Niche Blogging For Profit

There are many different ways to market your home business whether online or off. Most important to remember is not to limit yourself to marketing Internet businesses to online marketing and “real world” business to “real world” advertising.

While many brick and mortar businesses know enough to have websites and possibly online shopping carts, few online businesses expand their marketing plan to include offline advertising.

 Business cards are easy and inexpensive to create. VistaPrints offers cards free of cost – you pay only for shipping. Pass these cards out to people you meet at parties, gatherings, work related events and to people you meet throughout your regularly scheduled day.

Brochures (services) or Catalogs (products) – Depending on what your blogs/sites sell you can display brochures or catalogs in local stores.

Flyers – Similar to brochures except flyers are usually one sheet and contain less information than brochures. You can pass out flyers or leave them in doorways to get people to visit your sites/blogs.

Magnetic Signs – Several business supply stores offer custom signs and letters that are magnetized and can be stuck right to the sides or back of your vehicle. You should keep the wording simple and short but that takes advantage of the most space for your money.

As an Internet Marketer you have to take advantage of every traffic source available. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your customer base ends at your desktop.

When working at home it is important to not let routine tasks suck up too much of your valuable time. Niche  bloggers need to focus as much time on writing and marketing as possible. Answering emails, surfing, commenting on other blogs and networking should be of secondary priority. While those activities are necessary for success, the majority of your time should be devoted to the most important tasks for niche blogging success.

Email – Set aside 15-30 minutes once a day to deal with email. Resist the urge to check email and shut off any automatic email notification.

Surfing - Also known as research. You’ll probably need an hour or so each day but you really should need much more research than that.

Networking- Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Warrior Forum, while helpful for building a reputation, are also major time-suckers. Update or post only when you have something worth saying of when introducing a new niche blog.

While working at home can be freeing it can also be distracting and tiring. It can also be frustrating to friends and family who think you’ve disappeared because you’re working 10-12 hours a day. There are some things you can do (and some that you can avoid) to keep the good parts of working from home and reduce the bad parts.

1. Schedule one time for personal phone calls. There were many days when I couldn’t get anything done all day because it would seem like every friend and relative would pick that day to call me. If someone calls outside your “phone time” politely explain that you are working and will have to call them back.
2. Don’t over obligate yourself. When people hear ‘work-at-home’ what they really hear is ‘home all day’. So expect to get tons of calls asking you to volunteer, babysit, go out shopping, supervise field trips, etc.,etc. Teach yourself to say no- just like you would if you worked outside the home. Your office hours are your prosperity.
3. Don’t be too rigidly set in your schedule. Things will come up, especially if you are also a parent. Repairmen will need to come fix things, appointments may interfere, kids will surely cause distractions. It happens. Don’t be too hard on yourself and consider it a sick day.
4. Not keeping good business and financial files. Records are essential to knowing how your business is doing and make tax time much less stressful.
5. Spend the day in your pajamas. While this might be an attractive proposition to some, I guarantee you will be more productive if you get up and get dressed as if you were working outside the home.
6. Not setting up “work hours” or at least a stop time to avoid overwhelming yourself. When a company is all yours the pull to work on it as much as possible can be irresistible. Unfortunately you end up neglecting everyone and everything else. And eventually you will end up burning out.
7. Investing money you don’t have. Again it can be tempting to sink as much money as possible into your “baby”. Always work to find frugal ways to accomplish your goals without risking the quality of your work or company.

This post assumes that not only do you work from home but that you are also responsible for household tasks and errands and possibly a family.

Working from home is a lot harder than most people assume. When you work outside the home your work time and your home time are clearly defined. However when you work from home sometimes it is hard to know if your next post or the dirty dishes should come first. And sometimes, no matter how many times you tell them not to, children can be distracting and demanding.

So how can you schedule work, home, and play in one day and still get everything done? Beats me, but I have come up with a method that works pretty well.

First I got smart and didn’t even try to schedule work when I knew my kids would be creating chaos. So I clean up, cook, play with the kids and do laundry while the kids are at their most active. This allows me to work on my computer one and off most of the morning while I work on brainstorming and non-computer tasks during the evening when my older children are on the computer and my younger child is in bed.

I also try to simplify my life by assigning certain tasks to certain days. For example I go grocery shopping on Fridays, I do my best to schedule doctor and other appointments on Mondays, and I call my mom every Saturday, etc.

Finally, don’t allow yourself to be too hard on you. Everything isn’t always going to get done, things will be forgotten, deadlines broken.

And the world (and you) will go on just fine.

While setting up a home office depends in part on how much space you have there are certain features that any niche blogger working from home is going to need in order to make their company a success.

First of all you will need a computer with Internet access. You probably already have one or you wouldn’t be considering an online career. If you don’t, however, focus on getting the fastest one you can afford. It would also be helpful if it came with Microsoft Word but you can always buy it extra if not.

Next you should get a computer desk. Look for one that will hold your computer, keyboard, mouse, monitor and printer while leaving room for writing and research materials as well as random office supplies you will need.

If space is limited you should consider getting a 4 in 1 printer/copier/scanner/fax to suit all your needs in the smallest area. In the last couple of years the price of these machines has come down considerably.

The office chair you choose should be comfortable and mobile. If there is anywhere you should spend a little extra money it is on your desk chair. Since you will likely be spending hours sitting in this chair, you want to be sure to get maximum support for your back and legs.

A calender may be helpful for keeping track of your schedule. A cork or dry erase board is helpful for keeping tidbits of information as well as your to-dos.

You will probably want to get a four drawer file cabinet. You will be printing out research material, receipts for web services and other papers related to your niche. Additionally you will collect books and files and all sorts of scraps of ideas and information.

If space allows you may also consider purchasing a bookshelf. Over time as an niche marketer and blogger you will likely find yourself collecting many more than a few books and having them on a bookshelf eliminates the need to dig around in drawers or piles.

Lastly, although no necessary, you may want to have some personal mementos and inspiration do-dads. Being able to draw from something to motivate you forward when you feel like giving up is a good addition to a home office.

When I tell people I work from home, most of them envision sleeping late, working in pajamas and taking long lunches. While I will admit that I have worked in sweats from time to time, I’m usually hard at work by eight am and just finishing up by nine or ten at night. Also I frequently eat lunch at my desk.

In short, working from home is hard. There are a million distractions, people don’t take your “career” seriously and most of the time you’re doing everything yourself. One thing that you can do to both help keep yourself on track and show others that your work is “real” work is to treat your home-based Internet Marketing business just like you would if your were starting a brick and mortar business offline.

Start by writing a basic business plan. Remember that this is for your eyes only and should simply state your objectives, goals and business strategy. Name your “company” even if it’s just you behind a computer. Print up some business cards and keep track of your expenses and income. All this planning and paperwork will do more than just make your business more legitimate to friends, family and any lending institutes you may need a loan from, will make tax time easier, keep organization and expansion a priority and finally allow you to separate work from home more easily.