In the first few months of this blog, I made three posts I called Three Phases of Strategic Blogging:

1. MINDSETTING: The Key To Strategic Blogging
2. BRAINSTORMING: The Flesh of Strategic Blogging
3. ACTIONS: The Life of Strategic Blogging

Within these three phases, I enumerated 10 Steps To Strategic Blogging. I will enumerate them here in case you haven't seen them yet.

1. Determine the Purpose of Your Site
2. Determine the Content Ideas For Your Site
3. Determine Who are Your Competitors
4. Determine Your Audience
5. Determine Your Site Features
6. Determine Your Site Management Systems
7. Create A Timeline
8. Create Your Blog/Site
9. Develop Contents
10. Sustain the Benefits

But before we are doing these things, we must first look at ourselves, our TALENTS and our ATTITUDES. I will say it again: TALENT IS THE KEY, ATTITUDE IS THE DRIVING FORCE of all we want to achieve.

After we came to terms with ourselves, then there is the GOAL, the Goal Setting Activities or the number 1 in the list.

Whew! And why I am repeating these things here?

I think it is the time to revisit the GOAL and of course, if it is needed, RESET THE GOAL.

We oftentimes afraid to go back to our goal because we knew we failed along the way. But, this fear of revisiting the goal, more so, the fear of resetting the goal, will push us further away from our success and we are moving nearer to our impending doom.

I always come across with this: RINSE AND REPEAT. Yeah, it's true. But how?

Here, these are what I am doing.

1. Revisit Your Goal, reset it whether you achieved it or not.
2. Know Your Failures, make a list and arrange them according to severity.
3. Know Your Successes, make a list and arrange them according to frequency.
4. Reward Your Self, take a break and enjoy your failures and successes.
5. Share Them With Others.

That's it for now and thank you for all your time and patience.

Tino

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After I have decided my blogging platform, I started thinking about my domain name.


What would be my domain name?
Why would I want my own domain name?

These are only two questions I asked about domain name but there are other questions that could directly affect my choices of a domain name. Whether I will decide to have my site running as hosted site or non-hosted site, it is very important that I consider the abovementioned questions.

Have you ever wonder the process of naming a newborn child? Or perhaps, a new business? Parents like myself have a great and equally difficult time choosing a name for a newborn. The name will stick with the child in his/her lifetime. For a business, it will be its brand name.

As I browsed the Internet in my quest for ways of making money online, I came across so many important factors that bloggers implicitly and explicitly mentioned in their successful blogs. Here are some factors:

Site's Purposes and Goals

I discerned that all great blog names have something related to their goals. The domain name always commensurate to the long-term vision of the site. I will not be repeating here questions on how I brainstormed the goals and objectives of my site. But, those questions are great to consider if you are deciding for your own domain. I always go back to the strategic goals.

The Niche

Sites within a certain niche oftentimes carry names related to the niche like engadget.com, sitesell.com and hometips.com to name some.

Keywords

In relation to the niche, some successful sites usually incorporated keywords in their domain names like problogger.com (Professionals and Bloggers), AssociatePrograms.com (Associates and Programs), sitesell.com (Site and sell), hometips.com (home and tips), etc.

Domain Names anchored on keywords have some advantages. From the site’s name, readers could already infer what are its contents. It could also help the site gain Search Engine ranking. However, I found out that they shun away from putting too many keywords with the often-abused hyphen symbol.

Branding

Mostly of the successful sites that I visited have their domain names as their brand names. So, it is very important also to consider your future (go back again to your goals) when you decided to use your site’s name as your branded product. Of course, you have to remember that brand names usually are sticky names. Good brand names usually stick into readers/consumers memory. In short, it is memorable and simple. People are so busy today that they sometimes can’t remember long and complicated names.

Traffic

Most sites talking about choosing a domain name leave out considering the traffic or the readers. I found this incorporated only in few sites and among them is a prominent site, Problogger. Of course, the first thing that came into my mind was that whatever name a site have, after considering mostly the factors that I am mentioning now here, it generated traffic.

However, if we could incorporate this factor in our brainstorming for a domain name, we could come up with a better name. Let’s take for an example a loyal reader typing your site name directly at the address bar. If this loyal reader mistakenly typed your site name without “s”, say, “AssociatesProgram.com, then it will land to that site instead of landing to “AssociatePrograms.com” or say, “moneywork-home’ in lieu of “moneyworkhome”

Name Length

Short names are commonly easier to remember and of course, easier to type. Actually, it is okay for you to have a maximum of 67 characters for a domain name but the shorter the better because of the same reasons I mentioned above. However, if you go for a shorter name, try to be unique.

Uniqueness

Unique names could give you some edges against your competitors. For me, I don’t want that I will be the 100,000^th person using that the same name. A unique name is very easy to remember. It is far better if this name could leave an imprint to the memory or picture/image related like this unusually unique name “ForkintheHead”.

Think of the Future

Actually, most established sites adviced to limit the niche of a site if a blogger wanted to establish himself/herself to that niche. A limited sub-niche is good for site contents but a limited domain name could be dangerous. Try to avoid name that is time-bound or geographically bound or content bound. We could not afford to have a domain name that is passé or limited geographically since Internet has no boundaries. We could not afford also to limit the name to “bloggingtips.com” because sooner or later, we will be dealing to some topics that are not confined to blogging only.

Legality

It is good to ride to a name already established. However, we could not afford to be legally liable from legal complications. Try to think of a name that nobody could sue you of using it. Trademarked name is a no-no.

Seek Opinions from Others

It is better to seek opinions from others. They might see some advantages and disadvantages if you seek opinions from them. They might suggest a good name. Why not seek others’ opinions now. Or, present your choices and let them express their views. In this case, you could test the viability of your chosen names.

