A couple of days ago I was thinking: “There are web designers who blog and give great advice about how to design a website. There are programmers who can certainly help people to fix codes or to implement scripts. I am no professional designer or programmer, but there must be something valuable that I can share coming from my own background.”

What is my background you might ask? In 2005 I received a degree in International Economics with a minor in Business Strategy, and I have also worked for a large multinational company inside the Marketing and Business Development department.

After reflecting upon the mentioned question I realized that blogging could borrow many principles from management and business strategy. A blog, after all, can be perfectly compared to a business entity. It has managers (authors), inputs (ideas and information), outputs (posts and articles), clients (readers), competitors (bloggers or other websites on the same niche), partners (blog networks, friends), performance indicators (traffic, RSS subscribers, incoming links) and so on.

Considering all those similarities I decided to write a series of posts called”Blogging Strategy”, with the objective of applying some important business strategy concepts to blogging. Whether your goal is to make a living from blogging or simply to share your ideas, there is no reason why you should not do it strategically!

The starting point of every strategy is a mission statement and a vision about what you want to accomplish. One could argue that the objective of every company is to make profits, but profits and revenues are a performance metric rather than a mission.

A mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the overall purpose of an organization. Such statement motivates the founders and creates meaning around the code idea. Ford’s mission was to bring an automobile into every household while Google’s mission is to organize the worldwide information.

Why do a blog needs a mission statement? First and foremost because it will guide the author’s actions. Practically speaking it will help the author to define what he should write about, what he should not write about, where he should look for information, what kind of promotion techniques he should use and so forth.

Notice that most successful blogs have a very clear mission statement, even if not expressed in such terms:

Problogger.net - “Helping bloggers earn money”
StevePavlina.com - “Personal Development for Smart People”
SEOmoz.org - “Making website owners rank better on search engines”
TechCrunch.com - “Obsessively profiling Web 2.0 companies”

Secondly having a clear vision about where you want to arrive will help you set reasonable goals and it will also facilitate to define “how” you will arrive there. As Seneca, the Roman philosopher, once said: “When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.“

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of setting goals, both personally and professionally. Goals help organizations and individuals to focus their energy and to define priorities. Secondly goals also monitor the performance of certain activities, making it possible to revise and adapt the overall strategy along the way.

On the previous post of this series (read here) we talked about the mission statement and the vision. Apart from the vision, which can be seen as the ultimate goal, any company or project will also need smaller goals to guide the day to day decisions.

Suppose you have a blog about weight-loss. Your vision is to become the most popular weight-loss blog on the entire Internet. That is the ultimate goal, but you know that you will not achieve it overnight therefore you will need medium-term and short-term goals. The medium-term goal could be to hit the mark of 5000 RSS subscriber within 2 years, while the short-term goal could be to increase the blog traffic by 20% every month.

Once you have a set of goals in place it will be much easier to coordinate your actions, for example in order to achieve the short-term goal of increasing traffic by 20% every month you could commit yourself to comment on 5 new blogs every day.

Bear in mind, however, that you should follow some guidelines when setting goals, such as:

Goals must be measurable: Your goal for this year could be “I want to improve my blog in 2007 and make it very popular”. That is for sure a nice goal, but how are you going to know whether you accomplished it or not by the end of the year? Goals must be measurable so that you can track performance and be sure about whether you are hitting them or not. Use numbers, percentages, time frames and so on.

Goals should be realistic: If you are just starting out with a blog it would be really cool to to setup a goal like the following “Within six months I want to be receiving 10,000 unique visitors daily and generating $5,000 in Adsense revenues”. It would be cool but useless. Goals must be realistic and achievable, otherwise they will discourage rather than motivate you. Do not worry about stretching it a little bit, just make sure that you are not overshooting.

Goals must be consistent: You must not only believe that you will be able to achieve the goals, but you must also believe that they are important in your life and that they are not conflicting with other values. If you have a full-time job and a family to care it would make little sense to set a goal like “to blog at least 6 hours daily”.

As a blogger there are several parameters that you can use to set goals, including:

• traffic
• RSS subscribers
• number of comments per post/week
• number of pages viewed by each visitor
• Alexa rank
• Technorati rank
• revenues generated
• search engine rank positions
• popularity on social bookmarking sites (i.e. Digg)
• popularity on online communities (i.e. MyBlogLog)

Finally, make sure that you record your goals, either on paper on by publishing them on your blog. The mere act of recording the goals will reinforce them on your head and motivate you to start acting immediately.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most famous studies about strategy. It was written by Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, and below you will find one of the most important points on the book:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Having a clear understanding of both internal and external factors is essential for a successful strategy, be it military strategy, business strategy or blogging strategy. The SWOT analysis is a simple yet effective tool for understanding those factors. It will highlight the Strengths and Weaknesses (internal) as well as the Opportunities and Threats (external) for a certain company or project.

Strengths: the first step when performing the SWOT analysis is to define your strengths. If you are not sure about those, just ask yourself some questions, including: “What makes my blog unique?”, “What compliments have it received from readers?”, “What articles were linked from other bloggers and why?”.

Example of blogging strengths:

• expertise around a certain topic
• web designing skills
• creativity or innovative ideas
• a network of influential people

Weaknesses: once identified the strengths you will list the weaknesses of your blog. Weaknesses can emerge from problems that you faced over the past, for instance if you messed your blog database and lost some data your programming skills could be considered a weakness. Alternatively you can also think about competencies or areas that could be improved.

Example of blogging weaknesses:

• lack of technical knowledge (i.e. html, PHP, databases)
• lack of blogging knowledge (i.e. pings, trackbacks)
• poor writing skills
• poor online marketing skills

Opportunities: after analysing the internal factors you will need to tap the external environment, which comprehends other bloggers, websites, readers and pretty much everything that is not under your control. Opportunities usually emerge from changes, therefore you need to pay attention to what could possibly change in the near future and how your blog could benefit from that.

Examples of blogging opportunities:

• joining a blog network
• joining an advertising network
• creating a new meme
• exploiting a new niche
• leveraging a new service

Threats: the final step on the SWOT analysis is the evaluation of possible threats. The threats can appear either from external changes or from internal weaknesses that have not been protected.

Examples of blogging threats:

• technical problems (i.e. server downtime, loss of data)
• your topic becomes obsolete
• SEO problems (i.e. Google drops your blog)
• lack of time to blog

The SWOT analysis will give you a clear understanding of the internal and external factors affecting your blog. Once the evaluation is performed you will be able to focus on your strengths, improve the weaknesses, benefit from external opportunities and protect yourself from possible threats.

The Marketing Mix is one of the most famous marketing concepts, it refers to the elements of the marketing strategy which are designed to meet the needs of the customers and to support a company’s product or service offering.

Traditionally the Marketing Mix has been represented by four “Ps”: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. In simple words, the product must suit the customer’s needs, the pricing structure must be in line with the company objectives, the promotion techniques used must be efficient for the target market and the distribution channels must ensure that the product will be available on the right places.

One could use those four “Ps” to perform a marketing analysis of manufacturing and production businesses, but in order to apply them to online entities like websites or blogs we must redefine the four concepts. Below you will find the four “Ps” of the Online Marketing Mix.

