Development

sweet music from my blog

<h3>Overview:</h3>

I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by other work and so I’ve only dabbled with this blog. It needs more content, more consistent content, more work on building up contacts in the blogging newcomers niche and its marketing needs a boost.

I plan to set up ‘The Project’ to monitor how I develop this blog over the year 2011. I will describe techniques, monitor the growth and describe the income the blog will make. Hopefully this work will start a useful discussion from the readership.

Before the start of ‘The Proejct’ I will make it a foundation blog, that is I will write thirty articles and sort out the layout before the end of the year 2010. This will then allow me to monitor the promotion techniques and the blog’s expansion.

I will then monitor my developments to let you know what I am doing, and why I’m doing it, which will provide a guide to some and will

<strong>Inspiration</strong>

The idea to do this was inspired by the proposed <a href=”http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-webmasters-challenge-starts-november-10/”>Webmaster’s Challenge</a>, organised by the really excellent Daniel Scocco’s really excellent, helpful blog, <a href=”http://www.dailyblogtips.com/”>Daily Blog Tip.</a> Unfortunately at the last minute the sponsors pulled out.

The competition was for competitors to start a website from scratch, and without spending any money, see who could generate the most income in four months. I did not expect to win, but had planned to join the competition as a way of forcing myself to focus on a project and I would have learnt a great deal from watching the other competitors.

In a way I’m relieved that it didn’t start as I wasn’t properly prepared. There were problems with the two ideas I had. The first, a political blog, was not viable as it needed cash spent on it, the other, WebUni, an online training centre, will develop into a business, but really requires a longer time frame. This is another project I plan to start, with others, around April, 2011. It will utilise the techniques developed on this site and I will be developing course materials from some of the posts.

The competition got me thinking. I liked the idea of starting a website from scratch and monitoring how it grows. It would be useful as it would show me what worked and what should be dropped.

I figured it would sensible to do the experiment over a year. It should also be useful to others as they can learn from my successes and can avoid my failures. Hopefully the project could also start a discussion.

<h3>How the experiment will be organised.</h3>

<strong>foundation blog</strong>

I consider that you need around thirty posts for a<a href=”http://beginningtoblog.com/blogging/blogging-stage1-a-foundation-blog”> foundation blog</a>. This is the minimum number of posts you need for the blog to be considered serious by visitors.

This then gives the blog the substance for users to see your writing style and help them decide whether they want to see more of your work. This then makes it worthwhile to develop your site, such as setting up an email newsletter and to seriously market your blog.

So at the start of 2011 this blog will have just over the thirty posts required to call itself a foundation blog.

<strong>monitoring</strong>

I’ve already set up Google Analytics, which will measure page views, number of visitors and how long they stay on the site. I also have some useful tools on my browser, Firefox, which will give me, and you, useful details of the project including the Google Pagerank, the Alexa rating and the number of links to my site from other websites.

Every fortnight I will record this data and other data. I will then publish this data so that I can see the progress of the blog.

<strong>analysis</strong>

Each fortnight I will write a post describing what I have done in that period: the number of posts, techniques I have used, promotion techniques and contacts I have made. I will describe what I hope to achieve with each with action.

I will then analyse the success or otherwise of each approach. I, and my readers, should then be able to learn lessons from these activities.

<strong>show me the money</strong>

I will not attempt to make any serious attempt to make money in the first few months of the project. Like any website, newspaper or magazine building up a readership is the first priority.

Only when you have a large number of ‘eyeballs’ watching your site can you start thinking about trying to making money. As with other aspects of the blog I will document my attempts to build an income from this blog. This will done on a monthly basis.

I must point out that with some methods of making an income, such as some affiliates, I am not legally allowed to give specific details of commission earned. I will however give as much detail as I can, and I will give as much as I can on the general monetisation of blogs and websites.

<h3>Let The Project begin</h3>

So on January 1st the project begins.

