business blogging

As an entrepreneur and business owner, my property investment principle is simple - although perhaps not everybody agrees with me :) - Stay away from big cities!

It’s apparent that staying away from big cities to smaller cities nearby is in trend, for several reasons - to move out of big cities, to buy second home or to invest in property.

If you are interested in US properties, especially in skiing and resort area, one of the best real estates is in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Why Breckenridge?

Consider this feature - with the completion of the newest lift and lodging at the resort, Breckenridge will become even more popular and attract tourists and investors alike.

Just for info, the newest gondola has completed all connections for the four peaks that make up the ski area, spotlighting Breckenridge for its outstanding winter sports.

Real estate Breckenridge - prices is increasing steadily, with plenty of room to grow. Demand and population growth are high.

The high demand and population growth will only mean one thing - expect the property values to go up rapidly.

The above statement is backed with the following information (according to realestate.yahoo.com):

• The population of 2,731 with 13.5% annual growth
• The median age of 33 years old
• The median income of $48,715
• The population density of 552

From those statistics, Breckenridge shout ‘healthy growth and room to grow’.

In my opinion, the tipping point of Breckenridge property value is on November 9th, when the Breckenridge Ski Resort will be opening. At that point, you will see the property value in Breckenridge increase dramatically.

So I suggest you to consider investing in Breckenridge Colorado real estate earlier than that date.

If you are an entrepreneur keen in real estate business, consider Breckenridge, Colorado. Just make sure you choose the right real estate agent :)

Ivan Widjaya
Not investing in big cities

I’ve started falsely before and learned the hard way about the importance of domain name for your blogging to make money online.

Like most others, I started out at Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. I love the feeling of starting out of nothing for my make money online journey by blogging - especially if I can earn money out of my blogs.

However, I finally understood that I’m not building assets.

If you blog for money, your blog is a real business - treat it like one

If you are keen to blog for money, you have to realise that, just like other businesses, you have to build both cash flow and asset.

Free-hosted blogging might be a great solution for blogging for cash flow at nothing down, but not for asset building.

Yes, your unique content is yours and it is an asset, but what would happen if your domain name is not? In fact, your domain name is belong to the free blogging service providers.

Just like in the offline world of business, your blog’s asset is not only product (in this case, content) but also brand name - a.k.a. domain name. Not having a domain name is like having a business without a unique brand name.

The proof that domain name is an important asset

Just try to list your blog for sale in online marketplace. No matter how much you make, you won’t get any offer - even you will get scolded by the marketplace visitors! I’ve seen it before, so you can trust me on this :)

One excellent article that also chime the importance of having your own domain name and host the blog yourself is Make Money Blogging: Host Your Blog on a Custom Domain Name.

The blog owner, Alan Liew, really learns the hard way by not having his own domain name. He also states that not only his blog’s domain name belong to Blogger.com, but also he can’t sell the blog if he decided to do so!

That’s really unfortunate, because in my opinion, his blog, Money Maker Info, is one of the better make money online blog out there on the Net - unique and interesting articles, with exceptional income, I suspect ;)

The only action plan - get a domain name, host the blog yourself, and start creating outstanding content

What to do now?

As suggested above - the only action plan is: get a domain name, host the blog yourself, and start creating outstanding content. The rest will eventually come to you as long as you blog consistently and resiliently :)

Ivan Widjaya
Make money online

It is darn hard to create money out of blogs - that includes this blog :P

Bloggers are well known for free content providers. Bloggers are also known as being generous when it comes to providing valuable information. However, bloggers are not known for money makers.

Only a few of us that can make real money out of their blogs - Yaro Starak, John Chow, and Darren Rowse to name a few that earn the title of probloggers - that is, those that have authoritative voices in blogging world.

Bloggers - Hidden Champions?

I’ve visited blogs with excellent content, but not monetised well. But I’ve also noticed that more and more of them are trying to monetize their blogs, with a small success.

Here’s how I observe them - I observe what a blog can do financially by visiting Sitepoint Marketplace often.