Some tools you might like to use in selecting a domain name include:

NameBoy
DomainsBot

There are other factors to be considered in choosing a domain name. You might have some ideas. Please share it. You might help others in doing so.

Image: Courtesy of webdesign.com

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

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Before going further with this blog, I would like to pay tribute to one of my blogging friends.

He is an Ilocano Fictionist, a Poet, a Tech savvy and a Webmaster.

He had already published some good literary works in the Philippines. He developed some free and paid templates for Blogger.com. Aside from that portfolio, he is doing some consultancy works as well as engaging in business-The Butterfly Art.

He designed the template of this site. He called it as “Arapaap Template”. Arapaap is an Ilocano term for dream or aspiration. My stop lymphoma cancer advocacy site is using his Premium Magazine II Templates (it is not free, of course) and soon I will be using the Namnama (Hope) Template for my literary blog.

Arapaap Template is designed from his tinkering with Justin Tadlock’s Structure Template originally published for wordpress. All his designs are carrying colors that represent his Ilocano culture. The green is for the lush green nature of Northern Philippines; the earth brown represents the soil to which Ilocano folks referred to as “Ina Daga” (Mother Earth) and the blue color that always represents the abundance of hope.

For all the templates that he already published, one of the good components is its image friendly design. For all those bloggers who would like also to monetize their sites, his designs are also Advertisements friendly. It is customizable for Affiliate Programs.

The name of this talented friend is JAKE F. ILAC. If you are interested for his templates or his butterfly arts, you may visit him and drop some comments at TUGOT or Premium Magazine II or at Magazine Templates.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

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How I chose my blog platform?

I was struck by this question when I was starting out in blogosphere. Answering this question helped me in my decision-making concerning my internet presence and I always raised this every time my friends and I are brainstorming for a possible site/blog.

With this as our staring point, we came out with some other questions to consider while attempting of coming up some answers to the abovementioned query. Here are 5 questions we always asked to ourselves. Of course, there are other questions you might meet along the way. Let us know if you have some other ideas. You might help others with your comments.

What are Our Goals?

I already mentioned some 10 reasons why somebody starts blogging. There are some more but those were only the major reasons I gathered from my friends. We will be conducting a survey to this issue later.

To answer this, I already made a post regarding blog goals or blog goal setting as well as choosing a blog niche.

My friends and I always go back to these basic questions every time we are starting a project like blog site or maybe a business venture.


What is Our Budget?

We always go back to this question.

In every endeavor like blogging (though some are free), we want to know our capital. In each steps of attaining our goals, there are price that comes with it. How far our budget could lead us?

So, we need to measure our steps, vis a vis, with our budget. We need to come to terms to what we can afford just for now. We need to pay for the layout or design (If you are technically gifted, there’s no problem, or some friends are willing to help, pro bono, ha ha!). We need to pay some cash for some site features, the blog platform itself and the domain.

What are the Programs available for us?

It is good to note some lists of available programs/platforms. We need to know the capability and viability of programs that are available for now. We need also to know the future capabilities of programs in our choices.

What Platforms Others are Using?

This question is very important to answer. We could always compare programs according to their usage as well as their popularity and affordability. People will not use it if this is not good for them. Of course, we need to intuitively know the visions of every program if these goals fit with our goals.

Are We Technically Capable?

Of course, even with a good platform, we always question ourselves if we are technically capable/ready of using that platform. Or, are there people who are capable to use that program/platform? Or, are there gadgets/equipments available and affordable at hand for that platform?

These are 5 questions we usually answered while making decision for blog platform. How about you? Do have any good idea? Let us know.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

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Are you satisfied with your blog platform?

When you decide to start your own blog, there are many considerations to be made. From your purposes and goals to what niche you will be into as well as from blog platform to template designs.

Of course you want your internet presence to be relevant and satisfying. And one of the choices to be made is choosing a blog platform. Here are some questions to consider:

1. Which Blog Platform Should I use?
2. Should I use a free platform like Blogger.com?
3. Should I have my own domain and hosted blog?
4. Should I start with the free Blogging Platform and just Upgrade it later?
5. Which Blog Platform is the best?
   

I think you know already what a blog platform is. If you happened to be lured putting a site without knowing this, it is high time to reconsider the platform of your blog now.

There are two categories of blog platform. These are hosted blog platform and non-hosted blog platform. There is a need to determine whether you would prefer a hosted or non-hosted platform. When choosing your blog platform, you’ll need to consider your goals as will as your niche.

A hosted site is one that is housed on the platform’s server like these famous three: Blogger, Typepad and Wordpress. In simple terms, if your have a Blogger blog, your blog is hosted on the Blogger server.

A non-hosted site is a blog that is housed on your own server and this usually a third party host site, which you have paid to host your site. Wordpress.org is a blogging platform but they do not host your blog. You need to have another to host it.

In this article, I will cite some advantages and disadvantages of each platform.

The Advantages of Hosted Blogging Platform

1. A hosted site makes it extremely easy for you to start a blog.
2. Mostly are free, so you do not need to spend up-front. Some ask for upgrade payments depending on your needs.
3. Updated automatically.
4. A hosted platform is usually user-friendly.
5. You do not need HTML and CSS knowledge to start a site. Of course, if you know some of these technicalities, you could customize your blog design like in Blogger.com, in other words, just like this site. (You may not find this site’s template as one of Blogger.com’s Templates but with good friendship, you may get this template for free (LOL). Just let us know below.)
6. A hosted blog platform has a helpful forum.

The Disadvantages of a Hosted Platform

1. In the blogging community, there is a bias for hosted sites like Blogger blogs. They are deemed less professional. But, don’t be discourage, there are successful sites housed on Blogger.
2. There are platform limitations like archiving and search engine optimization. Archiving is less user-friendly and post addresses are automatically generated by the platform usually from your post title. But with some tweaks, you could improve this in Blogger.
3. You will generally have less control of your HTML or CSS. Blogger allows you to change various parts of your HTML, but not everything. TypePad allows you to buy an option that gives you access to your CSS.
4. In WordPress.com(it's different to wordpress.org), you are not allowed to put advertising programs in your site.
   

