Hey, it's Ivin here, talking about my business blog, and I've been ‘absent' for a while. This post is not going to talk about how I'm back and how I rock, because that'll be kind of vain, won't it?
I am actually here to tell you what I've been struggling with a bit lately in my internet business blog.
Competition is so fierce and even though people know me for having hustling (hard work) as my creed, I realized lately that I've been working hard, but more like a chicken running around with his head cut off.
Aimless and directionless.
A business blog gives you focus.
I have recently started making my business a blog business. Sure, I have a couple corporate clients I build and manage a digital platform for. Sure, I own my own media company where we are ‘testing' a lot of things right now. But what I'm really passionate about is this, typing this post and providing value to other bloggers' experiences online by sharing my struggles failures experiences. Building a business blog.
What I started doing lately, is saying,
Sure, I have a couple big contracts that pay the bills and cover the bottom line, but when I look at it, I'm still working for someone else, I'm not really free.
I would love to write a post and make money, send an email to my ‘herd' and pay for a new computer, build a pool etc. These are things that most of us dream of being able to do, but we're not really doing it. Be honest. Look at some of the income reports of the biggest names among us. And it's not so flattering. They'll tell you so themselves. The Pareto Principle will always be in place and I strive to be in the 20% margin.
So, I told myself this year that I'm blessed to have a couple big contracts, but I'm unhappy, I'm unsatisfied… Because I want to blog for a living, for myself. I don't want to blog on behalf of a company or a celeb, because that's not my voice. I told myself that I am going to make my blog my main business. My personal blog and my publishing blog. Here are the steps I'm going to take and this is how you, can start to focus on your business blog too:
- Set an income goal – Look at your current income (from whatever, your other income streams, your J-O-B) and add to that 15%. Then make it your goal to make that each month. The goal here is to substitute your other income with blog income, freeing yourself to do what you love.
- Stop working for pennies – I have never written a blog article for 1$ or even $5. I didn't bid on an article unless it's $10 – $50. You have to look at yourself as being worth that. And if you're not getting work at that rate, get better as a writer and a blogger. Find a platform that pays well, great commissions – or find a product that pays well. I once sent an email to close to 200 email subscribers. I got paid for every lead and commission for sales. From that one email (and a blog post) I made a cool $300. Not bad right? I put the product I'm promoting on my publishing blog and my entire funnel is shifting that way. If you don't find a golden product like I did, make your own product, even if it's $27 and build your funnel that way.
- Work hard for traffic – Study the gurus like Ana Hoffman, John Chow and Zac Johnson. Not how they make money, but how do they get traffic.If you know how to get traffic you are 80% there. After that you need to learn to target better, capture leads, rule social media and split test. I am focusing ONLY on traffic right now for my business blog, but my experience with building eCommerce sites and products helped me set up all that first before I started working furiously on traffic.
- Target your efforts – I realized lately that it's futile to go for the Basic Blog Tips audience, or the Traffic Generation Cafe audience. These are two of the best business blogs and they already have a guru, someone they trust. So instead, I am focusing on building a system to help South Africans start their own home businesses. There's lots of unemployment and poverty here and it would be awesome to help people alleviate that. So, my goal is to become the guru or go-to guy in South Africa for this. Why? I can speak their language and you can't. You can't play in my sandpit, because I know them, and they can become my herd. So, instead of dunking your bucket into the Pacific ocean, hoping to catch some fish, rather put your bucket in a bath, and your bound to catch a few. You getting this?
A business blog will help you develop and own a brand
I my case my personal blog has become my home. Nobody can take that way from me. I blog there and I'm very particular about what I write there, the quality of the comments and who guest posts there. Because, for me, it's not only if you are the right fit, but is your content the right fit.
My blog(s) has become my brand. My publishing blog, Authopublisher, not only paved the way for internet marketers to make money from publishing, but also broke the way bloggers label themselves as experts and sold them the dream and possibility of becoming a published author. It also sold them on making publishing part of their income model. It was one of the few blogs that pioneered this movement. It got great metrics and became a multi-author blog 10 months into its existence and won an award after one year of it's existence. That's a brand to be proud of.
My personal blog is also a brand, a personal brand. Kinda like JohnChow.com is his personal brand synonymous with blogging and the DotCom lifestyle, like Amy Porterfield is synonymous with Facebook. Mine, I strive to, will be about starting a home businesses. So what do I do? I blog about it and publish books about it, establishing myself as an expert.
A business blog allows you to branch out.
The blog is the home base. It's your brand and base of operations. So, let's say you don't get invited to BlogWorldExpo to do a presentation, or to the Affiliate Summit to talk about the latest trends, or to ePub LA to talk about self publishing. So what? Have your own events.
In 2006 I attended a Blog MOB (Meeting of Bloggers) and because of my success with my blog back then, I was someone, important (to them). Why? Because it was local. I was someone because I was approachable, could be touched and who people could shake hands with. Because of that blog platform and what I managed to do there, I just signed 2 new writers to my publishing blog, because local is better.
So, go out and build your brand locally by doing seminars with local businesses, show them what's possible and sell them services, set up costs etc. But stay true to your goal – to blog full time and focus on that alone. Have events locally teaching people your blogging skills. You may not look like a guru to the followers of Seth Godin, because they have their mentor. But, I bet if you start doing the rounds locally, you'll be surprised at how in awe people are at what you can do and teach them.
I actually just finished research of schools I plan to canvas for leads. Not even in my entire province, just my town and the adjacent one. We're looking at close to 500 schools I am planning to do free blogging courses at and my target is making $2/3000 just from the hosting they will need to get to set it up. I can spend three hours each week for four weeks and it'll still be worth my time. And the cool thing is, you can't do it where I am, you're not from here. I carve out a niche where I CAN be successful and eliminate my competition through locality.
Marketing takeaway.
So, I want to take a quick moment just to sum up some thoughts into actionable bullet points.
- If you are doing work for someone else, you are not working for yourself. Even though freelancing is a great way to start a small business blog, you will always be answerable to someone else. Get to where you free yourself so that if you fail, it's your fault and no-one's going to razz you about it. You just write your next post on your business blog and do whatever you sucked at better.
- Carve your own space for you in the (local) world. I am not reserved in mentioning awards I've won and accolades I may have achieved, because they separate me from the pack. Any professional and guru would do the same, because it makes them stand out and gives them credibility. Claim your territory and own (work) it.
- Think outside the box. Why do you need to do sponsored posts (which pays you peanuts)? Why do you have to do affiliate marketing (and get low commissions)? Be creative in how you're going to earn from your blog (I am also planning to cover local events by blogging live from the premises).
My plan (shhhht).
Let me share with you my simple plan to make lots of money with my business blog and be successful.
- Target a local need.
- Write a couple posts reporting on my observations and how it could be solved.
- Place the posts I wrote on the topic into an eBook and make a report available with which I capture leads.
- Get social with my leads by sending them autoresponder messages, but also being available for them (at no cost) through a support desk, Facebook, Skype groups etc .
- Build a product through compiling information in blog posts and making videos of them.
- Build a proper funnel with one time offers, upsells and downsell for a low priced, high value item. Once people bought from me once, they're very likely to buy again and I can look at building a bigger, better product down the line.
Your Turn.
Did I inspire you? Did I make you angry with my arrogance? Good. Go and do something about it and hustle to make your dreams happen, because I'm tired of reading about how ‘other' people make money from their business blog. Share any thoughts you may have about your business blog, I'd love to hear them.