From Product to Purpose: instead of a suitable product website owners and bloggers must have a clear purpose. This purpose will help you to define what you should and what you should not do with your blog. Secondly it will also make clear for your readers what they should expect from the blog, explicating what is the value that they will get out of reading it. Online success comes from understanding one simple rule: “it is not about you (author), it is about them (readers)”.

From Promotion to Persuasion: innovative media such as blogs, wikis and social networks are changing the flow of information on our society. Until some years ago companies had almost complete control of the promotion factor. Today, however, customers and users control half of the equation. They are able to rate products, express their opinion and recommend stuff to their friends or online communities. As a blogger you need to persuade (in a positive way) your readers, making them want to share your ideas and recommend your information to their friends.

Form Place to Presence: the term place has lost its meaning on the new economy. Today you are able to create a company and offer your services worldwide without leaving your room, as long as you have an Internet connection. Instead of place bloggers should focus on the presence. In simple words, where are people looking for information? What are the different ways that they could use to discover your blog and your content? Examples include online portals, article directories, forums, social networks, other blogs, advertising placements, online communities and so on.

From Price to Personalization: most of the services and information online are free, meaning that the price element is inadequate. Before paying attention to monetization options, in fact, bloggers and webmasters should focus on the personalization issue. The Web 2.0 phenomenon is growing fast because it shifts the power to the users. People want to be able to read their news on the most appropriate device, they want to personalize their home page, to tag their content, to share their favorite videos. And what is more important, they want to do all that on a smooth way. Make sure that your blog reflects that trend. Practically speaking make sure that you offer RSS feeds, email subscription, comment subscription. Secondly make it easy for people to comment, to contact you, send personalized emails and so on.

Outsourcing involves delegating some operations to an external entity, which is usually specialized in managing that operation. Outsourcing emerged on the business world as a method to focus a company’s energy and resources on some core-activities, where most of the value is created, while delegating non-core activities to external suppliers that can execute those operations more efficiently and with reduced costs.

Blogs can be perfectly compared to business entities, and from such analogy we understand that not all blogging tasks are core-activities. Sometime ago I wrote the article “10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers” where I outlined 10 factors that contribute to the success of a blogger. While I believe that every blogger should at least have a basic knowledge of those areas it is not necessary to master all of them. Some people will inevitably have better writing skills while others will have more technical expertise.

Before considering to outsource some of your blog activities you need to carry an objective evaluation about your blogging skills, and identify where the value is being created on your blog. A certain person might be an outstanding marketer but an average writer. In that case most of the value on the blog will be created from the marketing activities and not from the content itself, meaning that this person should consider outsourcing the writing part to a more competent writer.

Alternatively someone might have brilliant writing abilities but no web design skills whatsoever. This person could try to design the blog template by himself, but the result would a poorly designed blog and a lot of time wasted on the process.

If you are not sure about your core-activities or where value is being created on your blog you need to ask yourself the following question: “Why readers come to my blog? What makes my blog different from the other 50 million out there?”. Below you will find a list of activities that could possibly be outsourced:

Web Design: this is the easiest activity to outsource given the vast pool of talented designers across the Internet. If you are looking for a professional design you should get in touch with a design studio (The Blog Studio, a sponsor of this blog, is a top notch resource when it comes to blog designing). Alternative you can check Sitepoint’s contest section, where people can create a contest for a particular job. After the job is posted designers will submit their entries and the contest holder will pick the best one.

Content: sometimes a blogger might want to increase the posting frequency of his blog without having to dedicate more hours to it, and the solution is to hire co-writers. Secondly, even if the blogger writes well he could have stronger marketing or entrepreneurial competencies. In that case he should probably focus his energy on creating and promoting new blogs while outsourcing the writing part for people that is specialized on doing that. A good place to find talented bloggers is the ProBlogger Job Board.

Blog maintenance: keeping a small blog up and running is no challenging task. As soon as your blog starts to grow, however, the problems will emerge. They will range from server issues to spam, backup and security concerns and so on. If you lack the time or expertise to deal with the technical side you should consider hiring someone to host your blog and take care of the maintenance. The Digital Point forum has an active market place for those services.

Online marketing: content is surely king, but without proper promotion and search engine optimization even great content might get lost on the Internet. Mastering the basics of SEO and online marketing is not a difficult task, but if you are looking for tangible results you should consider getting some professional help. There are plenty of SEO firms and individual experts across the Internet, and you can also turn to established players like Pronet Advertising or SEOMoz.

Competitive advantage is a very famous concept of business strategy and management, and it refers to the situation where a company is able to generate returns above the industry average. Returns can me measured in terms of shareholder value, profits, revenues and so on.

If we apply the concept of competitive advantage to blogging we could argue that a certain blog has competitive advantage if it is able to receive more attention than other blogs on the same niche. Noticed that I used the term attention and not traffic because traffic is not the only measure we can use to evaluate a blog’s success. Apart from raw traffic the popularity of a blog could be measure by the number of loyal readers (subscribers), by the number of incoming links and so on.

Now that we have defined competitive advantage we should ask ourselves where it comes from. In the business world competitive advantage emerges from a firm’s ability to differentiate itself or to produce goods and services with reduced costs. What about in the blogging world? Below you will find some sources of blogging competitive advantage:

Exclusive or quick information: many blogs have a competitive advantaged rooted on the ability to provide exclusive news or information. Sometimes the information is not exclusive per se but it is provided before other sources can access it. Examples includes news and technology related blogs, political blogs and gadget blogs.

Original and quality content: the ability to produce original and quality content on a consistent basis is certainly a competitive advantage. Blogs that just replicate ideas or that write about what everybody else is writing will not perform well compared to blogs that create and innovate. You know what they say, content is king.

Resources: there are many resources the can affect the popularity of a blog. Financial resources can help the promotion of the blog. Human resources (i.e. many writers) can increase the quantity and quality of posts. Full time bloggers can dedicate more time to interact with other bloggers, establish relationships and so on.

Brand and reputation: whether you like it or not brand and reputation play a big role on most commercial activities, and blogging is no exception. People are more likely to believe what is reported on CNN just like bloggers are more likely to link to something that was written on Boing Boing.

Those are some examples of competitive advantage in blogging, but there are many others. The important thing is that you identify what competitive advantage your blog has, or which one you want to develop. Once you you that clear you will be able to focus your energy and to defend yourself from imitators.

Stephen Covey is one of my favorite authors. In the book “First Things First” he describes a story that one of his associates experienced on a seminar. In the middle of the lecture the presenter pulled out a wide-mouth jar and placed it on the table, aside to some fist-sized rocks.

After filling the jar to the top with rocks he asked, “Is the jar full?”

People could see that no more rocks would fit, so they replied, “Yes!”

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, “Is the jar full?”

This time the students replied “Probably not.”

The presenter then reached a bucket of sand below the table, and dumped it on the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. Once again he asked “Is the jar full?”

“No!”, the students shouted.

Finally, he grabbed a pitcher of water and filled the jar completely, asking to the public what they could learn from that illustration.

One of the participants answered, “If you work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”

“No,” said the presenter. “The point is, if you don’t put the big rocks in first. . . would you ever have gotten any of them in?”

This little story can be applied to all apects of your life, including blogging. Blogging is composed of many activities, like promoting your blog, participating in online forums, writing quality articles, networking with other bloggers, reading RSS feeds, exchanging emails and so on.

