Please this is not the regular step by step guide to starting a blog. I won’t be hammering on the general technical jargons of building a blog site; I am strictly focusing on starting a profitable, successful blog with respect to business principles. So I will shun some conventional wisdom and generic guidelines. If you are ready to learn, then let’s proceed.

My Kick ass Strategy to Starting a Profitable Blog

 
1. Why do want to start a blog?

So you want to start a successful blog? Have you ever asked yourself why you want to start a blog? You may think this is unnecessary but in reality; it might turn out to be the underlying line between success and failure. Why do you want to start a blog?

You must answer this question before even developing the idea for your blog. People start blogs for different reasons and this simple reason may be a determinant factor to your success or failure in blogging. The reason you start a blog will determine your mindset and approach towards blogging. If you start a blog simply for the money; you may never get it. If you want an in-depth article that will help you find a reason to blog, I will suggest you read the article below.

Building a Blog: What is your Primary Motive?

I started this blog to fill a need; I started this business blog to help entrepreneurs solve their intricate business challenges in return for a profit. And this is the sole reason why I don’t consider myself a blogger or internet marketing expert. I am strictly an entrepreneur; I serve and solve other people’s problems in return for a profit, not wages or salary.

What is the Primary Duty of an Entrepreneur?

Why Do You Want to Become an Entrepreneur or Start a Business?

And because I am an entrepreneur, I have to think like one. This led me to work on developing my business or entrepreneurial skills. This blog is not a job, neither is it a hobby; it’s a business. But something I want you to note is this; I did not start this business blog solely for the profit; if I did, I would have sold it off a long time ago.

7 Undisputable Reasons Why You Will Never Make Money Blogging

The primary reason why I started this blog was because of the leverage. Yes, I want to use this blog as leverage to greater heights in the future. The profits may be pouring in but the leverage is more important to me and I don’t mind sacrificing the profits to increase the leverage. Leveraging this blog can be done in several ways but I think that’s a topic for another day. Leverage is the reason I started this blog; what’s your own reason for starting a blog?

P.S: Mind you that there’s a technical side to starting a blog but this article will be focusing on the entrepreneurial aspect of it.

2.Find a Niche

You’ve probably found a tangible reason why you want to start a blog; the next thing will be to find your niche. Just as you find a market for your product or service; you also have to determine your niche online.

Who are the main targets of your blog?

A niche is simply a group of people with a common interest. Vegans are a niche, angel investors are a niche and so also are dog owners. Before I started this blog; I researched and decided to target the following niches:

Entrepreneurs and business owners

Aspiring entrepreneurs

If you can’t figure out a niche to target; then you have no business starting a blog. Without the customers; a business has no cause to exist, so also does a blog without a niche. Now how do you uncover a profitable, less competitive niche?

3.Define the blog mission

What’s your blog’s mission? What do you aim to achieve with your blog? These two questions make the big difference between profitable, successful blogs and the average blogs. A blog mission may not be important to you if you are starting a personal blog; in this case, your personal mission will be your blog’s mission.

But if you are serious about building a successful business blog that will stand the test of time; if you want to start a profitable blog that will grow with or without your personal effort, then you should forge a mission statement for your blog.

4.Set your goals and objectives

To build a profitable blog, you must set goals and objectives. You must have both short and long term goals for your blog; your goals will be the benchmark on which to judge your blog growth rate. You can use traffic, income or subscriber base as a yardstick to analyze your blog growth.

5.Define your brand strategy

This is one of the most important factors most people overlook when starting a blog from scratch. Your brand strategy in the long run is going to determine the value of your blog, its relevance and its overall potential. Now how do you define your brand strategy?

It’s quite simple. Your brand strategy begins with you answering this question: Are you starting a personal blog or a business blog? Your personal blog is your personal brand; it’s a blog that reflects your life values and culture.

The worst thing with a personal blog is that it might live and die with you but a business blog lives on because it doesn’t depend on your personal influence to survive. Business blogs also hold more value than personal blogs. Asset transfer and sustained growth in a personal blog is quite difficult without retaining the founding blogger.

