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Critical Blogging Mistake #2
By The Prof | December 28, 2007
Here is the second critical mistake people make when starting a blog:
Critical Blogging Mistake #2: Failure to determine if your particular area of interest is even profitable to begin with.
I can hear the wheels turning in your brain right now.
How do you determine if your blog even has a chance of being profitable?
It’s really easy, actually. It’s just a matter of determining if there are quality products and services with commissionable affiliate programs that are related to your area interest or the focus of your blog (I talk about this in greater detail in my report).
But to illustrate my point (and have a little fun), I am going to use a crazy, off the wall example that is NOT profitable.
Let’s say that you have taken inventory of your interests and the #1 thing you want focus on with your blog and that you are most passionate about is:
Recycled toenail clippings (I told you this was crazy, but bear with me).
If you use a search engine — and search engine — and type in the term recycled toenail clippings, you will find that:
1. There are very few pages that even come up on this topic (I’m shocked that there are any at all). There also very few searches for this topic. But more importantly you will find that…
2. There are no products or services associated with recycled toenail clippings — much less any with affiliate programs.
In other words:
You could blog your little heart out, day after day about recycled toenail clippings and you won’t make a dime doing it, no matter how interested in or passionate you are about the topic.
Fortunately, there are many, many “markets” that do have plenty of products and services you could recommend — many that have affiliate programs associated with them.
So, how can you determine if your interests (what you are going to be blogging about) could be potentially profitable?
It’s easy! Here’s the condensed version of what to do:
1. Take an inventory of all your areas of interest, keeping in mind that you DON’T have to be an “expert” at anything. Put those interests in order of priority. Then…
2. Simply do a search for products and services (that also offer affiliate programs) related to your top areas of interest to ensure there are plenty to choose from AND to recommend for a profit.
While I certainly advocate that blogging should be a “labor of love” and NOT just another chore…
It seems kind of silly to me to spend any time blogging if there is ZERO chance of it being profitable.
But there is still one more critical mistake folks will make on a blog — one involving the products and services that they recommend…
See ya on the next post!
Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Internet Marketing Professor
Topics: Before You Start A Blog... |