Gateway Blogging has two major facets to it: business blogging and the business itself. This is because the audience for Gateway Blogging is made of two distinct groups: those who already have a business, but need help with a blog, and those who already have a blog, but need help with the business.
I’ve devoted the bulk of the posts here to the first group, the business owners. This post is for the bloggers looking to grow a business from their blog.
Not too long ago I touched upon this subject at Remarkablogger with The Bass-Ackwards Method of Starting a Business from Your Blog. In that post, I only identified one way of building a business out of a blog: freelance blogging.
In the Gateway Blogging learning environment, however, this entire subject is going to be given a comprehensive treatment. If all you have is a blog, you will be shown, step by step, how to develop a real business out of it. A real business could earn you considerably more money than your blog monetization efforts have so far. The initial course for this in Gateway Blogging is called Biz School 101, and the first topic in that course is called “Help! I Have No Business!” It covers the six elements any blogger needs to begin developing a business out of their blog:
- Customers willing to buy
- Something to sell
- A website
- A way to get paid
- A way to deliver what is sold
- Time, money, and effort to make it happen
Each element is then explained in detail. So you see, you do not already need to have a business. Based on the feedback I’ve received so far from people who have signed up to be an alpha tester, many of you do not currently have a business, but you plan to. Gateway Blogging lets you really start at the beginning and work through a detailed, prescribed process so that you can get your business off the ground. The business side and the blogging side go hand-in-hand with Gateway Blogging.
After you learn the very basics, the next step is to employ them to create your business. The courses will continue from there. The next course, in fact, offers more than 15 specific different businesses you can grow out of a blog.
From time to time, I’ll be giving out sneak peeks like this one into the content of Gateway Blogging. Many of them will be even more detailed than this. I might even give away entire topics! You never know, so please subscribe so you don’t miss out!
8 Comments
Great idea. My business will be from my blog so I’m glad you’ll be covering my side of the story. (Blogs have the huge advantage of very low start-up costs).
I think the business side will be a subscription course I will open later this year and perhaps selling other stuff like ebooks and such. So I guess I’ll only be using a couple of the money making options.
It sounds like you are coming up with great stuff. I love free stuff so I’ll keep my eye on any free content you release.
Evan
Since I’ve just started a new blog based on my professional competencies and the industry within which I have made a career, I’ll be all ears as to how to build a business out of this.
David “CrazyKinux” Perry
@Evan - You’re welcome to the free content, but of course the context and the good stuff will be inside the membership area. Gateway Blogging is going to have massive amounts of content.
Blogs do have low startup costs, but, really, so do a great many online businesses. Most of the business models covered in Gateway Blogging have very little additional costs on top of starting the blog itself. The difference is in planning and procedure.
@David - Many different business models can be created out of a blog. A little creativity will take you far past the expected consulting/freelance models and into some pretty interesting places. Nothing wrong with consulting or freelancing, but they can be surpassed. In the membership area of Gateway Blogging these topics will be explored and explained in depth.
I know of people who have become successful by blogging; but this takes skills. People new to having a business, don’t possess these skills and it is going to take some time to learn. This means that many people will not see much money for a while. Can your teachings help people to circumvent having to spend so much time in acquiring skills so that they can have a successful business?
@Lawren - People do indeed become successful bloggers. I’m a successful blogger, but it doesn’t put food on my table or pay the bills. My business does that. My business is based around skills I’ve gained over the years. My blogging skills, along with the work that I’ve done, bring me customers.
A great many people are very skilled or talented at something, and they may already be blogging about it but they haven’t made a business out of it. In the process of making a business out of it, they have to go through the same steps as everyone else. Except that smart people learn from the experience and mistakes of others. Smart people know when it’s worth paying a little money to shorten the learning curve.
If you can’t draw, you’re not going to become a freelance graphic designer, no matter what. But if you have the skills and talent to be a graphic designer, the only thing that may be holding you back is the lack of knowledge of the process of launching and marketing your business. That’s where Gateway Blogging comes in. There’s a lot of information about business, and there’s a lot of information about blogging, but nearly all of it doesn’t address the integral combination of both topics in a way that’s relevant to people who are starting online businesses right now.
So when you talk about skills the way I’m talking about them here, Lawren, then, yes, I believe Gateway Blogging will save time and shorten the learning curve for a person starting a new business. That can only be a good thing.
Hi Michael,
I’m eventually working my way towards this goal on my blog. Thanks for all of this. I like your presentation and ideas. It looks like I will be studying this material for awhile. RSS’ing today!
Ellen
Thanks for your great post. Absolutely very useful for me. Very Excellent. Thanks.
@Edwin - You’re welcome. I think you will be very happy with the extensive material on this subject in the Gateway Blogging course.
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[...] Create a Business Out of Your Blog and Make Real Money is the newest post up at Gateway Blogging. Gateway Blogging is an online learning program I am building right now that will teach you how to effectively blog for your business, which will get you more business and increase your profits. [...]
[...] have great respect for Steve Pavlina, Michael Martine, and Chris Brogan. They are prolific bloggers and are making money directly or indirectly from [...]