A Business in a Blog … Step-by-Step
I don’t plan to post a lot of articles from the newsletter here, but I think this one will be especially helpful to folks looking to get started.
It gives you a complete “business in a blog,” with business model, step-by-step instructions, and multiple revenue streams. Everything you need to download, where to get it, and what to do with it.
And it’s designed for real people, not professional online marketers. Very little time, technical expertise or money required. You might take a little while getting skilled at some of what you’ll see (and you might pick it up immediately), but none of it is hard, and all of it is stuff that will be useful for many years.
If you already know how to register a domain and install a blog, you can just scroll past a big chunk of it. And, whether you have any interest in the specific example or not, I recommend reading this carefully. There are parts of it that will help you with a lot of other businesses.
“A Business in a Blog”
After the article a week ago, I got a few questions on the specifics of using Wordpress as the backbone of an online business. So, we’re going to show you exactly how you can do this, even if you have almost no budget.
Mind you, it won’t look cheap at all. And this is a great process to use to test ideas, since you can get the whole thing up and running in an evening, and you can pack a bunch of them on a single low-cost webhosting account.
Yeah, yeah, I know. When it’s making you money, THEN you put it on something higher end.
Sheesh.
For our example, let’s take something unusual: A professional organizer. Not a community organizer, but one of those people who teaches folks how to eliminate clutter and get their life back under control.
A clutter coach.
We’ll call her Karen.
We’re going to assume that Karen knows her stuff, that nobody online knows that she knows her stuff, and that there’s money in letting lots of people know that she knows her stuff.
In normal people terms, a professional who is unknown online and wants to build a reputation and a clientele.
Some further assumptions might be that our intrepid coach:
- Doesn’t want to spend a lot of money until she knows that she can make it back.
- Doesn’t have a lot of time to put into it.
- Is not an especially technical person.
- Would like to develop her own products, to add income streams in the future.
Any of those sound familiar?
If you already know how to register a domain and set up a blog, scroll down past the “technical” part. If you don’t, you may want to print this out, so you have a hard copy checklist.
Okay. The first thing you’re going to need for this is a domain name, and you want to make sure it’s a .com. I checked about 20 names with clutter in them, and they were all taken, so I switched gears.
TheChaosCure.com is available. (Probably won’t be for more than a few minutes after this goes out. Never tell anyone a good domain name if you want to keep it.) (It wasn’t. It was registered within 20 minutes of my hitting the “send” button on that issue.)
So, she’d register that. $8 to $15, depending on which registrar you choose.
Note: That’s not only a good domain name, it’s a good product name. If you can get a domain name that fits something you might later name a product, do it.
Try to think ahead. It’s cheap and painless, and it can open all sorts of opportunities for later.
Now, you get web hosting. I like Dreamhost.
There are tons of hosting sites out there, of course. You want to look for one that gives you a decent amount of disk space (several gigs, for this idea), and preferably one that lets you host multiple domains on one account.
You want one with a control panel. CPanel is good, but almost any control panel will do for your purposes.
You should be able to get one for $10 a month or less, which will be fine for getting started.
Note: DO NOT register a domain through your web host.
Long explanation. Just save yourself the trouble later and don’t do it.
Now, this part will sound technical, but it isn’t all that bad. First, add your domain name in your webhosting account. That will be easy to find. It will usually be under a tab labelled Domains or Add Domain.
Then get the nameserver information for your host. It will be something like:
ns1.example.com
ns2.example.com
Log into your account at whatever registrar you chose, and find the page for changing/setting your nameservers. That may be under a tab called DNS, or it may be labelled something like “Change your nameservers.”
Enter the information, at least 2 nameservers, and click Save.
You’re done. You’ve just bought and set up a domain. Within anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, your domain should be accessible in your web browser.
That wasn’t so bad, was it?
Okay. Here’s the “tricky” part.
Log into your webhosting account again and create a MySQL database. Just find the page for it, and enter a database name, database username, hostname (not necessary with all systems) and password.
Click the button to make it happen. (Usually Save or Create.)
Make sure you write all that info down.
