1. How to get a blog set up for $10 plus the cost of hosting.
2. Where to find cool affiliate programs to promote.
3. How to get content for your blog without wearing your fingers to the bone.
4. How to promote your blog without going crazy.

Pshew. All that in four days.

Now, this goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m no Superwoman, and I don’t expect you to be Super-Human either. These are steps in the process, and step 2-5 are ongoing, so I don’t expect to get them all done today. You’ll work on those as long as you keep your blog.

So, please don’t get overwhelmed and go nuts trying to do everything in one week. That’s certainly not my goal. Take your time, reread the last few days worth of posts and just soak it in. Then get started.

On to the final step in having a MONEY-MAKING blog. It’s time to talk about setting up a mailing list/ecourse/ezine/online newsletter. Whatever you want to call it – you need one.

Why? Because having the ability to email your visitors enables you to bring them back to your website again and again and again. The more they come back to see you, the more they can get to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you and buy the products and services that you recommend. Otherwise, they’re like Vanilla Ice and are a one-hit wonder.

I know it’s a bit overwhelming, but consider this…

Sally comes to your blog, reads a bit, clicks through a link and then disappears forever.

OR

Mary comes to your blog, reads a bit, likes what she reads, signs up for your newsletter, comes back week after week, and forwards your newsletter to friends, tweets about your newest blog posts, and becomes your #1 fan.

I choose option #2! I want all my blog visitors to be “Mary”, don’t you?

ok. We’ve established that you need a list, but … ecourse vs. newsletter. Which to choose?

Personally, I really dislike tedium and commitment (so why on earth did I commit to three months of posting daily on blogs?) So, rather than setting up a newsletter that runs forever, I tend to lean towards an ecourse.

What’s the difference?

Well, an ezine or newsletter is normally sent weekly to your readers, and is full of information. (For an example of a great newsletter, check out www.hillbillyhousewife.com )

An ecourse, on the other hand is a series of messages that are sent via autoresponder starting with #1 and ending with the last one. For instance, I mentioned yesterday about my ecourse www.webtrafficbasics.com – well, that’s a series of about 30 messages that are already written. If you signed up yesterday, you’ll receive message #1. Those who signed up six months ago are probably receiving message number 20 about now, and those who signed up last year have gone through the entire course. See the difference?

You can choose whichever you’d prefer.

BUT… (here’s the big BUT) – make the list very very (did I mention VERY) targeted. Do not set up an ecourse entitled “Tips for Moms” please, because that spans way too large of a crowd and you’ll never quite know who you’re talking to. Is it the mom with the newborn who needs sleep or is it the mom needs to know how to talk with her teens about touchy topics like drugs and sex? There’s no possible way you can keep them both happy by sending “Tips to Moms”. If you try to make them both happy, neither will be. Trust me. Been there. Done that.

In fact, the more targeted you can make your list (or lists) – the better. If you’ve got a cooking site, are you talking to college students, new moms, large families, or even grandparents? Are the people looking for fast, frugal, gourmet, or diabetic recipes? Unless you’re very specific before you set up your ecourse or ezine, again, you’ll end up missing the mark.

So, what next? Geesh. This is kind of a hard topic to cover in one puny blog post. Let me point you to some resources that will help you to learn more.

Sign up for this really good free ecourse on the topic www.ListProfitSystem.com by my mentor Jimmy D. Brown. He’ll ask you to buy his full list course and I do recommend it, but either way, grab the free report and read it and reread it. It’s quite good.

I also have a very basic free ecourse about newsletters, that’s pretty sorely neglected, but has good info for beginners here: www.ShowMomtheNewsletter.com You’ll get a better picture of list-building basics by starting there.

ok, guys. That’s really the steps to starting a money-making blog. It just comes down to doing it and doing it again… and again… and again.

Add content. Promote. Build your list. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then, after you’ve done that awhile, take a break to assess. See what’s working. Adjust. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

And, most importantly, take everything that you’re doing now and consider that you’re learning ON THE JOB. This one website does not need to be your be-all, end-all saving grace, and it may not be. But, everything that you do is teaching you internet marketing skills, and also helping you to realize that you can do this!

Thanks you again, to Melissa, of FrugalWAHMsTalkRadio.com for inviting me to guest blog here. I invite you to follow the rest of my Rock Star Blog Tour this summer, because YOU are a Rock Star, too!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS.  CONGRATULATIONS to the following ladies. They won just by commenting on my tour blog posts the last week.

The winners from this week chosen from all commenters by Random.org are…

Sonya Smith – Choose the report from www.SRZone.com that will best help your online business. ($15 value)

Mary Blackburn – A copy of www.EasyArticleMarketing.com – a course that I co-created with Kelly McCausey to teach you how to promote your online business with articles.  ($27 value)

Email my amazing assistant, Tracy, at tracy@getawayvirtualservices.com for download info.

Except, it’s a long process..and truly a balancing act.

The whole point is that you want to find a niche where there isn’t tons of competition but that does have a decent amount of searches in a given month. The ratio?

You want to find something with less than 200,000 results on the competition side. And I found a few of those.

But then, using the Google Keyword Search Tool I would plug in what I thought was going to be My Next Big Thing and realized that the search number was too low. Over at The Niche Blogger, it’s recommended that there are at least 1500 monthly searches for your keywords.

No dice on that one. Every single one of my brilliant niche ideas were shot down due to lack of searches.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

It doesn’t mean it can’t be done – because it can! You can definitely find the right balance and find that niche!

With mine…I was concentrating on specific keywords because I was thinking along the lines of what subdomains I could create that would go hand-in-hand with a particular domain name I already have (and that I’m not doing a dang thing with!). (And…if you’re scratching your head at the subdomain mention, I’ll tackle that in another post).

So…back to the drawing board for more niche ideas with the right balance between competition and keyword searches.

I can’t stress enough that if your blog is about business only, people will come, scan the contents and leave.

If your blog offers information that is helpful, people will continue to come back and continue to read. Your goal should be to get regular visitors to your blog.

People do business with those they tend to know. If someone is visiting your blog on a regular basis, they begin to feel like they know you.

Once you have a blog, how can you attract others to come to your blog?

1. Write some articles and use the blog URL in your bio. Write the articles on the topic of your blog. For example, one of my blogs is a parenting blog. I write articles about parenting and in the bio, I include the URL of my blog. Submit these articles to a few popular directories.

2. Run a contest on your blog. Give away one of your company’s products. This allows you to introduce your product to readers and to bring in many new potential customers. Submit your contest to any of the contest websites out there. I can get up to 1000 visitors from one contest. I ask them to please look at my site and tell me something, either a favorite product or something they’ve learned.

3. Join a blog carnival that is the topic/theme of your blog. If you do a web search for “blog carnival” you’ll find many. I’ve seen some carnivals attract over 1000 participants. That’s a lot of potential traffic for your blog.

4. Make sure you have links to your direct sales business on your sidebars. I use both text links and a button link on my blogs.

5. Offer link exchanges with other blogs that are the same theme as your blog. Remember you’re not just selling on your blog, you’re offering valuable information. By exchanging links you’ll attract even more visitors to your blog.

6. Make it a point to comment on at least 10 new blogs every day. Very often when you comment on someone’s blog, they’ll comment on yours too.

Blogging is a wonderful way to build your direct sales business if done correctly. Try the above suggestions and see if your team begins to grow.

Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant

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