More and more people are finding ways to make money from blogging but few pro bloggers are making their money from their personal, general themed blogs. In most cases it takes a blog either with a tight niche or fresh idea to make it big in the blogosphere – but how do you find those ideas? Before reading on you might like to read Part 1 of this series.
3. Dream – Most mornings you can find me at a local cafe for at least for 30 – 60 minutes. The reasons I go there are numerous. For one coffee is an essential ingredient in me thinking creatively (that should almost be a point in and of itself) but secondly I do it to intentionally get out of my ‘Blog HQ’ (my office) and into a different space. I usually leave my laptop at the office and just take a pen and my journal and use the time to dream.
You see I find it easy to fill my head up with wonderful information, observations, predictions and knowledge but unless I put time aside to dream about how blogging could fit with the information I’m gathering the dots may never be joined. Get out that journal again and add to your list of potential topics – what would you love to write about? What would be an outrageous topic to blog on? What type of person would you like to write a blog for? Think outside the box you’ve been living in – open your mind and come up with as many creative ideas as possible. Nothing is too stupid – not until the next stage anyway.
4. Strategize – Get your journal full of Observations, Predictions and Dreams and start doing a bit of realistic thinking on the ideas you’ve got. Ask yourself a few grounding questions and put aside your ‘anything is possible’ attitude for a while (anything IS possible, but sometimes it worth being realistic about the barriers to success). Here are some questions to ask:
• What (how many) other sites/blogs are covering this topic already? Can I compete?
• Is there a niche within the niche that these other sites are not covering that I could concentrate upon?
• How many people are currently searching for this topic (or will be)?
• Who are searching for information on this topic?
• How might I monetize this blog?
• How much would ads pay for this topic using contextual advertising?
• What affiliate programs might work well with this topic?
• Do I have the expertise to cover this topic?
• Do I have the time (and energy) to adequately cover this topic? Will I have enough time and energy in 6 months time?
• Do I know anyone else who might be better at writing this blog that I could partner with?
• Would it be a better idea to submit this topic to an established blog network than to do it on my own?
• Could I generate enough content to comprehensively cover the topic? What sources would I use?
Of course there are many more questions you could and should ask yourself going into a new blog. Don’t get bogged down in strategy but be realistic about it.
