Some people struggle for ideas for blog posts, and there a are a number of high quality posts out there that point out countless sources of inspiration. There aren’t quite so many articles explaining what to do if you have a million-and-one ideas and not enough time to get them online in some meaningful way. Yes, I realise the irony of me starting a series such as this given the lack of posts here recently, but I promise you I have been incredibly busy with other projects such as marketing amuso.com, launching helpmeconvert.com, and of course, my girlfriend. Hopefully these Speed Blogging posts should help all of us become hyper-productive.

In this first post, I’ll look at how to get a blog up online as quickly as possible from intital ‘lightbulb moment’ through to promoting yor first few posts. Here is your checklist….

Idea

When you first have a bolt of inspiration for a new blog, make sure you do your research to make sure you’re not just getting over-excited about something that may never work.

• Will you be able to write about this regularly?
• Can you seed the blog with content regularly in other ways?
• What are the most competitive words to incorporate into your domain name?
• How will you brand your blog?

Registration

If your idea has legs, contact your hosting partner and go through the process of registering your chosen domain and getting a reasonable hosting plan.

• Settle on Domain name with a strong brand or some funky keywords
• Select a hosting partner. I use Varihost as they are truly awesome (and have a 1 click Wordpress install which can save you even more time)
• Register your Domain name (Varihost throw in a free .com name at the moment if you’re interested)
• Note down all the information sent to you after registering - you will need some of it if you want to resell your awesome Domain name
• Set up mailbox early on whilst you’re on a roll, and in the Control Panel for your new site

Wordpress

I’m sure some people will disagree, but Wordpress is by far the most flexible, customisable and SEO optimised bloggin platforms out there. Install it in the root directory of your domain using FTP.

• Download latest Wordpress from wordpress.org
• Upload to server using ftp, following Wordpress’ instructions
• Select a groovy theme from one of the thousands of ‘Free Wordpress Theme’ sites out there
• Upload essential plugins [SEO pack; Share This]
• Log in to your WP control panel and activate your theme & plugins

Other details

Bits and bobs…

• Change the structure of your permalinks to include the name of your blog post; this helps with SEO
• Tweak your theme logo and add graphical flourishes here and there by editing the graphics supplied with your theme
• Check your theme for spelling mistakes and odd phrases, using Wordpress’ built in theme viewer - many WP themes need significant changes before they can look even vaguely professional
• Add Adsense to your theme if you’re going to try and monetise your blog (though you may want to so early on)
• Add Google Analytics to your theme sooner rather than later - pop it before the </body> tag of your footer.

Is there anything I’ve missed from my checklist? Leave a comment below!

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So far the site has been open to the public for 48 hours, and I have had great fun on Google Analytics seeing where all the visitors are coming from. Most of the traffic has been coming from Stumbleupon, which further validates it as one of the best social bookmarking tools for sites looking to boost traffic. More importantly, I have received my first donations! Can’t wait to get my hands on that Macbook…

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For anybody out there who reads John Chow’s

Visit the John Chow Video Contest @ Amuso

The winning video will be chosen by popular vote, so pick a good one.

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Two new elements to my blog which may be of interest are the ‘Follow me on Purk’ and ‘Chat with me’ boxes to the right of the page - this should make it much easier for you all to get in touch with me - so please do! On a side note, I have only just signed up to Plurk, but it is one of the most beautiful, amusing and facinating social site I have come accross, well worth signing up.

Let me know your thoughts on the new design!

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What most books will tell you, first off, is that your idea should involve something you love doing. Whilst I agree that for most small businesses this is a wise piece of advice, let’s face it - most serial entrepreneurs have their fingers in so many pies that it’s impossible for them to truly have a burning passion for every sector that their businesses operate it. Very often, people build successful businesses in areas that they have had no experience in, and learn as they go along. In these cases it is a powerful vision or determination to solve a problem that drives the entrepreneur forwards, not experience. Therefore, step one of testing your business idea is to determine whether you are obsessed by your idea.

