Plan of Action

[adum]

Hey everyone,

First of I would like to say that there is a wealth of information on these boards! I spent a few days just reading old posts and have learned a lot.

I have worked on entrepreneurial endeavors in the past, but with limited success (if any). My last project cost me a bit of money, which could have been saved if I had read this book first and TESTED for interest before purchasing any products (even though they were just samples).

Anyways, I think I have found a new muse to work on. I am planning to make a blog which once I get set up and going, will only take maybe a couple hours a day for me to maintain. I already know people who I can outsource for articles too.

I won't get into the specific topic for now, but it is a hobby of mine which I have been doing for almost 10 years now, and I guess I am considered an "expert" at it. I am recognizable in the community of people that also have this competitive hobby. In the past, other experts have tried to sell top information relating to the topic, but failed because it was so easy for that information to be spread.

I am instead going to start a blog and give that information away for free. I figure with my credibility, I can get a huge percentage of the people that also have this hobby to go to my blog where I know I can easily post new information every day. I know I will be able to make money off advertising, I just don't know how much to expect.

I am going to make a WordPress blog. I am not going to outsource this because I feel this is a skill that I really should know, especially when I try to work on other muses. Right now I am planning to teach myself how to make WordPress templates, HTML, SEO, and anything else I will need to know.

I am pretty stoked about this and will post my website when I have it up and running.

I do have one question at the moment though...how do you get advertising on a blog? I know its not hard to put AdSense on, but should I contact companies and offer them ad spots? Or are there other advertising venues similar to AdSense? Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Adam

[tomswiftjr]

Your enthusiasm for your topic is awesome, and it's great that you've found something where you have a lot of credibility and passion. However, be careful not to make the same mistake as last time. Is there way you can test this idea? At the very least, if you plan on doing SEO, it's worth the time to do some keyword research to find out how many searches there are for keywords in your niche and how much competition there is in terms of SEO.

Are there other blogs and sites in your niche? If so, you might try contacting them to ask about their ad rates. That should give you an idea of how valuable the audience is. Looking at cost per click prices for ads on Adwords in your niche will also give you some idea as to the value of the audience.

For setting up your blog, don't overthink it. Get a cheap hosting plan with something like Dreamhost or 1and1 (others may have better recommendations), and use their 1-click installer to setup Wordpress and a bunch of themes. Pick one and start blogging. Writing great content on a consistent basis is the hard part of blogging, not picking a theme. Get started ASAP...you can always improve the theme later. If you really want to go simple, just go to Wordpress.com and setup a blog. Takes about 3 mins, and you can migrate your stuff to your own server in the future once you're ready.

As far as ad networks, I'm sure there are a lot of options, like Adbrite. There's also niche ad networks like the Deck, FusionAds, Federated Media, etc. Some of these are difficult to get into, but you'll get better rates if you can.

Finally, don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to go paid or free. You can do a combination, giving away info for free on your blog to build an audience and trust, and then selling advanced info or even physical products.

Good luck!

[adum]

Hey Tom! Thanks for the response.

I have done some keyword searching, I really do not know much about how to interpret what I find through Google Keyword Tool, but for the "general" niche the Local Search Volume is 673,000 and Globally it is 1,220,000. By general I mean that this is a wide search for my hobby, not necessarily the people that try to be competitive at the hobby. More specific to the competitive nature of the hobby the term yields over 100,000 searches. I think that is a good number?

Nobody that has this hobby has made a blog specifically about it, but there are some websites dedicated to it, though they do not have the credentials I bring. I have sent e-mails out to them, saying that I would like to advertise on their site and to let me know what their rates are and how many people go to their site. Still waiting to hear back, but hopefully this gives me a good idea of what to expect.

I know I could start the blog right now if I wanted to, but I see no real rush. I am a college student on summer vacation right now and I am trying to educate myself more, so I see learning HTML and everything as a good thing to know. It will only take me a week at most and they are skills that will help me in the future too.

I think I am going to use BlueHost for hosting as I've heard they are easy for setting up WordPress. I used GoDaddy in the past and was able to install WordPress without problem, but I want to try a different host to see if I like them better.

I am actually planning to sell stuff once I get a following with the blog...I am thinking of making a DVD to sell or even something simple like t-shirts. I was initially thinking of creating the DVD before I thought of the blog idea, but by doing the blog first I will be able to create a huge market for myself.

Finally, thanks for the ad networks, I'll check them out. Also, I am not quite sure how to test different website names. It has been a few months since I read the book and I am sure it says what to do. However, I think I recall the testing being on Adwords and I really do not plan to advertise the site via that resource (it is a blog afterall), so I guess my best bet is to just talk to people that share the hobby and ask what they think.