<h3>Links</h3>

Image: Flickr: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontintinjordan/2985323246/”>@jontintinjordon</a>

<h3>Overview:</h3>I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by other work and so I’ve only dabbled with this blog. It needs more content, more consistent content, more work on building up contacts in the blogging newcomers niche and its marketing needs a boost.
I plan to set up ‘The Project’ to monitor how I develop this blog over the year 2011. I will describe techniques, monitor the growth and describe the income the blog will make. Hopefully this work will start a useful discussion from the readership.
Before the start of ‘The Proejct’ I will make it a foundation blog, that is I will write thirty articles and sort out the layout before the end of the year 2010. This will then allow me to monitor the promotion techniques and the blog’s expansion.
I will then monitor my developments to let you know what I am doing, and why I’m doing it, which will provide a guide to some and will
<strong>Inspiration</strong>
The idea to do this was inspired by the proposed <a href=”http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-webmasters-challenge-starts-november-10/”>Webmaster’s Challenge</a>, organised by the really excellent Daniel Scocco’s really excellent, helpful blog, <a href=”http://www.dailyblogtips.com/”>Daily Blog Tip.</a> Unfortunately at the last minute the sponsors pulled out.
The competition was for competitors to start a website from scratch, and without spending any money, see who could generate the most income in four months. I did not expect to win, but had planned to join the competition as a way of forcing myself to focus on a project and I would have learnt a great deal from watching the other competitors.
In a way I’m relieved that it didn’t start as I wasn’t properly prepared. There were problems with the two ideas I had. The first, a political blog, was not viable as it needed cash spent on it, the other, WebUni, an online training centre, will develop into a business, but really requires a longer time frame. This is another project I plan to start, with others, around April, 2011. It will utilise the techniques developed on this site and I will be developing course materials from some of the posts.
The competition got me thinking. I liked the idea of starting a website from scratch and monitoring how it grows. It would be useful as it would show me what worked and what should be dropped.
I figured it would sensible to do the experiment over a year. It should also be useful to others as they can learn from my successes and can avoid my failures. Hopefully the project could also start a discussion.<h3>How the experiment will be organised.</h3><strong>foundation blog</strong>
I consider that you need around thirty posts for a<a href=”http://beginningtoblog.com/blogging/blogging-stage1-a-foundation-blog”> foundation blog</a>. This is the minimum number of posts you need for the blog to be considered serious by visitors.
This then gives the blog the substance for users to see your writing style and help them decide whether they want to see more of your work. This then makes it worthwhile to develop your site, such as setting up an email newsletter and to seriously market your blog.
So at the start of 2011 this blog will have just over the thirty posts required to call itself a foundation blog.
<strong>monitoring</strong>
I’ve already set up Google Analytics, which will measure page views, number of visitors and how long they stay on the site. I also have some useful tools on my browser, Firefox, which will give me, and you, useful details of the project including the Google Pagerank, the Alexa rating and the number of links to my site from other websites.
Every fortnight I will record this data and other data. I will then publish this data so that I can see the progress of the blog.
<strong>analysis</strong>
Each fortnight I will write a post describing what I have done in that period: the number of posts, techniques I have used, promotion techniques and contacts I have made. I will describe what I hope to achieve with each with action.
I will then analyse the success or otherwise of each approach. I, and my readers, should then be able to learn lessons from these activities.
<strong>show me the money</strong>
I will not attempt to make any serious attempt to make money in the first few months of the project. Like any website, newspaper or magazine building up a readership is the first priority.
Only when you have a large number of ‘eyeballs’ watching your site can you start thinking about trying to making money. As with other aspects of the blog I will document my attempts to build an income from this blog. This will done on a monthly basis.
I must point out that with some methods of making an income, such as some affiliates, I am not legally allowed to give specific details of commission earned. I will however give as much detail as I can, and I will give as much as I can on the general monetisation of blogs and websites.<h3>Let The Project begin</h3>So on January 1st the project begins.<h3>Links</h3>Image: Flickr: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontintinjordan/2985323246/”>@jontintinjordon</a>

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