ThePissBiscuit.com

To follow up my recent post about Building A Bloggers Business Plan, I decided that today would be a great day for me to get started on my own goals. Now I’ve had a business plan for quite a while now, but to be honest, like most of us… I’ve let other things distract me and taking my own advice. It’s time to focus and monetizing my blog, was one of top things on my list of things to do. So instead of furniture shopping with Mrs. Piss, she let me off the hook to sit down and get to it. After all, I’ve got to start somewhere right?

Pin-Point an Item in Your Bottom Line.

Monetizing is likely one of the biggest reasons people take up blogging. It wasn’t mine, but as you know a business plan is meant to change. I’ve decided that my pin-pointed focus is on improving the monetization of Piss Biscuit. Not become rich, just help it create a little more income.

Considering the numbers of blogs started, to the ratio of them still written on, I’d also say my goal is the same as many others. It’s also the number one reason for failure. Granted, it’s not the only reason, but I’m almost positive that when people realize “it just ain’t all that easy“… they bail on their blogging dreams and return to flipping burgers or filling up vending machines. Reality is for many of us, is that at some point, on at least one of our blogs – We had no visitors, no comments, no money coming in and therefore of course, no motivation.

Let’s skip to the part where we’ve built a blog, earned a little traffic, have some great commentators, and we sort of “forget” all about our initial goals… yeh, bloggers tend to get caught up in the moment too, and even making money can become secondary… blogging has some very addictive qualities… good and bad. Regain control people!

… Now that I’ve got a pretty happening little community, I can sit back and develop my moving forward plan… which is effective monetiztion… at least a little bit! I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “If I got a dollar every time…”. Well that statement couldn’t be more true and there is a way to make that work for you as a new blogger. Offer advertising. Duhhh… I know it’s stating the obvious, but take a look at your blog’s monetization efforts and you’ll see that you could quite possibly be missing out on a few dollars. I know I am, and as a part of my new mantra to make everything I do earn at least a little something, I decided to go to war with PB and see if I can’t get it to earn just a little more. Now all I need is a little focused effort.

Less is More When Setting Goals

Truth be told, making money online is no easy task… not that I actually have to say that, but for the sake of writing a well rounded article, I did any way. LOL. No matter where you are in your blogging careers, I’m sure you’ve run across the likes of some A-list bloggers like John Chow, Shoemoney, ProBlogger, and yes, even my new best friend – Vic from Blogger Unleashed.. uhh yeh… In fact, to their credit, it’s success stories like these that probably account for a significant number of blog start ups. I am not them, and neither are you, so get it out of your head that you’ll be making 500.00 from some silly “What I ate for dinner” review.

Regardless of your blogging background, grasping the concept of less is more, can mean mean life or death for your dreams. New to blogging? Awesome. Start your monetization with something as simple as charging $1.00 a week for ad space… or $5.00… or $10.00… eventually, you’ll be charging what ever you want, and people will pay it! But the value of knowing you’re getting SOMETHING for your effort is worth more over the long run, than any $40.00 advertisement. Yes, even $5.00 a week, for ad space is worth one-hundred times that in motivational value. To me and my action plan, this is the next step in checking one more item off of my list.

We love goals… but only short term ones. Long term goals are the perfect short term excuse. Remember that when you come out of the starting blocks, you need obtainable, reachable goals. Don’t set the bar so high. It’s not worth it.

Figuring Out Your Blogging Market

I’ve always said that this blog’s personality is not one that promotes affiliate products, or does paid reviews. It’s a place to come without pressure to explore the the blog world and listen to the opinions of some pretty groovy people in what I’d like to think of as an unbiased atmosphere. That said, this blog attracts a wide variety of totally awesome readers with a wide variety of interesting backgrounds. Now I understand that I don’t have 10,000 subscribers and I know that I don’t get 150 comments on every post that I write. But I know one thing for sure, and that’s PB has a community. That community is worth something to someone, somewhere. I just need to utilize that awesome attribute, and focus some of my money making attention on putting this blog to productive, profitable use. I know my market… do you know yours?

Accepting Your Blog’s Condition

The last portion of your blogging action plan, is accepting who you are, and where you are today. Self acceptance is pretty darn important. Now keep in mind, that there is a difference between self acceptance, and simply being “satisfied” with where you are. I’ve accepted my blog presence on the web and within the community. I’m not happy with it… and I accept it. I also know that I’m not satisfied yet… maybe I never will be. But accepting the fact that I’m not the biggest dog in the yard, and that I’m not richest man in the sphere, and that I really would love to find the time to redo my blog’s theme… only means that I understand the challenge I’ve now given myself. From business plan to my action plan, I’m confident of my progress.

Alright class, let’s summarize.

Create your blogging business plan

Pin-Point an item in your blogging bottom line

Focus on that item

Create an “Action Plan”

Set yourself achievable short term goals

Figuring out your market

Accepting who you are and what your blog is

Now that is a pretty kick ass list of things that any blogger, of any experience level, can do to improve their blogging agendas. In this article I’ve mixed in my own immediate goal of improving my montetization just so you can see how to apply this method to your own situations. Nothing is easy, so don’t be fooled, but with a little guided effort, even a new blogger can turn a blogging liability, into a blogging asset.

As a side note, achieving these little short term goals is a great way to get out of those blues and get your ass back into gear. It’s liberating I guess, and it’s the high of a lifetime. Without question, this article should give you a little confidence in why running your blog more like a business, is just the best thing to do on many levels. As always, I’d live to here your thoughts… so have at it and comment until your heart is content.