[sadu]

OK, a few notes, which largely echoes what was said by Tom...

A blog will only generate ad revenue after you have traffic, and that only comes after you have content that other blogs have linked to.

If your site is covered with ads from day one, people won't want to link to you, so the idea doesn't work. It's a far far better idea to create the blog, post the content, build the community, and only place ads once you have a decent traffic volume. There is no point scaring people away for the sake of $5 a month in ad revenue. Much better to start with a clean ad-free site that looks nice, and people will feel happy about linking to. Getting others to link to your blog is everything. EVERYTHING.

I don't rate ad revenue at all, unless you have loads of traffic. There are much much easier ways to monetise the site (eg selling stuff directly), and if you already have credibility in the field this will make it easier.

You should launch the blog as soon as possible, with the bog-standard Wordpress theme if you have to. Start posting content as your top priority, and let the search engines see that you are posting content. It's gonna take time for Google to trust you, so get started now. You don't have to tell your friends about the blog just yet, but you do need to get something online. As previously mentioned, it's a piece of cake to wrap a new Wordpress theme around your content later on, but get that content in there.

I wouldn't get too caught up with HTML etc for now. Let Wordpress handle that for you, and pay someone top make some tweaks to a theme if you need to. The heart of the blog is the content, and initially, you shouldn't be outsourcing this. You want to start of with a smaller number of high-quality posts so that people and search engines don't write off your new blog as rubbish or spam.

Definitely get your own domain name. If you are going to be spending time promoting something, you want it to be your own (as opposed to a subdomain of blogger or wordpress).

[adum]

Hey Sadu,

Yeah I am planning on having just AdSense on the website to begin with. I do feel eventually though that ads will be important just because of the specific hobby that I will be blogging about. It lends itself to advertising.

I just thought of the name for the website so I am going to register it and get started now, at least getting the blog set up and everything. The .com is taken already by some company that sits on domains, but the .net is available so I am going to snatch it. Do you think it is a big deal if I do not have .com? Should I try to buy the .com from the company?

EDIT: Actually does anyone have recommendations as far as places to just register a domain? I don't want to sign up with BlueHost just yet as they have a 3 month minimum which would cost about $70 total and they don't let you move your domain for a whole year once it's on there...I am cheap and don't want to commit to that.

Thanks,

Adam

[sadu]

Godaddy is good and cheap for domain names, just try to avoid buying any of the additional crap they try and sell you throughout the process. And I think someone already mentioned Dreamhost for hosting which I can also wholeheartedly recommend.

Don't ever sign up for hosting where they don't allow you to move your site / domain - serious quiestions need to be asked as to why a company would have a policy like that.

[srday3]

We checked out Tim's referral: www.domainsinseconds.com, and it looks good to us. We haven't finalized our registration yet, however.

[srday3]

We registered our domain name yesterday with Domains in Seconds! Very pleased with their service offerings, and we'll be moving forward quickly from here.

SO EXCITED!!

[kamakiri]

With wordpress, you can pay $10 a year to use your own domain name. That is the way I started. As you grow and learn, you can migrate to your own server any time.

Focusing on "WordPress templates, HTML, SEO, and anything else I will need to know." is easier said than done. Making entertaining blog posts can almost be a full time job in and of itself. Play to your strengths and outsource the rest.

My first attempt at a blog lasted 8 months of 2-3 posts a day. I learned a ton, but only made 2 cents off adsense. One of the most popular blogs in that niche is written by a buddy and it took him two years to get that first $100 check from google.

No reason to get the blog up and running today, but you should start writing articles. Make a reasonable goal (10 articles or so), then start up the blog and keep them in reserve for when you are busy with other persuits. See how long it actually takes you to get one article researched, written, proofread, and publishable.

[adum]

Just wanted to pop in and give an update...

Site is totally up and running. It took a while to get everything formatted, but it looks awesome and have a few different ad sources implemented already.

It is a site that I really need a partner to run it with, so a I am doing it with a friend, but vacation time has not given us a chance to really work on blog posts. We made enough posts so that we have 1 per day posting until he gets back from vacation. After that we will be able to discuss things and really get things rolling.

I will post the URL eventually, I am going to wait until there is more content on it and I get ranked better in the search engines.

[adum]

thought i'd give everyone here a look at my site. built it myself, took a while but i am extremely glad i didn't outsource because I now know how to make sites with wordpress.

www. .com (no spaces, just don't want this coming up on google)

[No Mondays]

Build up your audience, Then you can contact advertisers and offer them space. Even if it's a couple hundred that's better than nothing, Good Luck