The Advantages of Non-Hosted Platform

1. You have control over how your archives are managed.
2. You have control over all of your HTML and CSS.
3. You have control over permalinks.
4. You could manage your SEO.
5. More professional site (a bias in blogosphere).
6. Non-Hosted Platform has a vast community of developers for plugins.
   

The Disadvantages of Non-Hosted Platform

1. Some platforms support only one installation.
2. You need to disburse some cash before you start.
3. You need to do your own styling and coding.Unlike hosted platform, you need to work each static page you want to publish.

I will not prescribe any platform here. It is up to you to decide according to your purpose. Every program has its advantages and disadvantages. Select the best according to your needs as well as your budget.

Recently, some friends and I are in the brainstorming stage of putting some sites at Site Build It!

Again, I ask: Are you satisfied with your blog platform?

This was one of the questions I asked to myself in my quest of chronicling ways to make money online. How about you?

Let us know. You might help others by putting your insights below.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

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Are you decided with your niche? Read this.

If you happened to be a visitor of this site for quite some time now, you probably noticed that the way we are posting here is arranged step by step like a chronicle. As you may find above, in my site’s description, Money & Work @ Home chronicles ways of Earning Money in Just a Click.

For those who are new, you may find these links valuable.

1. Reasons Why You Start Blogging
2. Talent is the Key, Attitude is the Driving Force
3. Mind Setting
4. Brainstorming
5. Life of Strategic Blogging
6. Developing Proactive Mindsets Part 1 & Part 2
7. Choosing Your Niche Part 1 & Part 2

I also discussed an amazing site that creates Starting Points of Site that Sells.

Even if you’ve already chosen a niche and not yet totally convinced by Ken Evoy of Site Build It!, I recommend that you will read Ken Evoy’s free Affiliate Masters Course (see the downloadable files at my site’s side bar) and use his excellent advice in finding and choosing a niche that suits your interests.

It is better that you print it and use every best ideas you will find there. Take your time. It is your business. So, don’t rush it.

At this juncture, we will analyze your niche listings. I supposed you have a list already. If not, try to go back some posts and make your list.

Know Your Potential Competitors

Knowing your competitors gives you an edge of your chosen niche or it may caution you to give a second look at your niches’ list. Here is how to do it.

1. Go to your Yahoo or Google Search bar and type your major keywords.
2. Use one or two keywords or use them in combination.
3. Make a list of the Top 10 sites (Get their respective URL also)

I used the "butterfly farming" as an example niche here and also as keywords.



Know the PageRank of Your Competitors

PageRank is a system used by Google to help determine a web page's relevance or importance. Visible PageRank - a number from 1 to 10 and displayed in the Google toolbar - is updated only every few months. It is a rough approximation of REAL PageRank, which is constantly updated. A site has no PageRank, their pages have.

Open http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com (it’s free). Types the URL of the top site in your list, clink Inlinks, then choose not to include the site. Browse the results. Try again the next URLs.



It is better to know how far your competitors are in your niche. Note the number of Inlinks and who are linking with them. Take note also the number of pages they have. These data will give you an idea how you can topple them if you want to compete in that niche.



Try to visit the sites, note their template designs, menus, tags, descriptions, their site’s functionality, etc.

Know Your Income

If you think you need to look for another niche, then go back to the first step using your next niche in your list. But, if you are decided to stick to your niche, then, we will analyze your keywords average searches and monetization using the https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.



Type your keywords at the input field, and then click ‘Get Keyword Ideas’. You will see there the average global monthly search volume, local monthly search volume and average competition.

Using these data, you will know how big your niche is, the traffic in it as well as the competition. Remember that you need to put quality contents in your site to drive traffic to it.

Your niche should have at least a minimum of 2000 search volume or more. Competition should be high average, average or lesser. Very high average competition is a crowded niche.

Look for the lookup field ‘Choose Columns to Display’ and select ‘Show Estimated Average CPC’. Look for the lookup field ‘Calculate estimates using a different maximum CPC bid’ then put the currency and the amount you want and then click, ‘Recalculate’.



In this, you will know the total Cost Per Click of your ads. This data will give you an estimate of how much you will earn in that niche. Often topics that have expensive keywords are very competitive. You may do better choosing a less competitive niche with cheaper keywords.

Of course there are some topics that Google will not allow you to put ads like tobacco related topics. See the complete list at https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US

If you are convinced of using SiteBuild It to build your site, you'll find the brainstorming tool in it awesome to help you come up with ideas and phrases you wouldn't have thought. Try it!

Research Affiliate Programs for Your Niche

Oooopppps! Don’t dive for your niche. You need to research first if there are products for your chosen niche. Make an effort researching them.


Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

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Hey! Before taking some more time doing some tedious things in choosing your niche, let us take some few minutes of blogging and look at this site for possible input. I found this site amazing and could help us lead to success.

Don't worry the links incorporated here are free to click. Just visit it and see for yourself the great contents I experienced during my first visit to this site.

The Starting Points of Site that Sell (Don't buy it! Read it and visit it!)

Here's an introduction for this site...

SBI! makes online business success do-able. Anyone can succeed with an all-in-one process, tools, and guidance.

The process is simplified to such a degree that success (i.e., profits, not the mere presence of a Web site) is achievable even for a beginner. For an experienced person, achieving success is even smoother. SBI! really does change lives.

Yes, there are easier ways to build a Web site. However, online profits require more than just having a collection of Web pages. SBI! includes all the tools and a proven process required to build a long-term, profitable e-business.