Go back to the main page of your control panel, and look for a tab called 1-Click Installs, Goodies, or something similar. You’re looking for the button to install Wordpress. When you find it, make sure it’s creating the blog in the root directory of your new domain.
Some installation systems will want the information you wrote down about the database at this time. Others will need it later. If they need it, there’ll be spaces on the install page asking for it.
Click the button to make your blog.
The page that comes up when you’re done should give you a username (usually admin) and a password. Write those down. If that page doesn’t tell you what to do next, check your email for a note about that.
Now, when your DNS has propagated (that’s the few minutes to a few hours I mentioned earlier), you should be able to load your domain and see your shiny new blog.
But… YUCK!
Those defaults have got to go.
The main way you change the look of a Wordpress blog is using a theme. You want one that’s search engine friendly, to increase your traffic.
To get an idea of what’s available, Google the phrase “SEO Wordpress theme,” without the quotes.
For our organizational specialist, take a look at the top theme, PopBlue, here.
Much better. It’s clean and uncluttered which goes with her line of work. She can add a logo later where the existing graphic is, and it’s got a professional feel to it.
To install the theme, click the download link and unzip the file. It should unzip into a directory with the same name as the theme.
Upload the entire directory with your new theme in it to (in this example):
thechaoscure.com/wp-content/themes
Log in to your blog’s control panel (admin and whatever the password was), and click on Design. You’ll see the new theme there. Click on it.
At the top of the control panel screen, you’ll see a button that says, “Visit Site.” Click that, and… Voila!
Now you’re cooking.
By the way, there are literally thousands of free WP themes available, and quite a number of low-cost ones. Spend some time finding one that’s a good fit.
There are tons of things you can do to make a blog more productive. That’s an entire course. I’m going to recommend one here that I believe you should do with any blog.
Download the SEO Title Tag Plug-in.
Unzip it and upload the entire directory it’s in to thechaoscure.com/wp-content/plugins
In the upper right hand corner of your blog’s control panel, you’ll see the word Plugins. Click on that and activate the title tag plug-in.
Follow the instructions that are on the page linked above. This will put the title of your post BEFORE the name of your blog in your pages. You’re much more likely to get search engine traffic if your keywords appear at the beginning of the title.
A note to the WP geeks in the house: Yes, I know that you can do this in the current version by editing the PHP code directly. I’m not going to try and explain that to folks who are new to blogs.
That way lies insanity…
Now, there’s one more thing you have to do for this little project. Download and install an audio player for your blog. Two that you can use are CoolPlayer and Anarchy.
The CoolPlayer looks nicer, but Anarchy is easier to install and use. Look at the demos and take your pick.
Download it, unzip the files and upload them, just like before. Then activate the plug-in.
Save the destructions.
Okay. You experienced technical folks can come back into the room now.
There are a few other things you’ll probably want here.
The first is a way for people to sign up for a list. You can look around for a free list hosting service, or just do what you’re going to do in the long run and sign up for a paid one from the start. (The free ones are a nuisance.)
I recommend Aweber. They’re who I use.
If you’re comfortable with setting up scripts, or know someone who can do it for you, you can also use phpList, which is free and pretty dependable. If you go that route, though, back up your lists often.
You need a way for people to send you money. A PayPal or 2Checkout account is fine.
Go to FreeConferenceCall.com and set up an account.
Okay. You’re in business.
If you went with Aweber, you’re spending under $30 a month for this. If you had someone install phpList and show you how to use it, you’re spending $10 or less a month.
If you got the kind of hosting account I recommended, you can add future businesses like this, complete, for the cost of domain registration.
Try that with a Chinese restaurant.
Okay. Some quick steps.
Clean up that blog. You’ll want to either remove the blogroll entirely, or rename it and put in links to some quality affiliate products that relate to your field.
Create an “About” page that tells who you are and what the visitor can expect to gain from using your site. On that page, remind them just how painful their situation is. Remember, you’re talking to people who’ve come online looking for solutions to their clutter/chaos problem.
Write 3 or 4 short, clear articles with simple techniques they can use, right now, to start feeling more in control. You’re not looking to completely solve the problem with these (as though you could), just to make them aware that they can.
