This document provides guidance on how to build a blog and generate income from it. It recommends having a clear purpose and niche for the blog, treating it like a business by blogging regularly and professionally, and focusing on both content creation and promotion. Specific tips include creating an editorial calendar, partnering with other bloggers, using various promotional strategies on social media and elsewhere, and generating revenue through advertising, affiliate marketing, or selling own products/services. The overall message is that consistently applying business practices like planning, marketing, and monetization can allow a blog to become a profitable side business.

1. Build Your Own Blog And Create A
Side Income

2. MMSpark.com Resources….
Freebies & Guides
12 Top Social Media Tips
Mmspark.com/mmfreebie
Information packed webinars
http://mmspark.com/webinars/

3. Are you blogging for fun or to build your
business or create a side income ?

4. Are you one of the 3.9 million “lifestyle
bloggers” who blog to support a flexible,
family-friendly lifestyle?

5. Do you blog for money and fame or is it a
way to express yourself?

6. Is your mission to help others, share your
personal experiences or connect with a
like-minded community?

7. If the answer to any of these is YES! then
you need to build a blog and treat it as a
business

8. If you treat your blog as a business you can
achieve all of these

9. And get your blog to pay its way

10. What could be better than that?

11. Why Build Your Own Blog?

12. There are something like 181 million blogs
in the world, up from 36 million only five
years ago

13. According to stats from Blogger.org:
 81% of bloggers make less than $100 a year
from their blogs
 9% are lifestyle bloggers
 8% earn enough to replace a salary and support
their families
 The remaining 2% make over $150k!

14. So, if you’d like to be in the 17% of bloggers
who mean business with their blog and
generate a profit keep watching

15. Remember, if you’re not making money from
your blog, it’s not a business it’s a hobby

16. Follow these 4 Steps To Build A Blog
That Will Earn You Money From Home

17. 1.
Plan for Success

18. Firstly, understand why you’re blogging and
what you’re trying to achieve

19. What does success look like for you?

20. Being clear on your goals and motives is
crucial to success

21. Are you blogging to create a side income, to
replace a salary or to create a luxury lifestyle?

22. Or do you want to make enough that you can
work from home, be available to pick the kids
up from school and enjoy the freedom and
flexibility of being your own boss?

23. Perhaps your goal is to support a worthy
cause or help others in your community

24. Whatever your “WHY” be clear on it

25. Who Are You Blogging For?

26. Be laser-focused and clear on the market
you’re serving

27. Blogging as a business isn’t about you it’s
about the market you serve

28. Having said that one of the great advantages of
blogging is how you personalize your writing
because people like to buy from people they
“know, like and trust”

29. So, focus on how you serve your market,
but inject your personality into your blog
posts so you stand out

30. Having a clearly defined “niche” (a narrowly
defined segment of the marketplace) will help
you focus your marketing message, the topics
you write about, your communication style and
how you promote yourself and your blog

31. For example, blogging for work at home mums
is very different to blogging for professional
photographers or organic cheese makers

32. Blog Planning 101

33. Once you’re clear on why you’re blogging
and who you’re blogging for create a
simple 1-page plan

34. Write a plan for how often you will update
your blog, how you will promote it and
retain readers, and whether you will
feature photographs or video

35. Test out different strategies, see what your
competition are doing and ask your readers
 Do they want daily blog posts or one long weekly indepth post?
 Will your blog posts be a mixture of information to
promotion (80/20?)
 How will you keep your blog fresh, relevant and
exciting?
 How will you engage your readers and keep them
coming back?

36. 2.
Act like a CEO

37. Now that you’re running a business, you
must act like the CEO

38. Take your blogging seriously

39. Blog regularly, be professional and be
consistent with your message, your
style, your brand and your topics

40. Avoid obvious spelling mistakes and use
professional-looking, relevant photographs

41. Get Organized

42. Create an editorial calendar and feature a
different topic or tips and tricks each month

43. Plan your posts in advance and use the
WordPress scheduling feature to queue up
content if you’re going away

44. Or just to streamline your workflow

45. Expand Your Reach

46. Connect with other bloggers and key
influencers in your field

47. Get to know them and remember that
what used to be seen as competition is
more likely potential collaboration

48. See who else is serving your market that
you could partner with and look for ways
to work together for mutual benefit

49. Perhaps consider running joint webinars or
Google hangouts with others providing
complementary services to your potential
customers

50. 3.
Smart Marketing

51. Too many bloggers spend all of their time
writing posts and almost no time marketing

52. Once you’ve got a good base, say 50 posts,
the search engines will start to index your
site and you should start to focus more
time on promotion than writing

53. Keep blogging consistently but perhaps write
fewer, longer posts (one long post a week say,
rather than 2-3 shorter posts) and spend the
rest of the time promoting your blog

54. Get Noticed (In The Right Way)

55. Promoting your blog is about
omnipresence and standing out

56. Test out a combination of promotional
strategies and social media platforms and
see which works best for you

57. Syndicate your news feeds, link to social media,
and engage
(with readers, and with other bloggers and
influencers in your field)

58. It’s all about getting noticed, but in the
right way

59. Use plug-in’s and apps to optimize your
blog for the search engines, and automate
the syndication of your content

60. For example, there are WordPress plug-ins
that automatically distribute new blog
posts to hundreds of social media and
bookmarking sites

61. And others that automatically send new
posts to your email list and RSS feed

62. Be Chocolate With Sprinkles

63. How can you stand out? Stand for
something. Don’t be “vanilla”, bland and
another “me too” blog

64. Stand for something you feel strongly
about or take your own angle

65. A great example is Natalie Sisson who’s
branded herself as
“The Suitcase Entrepreneur”

66. 4.
Generate Income From
Your blog

67. Now to the crux of business blogging –
how to create a side income?

68. As part of the planning process, consider three
critical questions
(ideally before you start your blog)
 How will you get paid?
 How much will you earn?
 How can you get paid more than once?

69. Make Money Blogging

70. There are two major business models for
creating income from your blog

71. The first and most common way is to sell
advertising to companies and brands who
want to reach your blog’s readers

72. The more readers you have the more
advertising and sponsorship income you
can generate

73. The second is to use your blog to promote
your business or to sell services and
products

74. You can sell other people’s products and
keep a percentage of the profits (known as
affiliate marketing) or sell your own
products and keep 100% of the profits

75. Of course, with the latter, you’ve got to
create high quality products to sell so I’d
recommend you start as an affiliate and
then move to creating your own products
once your business is established

76. If you the detailed skinny on more money
making opportunities for your blog, check out
my “Make Money Blogging” email course

77. It’s delivered direct to your inbox and you
can start straight away

78. Make Your Blog A Business

79. To make a profit from your blog take a
consistent, integrated approach and you’ll
see it grow into a business you can be
proud of and that will sustain you
financially for years to come

80. If it seems overwhelming, start by doing
something (however small) every day to
promote your blog

81. You’ll soon see results if you stick at it

82. Now you know how to build a blog and
earn money from home, leave a comment
below and let me know the ONE action you
commit to take today to get started…..
(I love it when you share!)

83. MMSpark.com Resources….
Freebies & Guides
12 Top Social Media Tips
Mmspark.com/mmfreebie
Information packed webinars
http://mmspark.com/webinars/