This is a guest post by Bilal Ahmad who blogs at Techmaish. If you like to showcase your guest post at Shoutmeloud, do read How to become guest author at Shoutmeloud.
Of course blogging is a business, and every business need an effective plan. Whatever is the nature of the business, that doesn’t matter but there should be a plan. Business Plan describes the current status of an existing business and provide guidance for future forecasting. Thinking about the Past will not make your business successful, if you want to establish your business then you must think about the future. As said by a well know author “You can never plan the future by the past”, so keep in mind this popular Quote and start an effective business plan for your blog.
Business Plan bloggers
Business Plan for Bloggers
1. Mission
The first thing you should ask from your self is that what is your mission. What exactly you want to achieve, and what are the available resources that can help you in achieving your goal.
As a blogger your goal is ‘Profit OR Earnings” and for that you must first think about your Vision. You should know about your readers, their nature and there needs. If you fail you might be heart-broken, but if you never tried you are doomed.
2. Brand Name
Branding your business is the most effective step in a business plan. For example just look at to the brand name of this blog that is “ShoutMeLoud”, now this is what you must think about. First brand your blog with a name so that your readers can use your brand name as your reference.
3. Goals and Objectives
Of course your goal is to earn as much as you can, and establish your brand name just like “Problogger”. You will not make money, if you fail to divide your goal into objectives. Find all the available platforms that can help you in your blog promotion. Divide time for every objective, For example Posting Time, Promoting Time, Correction Time etc and then Resource Allocation that is which platform you should use first for your blog promotion etc.
4. SWOT Analysis
This is one of the most important step for a business. As a blogger you must point out S= Strength, W= Weaknesses, O= Opportunities and T= Threats related to your blog.
Strength:-
If you think you have a particular ability and you are expert in that, then this is your strength. This will give you a brand name in that field.
Weaknesses:-
If you think you are weak in any area, then try to over come on your weaknesses. In this way you will get extra benefits and you will be able to utilize all your expertise.
Opportunities:-
If some one is giving you free domain or hosting, articles, advertisement package etc that is opportunity for you. OR if you thing there is some thing available for your which can help you in your business, then point out all those ways.
Threats:-
If a business has more competitors, need more struggle and you want to compete with that business. There are the threats for you. If there are some threats for you if you start a “Blog” on a topic, then don’t go for that. Point out all the threats and then make a decision.
5. Financial Plan
Without finance no one can start and promote a business. During developing a business plan (For Blog) you should thing about your budget. If you start your blog with a cheap Web Hosting then it will not be effective for your blog. Starting a blog with reputable Web hosting like HostGator will give you a lot of benefits. All such decision are only possible when your budget is high and you are in position to afford high quality services for your blog. Effective Business Plan depends on your budget, the high budget will give you more effective business plan for your blog.
Article by Bilal Ahmad
Bilal has written 4 articles.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post…really cool. I love to think of making a blog like a business.
Great post
if you treat your blog as a business it will pay you as a business.
Hey Bilal,
These are solid tips bro.. !! 1 and 4 are really awesome :0
Thanks for sharing this great post.
Thanks,
-Dev
Dev@ Thanks for your appreciation.
actually, i do the last step first….i make a financial plan and then go for other things
Great.. This Article has boosted My Self Confidence Yaar. I had just started Blogging & Surely will apply all these ideas. A must read for all new Bloggers.
Thanks Bilal Ahmad for the Post.
Your plan and tricks is really awesome.Without plan anyone cann’t make a successful man.So thanks for giving tips.
Very interesting information. It is easy to blogging but it is very hard to blog for business.
Because Blogging is business nowadays. I have to much plannings to promote my blog offline.
Good insight. Moreover, the way you have integrated management theories (SWOT) blogging is impressive.
As regards financial planning, you need to optimize your economy and the value that you are getting. Going for say Baby plan of Hostgator when you are sure you don’t need more than a single domain name, or buying a domain name with .info extension just because you get it for cheap via XYZ domain registrar is not wise either. Typically starting a blog shouldn’t take more than $25 if you choose wisely, even with the best web host around, ie. Hostgator. Advertising costs are obviously an optional investment. Thus budget is something which which is niche-specific and goal-specific, apart from the fact that it depends a lot on the guidance you receive.
Just to clarify, in my previous comment, $25 means $25/year, including .com domain and web hosting.
And adding to the Threats part, competition again determines whether you should go for a specific niche not independently, but based on whether the niche market is huge enough.
Techno-Pulse@ All Management theories are about business, and Blogging is a business.
Thanks for your appreciation.
Good information for the basic building blocks of a blogger business plan. Thank you!