The question then becomes: out of all these activities, what are the big rocks? More importantly, are you making sure that they are going first into the jar?

Coherence is a logical and consistent connection between the parts of a whole. For instance, if when you write the words, sentences and ideas fit well together, your writing is coherent.

Coherence is walking the talk, practicing what you preach. Right, you say, but what does it have to do with blogging?

Well, coherence is a vital part of any endeavor in life, and blogging is no exception. Being coherent will help you build credibility, which is very important for any successful blog. Secondly, it will also ensure that you get your priorities straight.

Pragmatically speaking, here are some examples of lack of coherence on a blog:

• You have serious blogging plans, but you decide to go with Blogger instead of buying your own domain name
• You say you care for your readers, but you rarely answer to comments or e-mails
• Growing the traffic and popularity of your blog is your main objective, but there are annoying advertisings all over the place
• You say you are committed to your blog, but you don’t have a fixed posting frequency

What about you, are you coherent with your blog?

I’ve always been of the belief that a college degree tells little about what you know in comparison to what it tells about what you can learn. I got my degree in an IT related field, so this is especially true for myself, as the IT world is constantly changing. Anything I learn today will probably be useless in a few short years. The point is to learn to learn.

Blogging works exactly the same way. I believe this to be true regardless of your end goal. If you’re trying to make money, this is abundantly clear. There’s always more money to be made. If you’re teaching on a subject, you are constantly looking for/formulating new information to share. Even if you’re just spouting off useless (albeit entertaining) rants, you’re continuously improving your writing and storytelling so people don’t get bored of you.

This is one of the reasons that bloggers burn out. They forget this. They think they have an unlimited amount of content just waiting to burst from their brain. They get comfortable. Then they start to run out of juice.

Sure, at times it seems that some bloggers just have it. They are experts in their fields and will simply feed us with invaluable content forever. It’s not true. Pay attention. Most of those bloggers are discussing new ideas, upcoming topics. They pull on life experiences (unavoidable learning) and allow them to demonstrate a point. Even Steve Pavlina would run out of content eventually without constant learning. Though, I have a theory that he’s a robot… but that’s for another day.

Don’t get comfortable

It applies everywhere:

• Think you’re the best at your sport? Stop practicing. See what happens.
• You’ve mastered PHP to the greatest possible extent? Don’t bother learning anything new. Someone said that about BASIC, I’m sure.
• You’ve proven that your recipe for a great TV show is flawless? Did you watch the last season of 24?

The point is apparent. Don’t think you’ve succeeded. There are plateaus, but there are no peaks. Always be learning from your experiences. See what posts work for your readers. Which get the best response? Which are completely ignored? Which bring in the most Google traffic, or get the most Adsense clicks? Don’t settle or your blog will end up with so many others in Internet limbo.
What happens when someone thinks they’ve hit the peak? They quickly begin sliding down the other side.

Sometime last year Best Buy received a lot of buzz for changing their work policy to what they called ROWE: Results Only Work Environment. Instead of requiring certain hours from their employees throughout the week, their success was measured by their results.

Besides the fact that the next generation of working adults is (probably) going to demand exactly this philosophy (or even a more extreme version), this is the mindset that bloggers should have.

Switch out the words Best Buy employees with bloggers and you’ll see what I mean:

In practical terms, ROWE lets Best Buy employees get up and leave in the middle of the workday to attend a matinee or Little League game. Workers pulling into the company’s headquarters at 2 p.m. aren’t considered late. Nor are those pulling out at 2 p.m. seen as leaving early. There are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. In short, work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do. As long as the work gets done and get’s done well, it’s okay to take conference calls while you hunt, collaborate from your lakeside cabin, or log on after dinner so you can spend the afternoon with your kid. – JDBliss

Are you enjoying a ROBE (Results Only Blogging Environment) or are you under the impression that you need to spend lots of time hunched in front of a screen to have any sort of effect?

Use the following exercise to try and determine where the results are coming from in your blogging life, and where nothing but work is coming from:

• Log your time. Keep track of what you do, throughout your blogging time. If you spend half your time writing and the other half commenting on other blogs, write that down. If you spend a lot of time redesigning your blog or using social bookmarking sites, write that down.
• Keep track of achievements. When was the last time something great happened with your blog? Why did that happen?
• Cross reference. Check your log with your list of achievements. Which things that you did had direct impact on the achievements you saw?
• Rank according to impact. Now you should be able to form a list of the most beneficial things you’ve done at your blog to see good results. Using this you can prioritize your time and, if needed, cut out certain aspects which only add to your work and not to your results.

You would be surprised how effective this sort of self evaluation can be. I went through this process myself (analyzing only a few months worth of blogging efforts, across both personal and professional blogs) and ended up with the following list of priorities. I’ve found that by doing these things I’ve seen the most impact across all of my blogs:

1. Writing solid, informative, and creative content.
2. Offering information that wasn’t available elsewhere (conference notes, for example).
3. Reviewing content or creations by others (WordPress themes, plugins, and tutorials, for example).
4. Contributing as a guest blogger.
5. Responding to comments on my own blogs.
6. Commenting on other blogs, especially to take part in a conversation.

And this is only a beginning list. I suggest keeping track of all milestones, as you accomplish them, and regularly taking a look at what is bringing in the best results for your efforts. A results only blogger will be much happier than a hard working blogger, if only for the amount of time that will inevitably be saved.

Professional bloggers often recommend setting and achieving goals for your blog. For example, you might set out to increase your readership by 5% per month or your profits by 10% per year. The best of these are difficult but attainable, challenging you to put forth extra effort without killing you in the process. If you stick to your goal in the long run and achieve it with consistency, however, your effort will pay off much more than you might expect. Consider the following examples:

Example One: You have a small blog with a modest following of 30 subscribers. Your goal is to increase your readership by 10% every month. If you achieve this goal consistently, you’ll have more than 100 subscribers in just over a year and over 500 subscribers in two-and-a-half years.

Example Two: You have a moderately successful blog that sees about 5,000 unique visitors per month. Your goal is to increase traffic by 5% every month. If you can manage this, you’ll reach 6,000 visitors per month after only four months and almost 9,000 visitors per month after a year.

Example Three: Your blog earns you an average of $40 per month in advertising revenue. Your goal is to increase your earnings by 5% every quarter. If you succeed at this, your blog will generate about $50 per month after one year, about $60 per month after two years, and more than $70 per month after three. In that time, your blog will end up earning over $500 more than if your revenue had remained the same.

Obviously, 500 subscribers is a far cry from 30, and getting 4,000 more visitors per month after only a year is huge. The secret is to keep raising the bar. For instance, to achieve the first example, you would need three new subscribers a month in the first two months, four new subscribers a month for the next three months,… all the way up to 48 new subscribers in the 30th month.

Percentile goals like this illustrate a key point: As your blog grows, so too should your goals. Nearly 50 new subscribers in one month may seem like a lot, but going from 475 to 523 makes the leap seem smaller. After all, compared to how many you’ve already got, 48 more is difficult but not out of the question.

In the end, only you can decide how to set your goals. The important thing is to define your metric of success, set a goal to improve it, and stick with that goal for the long haul. If you can accomplish it month in and month out, your blog will see the sort of growth demonstrated here.