Do not post these to your blog.
Stick with me here. It starts making sense Real Soon Now.
Now, make a list. You want 3 causes of the problem (why they create it), 3 symptoms of the problem (how they know they’ve got it), and 4 things they can do to start getting control of the problem (how they get rid of it).
Get a microphone and a copy of Audacity (free audio recording software). Record a short - 5 to 10 minutes - audio on each point. Save them as MP3s.
For each of those, write a brief summary that tells what it covers. Upload the first audio. Post the first summary to the blog, add the “More” tag, and insert the code letting them play that audio, using whichever plug-in you chose.
Inserting the “More” code, by the way, is as simple as clicking the right button in the post editor after you’ve added the text summary.
So, when someone visits your site, they’ll see a description of something they’ll find useful. If they’re interested, they’ll click on the button to get more. At that point, they’ll see the familiar controls for an audio player, will click play, and hear you explaining it to them. “Live,” as it were.
Starting to make sense?
Now, write up a very brief bit of text, telling people why they should subscribe to your list. For this project, it can be as simple as:
To be notified when we add new audios and articles,
and for live teleseminars, enter your email address
below and click “Update Me.”
By the way… If your content is not time sensitive, I’d remove the date function from your posts. People see a date more than 3 weeks old on a blog entry and they assume it’s no longer relevant. With many topics, that’s foolish. But, it’s still true. Take away the temptation.
Anyway…
Post another of these, and then go to EzineArticles.com and register. (It’s free.) Post one of those articles, along with a good resource box, explaining what the reader can get from visiting your site.
Never make a resource box about you. Never. Your readers don’t care. And they shouldn’t.
What’s in it for them?
A side note on this: Articles that start with “How to…” do well at article directories. Another popular title format is the old, “7 Tips for…” Doesn’t have to be 7, just some number.
They get read more, which means more people visit your site.
That’s a good thing.
Once or twice a week, post a new audio segment. Remember, these are short, so coming up with topics should be easy.
Spend a half hour or so each week learning to do keyword research, and write articles to drive traffic.
You can learn other traffic generation techniques as you go. Once you’ve got the keyword stuff down and can fit them naturally into your titles and content, THEN you can start posting them directly to your blog.
You are only using EzineArticles.com as part of the process. That’s fine, since they’re going to get useful content from you while you learn. A fair trade. In the long run, you’re better off having your work on your own site. In the beginning, EZA will help you to get traffic while you learn.
For the basics in keyword research as it relates to articles, check out Travis Sago’s site.
Once you’ve started to get the hang of it, go to Traffic Travis and download their free keyword tool. That will move you further along the learning curve.
Don’t start with Traffic Travis if you’re new. You’ll get confused, and possibly overwhelmed, by the software.
Learn the basics first.
So, you submit an article or two every week to EZA, and add an audio or two every week to your blog.
Now, set up a survey, listing 10 or 12 different topics that relate to your field. Send your new subscribers to it, asking them which are the most important to them.
Once you have one that’s clearly important to a significant chunk of your subscribers/visitors, set up a page explaining that you’re going to be doing a live teleconference on that topic. Ask them to submit related questions by email, and have a PayPal button for them to pay to be on the call.
Make sure to note that the replay audio will be available for folks who pay and would like to listen to the call at their own convenience. If possible, either record the call yourself, in addition to the recording the conference center makes, or get someone else to do it for you. As my buddy Dan O’Day pointed out to me - stuff happens.
Once they pay, you can redirect them, via PayPal, to a page with the information they need to join the call. Include the date, the time, the telephone number and access code that FreeConferenceCall.com gives you, and any other specific instructions they might need.
Whether they get that information via the web or not, you MUST send them an email with the same info.
Before that call, go play with the conference system. Make sure you know how to get it to record your call, and how to download the MP3 of the recording when it’s done. This is easy, and it’s important.
A couple of things.
You’ll hear people say that you need to wait for some specific number of responses before you can rely on the survey. That would be true if you were putting more into it than a phone call. If the numbers change, you can always do a different call later. In fact, you will do that. Don’t worry about statistics here.