6.Develop your overall strategy

Another essential factor that will affect your quest to start a profitable blog is your overall strategy. Your overall strategy should be one that you will stick to no matter the storm. It’s a proven strategy that guarantees success and every other strategy will be hinged on it.

Well, I have just told you my overall strategy. It’s CONCENTRATION. I don’t diversify my marketing effort; I concentrate them. I don’t try to do many things at once, I concentrate. I did not start a blog trying to generate multiple streams of income; I concentrated on one income stream first. I did not look for multiple traffic sources; I concentrated on one and that’s why this blog is effortlessly growing geometrically.

So if you are going to build a profitable blog, then you must define your own overall strategy. Mine is concentration; what’s yours. Only you can decide that.

7.Build the blog system

This is where you build the structure that will host your blog; this is where you put up the necessary system that will house all your operations. Your blog system includes domain name registration, choosing your hosting platform; choosing a blog platform and setting up the blog. This process is similar to finding a location for your offline business, obtaining permits and buying your office equipment.

8.Define your operational tactics

Your operational tactics entails how you want to run your blog; your overall budget and the time you’ll allot to building the blog.

You want to start a profitable blog? How often will you publish articles? How much time will you devote to you? How will you schedule your limited time to make sure every system is well taken care off? This you must plan and sort out before even starting a blog.

9.Define your income strategy

What is your income strategy? The root of this question boils down to why you want to start a blog. Are you building a blog for cash flow or capital gain? Are you building a blog to hold or flip? Are you building a blog for earned, passive or portfolio income? These are questions you must answer because they will determine how you generate revenue from your blog; they will determine your monetization strategy.

I have seen bloggers brag about how they make thousands of dollars from their blogs but most of them are only thriving on earned income; meaning they make money by keeping an online job. I will give an example; if you run a blog that directly generates $50/month but you earn $5,000 from by providing writing services, then you are still an employee working for a salary. If you stop writing, your income will drop because you are on earned income.

I have also seen bloggers who generate full revenue from their blogs without even having to run it. I consider these individuals true entrepreneurs. Even if they go on vacation for a year; their blog income will keep growing because it doesn’t depend on them. This is what I call passive income and it’s what I’m concentrating on. There are two types of bloggers; those who build a business and those who build a job, which one do you want to be.

10. Define your Monetization strategy

Is your blog going to generate income from selling advertisement, doing product endorsement, offering paid services, selling own products or selling affiliate products? This you must answer if you want to start a profitable blog from scratch. But it’s worthwhile you know that your monetization strategy depends on your desired income strategy and overall strategy.

11.Outline your marketing tactics

To start a successful blog and grow it to a substantial size; marketing must be done. So find a marketing tactic you are strong at and concentrate on it.

Concentrating on a particular marketing strategy doesn’t mean ignoring other  proven profitable marketing channels; it’s all about mastering a particular formula before moving on to another. It’s all about having a core marketing tactic and other complementing tactics.

12. Define your exit strategy

This is where most people miss it out; they start a blog without an exit strategy and that’s why most blogs disappear after the founding blogger dies. Except you run a personal blog; it’s advisable you factor in an exit strategy in your blog’s plan. Are you going to sell your blog in the future or hold it?

My plan is to diversify this blog into a network of blogs; and grow it to the level where it won’t need me anymore. My plan is to turn over all the operations and control of this blog to a holding company. My exit strategy is to become a watchdog; not an active participant in the operations of this blog and with an exit strategy like this, this blog will continue to fulfill its mission even after my death. This is my blog exit strategy; what’s yours?

13. Stick to the process

Starting a profitable blog and growing that blog is not an overnight affair; it’s a step by step process and this process will never be complete without challenges and setbacks. I have had my own share of setbacks with respect to blogging; ranging from technical challenges to human error to financial crisis.

These things are unpredictable but you have to face them and to face these unexpected challenges; you need persistence and focus. You must know what your ultimate goal is and you must be prepared to make sacrifices to achieve such goal; you must stick to the process.

As a final note, these are my thirteen step strategy to starting a profitable blog from scratch. These strategies are not all about technicalities; they are about blogging business intelligence.

Ajaero Tony Martins
strategicbusinessteam.com