You get more than just a "site builder." You don't need to worry about looking for separate hosting, paying for a separate keyword research tool, handling site submissions, integrating autoresponders, etc., etc. See the full list of features here -- pick the most relevant ones for you and your reader.

SBI! removes the technical barriers allowing you to keep your attention on building your business. Many functions are completely automated. You don't need to know anything upfront about building a Web site in order to succeed. The tedious, "under-the-hood" stuff is handled automatically so you can focus on other important business-building activities.

SBI! comes with unlimited Customer Support. SBI! owners often call it the best they've ever experienced. And the SBI! Forums complete the picture. They are the most friendly, help-and-be-helped set of e-business forums in the world.

Too many non-SBI! sites start without profits being "built into" the process from DAY 1. It all begins with the right process. Content Traffic PREsell Monetize is the underlying, logical and powerful process that capitalizes upon the fundamental realities of how people use the Web. C T P M puts you on a solid, profitable business foundation.

Brainstorm It! is SBI!'s powerful keyword brainstorming and research tool. It helps you verify that your site concept has acceptable profit potential. SBIers are saved from making that common fatal error. With Brainstorm It!'s help, they know they are on track, right from the start. Brainstorm It! also helps you to find topics related to your niche that will pull in traffic and generate income.

Niche Choose It! is your final decision-making tool. It uses a complex decision-matrix theory that makes choosing the best niche for YOU simple... and flawless.

Choosing your best site concept is not always as obvious as you might think. Brainstorm It! and Niche Choose It! show you the best path for your particular business, reveal some surprises, and help you make the right choice.

Monetize It! helps you choose the best monetization options for your site concept. Creating a diverse monetization mix will help you maximize your site's profitability and ensure long-term growth.

Page creation is as simple as riding a bike with its training wheels still attached. No need to know HTML. The block-by-block builder trains you how to write a page that is both "Search Engine and human effective." It's simple, do-able and most importantly, effective site-building. The block-by-block builder is perfect for beginners, but even many "advanced" users should start with this tool. It's an excellent way to break bad habits!

Since SBI! is compatible with popular HTML editors (ex., Dreamweaver) and image tools (ex., Photoshop, Flash, etc.), you can easily use advanced page-building techniques, if you like. This allows for maximum creative flexibility for all skill levels.

When it's time to create your site's Look & Feel, SBI! provides fully customizable, easy-to-use templates. You can choose and create a professional-looking presentation, even if you have no design skills. And if you're a designer, you can create and upload your own. This page shows a range of styles.

SBI! includes domain name analysis, optimization, and registration. You will develop the best name for maximum profitability in your niche. (It's often different than what you had planned.)

Fast, reliable, state-of-the-Net Web site hosting is all included with SBI!. You don't have to worry about choosing the right "hosting" features (size, capacity, etc.). Web hosting is included, no nonsense, no hidden clauses.

You learn to "get it right" quickly (or correct bad habits) so you can focus on other traffic-building strategies. (These are also easily mastered due to "automation-and-process.")

To announce your site to Search Engines, you need to submit a specialized file called a "Sitemap XML" file. SBI! does it all automatically, a huge time saver, that enables you to quickly achieve wider distribution and attract more targeted free traffic.

Search Engine spider/listing/ranking reports let you see how your pages are being handled by the Search Engines. You can see what pages rank best and drive traffic. Each report's insights help you to determine how to increase traffic and monetization. Most pros don't have easy and reliable access to this type of information.

Traffic Stats and Click Analysis help you understand what your visitors like most. Understanding them helps you know what to write about, which in turn leads to more and more business.

SBI! includes Value Exchange (VE) for finding and managing high value inbound links (another criteria for ranking highly at the engines and building traffic). This automated inbound link-building tool saves time for what is otherwise a tedious time-sucker.

SBI! includes an easy-to-use form builder with autoresponders. You can build contact forms, surveys, and polls to easily communicate with your visitors. You don't need to use your e-mail address, which attracts spam. Experienced users will appreciate no longer needing separate form-building tools. Having these tools all in one place saves time and expense, too.

List-building and e-mail marketing are included (usually these expensive features are bought separately). Sign up visitors to your e-zine subscription list and then mail an issue to them. This repeat exposure builds a stronger bond with your visitors and allows for direct promotions to them. Deeper PREselling = More Monetization.

PREselling is a concept "invented" by SiteSell, part of the C T P M process. The concept is simple. As small business people, you do not have a brand name that is known and trusted. So you have to build that before you can monetize. Seems obvious, right? So few people do it, or they don't do it right, online.

Automatic site blogging turns your site into a blog easily. You'll enjoy all the benefits of a blog without needing extra skills or additional software. For those experienced with blogging, auto-pinging for your SBI! blog keeps your site on the Search Engines' radar. All of this helps attract more traffic.

SBI! has a no-risk, 30-day money back guarantee. It's a risk-free decision that you can make with confidence and peace of mind.

The various HQs ("Traffic," "Tips 'n Techniques," "Resources," "Monetization" and several others) keep you on the cutting edge of all that you need to know. No other "outside reading" is necessary (except for info related to your own business, of course). There are membership sites that charge hundreds (even thousands) of dollars for this type of invaluable information.

New tools are added continuously so you can feel secure that you'll always have the most up-to-date site-building and marketing tools.

Content 2.0 allows your site's visitors to create content for you. Turn any page on your site into an invitation for your visitors to add content. C2 then allows other visitors to comment and rate the page much like on a blog. This means your site will have more Search Engine attractive pages. Having more site pages means the Search Engines will rank your pages higher and that leads to more traffic. A chain of events that simply started through the contributions of your visitors!

Infin It! enables you to plug third party resources into your SBI! site. You can add forums, shopping carts, datafeeds, blogs and other server-side functionality. Infin It! brings you an SBI! site with no limits.