Also, you may be worried about what happens if only one or two people call in. That’s not a problem. You just point out that, since it’s new and people haven’t started joining in big numbers yet, they get more personal advice.
If no-one signs up, you recycle the topic later.
The next question that usually comes up is pricing.
I have no clue what clutter coaches charge. You’ll want to have a page on your site for personal consulting, at whatever you find to be an appropriate rate for your business. I would then suggest something from one quarter to one tenth of that for the live calls.
Don’t go too low. Your time is valuable.
And don’t take those numbers as gospel. Feel free to play with them. Just remember, they won’t (and shouldn’t) pay as much for group time as for individual consulting.
The more highly specialized the information is, and the more difficult it is to obtain, the more you can reasonably charge.
At this point, you’ve got the following obvious potential revenue streams from the site:
- Affiliate products (where the blogroll used to be.)
- Paid group teleconferences.
- Individual consulting.
While this goes on, you’re developing three other significant resources. The first is a targeted list of prospects who want your information. Don’t underestimate the value of that.
The second is a reputation as an authority in your field. You can enhance that by participating in discussion forums where you can contribute as a member, rather than advertising, and by contributing articles to relevant websites and electronic newsletters.
The third is staring you in the face.
Every one of those little audio snippets you’re uploading is one track of an audio course, or the outline for a chapter of a book.
Make sure the text-based articles you post to the blog don’t duplicate the content in the audios. When you reach 20 or so audio articles, “retire” the older ones, one at a time as you add new ones.
Leave the text-based articles to draw search engine traffic.
There you go.
A complete “business in a blog.”
“Mo’ Blog, Mo’ Money”
What you just read will get you all set up.
If you want to get into it faster, and with more advanced guidance, I’ve got something you might find useful. I mentioned it in a previous issue.
It includes a video tutorial series on setting up a Wordpress blog from scratch, preparing it for easy search engine optimization, and driving traffic at no cost and with little effort.
Traffic is going to be your main goal, and the one that messes up more people than anything.
A separate video series shows you exactly how to do the kind of editing and customizing I mentioned above.
It outlines an exact, step-by-step process for creating a whole other type of business, using nothing but Wordpress “blogs,” that can generate a significant and recurring income every month.
It also shows you exactly how to find and contact prospects, along with an approach that can get you a much higher than usual likelihood of success with each one.
That series isn’t fancy, but it’s got literally everything you need to make it happen. It’s all in there.
That’s my kind of “how to.”
There are two PDFs along with the videos that explain the same things in print, along with a few extra details and ideas.
There’s no salesletter for this one. It’s just $27 for the whole thing (about 50 pages of written instructions and 200 megs of video), and it’s got a pretty simple 60 day guarantee:
… you love it or you get your money back.
Simple, yeah?
Have fun.
Paul
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- Pingback: A Business in a Blog … Step-by-Step » TalkBiz News: The Blog « This new feature brings everyone more traffic on November 14, 2008
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The “writing” is the scary part ….
I have only recently started writing stuff. I decided to start on blogs, just like this one. So far, it has helped get over the fears involved with that nasty word … “writing”!
What exactly are your fears of getting started? Rejection? Humiliation?
Totally “excellent” post Paul! Concise outline of just what you need to do to get started with WordPress to earn some moolah!
I’d like to add a couple of resources if that’s OK:
1. also grab Open Office - a free “office” suite of programs. It’s a big download, but a really useful feature is its ability to export your word docs to fully functional PDF - great for those free reports or transcripts to interviews etc.
2. re WordPress themes - Brian Gardner has just released a whole new series of “revolution” themes (all of which are pretty cool, and easy to modify for the technically minded) and the good thing is that they are now open source - ie free to download and use (a paid support option is available, but not necessary). If you want to take your theme learning to the next level… these will help a lot.
Cheers
Stephen
@billcarrington I’m working closely with a new client right now setting up a brand new wordpress site to help promote her online (almost adult) catalog site…
Her biggest problem right now?
Nerves! And sceptical!
