Blogging Startup Step 4: Set Your Objectives

When I started blogging 6 months ago, I didn't really plan what to do with my blogs. As I told you, I have already had three of them and I never really had any idea on how to go about it especially on how to make some bucks from it. Slowly throughout the months that I've been doing it, I learned a few details on how to improve my new endeavor. I improved my layout, read few tips and tricks on how to post, and discovered that blogging can be a business to me. So, I told my self that I would go for it and discover and learn even farther, plan for it and eventually, I wanted it to be my business. So I set my objectives. But before I state my objectives to you, here's a SMART tips on how to set objectives. This is very useful in any kind of endeavor.


SMART Way of Setting Objectives

Specific - state exactly and clearly what is to be achieved.

Measurable - set specific description, amount or anything that would determine that the objectives are achieved.

Achievable - it should be realistic enough, given the circumstances in which it is set and the resources available.

Relevant - objectives should be relevant to the people responsible for achieving them

Time Bound - objectives should be set with a time-frame in mind. These deadlines also need to be realistic.

So here are my objectives:

S- I will put up a blog about how I've started my blogging and the learning experiences that I would make while doing it and will try to make money out of it. The blog would become a user's manual of new bloggers in the future. Therefore every single step will be reported and posted in this blog.

M- Since I am doing it along the side with my IT consultancy job, I am planning to earn extra from it of around $200-$500 per month.

A- I think I can achieve that since I already have an internet connection at home (I just got it two months ago) wherein I can do all my posting and research about blog stuffs like internet marketing and search engine optimization, link building. I have two computers. One desktop and a laptop that I can carry around to blog everywhere. I will join the SEO organization in my area.

R- It is relevant to what I want to achieve. Relevancy is important in blogging. You should be passionate about your topic. You know something about the topic and if you have limited knowledge about it, you are at least willing to give in extra effort to research and learn about it.

T-I started 16 days ago and my realistic target date is after 6 to 9 months before I can achieve the monthly income that I have been planning for.

So that's it. How about you? Can you state to me your objectives? Put it in the comment.

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Blogging Startup Step 1: Discover Your Niche

This maybe hard or simple, depending on how you look at it. But finding your niche before you start your blogging, especially to those who are starting from scratch, is the best thing that you should do before anything else. Why am I saying this? Well, I've learned it the hard way. If your main objective is to make your blog an online diary open to the world, don't think about niche. You can write anything you can think of under the sun. What you did this morning, what time you fed your cat, how long had you been on the shower room, or you can just put in all your family pictures on the pages (I did the pictures :) ). There's nothing wrong with that if your objective is just to share your personal life.

But if your main goal is to MAKE MONEY out of it, you might as well narrow down the topic you will discuss in your posts. Discover your niche. Again the question is why? Because if you want your readers to come back to you, you should find a group of people looking for the same topics, ideas that they will think they will need to accomplish something.


How To Discover Your Niche?

As I've said, it could be easy or hard on your part depending on the things that you know about something. Anyway, to help you out on that matter, here is a list of questions you should ask your self to narrow down your selections:

1.) What are the things are you most enjoyed doing at? Most of the time, this question is more on the hobbies that you're into. For example, if you enjoy computer games so much, you might put up a blog about computer games providing tips, techniques or hacks about any particular game that you have expertise with.

2.) What is your profession or job expertise right now? Example. If you are a good project manager and have handled multiple successful projects in the past, may be you can start your own Project Management blog. Your actual experiences can give good education to your readers.

3.) Do you know details about something and you can do it even your eyes are closed? You should blog about it, other people might need the information that you can share to them.

The three questions I gave you have something in common. They're telling you that if there is something that you can do best, blog it. Everybody has expertise. You just have to realize and figure out what is yours. So think about it. Niche, niche and niche, that is the first step.

I have to add. Your blog will be your business and businesses MOST of the time became successful because of niche determination.

Note about this project: My niche that made me start this project was I already know how to start a simple blog and after a few research, I learned that there's a lot of people surfing the net that have been looking for tips on how to start a blog. The title of this blog should have been "Blogging and Blogger.com for Dummies". I don't want to gamble on the word "Dummies" because it could have been copyrighted and I didn't want to waste time checking it out so I settled with "Blogging Startup... Make Money?". I will stick with the question mark for now, because I'm not really sure if I can make most of my readers earn money on this. I've just had a good feeling about the phrase "Make Money" and I will tell you why in one of my future posts.

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