The SBI! private forums provide friendly, helpful support from other Site Build It! users. Help is available from folks who are in the same place as you. This peer-to-peer support gets you over the humps along the way in a stress-free environment. Help is available even for advanced questions. The forums are a business-building support community ready to help you succeed.

The SBIX! weekly newsletter brings you the latest news from SiteSell and around the Web, highlighting only what you "need to know," and saves you time. You won't have to worry about keeping up with the latest online marketing developments. We do it for you. You'll stay informed but not bogged down so you'll be able to continue focusing on your business.

The tortoise approach symbolizes SBI!'s steady-and-sure approach. It's definitely not GRQ (GetRichQuick) and keeps you from getting distracted by false promises or dead-end tools and strategies that end up costing more money. Experienced users will appreciate avoiding time-wasters that don't help you succeed. Think of it as a simple, direct, hype-free path that leads to success.

SiteSell.com was established by Dr. Ken Evoy in 1997. His series of books have helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses. Make Your Content PREsell! and Make Your Words Sell!, formerly books sold by SiteSell, are now free. They are literally the dynamic duo of "Web-writing."

Dr. Evoy realized that the average business person needs more than some information in books, no matter how good. S/he needs both the C T P M process and an all-in-one Web site hosting, building and marketing suite of tools that enables them to execute the process flawlessly. To this day, SBI! is unique.

Ken Evoy provides a rare level of dedication to his customers. He's extremely active in the SBI! forums with over 5000 posts to date. He makes a tremendous personal effort to help people succeed and is highly passionate about helping people build businesses online. Anyone who owns SBI! can benefit from this extraordinary Internet business visionary.

Just watch this video, now.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below.

Why some niche blogs are exceptionally successful?

Niche blogs are exclusively focus on a specific section of a general and popular topic. Just like I mentioned in Part 1, cancer could be a general topic and a popular one. Child Leukemia could be a niche as subtopic and be used for a niche blog.

After mentioning why some wanna-be-marketers failed in their quests of making money online, we will also focused to some characteristics of successful niche blogs. If you’ve researched now of some keywords for your chosen niche, I expect that you come across some top blogs on that niche/s.

Do you wonder what made them outstanding?

Here are some.

1. Specific Content Value

Successful niche blogs have specific content scope, which allows in-depth discussion and analysis. Within a small scope, niche bloggers could take the topics into a deeper level.

2. Focused Content

Big niche blogs have tightly knitted contents. Almost all their blog posts are strongly related to the niche. Occasionally, there are some materials that have no direct relationship with the niche but these are posts answering some visitors’ problems that the niche bloggers wanted to give some solutions.

3. Uniqueness

Niche blogs offer unique contents. Their blog platforms and templates are outstanding, too.

4. Audience Friendly

Top niche blogs actually targeted small segments of netizens when they were starting up. I said small because many of them were the prime mover on that niche. And, they take care of their visitors, too. In the long run, niche blogs developed their audience.

5. Monetization-Friendly Platform

Successful niche blogs are well planned from blog platforms to designs. Basically, they have unique blog templates that are customizable and flexible to accommodate monetization programs.

If you have already chosen your niche, do you think it has these 5 characteristics?

Thank you for your time.

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Why most wanna-be-marketers failed?

Before plunging deeper to making money online from the comfort of your home with your lovely family, choose your niche. If you reached this far with this site, you are now mentally prepared with proactive mindsets working at home and exceptionally developed win-win attitudes to earn money online.

I've researched that the problems of new bloggers are putting sites at once without good planning and choosing a perfect niche and going live with few contents (like this site ha ha ha!).

In my quest of making money online, choosing a niche is one of the most difficult tasks I experienced.

During some business plannings that I conducted, I always started with a question. Today, I will present to you one: why most wanna-be-marketers fail?

It is easy to choose a perfect niche if we know why some people failed. Knowing these facts, you are able to get into the right niche and your journey to success is lively!

How can we tell if a certain niche is right or wrong?

Let us take a look.

1. It is not so interesting.

Some wanna-be-marketers fell to the lure of noble causes, too broad concepts. Preserving some kinds of butterflies could be a noble cause, but how many people share your passion? Probably there are hundreds but it is limited. (Tell me if I’m wrong.) Collecting butterflies and use them for arts could be good but you are inviting curses into your site. You are killing butterflies. Then, how do you know if a certain niche is interesting? Research it! How? (I will make a post for that later.)

Or maybe, you, as the site owner and content maker, have limited interest to the niche. How can you urge people to come to you if you, yourself, is not interested? Your visitors will feel your enthusiasm.

Not interesting niche is not profitable. Try it and your site will be like a memorial park. (LOL)

2. It's everybody’s haven.

Some wanna-be-marketers fell to the ‘in’ thing bandwagon. If there are too many people interested on that niche, then there is ‘too much competition’ on it. Competition is good but too much competition will kill you if you are just starting up. If you think you could topple one of the top ten competitors, then go for it. If you think you have an edge against some of them, do it. Guts will not give you money. However, humility pays some.

You have to attack a part of the niche that is not too competitive. Target some part of the demographics. For example, mostly are into cancer. Then, target part of the niche, i.e., leukemia.

3. It is not profitable.

Some marketers who failed in their business chose niche that is not so profitable. There are some niches that look perfect but they have limited products. There are only few advertisers who are into them. Some niches are generating too many interests into them but CPM and CPC are so low. If you could afford to be in these niches then try them but I dare you not to do it.

Do you know something about anything? A hobby? A Passion? Any Interests? Experience? Okay, fine, but how to research if a niche is profitable?

Site Built It! helps me a lot. I frequently visit them.

Thank you for your time.

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My last post talked some preliminaries on developing Proactive Mindset and I promised to post it in details.