Ever had an Eureka moment where a brilliant idea suddenly popped into your head? What about when you first discovered that little trick that would help you a lot? Your first reaction on these moments was probably something like: “Man, I’d better keep this secret now, else someone will steal it.”

While this might appear intuitive, locking ideas down is rarely the best thing to do. This mistake comes from the value that people tend to place on ideas. Sure, on the information age ideas are more important than ever. The value, though, is not coming from an idea per se, but rather from the execution and implementation of such idea.

By sharing ideas you will be able to collect other people’s feedback, possibly honing your own assumptions. You will also be helping other people (directly or indirectly), and they will be more likely to return the favor.

There are exceptions for this rule (I don’t want a reader blaming me later when he shares freely a break-through invention instead of patenting it…), but most of the times sharing an idea will only benefit you.

As Howard Aiken used to say: “don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”

As a blogger one of the most important things you will need to do is develop your own unique personality. In most cases this is something that will develop over time as you learn and continue to build an audience. Subscribers will read because they can connect with you. Depending on the topic of your blog, readers may be able to get similar information from any number of bloggers, but they choose you because of the identity that you have developed.

Having a distinct identity will enable you to stand out even in a crowded and saturated market. Visitors will remember you because you are different from all of the other bloggers out there. Essentially, developing your blogging identity involves branding yourself to your readers and visitors.

The benefits of your blogging identity are:

• Loyal readers. They will get to know you better and relate to you.
• Separation from other bloggers. Your identity is what will make you unique.
• Allows you to cover common topics in an uncommon way. Not every post you write has to be on an original subject when you have your own approach. Even on topics that are widely covered you will be able to present information in a different way.
• Brand yourself. Your identity will allow you to brand yourself so that your readers will immediately associate certain characteristics with you and your blog.
• People will actually read your posts. Most people tend to scan when they’re reading online, but people will want to read what you have to say.

So, now that we’ve looked at some of the benefits of developing your blogging identity, you may be wondering how you can find your own identity. Here are a few tips:

• Be patient. If you are new to blogging your identity will probably not be developed over night. You’ll need to learn what works for you and what draws the response that you desire.
• Think about what makes you different. Especially if you are in a saturated market, you will need to stand out somehow. You may already have some experience or characteristic that makes you different. If you do, work to develop it and make it clear to your readers.
• What do others say about you? You may already have an identity without even realizing it. Read what other bloggers have to say about you and see if there is a common theme. Sometimes it’s hard to look at yourself objectively, so use the words of others to help you out.
• What advantages do you have? You may have some type of advantage over other bloggers in your niche that you can use to create your identity. Do you have superior writing skills, design experience that will help you to create a great looking blog, a strong network of contacts?
• How can you emphasize these advantages and differences? Your advantages are great, but to create an effective identity you’ll need to make readers aware of what sets you apart. John Chow is a great example of this. He has extensive experience making money online, and he makes that clear to visitors as soon as they arrive at his blog. Now they’ll know that John is the go-to guy for information about making money online.
• How will your target market respond to a certain identity? It’s possible that you could create an identity that wouldn’t work very well with your target market. Think about your audience (or you future audience) and try to anticipate how they would respond to a particular identity.
• Remember your goals. Make sure it fits. Don’t create an identity that will hinder your long-term goals. What is it that you want from your blog? Your identity should help you achieve those goals, not prevent you from achieving them.

If you’re stuck, take a look at some of your favorite blogs (preferably single-author blogs). What is it about the blogger that makes you keep coming back? Is it something about their writing style, their approach to covering the topic, the way they connect with their readers? Don’t attempt to copy from another blogger, but rather use your observations as ideas to help you find your own identity.

Here are 3 examples of bloggers that I find to have unique identities:

Tad Chef of SEO 2.0 - Visit his blog and you’ll never forget him. It starts with a nice, big sombrero, but Tad also writes with a style and personality that is all his own. He covers topics like SEO and social media with more enthusiasm and less boredom than most other bloggers. Tad is a frequent user of StumbleUpon and he has also helped to develop his identity by using the picture from his blog as his SU avatar.

Adnan of Blogtrepreneur - Blogtrepreneur is the blog of a teenage entrepreneur. Adnan provides information on a variety of topics related to entrepreneurship, which is a fairly common topic online. What’s not so common is to find someone who is still a teenager and actually qualified to write on the subject. Adnan doesn’t make a huge issue of his age, but most of his readers are well aware of it, and it certainly helps him to stand out.

Maki of DoshDosh - Maki writes in the highly competitive field of making money online. He is able to stand out by providing very unique and in-depth articles that provide true quality to readers. Maki uses his knowledge, experience, and writing ability to create articles that others simply can’t match. His readers see him as a trustworthy source of invaluable information. He also helps to set himself apart from others by using anime in every blog post.

Where are you in the process of developing your identity? What has helped you along the way and how have you been able to shape your readers’ opinions and impressions of you?

A couple of days ago I was reading The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, and I came across a very interesting passage:

When individuals are empowered to inform themselves on all these new ways, it is enormously flattening, but also enormously frightening. Why? Because people will be able to drill down for information about you and me that used to be either impossible or very difficult to locate. (…) You never know anymore what kind of electronic footprints your are leaving in databases that you assume are private and will now, or soon will be, searchable.

After reading it I realized that the message is particularly important to web workers. It is not rare to find bloggers, website owners and online marketers trying to make money or become popular online using controversial - let alone unethical - techniques.

Just think about sploggers and content thieves, spammers, scammers, shady affiliate marketers and so on. Sure they might be earning some money on the short run, but at what cost? One slip and you will ruin your reputation for good. And there are no erasers on the Internet.

Here is what Thomas Friedman concluded:

Live your life honestly, because whatever you do, whatever mistakes you make, will be searchable one day.

So the next time a “smart” idea comes into your mind, think twice. Honesty and integrity should come above everything else.

Unless you have a staff of full-time writers, a professional designer, an existing audience you can leverage and money to pour into promotions, the process of becoming popular rarely happens overnight. Or in a matter of months.

In fact, most of the world’s most popular blogs plugged away in relative obscurity for several years before they made it big.

It seems that an essential aspect of becoming an A-list blogger is to write well over a long period of time. You might be writing well now, but what’s your long-term strategy? How well are you preparing yourself for the long-haul?

In this post, I want to share nine tips you can use to prepare your blog for long-term success. The tips focus around three key areas: inspiration, motivation and focus.

Inspiration

1. Write for a target audience. Confining yourself within set topics can be a one-way road to burn-out. You’ll get to a point where your range of topics doesn’t inspire you, or when you feel you’ve done a particular topic to death.

A question I often get is: how can I broaden my scope without losing some readers along the way? The key is to write for people, not topics. Work out who your target audience is and write posts that fulfill their needs. The range of ways you can do this will always be limitless. It’s hard not to be inspired when you’re writing with a target audience in mind.
2. Make regular deposits to your idea bank. Remaining inspired over the long-term is essential to any long-term blogging strategy. Once you know what you want to write, it’s simply a matter of doing the work: of sitting down to write it. If you don’t have ideas, however, there’s nothing to help you start.

The key to dealing with this problem is to come up with many more post ideas than you need. It means you’ll have the creative work done for you in those inevitable periods where you’re feeling uncreative.