There, you will find websites, which some of them are blogs, listed for sale. Some of them are mediocre, but some of them are exceptional.

The good ones I’ve seen has made anywhere from $50 to $1000 per month.

Not particularly a bad earning for a blog, but given the potentials that blogs have, I firmly believe that blogs can do more financially following the right path to go.

A million dollar blogger - good possibilities to be one?

I’ve recently stumbled upon Yaro Starak’s interview with one of the problogger in Australia’s automotive blogs, Alborz Fallah. His automotive blog is among the leading blogs in Australia, and has been valued by certified auditors for 5 million dollars. He raked in $30,000 a month about one year ago - so, go figure it yourself how much he makes nowadays :)

Just make sure you read his post and listen to the interview podcast, then you will see a simple, yet powerful, perspective of blog monetization.

Saying this, I am a total noob in blogging - I’m still at beginner’s stage of blogging. I swallow all information on make money online.

I do business online, as a noob, this past 5 months, and I learn a great deal.

One lesson that keep me faving on online businesses is that you have to take action out of what you learn. Those bloggers giving you tips for free are no rubbish! They know what they are talking about.

Perhaps not like what you are thinking of online business, make money online is actually not that complicated.

What will probably fail me and you, is our determination to stick to what we have been doing. 95% people trying to make money online fail because they stop digging right before they strike gold.

So, in conclusion, yes - being a million dollar blogger is possible, if you do the right things, keep doing them, and on the right time, at the right place. Then striking gold is suddenly not that hard anymore - if you succeed, people will go to you offering something that will only make you even more successful. This is also Alborz Fallah’s case.

The question is, do you think that being a million dollar blogger a realistic thing to achieve?

Ivan Widjaya
Aiming to be a million dollar blogger.

This is a simple question but hard to answer.

In fact, I run a thread since April 19, 2008 about it at Webmaster-Talk.com.

To date, there is tens of valuable responds that open up a new perspective about monetisation in blogs. Here’s some of the posts in the thread (some posts are shortened to the summary).

My thread starting post:

Hi guys,

This is a simple question but hard to answer. I blog because I interest in it. But since my traffic grows, I start thinking about monetising my blog.

At first I’m torn in the middle. Now, I’m sure I blog because I want to, while, in the process, seeking opportunities to monetise it.

Share your thoughts…

Cheers!

Some fine posts from forum members:

I used to be that blogger that chucked ads in your face. Now I have become more experienced, and now know that I want to create a site for my visitors, with tasteful ads on the site that are beneficial to my users.

Nope. I go to my day job for money, I blog to express thoughts that occupy my brain. And, when I’m lucky, I get feedback from smart people on those thoughts.

Not really, at least not initially. I started blogging because of an interest in blogging and a subject matter, but it took awhile to find my sweet spot. I blog for two major blogs… and make money off of it, but I never envisioned my future to head in that direction.

Really, my blog brings me clients, work, and all else that goes with it. That’s why I enjoy blogging — I have an audience, and I really enjoy it too.

I think the important thing is not to bog just for money. You should blog about what you’re passionate about so that your enthusiasm for the topic comes out in all your prose. If you continue to do that, you’ll continue to grow a reliable readership and continue to increase your monetization opportunities.

The route I’m taking for optimization is one of showing my skills and offering services. If you can become an expert on a domain through your blog posts and blog offerings, that’s when you can really make the buco bucks from becoming a “consultant.”

My main reason for blogging isn’t monetary. I pretty much just write/rant about random things. That’s not to say I won’t put any effort into making some money. It can’t hurt to try - as long as you don’t have ads all over the place raping my eyes, I think it’s just fine and dandy.

To conclude what the bloggers think of blogs monetisation

I believe that bloggers that start with the wrong motive (i.e. blogging for money) will end up as bloggers that:

1. Will never earn substantial amount of money, or
2. Will stop blogging and neglect the blog.

I had a blog that started with this wrong motive - I blogged because I wanted to earn money, not providing readers with useful content. The end result: I stopped writing on the blog and abandoned it.