She’s worried about the learning curve and not knowing what to do next - and that’s DESPITE my being plugged in and providing the step-by-step assistance she needs :)
She just doesn’t know WHO to trust to provide her with the right sort of information after her recent “experiences” with wannabe SEO experts, Adwords consultants ($300 last month for 80 clicks and no sales), and a web-master who won’t let her access FTP or even web stats (@ $100 a month!)
You’d expect her to be very sceptical… considering the amount of money these people have extracted from her since May this year… and to have NO pages listed in Google five months later… tch! tch!
Hi Paul,
A make up artist friend called me just after I read this.
She has less work than usual…
So I thought that we could do exactly what you say here to change her fortunes.
I told her I will set it all up for her and guide her, and that all the content is down to her.
I will keep you posted!
George
PS I just tweated this post…
Hey Paul,
Great post. Great methodology.
Can you point me to a date of the ezine that had the info on the “offer” you mentioned in the last part of the post ?
I’ve got your ezine archived for “several” years and would like to go read that one again.
Bill,
An excellent idea, writing public comments to get over fear of writing. Thanks for that concept.
Stephen,
You can always add resources, sure. Especially good ones like that.
Mike,
Thanks for the pointer to PowerPress.
For those who haven’t seen it, PowerPress - http://www.blubrry.com/powerpress/ - is an audio plug-in that seems to be much better than the two I mentioned above. An excellent resource.
The offer I mentioned in the newsletter is the same one at the end of this post, by the way.
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for the blueprint and resource links - it was just what I had been looking for. Now I can finally start building a foundation to earn from being of service. I appreciate your helping a fellow Pennsylvanian.
Best to you,
Bill
Paul, the people at Blubrry also suggest (right down the bottom of the page) to try WP Audio Player if you want more configuration options - specifically colour selection is the one I use with that to match the theme of my blog :)
Hi Paul,
Great content, as usual, and great to see you blogging again. It’s so much easier to browse through your musings on a blog than in my In-box.
By the way, I really appreciate the link to my blog in the sidebar! Thanks. :-)
Paul, you’re absolutely right! Set up my blog last night thanks to your step by step instructions. Struggled a little with uploading files. But messed around awhile and figured it out. Can’t thank you enough.
Debbie
Hi Paul,
Great post — I stumbled it.
Quick question:
For someone who is a techno-beginner & hates doing that part, does your product also explain how-to creat the audio part via audacity and how to get it onto your blog?
I wasn’t sure if that’s what this sentence is referring to “A separate video series shows you exactly how to do the kind of editing and customizing I mentioned above,” or if that’s just referring to the blog set-up.
btw, I have a blog, but haven’t done audio yet.
Love your ideas!
Thanks,
Linda
Linda,
That reference is to customizing the blog itself. Audacity comes woth instructions for its use, I believe. If not, there are a ton of third-party tutorials out there on it.
Paul
Hi Paul,
How are you today? I hope all is well. I am wondering if you can see that I visited your blog when I just come and look for new comments or reply or if you have a new post.
On the dashboard, a screan your blog gives me when I logg in I can see some stats, even with names of the person who left you a comment.
I just went to look at a feature but I was not sure I could leave you a message there eventhough I could see your post on it, I still had the idea that it was just an example.
Maybe my questions here are a bit weerd, but I didn’t have to logg in at blogs before and now I do encounter more of them.
Greetings,
Deana
Deana,
I’m not sure what’s up with the dashboard showing when you log in, but it doesn’t give you access to any of the controls, so it’s a few steps down the “fix it” list. ;)
Making people log in to leave comments is going to become more and more common, as it’s one of the most effective ways to cut down blog spam.
Paul
Okay. This is extremely cool. John Taylor has outlined a very cool (and simple) system for turning your blog into a paid membership site that you really want to check out.
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/37370-my-15-membership-site-blueprint.html
This fits extremely well with the techniques in this post.
Paul
John,
Thanks. I also linked to your WF post on the membership plug-in. An excellent fit for this system. Appreciate the pointer.
Debbie,
Glad it was helpful. I’m even more happy to see someone taking and running with the ideas.
Linda,
Nope. It shows how top edit the blog files, not create audio. There are a ton of tutorials out there for using Audacity, though. It’s pretty simple.
Paul