Motivation

3. Engage with readers. De-personalizing your readership can be one of the key causes of dwindling enthusiasm for blogging. When you start to think of the people who read your blog as a set of fluctuating numbers that either go up or down each day, you’ll stop caring about them.

Each single digit in your feed count and each single digit in your traffic reports is a person who’s taken time out of their day to read what you write. Take the time to interact with them, get to know them and help them out. Be active in your comments and respond to every email you get. The rewards you get through personally connecting with readers vastly outweigh the cost in time.

4. Set long-term goals. Long-term goals and long-term blogging go hand in hand. Set goals that are too modest and you’ll grow complacent as soon as you achieve them. Set goals that are too far out of reach and you’ll question whether it’s worth trying at all.

The best approach to take is to stagger your goals. Think of your aspirations like a ladder: put your dream at the top, and work backwards down to a very modest goal (get 50 more subscribers, for example). The next step might be a hundred subscribers, then five-hundred, and so on. You get the satisfaction of completing goals and the motivation to strive for those that are further out of reach.

5. Make money. If blogging helps your finances then that’s another motivation to stick with it. If you’re not monetizing your blog, why not give it a shot? If you’re monetizing and it’s not working, try something different. Get some freelance work, write and sell an eBook, or try to raise money for a cause you’re passionate about. Turning a hobby into a money-maker can do wonders for your enthusiasm.

6. Reverse engineer your actions. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, you’ll never know what you should be traveling towards. Defining your overall goals will allow you to reverse engineer your blogging.

For example: If you want to make a full-time income online, every action you do should be oriented towards that goal. If you want to get 1,000 subscribers, you should focus mainly on increasing your subscriber base. Once you know where you want to end up, it becomes much easier to map out the route you need to take if you want to get there.

7. Keep track of milestones. Your milestones sheet should be something you look to all the time. When your subscriber count reaches 100, or 500, or 1,000, write it down. When an A-lister comments on one of your posts, write it down. When a popular blog links to you, write it down.

Assembling all your best achievements into a blog timeline will help you feel enthusiastic on days when the mere thought of blogging is getting you down.

Focus

8. Work out a sustainable rhythm. If you feel like the time you spend writing posts is negatively impacting on other aspects of your life, it’s time to slow down. Blogging at an unsustainable pace will make you want to stop all-together. Believe me — nothing cripples your blog more than an unexplained hiatus.

Consistency is key. Set your posting rhythm at whatever feels comfortable — even if it’s just once a week. You’ll write better posts and approach blogging as a hobby rather than a chore.

9. Build a safety net. It’s inevitable: there will be days, or weeks, when you don’t even want to look at your blog. It’s important that you prepare for those times. Once you’ve neglected your blog for long enough, it can be tempting to abandon it all-together. You need to build a safety net to avoid this outcome.

A safety net is a reserve of at least one week’s worth of posts. You can dip into this safety net whenever you’re feeling uninspired, or bored, or going away. All it takes to build an effective safety net is to write one extra post a week for one month. It’s simple to build, priceless once you’ve built it. A safety net can also help prepare you for a blogging emergency.

What’s your long-term blogging strategy?

There are a growing number of multi-author blogs being launched, and many blogs that once featured only a single author are changing to include more writers. Many of you probably read a number of multi-author blogs, including Daily Blog Tips, Freelance Switch, Performancing, and others. Some of you probably own or write for a multi-author blog as well.

If you are considering starting your own, or changing a single-author blog to include other writers, there are some challenges that you should be aware of. While I do not own any multi-author blogs, I do write for a few on a regular basis, and I’ve written for even more on a one-time basis. Here are some of the challenges that are evident from my experience.

1. Quality - The quality of a multi-author blog can be more difficult to maintain due to the different skill levels of writers, as well as varying levels of experience and reputation. When you are maintaining a blog for yourself in which you are the only writer, you are in complete control of the quality. When other writers are added to the mix the quality can either increase or decrease. While quality can be a challenge, it also presents a great opportunity for blogs that can meet the challenge head on. Adding top-notch writers is a surefire way to improve the quality of any blog.

2. Identity and Branding - Blog readers choose to subscribe or come back to the favorite blogs on a regular basis in large part because of the identity that a particular blog has established. In many cases this involves the personality and approach to blogging of an individual. This can be more difficult with multiple writers. Readers will not get the same consistent approach that they would get from a single blogger, and it can make it more difficult for readers to connect with the writers.

3. Possible Duplication of Topics - When you are writing for your own blog it’s much easier to remember what you have written about in past blog posts and what topics are yet to be adequately covered. Of course blog readers do not want to see the same information presented over and over again, and this can be a challenge when several writers are contributing. The more writers there are, the harder it is to keep track of what has already been published. This can be helped if there is an editor or one person in charge of what gets published and what doesn’t, but this isn’t always possible or optimal.

4. Coordination of Schedules - Multi-author blogs rely on receiving contributions from a number of different people who all have different schedules and different times that work best for them to write. It can sometimes be a challenge to coordinate this so that there are not 10 posts on one day and none the next. Some blogs choose to set up a consistent schedule that assigns each writer a specific day (or days) to publish. One of the blogs that I regularly write for uses this type of arrangement and it really works well.

5. Lack of Ownership - When you are running your own blog it is much easier, in my opinion, to stay motivated. No one else is ultimately responsible for your success and no one else will reap the rewards like you will. When there are multiple writers involved there is sometimes a lack of ownership in the responsibility to grow the blog and achieve goals. By this I mean that many writers may not give 100% effort like they would if they owned the blog themselves.

From my experience the best way to overcome this challenge is to pay writers. Each time I write an article that I’m being paid for I have a certain quality standard for my work. In addition, I’m more motivated to promote the article, if possible, so that the blog owner who is paying me will be satisfied with the results and keep me on staff. When you are not being paid you should still be motivated to give your best, but there is a certain level of ownership and accountability that comes along with being paid.

6. Maintaining Focus - With several different writers publishing articles on a different basis, it’s easy for each writer to head in a different direction. In order to keep the blog tightly focused, there will probably need to be some effort to point writers in a particular direction. While it is good to be able to present different opinions and different points of view, each writer needs to be aware of what direction the blog is heading and how it is going to get there.

7. Finding Good Writers - Another challenge to consider is finding the writers in the first place. This is especially a big hurdle if you do not plan to pay writers, or if the pay is very low. Those opportunities that pay well are obviously much easier to fill. In order to find writers you may need to publish the opportunity on the blog, reach out to your existing contacts, approach potential writers directly, or post opportunities in forums and job boards.

8. Internal Linking - This is one that many people don’t think about, but from my experience it is one of the hardest parts about writing for a multi-author blog. When you are writing for your own blog it is pretty easy to make an effort to link to older posts throughout your new articles. However, this becomes very difficult when you are not as familiar with the existing content of the blog you are writing for. Internal links are important for making the posts more user-friendly as well as for SEO purposes, so it is a good idea to include internal links whenever possible.

9. Handling Payments - If you are the blog owner and you are paying writers you will need a good method of keeping track of who is owed and what has been paid. Different bloggers handle this differently, but regardless of how you accomplish the task you will need good organization.

10. Not Overpaying - Of course you do not want to pay writers more than they are worth. If you are paying out more than the blog is bringing in you will need to look at the situation and determine what needs to be changed. Some bloggers are willing to do this in the short-term in order to build a more valuable asset and increase long-term profits. Others aim to always cover their costs and hopefully still be able to turn a profit.

