internet

Most people start a blog because they enjoy writing, but steering a blog forward and making progress and, more importantly, making money is about much more than this.

A ship needs an engine and that's what a writer is.  You produce post after post driving your blog forward and determining its speed.  However, as important as speed is, there is also the question of direction.  If you want to make a mark with your blog, attract a large and loyal band of readers and in the process make money then you need to understand this.  As well as an engine, a blog needs a captain to steer the blog and determine where it's going.

Let's see how much of a Captain you are:

1. Can you state with certainty the direction your blog is going and what you will achieve in terms of money and readership in a year's time (without simply saying you want more of it)?
2. What's your policy for making money from advertisements or affiliate programs and explain how you have optimised the adverts and the blog content to attract the most money and the most clicks
3. What steps do you take to attract and monitor your reader's habits and what steps are you taking right now to increase your readership and make your blog more attractive and traffic worthy?
4. What is your policy for posts and how do you control both the quantity and the quality and what is your timetable for posting?
5. In what way have you made sure that your blog is as interactive as you can make it - both with comments and things like polls?
6. Explain what steps you have taken to optimise your feed
7. Finally, when did you last compare your blog against the competition and make some changes as a result?

If you have an answer to these questions then your blog is healthy and on course for the big time and in a year or so you will have substantially increased both readers and the amount of money that the blog can produce.  This is the way to drive a blog forward and to have a goal at which to aim.

If you're not sure about some of these questions then take time out now to think about them and begin to formulate some answers.  Once you have the answers then your blog will have a direction and it's much easier to reach a goal and to make money in the process if you know where you're going.

Tags: blogs, internet