Is It Too Late To Start A Successful Blog? – Part 2

Last week I raised concerns about whether it was too late to start a successful blog. (Please remember that I am determining ‘success’ as a blog that provides you with a full time living).
 
Have we missed the boat already, or is it still possible to start a blog from scratch and make a full time living from it?

Unfortunately in last weeks post, I actually tried to address 2 issues; the first being ‘is it too late to start a successful blog?’ and the second – ‘what makes a successful blog?’ 

Fortunately I have realized the error of my ways and will endeavor to answer both questions, but in separate posts! 

Today I want to discuss the initial question. Is it too late?…

Based on my own experiences with running websites, researching successful blogs and reading articles related to this question, I have gathered some interesting conclusions.

The Right Mindset

Basically I think running a successful blog is no different to running any other type of business. It’s all about having the right mindset.

New websites and blogs are launched every second of every day. Not all of them will become successful. But the ones that do become successful do so because the owners treat them like a business and not a hobby or a part time venture.

If you treat your blog as a business then the whole process becomes more defined, more structured and ultimately far more successful.

Your mindset and the way you perceive your blog, is probably the single most important factor in having a successful blog.

Before you even begin to start a blog, like any business, you need to have the answers to some crucial questions.

If you can answer the majority of the questions below, then you have sufficient grounding to start running a successful blog: 

1. Why this business? Why do you want to make a living from running a blog and not any other online or offline business?
2. What subject have you chosen and why? – Are you passionate enough about your chosen subject to call it your business?
3. Is there a demand/market for your chosen blog?
4. What is your Unique Selling Point?
5. How will you make money from your blog?
6. How much money (profit) do you expect to make in the first year? Second year?
7. How many hours a day/week are you prepared to devote to your blog?
8. How much money do you have to commit to your blog? – Initial set up and ongoing monthly commitments.
9. What are your goals for your blog? – How do you see it developing?
10. Where can you get help and advice with your blog?

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but they are questions you need to ask yourself before embarking on a new business. Your blog should be treated exactly the same.

If you have an idea for a blog or you’ve decided on the topic but have not fully committed yet, I suggest you spend a day or two doing some basic research.

This will be time well spent and should provide you with most of the answers you need before starting out.

Once you’ve completed this initial research and have enough information to answer the questions above, you should know whether you have the makings of a successful blog.

Blog Business Plan

Like any business you should have a Business Plan for your blog. It may sound very formal and stuffy and pretty darn uninteresting, but it is a strategy that has worked well for my own websites and I see no reason why the same principles should not be applied to a blog.

You can do a search for ‘business plans’ to get some idea of what goes into starting a conventional offline business. Running a blog shouldn’t be any different.

Conclusion

If you can establish a business mind set for your blog from the outset and answer the questions above, then I cannot see any reason why virtually any blog can not be successful.

Building from a solid foundation has got to be the initial goal and like any business, it is going to need many different ingredients to make it function successfully.
 
I now want to research the ‘how tos’ of running a blog and find out what contributing factors goes into making one blog more successful than the other.

Peter