Why Use Multiple Authors?

If you are considering owning or writing for a multi-author blog you should be aware of the potential challenges and have a plan to overcome them. Despite the challenges that we have looked at here, multi-author blogs still bring great opportunities. In fact, many of the challenges above can be turned into strengths if they are properly handled. Having a variety of different writers can help to give the blog a more balanced presentation. Additionally, each writer will have their own strengths and weaknesses. If the team is able to come together to emphasize the strengths of each, the result will be much better than any one person could accomplish individually. And there is always the obvious benefit that multiple authors produce much more content than one person is capable of.

What is Your Experience?

Have you ever owned or written for a multi-author blog? If so, what were you experiences? If not, would you consider doing so, why or why not?

This is a guest post by Alan Johnson, be sure to check out his $1,000 contest over at TheRatingBlog.com.

What are your plans for the future? Where do you picture yourself a couple of years from now? What are your goals? Many people make the mistake of not thinking big and, in the end, such an attitude will get them nowhere. For example, some might give “I want to be a blogger” as an answer to the first question, or “I don’t know, I guess I see myself as being a fairly good blogger”.

You don’t know? A “fairly good” blogger? Why don’t you want to become “the best blogger” around? Most online entrepreneurs settle for far less than their true potential, and that is simply a shame. In other words, they do a lousy job of answering the question.

Striving to become the best at what you’re doing is the way to go, and thinking otherwise simply proves that you have low confidence in yourself. “But being the best would mean that I make millions,” you might say. So what? Are millionaires and billionaires robots? Of course not, they are human beings, just like everyone else. There are countless success stories of webmasters who have become millionaires and guess what, all of their websites have started out with one visitor, just like yours.

Why would you think that you are not capable of achieving such results? You can’t expect to be successful if you start out with the wrong attitude, it simply wouldn’t make sense. If you just want to become a “fairly good blogger” then that’s exactly what you’ll become, and you won’t like it. Never be afraid to set high goals, even if they may seem out of reach at a certain point.

That doesn’t mean that attitude alone will help you achieve those goals, not by a long shot. But setting high goals is a great starting point, a solid foundation upon which you can build. Of course, you will not be able to reach your goals overnight; expecting immediate results is another mistake you need to steer clear of. Divide everything into smaller and more manageable goals, take it one step at a time.

Is your long-term goal making a million dollars a month as an online entrepreneur? No problem, but it won’t happen right away. In order to earn 1 million dollars each month, you must first cross the $1k, $10k and $100k monthly milestone; it’s only natural that things work out this way. Why would you make the mistake of settling for $10k monthly, for example, if you know that you have the potential of making so much more?

Do you think big? Do you believe in yourself and in your potential as an online entrepreneur? Don’t let yourself get discouraged by the long journey you have ahead of you. Believe in yourself and you will enjoy every minute of it since, in the end, being successful never comes from reaching a destination; it’s all about knowing that you’re on the right track; it’s always about the journey in itself.

Most bloggers that get discouraged and decide to abandon their blogs tend to do so on the first three to six months. Sometimes the traffic is not growing as fast as they would like. Other times they are not happy with the money that they are making.

Personally I think that quitting after such a short period is a mistake.

There are two situations where quitting would be a smart move. One is when the blogger consciously decided to try out a new niche. In that case he must have some previous experience with blogs and websites, and he should know what numbers to expect and how to evaluate if this new blog has potential or not.

The other case refers to blogs that get stuck. If after six months you are still struggling to receive a couple hundred unique visitors daily then you probably are doing something wrong. Under this scenario you should probably stop to rethink your strategies (niche selection, content creation and promotion strategies) and try again.

On all other cases, however, the best idea is probably to hold tight and keep working hard until your blog or website achieves some critical mass. It does not matter how small or big your traffic is, as long as it is growing month after month you are on the right track.

The first three to six months are the hardest, and after that period you will notice that things will flow more smoothly, for several reasons.

First of all your content will achieve a bigger audience, improving the chances of receiving backlinks and traffic. Suppose two blogs, one with 200 daily unique visitors and the other with 2,000 daily unique visitors, publish the exact same article. The second one will have much higher chances of receiving backlinks, because more people will be exposed to its content.

This means that as your audience grow you will be able to spend less time promoting your content and more time actually producing it and making sure that it has quality.

Secondly, the credibility of your website will grow with the time, both for human visitors and search engines. Suppose again that two blogs, one that has been online for 1 year and has a Google PageRank of 5 and the other that has been online for 1 month and has a Google PageRank of 1, publish the exact same article. Even if we disregard the backlinks that each article will receive, the page of the first blog will appear first in the search results because that domain has more trust in the eyes of search engines.

These are just two examples of how allowing your blog to grow and mature will benefit you. The are several others: over the time it will be easier to monetize it, to get favors and support from your readers, to create a network of contacts, to receive freebies and so on.

If you are considering to quit, therefore, my advice is to hold tight a little longer, and then take that decision.

If you want to work on the Internet or to be an entrepreneur, I really don’t think you need to.

I always tell my friends that if I had the mind that I have today (in terms of knowing what I want to do, and what knowledge and tools I need to do that) five years ago, I would not have enrolled myself in the university.

At the time I had no clue where I was going, however, so getting a degree seemed like the smartest choice. Everyone else was doing it, after all!

I studied International Economics because it was a pretty eclectic degree, and it would allow me to work on virtually any business segment. Then 18 months ago I started working on the Internet with my own websites and with other entrepreneurial projects, and I guess I have being using 5% of what I learned in the university, if that.

Now the main argument of the university proponents is that apart from the knowledge itself, which you might or might not use later on, passing all those years studying will teach you how to gather, analyze and present information. It will give you a framework, upon which you will build on.

That is true, the university will give you that, but I don’t think that a person that starts working straight out of high school would lose that. He would also learn how to gather, analyze and present information, and he would also gain a framework, but those would come from real working experience rather than from theoretical classes and lectures.

I honestly think that if I had spent the same years that I did in the university working with my own projects and trying to make a living online, I would have learned much more (and that knowledge would have been practical rather than theoretical).

Again, this is valid only for certain classes of professionals. If you want to be a doctor or a civil engineer there is no alternative to going to the university and learning what you need to there.

Another downside of universities is that they focus on giving you knowledge, rather than making you develop competencies and attitudes. The latter two are immensely more important for your professional success.

I wrote about this sometime ago, on an article titled Knowledge, Competencies and Attitudes). Summing it up: Knowledge is practical information gained through learning, experience or association (e.g., second degree equations). Competencies, on the other hand, refer to the ability to perform specific tasks (e.g., the ability to communicate effectively). Attitudes involve how people react to certain situations and how they behave in general (e.g., whether you are proactive, arrogant, if you get along with people and so on).

Here is an example that I used to illustrate why competencies and attitudes are more important than knowledge:

Consider two different men, John and Mark, working for a financial services company. Both of them are eager to succeed so that they spend lots of time trying to grow professionally.

John uses his time gaining as much knowledge as possible: he studies balance sheets, financial reports, accounting practices and the like. He even takes related courses on the local university.

