yourself from your competition will set you apart and save you money trying to compete. What is your point of view? What do you offer that the others don’t? What makes you different? You may be more service oriented, more problem-solving oriented, you might do something like me and forget trying to compete with the get rich quick schemes and instead provide some honest work.

Now it’s time to create your site plan, I’m going to give you more specifics about how to create this plan and some samples. But keep in mind it’s not up to me to decide specifically how to plan your site because your decisions, your vision and your budget will determine your plan. Don’t get me wrong I have been on a budget and I strongly recommend you have one that you don’t exceed. It forces you to get creative, make controlled decisions and staying within a budget has saved my a** because I would have spent money on products that turned out to be duds. It has forced me to shop around, prioritize and really focus because sometimes I haven’t been able to afford the tools to make the next move.

I will give you some homework to get you started today and give you some more guidelines in my next post.

Blogging Homework:

I want you to look at your competition and see how they are doing it. What kind of ads are they running? Where are they placing them? What kind of content are they offering? How are they presenting it? Note their use of pictures if any. Pay attention to the format of their site, is there just a long list of categories down the side? Are there pages or broader categories across the top? Can you “like” or “tweet” their posts? Do they have a newsletter that you can subscribe to? Write down what you like and dislike about their sites.

Finally head to wordpress.org and search through their templates to see what kind of look and feel matches with what you are trying to accomplish. Think about the kind of atmosphere you are trying to establish, what colors & pictures you want to use.

If you are ready to move on to the next step: First Step To Your Blog’s Site Plan Is A Marketing Strategy

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