F**k Fluff! Here’s the lowdown on starting a blog from scratch and making a lot of money with it.
1. The right market
Where are people spending money right now? What do people in that market desperately want?
Use the tools below to find out fast:
- Twitter Search: Not enough can be said for the power of this single tool that has changed market research forever. Instant results for conversations happening right now all over the world among millions and millions of people. And I mean INSTANT! Pump your top keywords into Twitter Search and you’ll see exactly how a segment of the web feels about something or a question that keeps popping up. Try this for some fun: “Where do I find a good” Use different iterations of that phrase and you’ll learn a lot, fast, about your potential market.
- Google Alerts: No one talks about this anymore. The newness has worn off with the millions of other instant in-the-know tools out there. But it beats almost all of them for collecting data on hot topics and hot markets.
- Google Reader: Use Google Blog Search for find all the important blogs in your potential market by inputting a few of your market’s base keywords. Then subscribe to those blogs that look high-traffic and thought-leaderish. Then search through those subscriptions for questions that are answered over and over again. First search through Google Reader after you’ve subscribed to every relevant blog in your market? “How to” -Shortcut to finding the best blogs in a market? Search Google for bloggers who have compiled a list of their “best ____ blogs” or “favorite ____ blogs” and type the word “list” in the search as well to return all the blog posts people have made that list popular blogs in your potential market.
There are tons more research tools, but the above will take you far down the road to knowing what people are already buying (those popular blogs? Check what they’re selling already!) I find that people like to take the research thing too far and impress their readers with how many research tools they’ve found. The above is all you need – remember, the goal here is FAST!
2. The right platform
It should go without saying by now, but you need your own domain and the latest version of WordPress on it.
3. The right design
Making money with a blog is done with affiliate recommendations, your own products and services, and generating and working the biggest email list you can build from the traffic you get. Forget advertising and all the micro-money crap. Affiliate revenue, your own product(s), your list. End of story.
So your design should be simple as hell. Become a “professional blogger” with tons of bells and whistles later. Right now you need a template with a big content area, one sidebar, a professional header design and a very noticeable optin area complete with custom graphic, super enticing freebie, and attracttive, eye-catching overall look. Simple Simple Simple!
4. The right content and a lot of it
You want to launch this puppy with at least 10 posts. Something new visitors can sink their teeth into. And your first post on this blog should be comprised of content worthy of a paid product. Nothing less. It needs to scream quality. It needs to compell other bloggers to link to it. You need to make all the “up and coming new bloggers” lists possible with this launch.
Your giveaway needs to be the same. People don’t give up emails for nothing anymore. Not intentionally, anyway. Put serious thought and work into your giveaway offer made to people who opt in to your list. RSS is fine, but you need AWEBER to build both RSS readers AND list members you can mail anytime with a high deliverability rate. Don’t mess with anything else.
All of your content, from your posts to your optin bribe piece, will come from the market analysis above. Answer the questions people are asking in total desperation or deep desire with your content. Save the rest for your product, but give away a LOT of value above what everyone else in the market is doing.
5. The right launch
You need to plan your new blog’s launch properly. No one launches a blog. Everyone just limps in with a post and hits the social sites immediately trying to get some traffic. WRONG!
Already you are building at least 10 freakin’ killer posts. You’re also building the most killer optin bribe ever imagined. This is part of your launch. Pre launch. You are preparing to EXPLODE on the scene. Not limp around looking for handouts like a stray dog in a trailer park.
Explode on the scene by prepping all the bloggers you’ve made connections with on the date you plan to launch. And have as many bloggers, friends, family members, associates, and the sisters of ALL those people reader to talk about your blog on the same day.
6. The right monetization
In the beginning you are building the buzz. You are getting subscribers and regular readers. And you are prepping for the first promotion you are going to do to this budding list of yours. I strongly recommend a product of your own here. But I also said we’d be doing this fast, and products take time to develop. Put that at Stage 2. For now, we’re going to sell something for someone else and make a commission.
Go to Clickbank and find the products most targeted to your “peeps.” (Yes, you have peeps now.) Find the one that is the most popular, and review it.
But don’t just write about it. Buy it. Consume it. Tear it apart and find the flaws. And then do a video about the product. You, your camera, your face, and a nice, well lit “studio” you build in your basement or garage. Don’t get too into video production how-to info. Don’t let anything prevent you from making this video in a day. That’s all you get. Take 1.5 days and you’ve failed!
Post your written and video review of the product and mail your list to invite them to check out what you think of it. Your first sale will be today if you’ve been creative and “real” enough in the process. Watch what happens, isolate your mistakes, and use what you learn to double your sales the next time you do this. (Don’t forget to put your affiliate link in the post!)
Recap
Research (fast) ->>> Setup a simple but appealing blog on WordPress ->>> Get graphics done by a pro, also for your optin bait ->>> Content (posts and optin bait) ->>> Launch ->>> First affiliate promotion
Simple is the key. Screw all the plugins for now. Just use this simple guide to plan a new blog, launch it, get a following, and make sales as fast as possible. Don’t promote the thing till you have the pieces in place. And then let it out big with as many people you know talking about it on Twitter, other blogs, social communities, and everywhere else that your target market hangs out.
Think hard about being unique. Different is good. Go places other bloggers in the niche haven’t gone. Develop a character. Be fun. Interesting. Exciting. Controversial. Essential. Relevant.