Mark, on the other hand, gets only the knowledge that is necessary to carry out his job. Other than that, he uses his time to improve his writing skills, his ability to solve problems, his ability to understand and empathize with other people and so on.

Should the financial services sector enter a downturn some day forcing both men to find another job, who do you think will have a harder time? Yeah, I am sure you have guessed it.

As you can see I am not arguing that you don’t need to go to the university because you will learn everything working. You will still need to study and go through the pain of learning and improving yourself. The only difference is that if you do this on your own you will be able to focus on the competencies and attitudes that you know you need to develop.

The knowledge that a university will give you is available for everyone, anywhere in the world. Sure, there is a difference between knowledge and information. but with the right motivation and some help from other people even a kid in Sri Lanka can absorb the information available online and transform it into knowledge.

So what should your strategy be? Focus on developing the right attitudes and competencies, and grab the necessary knowledge as you go.

Many bloggers get started with high hopes for getting rid of their full-time job and earning a living from their blog. While it’s certainly possible, a very small percentage of bloggers get to this point. For those who have been able to achieve pro blogger status, consistency and long-term focus is the key. A pro blogger didn’t reach that status by giving up when there were a few months of slow growth or because they got tired of the pressure to always be producing new content.

If you are hoping to take your blog to a level that will financially support you and your family, what do you need to realize and what should you be focusing on?

Treat it Like a Business

I think a lot of bloggers expect to get financial results that they would get from any other type of business, but yet they approach their blog as a hobby. If you want to be able to blog full-time you must respect it as a legitimate business like any other.

If your blog is a business you will schedule your other activities around your work, not the other way around. Of course blogging part-time until you can reach this level will bring its own unique time constraints and challenges, but you should always schedule plenty of time to work on your blog. Don’t just simply work on it when you have spare time and hope for big results.

Businesses are willing to invest in order to improve profitability. Bloggers obviously need to be willing to invest their time, but being willing to also invest some money can really improve your results. Many bloggers are always looking for the free options and not even open-minded to spending a little bit of money in order to be able to make even more money. If you are making money from your blog, dedicate some of that income to be reinvested back into your blog. Maybe you’ll spend it on advertising, or maybe on a new blog theme. There are any number of things you can do to improve your blog if you are will to reinvest some of your income.

Develop Multiple Sources of Income

Many bloggers fall into the trap of assuming that all of their income will be generated by selling ads. While advertising can be a great source of income, you should never rely on that alone. You’ll need to have an incredibly popular blog to ever earn a full-time income solely on advertising. Additionally, reliance on one form of income is less stable than if you have multiple sources.

If you’re currently only producing income through ads, look for some affiliate programs that you can promote on your blog. If you’re able to find the right affiliate products you can not only increase your income, but you can also help your readers by introducing them to some great products.

In addition to ads and affiliate programs, you may be able to make some money by selling premium content or by selling your own products. A great example of premium content can be found at PSDTuts, a Photoshop tutorial blog. They offer a premium subscription for $9 a month that gives subscribers the files that are used in the tutorials plus some exclusive content that is not available to all subscribers.

How Many Blogs Do You Need to Own?

Most bloggers that make a full-time income online have more than just one blog. For example, Daniel has a network that includes Daily Writing Tips and Daily Bits in addition to Daily Blog Tips. While having more blogs obviously involves more work, it also opens up the opportunity to make more money and it provides a bit more stability as you are not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

It’s my opinion that you should focus on building one strong blog before adding others, but that is really just a matter of opinion. I think that having one popular blog will make it easier for you to launch other successful blogs, especially if they are covering similar topics.

An Alternate Possibility

Freelance blogging can also provide plenty of opportunities to make money with blogs. I kind of fell into freelance blogging without really trying, but I have found it to be a great source of income and exposure. There are an increasing number of blogs out there that are hiring writers, so opportunities are waiting to be found.

While I enjoy freelance blogging, I don’t necessarily think it is a great long-term approach to pro blogging. Long-term you are better off being the one that owns the blog, but I have found freelancing to be a great way to make money while growing a blog of your own.

What You Will Need to Become a Pro Blogger

Dedication - Having a career as a blogger is work, and it requires being dedicated to success. There will always be struggles and temptations to give up along the way, but those who are cut out for pro blogging will push through those obstacles.

Some Time - Developing a money-making blog doesn’t happen overnight. Most bloggers aren’t in a position where they can quit their full-time job and just replace their income with their blog. If you’re willing to take some time and make progress with consistent work, pro blogging is a possibility.

A Strong Network - Every successful blogger has surrounded themselves with a strong network of other bloggers. Be involved with others in your niche and make an effort to develop some solid friendships with others.

The Ability to Develop Content and Market a Blog - Pro bloggers aren’t always the best writers out there, but they all have found ways to create content that draws attention and a response from readers. Additionally, being able to market that content is equally important.

The Ability to Run a Business - A money-making blog is very much a real and legitimate business. Several major blogs are really more like a business than a blog (example, TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb). If your business skills are lacking, this is an area that you may want to develop.

What’s Your Experience?

Are you a blogger that hopes to earn a full-time income? Do you currently? What have you found to be important to making money with a blog?

Last week I wrote a post Is There a Career in Blogging? that examined the possibility of earning a full-time income with a blog (or a network of blogs). One of the keys that were mentioned for running a profitable blog was to treat the blog as a business, not as a hobby. This is probably a pretty obvious statement for those of us that are looking to make money online, but what is really involved? How can you put this into practice? Here are some of the elements that I feel are critical for treating a blog as a legitimate business.

1. Goals

Any traditional business will have goals that are set for a specific period of time, usually monthly, quarterly, and annually. Blogging should really be no different. If you hope to make a full-time income, or even a solid part-time income, you really should have specific goals of revenue that you need to produce. It seems obvious, but I think many of us don’t take goals as seriously as other types of businesses.

In order for your goals to be effective, they should be time-sensitive (meaning they end at a particular date), measurable, and attainable, although not too easily attainable. I think many of the bloggers who actually do set goals get a little caught up in the excitement and set their goals a bit too high right off the bat. As a result, many of them get disappointed and discouraged and quickly assume that blogging is not the way for them to make money online.

2. Accountability

Along with goals comes accountability. As an employee of a business you can be held accountable if you fail to meet the goals that are established for you. This, of course, can mean anything from a loss of a bonus all the way down to being fired. Too many bloggers initially set goals and then never follow up with tracking them or holding themselves accountable. Of course, I’m not suggesting that you fire yourself if you don’t achieve your goals. Rather, I believe that we could all benefit by taking ownership and being willing to honestly evaluate how our performance is living up to expectations.

3. Priority

Almost all of us are willing to get up each morning and go to work all day for someone else in order to make a living. If we are willing to do this for an employer, shouldn’t we make it a priority to put an effort into our own business? Although most bloggers are doing so part-time, as a business it should take priority over some other things in our life (of course this is a decision that each of us will have to make according to what is best for us). If blogging is not on your list of priorities, it’s probably not a real business and your chances of making money are slim.

4. Scheduling

If making money with a blog is a priority, we should dedicate specific time for it. Blogging becomes much more difficult when it only gets your attention when nothing else of interest is going on. Make an effort to decide how much time you are willing and able to dedicate to blogging each week and create a basic schedule that will help you to get that time in throughout the week. It doesn’t have to be something that you follow exactly each week, but get in the habit of seeing your time as being occupied by your efforts of building your blogging business.