I know you want to start right away. I’ve already learned my lessons from that instinct of READY-AIM-FIRE. It did give me nothing good, or it did not bring me goods. Right mindsets lead you to success like this. You will later return here and say WTF! to me if you’ve proven that I was wrong.

Be patient and take your time reading every words and concepts along the way. Don’t skim. You will miss a lot if you missed some details. This is not only for your online business but also for your personal growth. Take it or leave it. I will not be the LOSER.

Take a deep breath and internalize the following concepts.

Positive Attitude-“I can do this!”

When I learned this thing, I can tell you straight that if ever I met failure, I can only take it in stride. I have a positive attitude. This is my driving force. If I say I can make $1000.00 in a month, I will do it. And along the way, if I did not make it, say I accomplished only $800.00, then with positive attitude, I will say: Next month, I have to make $1500.00

With all the tools at hand, I believe I can. Positive Attitude drives me to success. What you only do is guarantee yourself that you can.

Commitment-“I commit myself to my outlines, guidelines and timelines.”

When I was starting with my career in cooperative management, I was always looking for excuse of making shortcuts. I could not appreciate committing myself to a set of guidelines and timelines. I had more failures than successes along the way. Trust the people who set the guidelines. This time trust me. Do the guidelines. You will not lose anything but gain everything.

Will to Learn-“I am reasonably open to new things.”

Great. I can’t say anything if you are reasonably open to new things. Use your reason. Digest every new thing but focus on the set guidelines and your goals. “Click here and get rich” solutions could be tempting. But, I know it doesn't exist at all.

You do not need to learn everything. Some successful businessmen in conventional companies to online businesses are not expert of all fields. There’s no need to become expert of everything. Follow the steps that I mentioned. That will be a good start. Try to do it with all your best and stick to it if you proved it best.

Consistency-“I will do it regularly and let things predictable.”

For all successful people, the only common among them is consistency. If they prove that this thing do them good, they do it with passion and all the way. If a company gained its reputation on its customer services, do you think this company will leave that strength? I don't think, it will. The company will stick to it believing that it would work for them. Write it in stone, stick to it.

Focus-“I work when its time to work, I play during playtime.”

If you want to succeed, focus to one activity at a time. Don’t mix it. Both will become unproductive. Be consistent, be focused.

Develop your Proactive Mindset-“I can, I am willing, I am consistent, and Iam focused, so I will do it.”

I was almost tempted of putting this into negative phrase: “Change your Mindsets.” Changing maybe is good because it calls actions but on the other side, it is negating something that is not good. (Laughs!) Develop what is there. Develop your strengths, make your weaknesses to strengths, develop opportunities and make threats as opportunities. Develop your Proactive Mindsets, that’s it.

This is our blueprint. I know, if you could do this and all of the above, you will start earning $1000.00 in a month. Some others did it, why couldn’t we?

Soon, I will be posting about the old Four Quality Quadrants. If you got something worthy on this topic, share it below. You can help others.

I am also working on choosing blog flatforms and niche. Keep posted.

Stay with me as we journey. Happy mindsetting.

Thank you for your time.

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This is simple but maybe the hardest thing to do: “Developing a Proactive Mindset and an Exceptional Attitude.”

I will be repeating myself but I believe it is worth taking some time focusing on this aspect if I want to succeed in every endeavor I have to do. The biggest hurdle in my money quest online is my own mind.

As always, I want to accomplish something or simply getting things done as fast as I can. However, am I doing the right things and doing things right?

I put it above that this is simple in words but putting it into action needs determination.

How about you? Do you have Proactive Framework of Mind and Exceptionally Win-Win Attitude?

Motivation is not a problem because we always have the urge in the beginning of any task. In the Philippines, we simply called it “Ningas Cogon.”

The fire burns so fast and big but later it will slowly die. Having this said, I have experienced two mental devils killing the fire: Self-Doubt and Distractions.

Self-doubt erodes everything we achieved. You could only reach far as far as your foresight. If you expect to fail, then the probability of failure is great. Attitude determines whether you succeed or not. Kick that self-doubt. Say you can do it!< class="fullpost">A developed Proactive Mindset and Exceptional Attitude filter out what you don’t need to know. I would be confident in saying that there's hardly a single online marketing tool or process that will surely ensure success. If it’s not mentioned in this journey, there are valid reasons.

If I will not include them here, some are too risky, or should I say, they do not offer what they are chirping about or some are too difficult for someone starting out. The trick is to focus on doing the things in a methodical way.

If you know some ways, you may post them here below. I would love to hear them from you. My next post will tackle this in detail. So, keep me in company in this journey.

Thank you for your time.

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"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't

adjust the goals, adjust the action steps." - Confucius

Why I should have a goal and how I define it?

In my 15 years experience working with the cooperative movement which ranges from starting ups to credit management to microfinancing programs, I met people, particularly personnel, key officers and many entrepreneurs shunning from planning sessions. They hate setting up goals.

Do you avoid planning activities and setting goals too? Or do you know some people who hate these activities?

Goals are a must for anything you do. The world is crowded and the blogosphere is no exception. Without goals, you will have no idea of what you want to achieve and how. Without goals, you will be lost. You will find yourself wandering without directions. Goal is like a compass that sets the direction.

Why Should I define My Goals?

The question “Why?” reverberates every time I started a planning session with some of our personnel. And these are the 4 reasons I found as convincing answers:

1. Goal Keeps You Guided: Goals act like maps. They set directions for you. Without a goal, it is like putting up a ladder to a wrong fence. Once you are up there and realize that you are at the wrong side, you lost precious time and efforts. Without a goal is like shooting basketball to any side of the court and you can never score. Having Goals solves your problem in a half. Goals keep you on target.
   
2. Goal Measures Your Success: With clear goals in mind, you know how much you have progressed and how far you are from success. Goals set measurements of success.
   
