The plan for Blogsolid
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 8:17 am
To keep it short and to the point:
I will try to turn Blogsolid into a mainstream blog about blogging and make money in the process.
Goals for the next 12 months:
- Double the traffic
- Monetize – by November 2010 Blogsolid will be making over $500 a month.
Goals for the next 24 months:
- Quadruple the traffic
- Monetize – by November 2011 Blogsolid will be making over $1500 a month and the whole project will break even.
Is it going to be easy? – NO
Is it possible? – YES
It will not be easy
It’s not the best niche
“Blogging about blogging” and “blogging about money-making” niches are probably the most difficult on the web. There are many prominent blogs here with massive audiences and huge experience. Running another blog on the subject is a little like opening a martial arts school across the street from Bruce Lee’s. Building a brand name is close to impossible.
Also, there are thousands of small-to-medium blogs which try to compete, what takes away a lot of long tail search traffic.
But that’s why I chose Blogsolid. I want to see if I can make it. If I do it here, in the money-making niche, it means anyone can do it anywhere. It means that there is still plenty of room for bloggers to find success. It means that it’s not to late.
I am not a native English speaker
I live in an English-speaking environment since quite a while but English is not my first language. This poses a serious drawback. I spellcheck my posts, proof read them and all, but still – errors will happen. Also, what is probably more important, my posts might not flow as nicely. Odd grammatical structures can sometimes appear. This might discourage some readers.
It is possible
There is still room for more blogs
Even though there are many blogs about blogging out there I believe there is still room for more.
The internet is a living thing. Many bloggers abandoned blogging or seriously reduced posting rates in the last couple of years/months (Skellie, DoshDosh, Caroline Middlebrook and others). Probably in the coming years similar things will happen to other, currently active blogs. This opens a window for new bloggers to step in and take over.
I am not starting from scratch
Blogsolid is an established blog with significant readership and good backlinks. To take a new blog to where Blogsolid is would take at least half a year or even more. I do not have to do this. I just have to continue. keep my eyes on the ball and I will succeed.
I am not a newbie
I may go a little over the top here, but I actually think it’s very important – this is not my first blog and it is not my first website. I’ve been working on the internet for many years. I have experiences to share and have my own point of view.
I will not have to learn to make money from a blog in the process of blogging so my posts should be of use also to those of you who are on the web since quite a while. This blog will bring a new perspective. These will not be rewrites of Darren Rowse or Shoemoney.
Time I will to dedicate
Blogsolid is not my only venture. I will not be able to give it my full attention. This would actually be unfair. My goal is to check if an average person, which has $2000 to spare, can in a reasonable period of time turn a blog into a day job. Those of you who are blogging in their spare time, after work, would not be able to do as much as I, if I worked on Blogsolid days and nights.
I will post more or less 2-3 times a week. From my experience, such rate is sufficient to keep good contact with the audience and not make them to tired of your constant presence.
On top of that, I will:
- respond to comments
- develop and grow blogsolid
- promote (occasional guest posts etc.)
In all, I will aim for Blogsolid not to take more than 4-8 hours a week for the coming year. This should be sufficient to meet the goals I set for myself.
Watch me do it 
I will do everything in front of your very eyes.You will see step by step how I try to grow Blogsolid and turn it into a big, well known blog.
To give you a detailed view of the return on the investment in this blog is, I created a spreadsheet in which I will log month by month the costs and time dedicated to it. I will also log revenues when they start.
The spreadsheet calculates:
- the net result month by month,
- the incremental result which adds all the results from the beginning of the project,
- for those of you who are more into finance, it shows the present value of the investment.
You might notice that I rate myself at $25/hour. I chose $25 to represent more or less an average hourly wage in the developed countries. I did not look for any stats to support this but it gives earnings of around $48,000 per annum (40 h/week) so should not be too far from true. If your rate is different, you can change it for yourself to see how the investment would work out for you.
Do you think I can make it?
Now that you know what my plan is, stick with me to see how I put it to action.
I also wonder what are your thoughts on my chances. Let me know!
Jasha Says:
December 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
ok, the roadmap you’ve planned looks like a war path, you will have to work hard to achieve results you have planned but as it is pretty obvious from last 2 posts (and as you remarked) you’re not a newbie and experience is key in such things! I Believe you will be able to achieve your goals, on my side i will be following your work and your improvements.
I wish you good luck and i’ll be waiting for some great content.
Matt Says:
December 12th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Jasha,
Without a great goal there would be no fun and no challange.
Sü Smith Says:
December 30th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
You’re doing an awesome job here. I am amazed that English is not your native language. I’m a native English speaker and still have issues as far as writing goes. I look forward to watching your updates as things progress.