I also believe that bloggers that blog on their interests will end up as bloggers that:

1. Will eventually monetise their blogs sucessfully or
2. Will stay as fundamental bloggers that treat blogs as log books and journals.

Just to note, 90% of the thread posters believe that blogging for interest and blogging for money can coexist well, and all started as interests that (hopefully) will eventually creating a stream of revenue for them.

Bloggers are still independent journalists at heart :)

Ivan Widjaya
Blog for the love of blogosphere

If you read blogs a lot, just make sure you visit BloggingMix.com.

To me, it’s some of the better, plain truth, blog about blogging.

No, this post is not a pay per post or paid to blog thing :) It’s my real personal experience in my visit to the blog.

Rocky or Rocai, the man behind the blog, really do a good job - very intriguing blog posts and, again, simple and plain truth.

While some other bloggers provide the usual and mainstream hints and tips on blogging, this blog really put things in different perspective and challenge you in your face. Reading the posts makes you say, “ouch!” - a lot - in a good way.

I found many posts are actually helping me in developing this blog and in growing me as a better blogger. His how-tos and lists-of-something are gold - original and you can’t simply find them anywhere on the Net. His reviews are fun to read and give you the right direction, like his recent take - I Didn’t Find ProjectWonderful Wonderful At All.

I truly recommend you visit his blog, BloggingMix, and profit from it to better you at blogging.

Ivan Widjaya
Plain truth blogger

I’ve visited lots of business blogs - most are very interesting, but some are plain awful.

I mean, in my opinion, you can’t use free blogging services such as Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, etc. to post a few search engine optimised, keyword rich, sales articles and tons of affiliate links - and leave the blog out there waiting and hoping for someone to trip over the blog and buy something out of the links provided. That might actually works, but to me, it’s not ethical.

Business bloggers have to be ethical in their posts and articles, to make the blogosphere (the blog universe) a better place to live. The following is your guide to blog for business, the noobpreneur way:

1. Don’t pull feeds from other sites or blogs, and put it in your blog as your source of posts and articles, so that your blog’s content looks ‘fresh’ - start writing, not pulling.
2. Original blog posts, please - even a ‘hello everybody. Nice to meet you…’ is better than a great article that can be found on other 1527 sites on the Net.
3. Should you find interesting news on the Net and decided to put it on your blog, put the except, not the whole news - and, oh, blog on the news, will ya - don’t just copy and paste it. Better yet, put the news as an URL link, and blog on it!
4. Stay on your blog’s topic - I wouldn’t post about my dog’s eating habit in this blog.
5. Tag and categorise your blog posts well, so that your readers can find what they are looking for easily.
6. Reply on comments - not replying will make your future readers think that your blog is not owned by a human being.
7. Cite your article sources well - not doing so is actually considered as plagiarism.
8. When you eventually decide to use articles from article portals, such as eZineArticles.com, read the Term of Services - are you allowed to edit the articles or the resource boxes?
9. Don’t pay someone to fave you in social bookmarkers - and any other similar acts.
10. Watch your lingo! Consider your target audience demographics - sex, age, etc. Also, different cultures will interpret a statement differently from each other.
11. If your blog is for public consumption, blog accordingly - otherwise, set your blog private and don’t index yours in search engines.
12. You blog for your readers and communities - not for the search engines! Writes good blog posts, not ones with weird sentences loaded with your business-related keywords.
13. Your blog is not your sales page - Blog about your product, not making a sales page as your blog.

The most important, ethical, guide to blog the noobpreneur way: Stop looking for what to blog from the Net, log off your blogging account, turn off your PC or laptop, go outside and get a life! You will be amazed knowing how many things in a day you can do and experience - then, blog on it!

Ivan Widjaya
Ethical business blogger

Related posts other people has read:

BloggingMix.com - Plain Truth Blogging

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Are You Blogging for Money?