3. Goal Motivates You: A fulfilled goal is energizing. You feel a new energy within you if you complete a goal. It is satisfying.
   
4. Goal Improves Your Productivity: With your new found energy after achieving each goal, you start for the next one with double energy. An inch closer to Success drives you more to accomplish many.

How do I Define Goals?

Here are some tips that will help you:

1. Be Specific, Jot Them Down Clearly: Goals are not broad like “earning money online.” Give yourself a break; say “$1,000.00 for a month or $1,000.00 for May 2009.”
2. Set up Growths: Remember the ladder. Your goal is to be at the top. Take one step at a time or should I say take one goal at a time. Success is a journey. Keep moving.
3. Be Realistic, Keep Them Within Reach: Set goals that you know that you can make it. Do not aim high if you could still aim halfway.
   

Of course, if you defined your goals, go for it. Achieve it. Do not let the white bond paper gathers dusts. Put them to place where you could see it daily or better put it in your calendar as reminders.

It would be nice if I will be reading your notes below.

As a blogger, what are your goals? Have you defined them?

Thank you for your time.

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While many of you are bloggers for some times, some were still disillusioned with their blog or blogs.

Just like me, when I started blogging, I started with this “Okay, my friends are blogging, then I will create also my site.” And so I created a blog. After few months, I felt unhappy with the topics. I was not generating traffic to it. I left off. Then, I started again another one. That blog is okay but again I realized that my blog is limited. So, I made a third blog, which tackles a plenty of topics. After few months, I noticed that some of my visitors were disillusioned. The blog has no direction.

What was my problem? My blogsite lacked planning and then, actions.

Blogsite needs Actions. That’s the Life of Strategic Blogging.

After a fruitful Mindsetting and Brainstorming, we will put those results into actions.

Seventh Step: Create a Timeline

This is basic in putting some Actions into Planning. In all that you planned, you need a timeline. A must have for bloggers. Create a Timeline to guide you through for everything you will do. Soon, you will need this timeline to monitor your progress. And of course, as part of a good Strategic Plan, this timeline prompts you whether you need to act for Plan B, Plan C, etc, and to keep you attuned with your goal at hand. You may divide your activities and short-term objectives into daily, weekly, and monthly timelines. Or if you are serious enough, give dates for each activity.

Eight Step: Create Your Blog

After you’ve decided to blog for a niche or for whatever topics, you need to look for a platform, a host for your site. You may choose from a self-hosted sites like Bravenet or wordpress.org or free host sites like Blogger or wordpress.com. You may decide also to put yours to one good site like sitesell. Of course, it all boils down to what is your purpose.

Whatever your decisions are, put your plans into action. Unless, you just let your hours of planning it go to a waste bin. Act now! Create your site.

Ninth Step: Develop Contents

This is maybe the hardest part of blogging, putting contents into what you have created. It is like living what you preach (laughs). But, if you worked on the first step, you already know yourself, that is, you know your talents and the things you love the most. Develop these, and you will find yourself writing good stuffs. Free articles maybe could help or inviting others to write for you will be handy but you need to create your credibility. Develop your Contents first, before asking others to help you.

Tenth Step: Sustain the Benefits

A good strategic plan, may it be for anything like blogging, should sustain itself. Blogging is not successful if it will not give benefits, for you and your visitors. Sustaining the Benefits for you will motivate you to go on. Sustaining the Benefits for Others will encourage them to go back to your site. A good site, good contents, best benefits make up an Exceptional Blog.

These 10 Steps for Strategic Blogging do not guarantee your success in blogging but these will help you for a good start. You are still the Big Difference.

Good luck!

Thank you for your time.

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If I have known this thing before, I had used my efforts, time, and skills developing a good blogsite instead of starting many all over again. I was a dumb-poor-newbie blogger! (Sigh…)

As results of my ignorance, I started 8 blogs at blogspot itself. Two are still running including this one. I have one running and alive at Wordpress and one dying at i.ph. Whew! What a waste of time, efforts and skills? I also left one at webs.

Now, I’ve learned my lessons, a costly and tiring learning process.

You may ask me, why? Or call me a dumb blogger?

This was the reason: As a plebe in blogging world, all I wanted was to have a site, set it quickly, put it live and I just poured on contents, some were useless, some were okay, but mostly were just two paragraphs posts. Then, I said: “That’s it. I have a blog.” And I announced it to the whole wide world. After awhile, I realized I fooled myself. I was not satisfied and I ended up frustrated.

I aired my frustration to my friend who is not a web citizen. He said: “What are you doing with your business if you want to achieve something?” I said: “Strategic Planning!”

Eureka! All I did was to have a SWOT Analysis for every blog that I set up. And these were the results:

1. I started my blog without a Purpose.
2. I do not know who would be my audience.
3. I do not know what would be the features of my site.
4. I do not know how much would I spend for my site, may it be time, efforts, money, etc.
   

So, I will share with you what I did.

I assume you are now prepared with your Purpose, have great mindsets, identified skills and talents and of course, The Attitude.

Let us now begin with the Second Phase, Brainstorming: The Flesh of Strategic Blogging. This is the Second Part of my Series on Strategic Blogging. Try to read first my post on Mindsetting if you haven't done yet.

Grab a pen and a sheet of paper. We need to answer some questions and we need to put some more as we go along.

Ask yourself:

1. What will be the best kind of site for my goal?
2. How much money am I willing to invest?
3. How much time am I willing to devote for the project?
4. What will be my specific objectives for a certain period of time?
5. Am I capable of doing everything?
6. If I need people, who are they?
   

With those in hand, we will proceed in a step-by-step process.