5. Time Management

Now that you’ve scheduled some time to work, it can be helpful to track exactly how much of your time is being spent on what efforts. Try using a tool like Toggl (it’s free) or a more advanced tool like Harvest to see where your time is being spent. Most of us waste a lot more time than we realize and these tools can help to increase our efficiency.

6. Spending

Businesses are willing to spend money in order to make money. Bloggers, however, are usually looking only for the free options. I’m not suggesting that you go out and spend loads of money to build and market your blog, but keep an open mind to products and services that can streamline your efforts and increase your productivity.

7. Bookkeeping

If your blog is a business to you, it’s important to keep good records of your income and expenses. As a business, your expenses will most likely be tax deductible (check with a tax professional in your country), so you will obviously want accurate records. Tracking your income can also be helpful for monitoring your progress towards goals and for confidence and moral boosts.

You can use a number of different tools for this purpose, including a spreadsheet program like Excel. If you’re making decent money with your blog and you want a more sophisticated solution, there are several online programs, including Xero. For most bloggers a simple spreadsheet system will do.

8. Outsourcing

Many successful bloggers have found outsourcing to be an effective way to manage multiple projects. Daniel obviously runs several blogs, and I doubt that would be possible for him without outsourcing some of the work to others. He is certainly not alone. Hiring writers can be a good choice if your blog is producing enough money to cover the expenses. It’s not the right move for everyone, and definitely not for all stages of bloggers, but be willing to consider outsourcing as an option to improve your business’s profits.

What Are Your Thoughts?

What other aspects do you think are important to include here?

This should be a no-brainer, I know. Unfortunately it is not. It is incredible the amount of large and reputable companies out there that have poor customer support.

A couple of weeks ago I was purchasing a domain name via a renowned company. I made the payment (it was over $1,000), received confirmation of the payment, and then I was left waiting for the transfer process to begin. I started the transaction on Saturday, so I knew that perhaps they would not be working on the weekend (although they should; this is the Internet!).

Monday and Tuesday passed, and still I had not heard back from them. At this point you can imagine that I was starting to feel uneasy. Not because I was fearing they would fail to deliver the domain, but because I really needed to have control over it as soon as possible to start building the website.

I then wrote an email to the manager that was responsible for my transaction, asking if he had any updates. Sometimes you don’t even expect that they fix the problem immediately, but you want to know what they are doing to solve it, what information and previsions they have and so on. That was my case.

I would be happy as long as he promptly emailed me back saying: “We’re working on it, it should require another day or two.”

But that did not happen. He just replied to my email on the next day, after 30 hours or so.

I mean, are you kidding me? One of the largest domain dealers on the Internet takes 30 hours to reply to a customer’s email?

Needless to say that I was pretty unhappy with the overall experience, and I will think twice before purchasing another domain with them.

Now, remember that this point applies to virtually any company or business entity, including your websites, freelance business or blog. Your readers are your customers, after all. Take 30 hours to answer to their comments or emails and I am sure that they will think twice before coming back.

I’m sure you read a lot about pro blogging and what it takes to earn a full-time income from your blog. This is a common topic among active bloggers and there are plenty of great articles that cover various aspects of the subject. With the huge amount of focus that is given to becoming a pro blogger, I think that becoming a successful and profitable part-time blogger is often overlooked. Earning a reasonable amount of money on a part-time basis is actually more desirable than most people realize.

The Benefits of Part-Time Blogging:

Stability - As a part-time blogger you can still have the stability of a secure full-time income from another job. There’s no need to quit your day job and jump in right away in order to be successful (although some have done it). As a part-time blogger you have the luxury of earning some money and building your business without the risk that would come along with going full-time right away.

Less Pressure - As a part-time blogger with the stability of a full-time income, you won’t have the pressure to produce or to earn large sums of money from your blog. If you’re able to live off of your full-time income, the blog income is really just extra. If you have a down month when you don’t make as much as you would have hoped, it’s not that big of a deal.

Nice Supplementary Income - Although you don’t have the pressure to produce an income from your blog that can support your lifestyle, you do have the opportunity to earn a very good income from a blog part-time. In my opinion, one of the best reasons to blog part-time is that with a consistent and focused effort you can build an income that continues to grow, even with just a part-time effort. Yes, most blogs will max out at some point on just part-time efforts, but it is typical that most dedicated part-time bloggers find their income increasing. At some point this supplementary income may be enough to consider giving up the day job and becoming a pro blogger, or you may choose to just continue part-time and enjoy the extra income.

Allows for Re-Investment - Blogging to make money is a business like any other. Part of being in business is willingness to spend money and invest in the business. Most bloggers are hesitant to spend any money at all and are always looking for free options. While being careful with your money is a positive attribute, having a willingness to re-invest some or all of your blogging income will give you a better chance of making more in the long run. Part-time bloggers have a much greater ability to re-invest their earnings because in most cases they don’t rely on that income for necessary living expenses.

Pro blogging isn’t for everyone, yet that’s not what you might be led to believe based on the amount of information that is written on the subject. It’s completely possible and achievable to dedicate part-time hours to a blog and build a decent income, and one that should continue to grow with time. If you’re a part-time blogger, which 99% of us are, why not embrace your status and recognize the benefits and opportunities that are involved.

Some Tips for Part-Time Bloggers:

1. Have a Plan - Especially for part-time bloggers, having direction is critical. Do you want to eventually earn a full-time income from your blog? Are you happy just to earn a part-time income? Of course your plan can change over time, but it is important to have a plan of where you want to go with your blog and what you need to do to get there.

2. Use a Schedule - With fewer hours available to spend on your blog, you’ll need to be as efficient as possible. In order to achieve maximum efficiency you will need to schedule your time to assure that you’re working on things that will produce results, rather than just wasting time surfing.

3. Don’t Spread Yourself too Thin - Many of us face the challenge of directing our efforts in the right areas. You probably have ideas for several new blogs you’d like to start or other online methods of making money. Avoid the temptation to take on too much at one time. You’ll have better results, especially with limited time, by focusing your efforts and building a successful blog before adding anything new. Be realistic with yourself about what you can handle and what you simply don’t have time for.

4. Approach Part-Time Blogging as Asset Building - Having a part-time job isn’t always fun. Many times there are other things you would rather do with your free time away from your full-time job. Part-time blogging is really all about building an asset. We’ve seen from the blogs that have been sold in the past that part-time blogging truly is asset building. Whether you want to eventually sell the blog or keep it, the blog is still an asset to you. When you look at your blogging efforts as asset building you’ll see more of the long-term benefits and payoffs and you’ll focus less on the hours that you’re losing for other activities.

5. Re-Evaluate Your Goals from Time-to-Time - Most likely when you first started your blog you had some goals that were slightly different than they are now. That’s a natural occurrence. As you learn about what’s involved with running a profitable blog and about the opportunities that exist, you may change your mind in some way about the direction that you want to take. It’s a good idea to occasionally sit down and evaluate why you are dedicating your time to blogging and where you are hoping to go with it. If your motivation has changed, don’t be afraid to make changes in your approach.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Are you a part-time blogger? How do you see the opportunity for earning a part-time income and where do you hope to go in the future?