“Begin with the end in mind.” –Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this blog post at a site called Blog Profit Center that you’re at least somewhat interested in earning money from your blogging efforts.

Why is that assumption important?  Well, there are many different reasons why someone might blog that are completely unrelated to earning income (though they are not mutually exclusive of blogging for profit).  Blogging might simply be a form of creative expression, or it might be a way to share a passion with others who are like-minded.

But if one of your primary purposes in blogging is to profit from your activity, there is one absolutely essential thing that you must determine from the outset— or if you’re far past the outset, “now” is okay, too.

Know your outcome.

“Wait, I thought that we already agreed that I was interested in making a profit from my blog.  Isn’t that my outcome?”

Yes, it is.   But it’s far too general and non-specific to give you an effective focus and to help you achieve that outcome.

I always grit my teeth when well-meaning veteran bloggers, asked for advice from newbies, say:

“Just focus on creating great content.  There’s no point in worrying too much about monetization early on, since you won’t have that much traffic anyway.”

Wrong!

If we were starting a “real” offline money making venture (otherwise known as a business), how would this advice sound?

“Just focus on providing great service (or great products).  There’s no point in worrying too much about monetization early on, since you won’t have that many customers anyway.”

See the problem?

So, since you and I are not interested in running a blog whose profitability is DOA, what should we do?

First, we need to determine the primary way that we plan on creating income from our blog, at least in a general sense (you can always test and adjust specific methods, as you go).

By knowing the general nature of how we plan on monetizing our blog, we can start to shape the style and focus of all that great content so that it can begin to help us realize some of those money-making goals.

Here are three brief monetization scenarios:

1.)  Making Money through Advertising Revenue.
This includes direct ad sales, contextual advertising (like Google AdSense), and affiliate income.

2.)  Making Money by Selling Your Own Products or Services.

This might be your own information products, consulting services or other specialized professional services. Or it may even be niche consumer goods (check out the Crackberry.com blog and their online store).

3.) Creating Income Opportunities by Building Your Authority and Reputation in Your Niche.

This one is a little more nebulous, but it is a legitimate outcome to aim for.  Whether you’re already established in your niche, or you’re trying to build a name for yourself, a well-trafficked blog can help raise your profile and enhance your reputation.  This could, in turn, lead to speaking engagements, new employment opportunities, new business ventures, etc.

The important thing is that once you determine what the desired outcome from your blogging is, you can use that as a guide to help shape everything from the design of your blog to the topics of the posts you write

This should all be in the service of your readers, of course.  The idea is to always maintain a base of integrity and to strive to help others, while helping yourself.  If you’re overly mercenary in your approach, if you’re just out for number one, you’re readers will sense it, and your blog will die on vine.  Then you’ll wind up helping no one at all—yourself, least of all.

Lastly, once you determine what your general method of monetization will be, you should determine what action or actions you most need your blog readers to take that will help you reach your goal.

Sometimes, this is obvious and un-complicated.  If you’re pursuing Google AdSense earnings, you just need them to click on the ads.  Simple.

But sometimes, this is less obvious.   What if you’re promoting your professional services or your info product?  It would probably be jumping the gun to say that you want them to hire you or buy from you.  What’s the next action you most need them to take after reading your blog?

• Is it promoting a post through a social sharing site?
• Is it opting in to your email list?
• Is it subscribing to your RSS feed?
• Is it sending you a private message through your contact form?

What action will take your reader the next step down the road to what you’re trying to accomplish?  Determining this, so that you can encourage this next step, may be the second essential step in building a profitable blog, right after knowing your outcome.

Photo Credit

~Craig

What are your thoughts on this?  What do you think is important to focus on when trying to build a profitable blog (or any kind of profitable website)?