Second Step: Determine the Content Ideas for Your Site

Write down your ideas for content. Remember to go back to your purpose and your talents. If you are decided to have a “General Blog”, so be it. But, I suggest having a niche blog or a theme-based blog. We are not jacks of all trade. Contents should always gear towards your purpose. Focus on your best skills, to what you love the most. For example, if you loved traveling, then focus on travels, tourists’ sites, information regarding some good places, etc. Remember, Content is the king in blogosphere.

This step is very important in determining your site design, budget as well as your time to be spent for this site. I am doing this.

Third Step: Determine Your Competitors

If you are decided to put a blog focused on a certain niche or putting a theme-based blog, you must research your competitors. Determine if you could do something outstanding on that niche or theme. It is better to know your competitors so that you know where to position yourself. It will be good for you if you know what they have and what they don’t have. Try to study their contents and site designs. Create something different if you can.

This is an important step. Put some extra time for it. This step will determine your site design, investments and of course, caution your expectations from your project. One thing more, you have a benchmark.

Fourth Step: Determine Your Audience

With your purpose at hand, ideas for content, knowledge about your competitors, it is time to determine your audience. You should know your target audience. It is hard to reach the general public. Try to be specific. Go back to my example of travel blog. The blog’s target audiences are travelers and tourists. You could always trim down these into pensioners or yuppies.

Now, you know whom are you talking to, you know whom are you writing for, you know whom are you building relationship to.

Fifth Step: Determine Your Site Features

Think of your visitors. Visualize. Use your practice of mindsetting and visualization. Try to make them feel at home. They are very important. You need to determine what they need and service them in terms of your site features like interactive calendar, drop down menus, newsletter sign up, feeds, forum, etc.

You are not only giving information but also building relationships.

Sixth Step: Determine Your Site Management Systems (SMS)

Some people named this as Content Management System (CMS). We will call this as Site Management System because we should not only focus on Contents but also to Traffics, Promotions and Finances.

Having this SMS predetermined allows you to have adjustments in the future. Some system providers or site designers do not allow future adjustments, may it be on contents, generation of traffics, promotions as well as monetizing your site. Foreseeing your needs helps you decide on how your blog be hosted, or how are you going to design your site, or how would your site designer customized the site for your future needs. You will realize soon that this SMS is important.

All in all, I already wrote Two Phases of Strategic Blogging: MindSetting and Brainstorming. I also discussed Six Strategic Steps to Successful Blogging.

See you at the Life of Strategic Blogging.

I appreciate very much if you could drop some comments below. You may follow also succeeding posts by subscribing here.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks goodness, I’m off the hook of my boss. Just for now.

This is the problem of working for somebody. They owned you literally and figuratively. One must do something he called accomplishments to commensurate to what he earned. Damn! (Forgive me folks.)

Aren’t you sick of too much stress, or of compiling years of experiences or running after certificates of completions just to augment your income?

Is money only achievable by burning sweats from 8am to 5pm for 5 days a week?

Can we just work at home and care for our kids? Can we make money working at home?

These are several questions we may consider while we read this post, MindSetting: The Key to Strategic Blogging.

As I discussed with my previous entry about Talents and Attitudes, mindsetting will play a great role if we want to achieve something. I do a lot of mindsetting everytime I am facing some difficult tasks.

You need to go back to the questions up above if you haven’t made yet a list of your answers. I did this and it helped me a lot. You need to grab a pen and a sheet of bond paper because you may find them handy as we go along.

Try to inhale some fresh air. Oooops! No need to go and puff your breath out in a garden. Just close your eyes for a few seconds or some minutes if you have plenty of time to spare.

Jot down your answers. We need those things as we journey and those lists will serve as our benchmarks of success.

Now, I expect you got some answers. If you answered: “I don’t know”, try to go back a little down to internalize my little musing on Attitude. It will help you not just today but for the rest of your life. I hope so.

That is the beauty of mindsetting. Clean your mind and heart. Let all doubts fly away. You must believe to what you can and forget what you cannot. Know all what you have and don’t bother of what you don’t have. "Just follow your PASSION" says Ken Evoy.

Mindsetting is like removing cobwebs from your long abandoned room.

Done.

Now, you have talents and great attitudes to achieve something. It is great to know these things. Use them towards success.

Today, we need to have a plan for our business. Blogging is a business if you still remember.

Don’t worry it’s easy.

This is how I started a plan. All I need is my self-confidence. It will play an immense role in making decisions and motivates me to work for my goal.

First, I unclogged myself. It is like this. Just change your perspective towards your daily atmosphere as well as your surroundings. For an example, just close this window and go back to your desktop. Are you not bored with that old desktop theme? Change it! Grab your favorite image from the pictures you took recently through your digicam. Maybe, you want to edit some.

Amazingly, ideas keep popping out from an inspired brain. Write them down. For me, I kept notes on a notebook. Everything I do, I put it in writing. I know I need them later on for an article or two.

Second, I do not forced myself to be perfect. Everything will be perfected later after putting some efforts in practice. Mistakes are part of a learning process. And so, this is it.

Mindset plays a great role in your online success. Don't forget this.

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. Sounds familiar, huh? It’s Stephen Covey’s concept. Not mine.

Now, let us begin with the Strategic Blogging process. Determine the purpose why you want to blog. Write it down. You may get rid of that pencil and paper, sooner, as you become master of your own.

First Step: Determine the Purpose of your Site.

You may visit my previous post on why I blog. It may help.

Take your time. This is the most important one. All will come into place after this. I am also a newbie blogger. Look at my site; it is not even self-hosted. I haven’t earn that much. We will all journey together.

Sorry to cut this off. It was a long one and I know you want some times to analyze your blog if you have one or some already or if none yet, just list some 10 goals and trim that into a manageable level soon.

If you're done, follow the next step at Brainstroming: the Flesh of Strategic Blogging.

Post your achievements below. It is great to know that I have companion on my quest.