If your idea won’t go away and you find yourself staying up late at night on Google seeing if there is any competition, then perhaps it is time to look at the next stage. Will the idea make any money? This sounds like really basic advice, but several entrepreneurs I know have failed to make even a basic financial forecast before taking the plunge. Whilst for some of them it worked out, I would not recommend investing time, effort and cash into a venture that has not passed some basic financial tests on paper.

A very useful way of seeing if your business can survive its first few years is by preparing a cash flow forecast. This is simple in itself, if you know the costs and potential revenues you can expect to achieve during your first few years of operation. In general if your costs exceed your revenues on a monthly basis and you do not have cash in the bank to begin with, then you will have to borrow cash. At this stage it may also be useful to work out your break even point in sales. This will demonstrate the business you have to generate in order to just cover your monthly rent/wages/raw materials/marketing budget/tax. By this point it could become very clear that your business will cost more than it makes, in which case it is probably time to bin the idea. If it looks like a winner, then you will be mentally and emotionally prepared for the next stage.

Market research is essential for most businesses, and any potential investor down the line will demand a thorough breakdown of your company’s potential customers and competitors. Creating a list of competitors can be daunting but inspiring at the same time. When I set up my first business at the age of 19, I identified Ikea as my main competitor for my customer’s cash. Whilst I was up against a hugely successful company, it made me realise that there was money to be made in that sector, and the task of stealing their customers seemed so difficult it inspired me to try harder. You must therefore see if your idea has any major competitors doing what you will be doing. If there are thousands of barely profitable companies in the market, then your idea or unique selling point has to be outstanding. On the other hand, if there are maybe two or three ‘big boys’ in your potential market, you could well have a chance of stealing some of their customers.

Never underestimate the power of people within an organisation. They can make or break it for you, and chosing employees/directors to come on board with you is critical when starting off. For this reason, it is always good to ask, do I know someone inspirational who I can get to join me? Somewhat going against what I wrote earlier about not necessarily needing a passion for your potential industry, It is beneficial to have someone onboard who knows how similar businesses operate. Sometimes there may be pieces of legislation or best practice that the entrepreneur may be unaware of, plus having someone with experience and existing clients within your chosen field could lead to them bringing in your first customers. So when analysing of your idea, think of people you know or who may be able to put you in contact with potential co-founders to supplement your skills.

How have you critiqued your business ideas in the past? Have you got anything to add to my list? If so, comment below!

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This project is especially exciting given the boom in user-generated content the web is experiencing, as well as the excellent team i am working with. The founders are both veterans from Yahoo!, and we have several very bright young entrepreneurs, creative developers and internet marketeers driving the site forward.

Watch this space for more updates on the trials and tribulations of launching and running a web 2.0 startup.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

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http://www.cracked.com/article_16248_9-most-obnoxious-memes-ever-escape-web.html

These so-called ‘memes’ are a testament to the power of the web as a marketing tool, and in their own funny way provide inspiration for budding entrepreneurs out there looking to make it big on the internet.

Those guys probably had never even heard of SEO (search engine optimisation), but in reality it can make or break your website. There has been a buzz going around the blogging for money community recently about a site called StomperNet who has just released a powerful tool that helps to identify how you can best optimise your website for search engines such as Google. Their SSS (Stomper Site Seer) reporting tool analyses the content of a page, checking your targeted keywords, meta tags and so on, and provides a series of bespoke videos that should help you get your website further up the rankings. The tool is completely free, and I recommend you have a look at it at http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural3/ and make sure that your site can kick ass in the battle for top ranking.

Finally, I have spent much of this evening reading some of Yaro Starak’s archived posts at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com - one of Australia’s premier blogging for money websites, and one of my personal favourites. If you are new to the idea of blogging as a way to make a living, I suggest you check out his ‘about’ page and read about how he built his blog from nothing to a money-making machine that pulls in over $20,000 a month. It just goes to show that it’s possible to make good money if you pick something you enjoy, work hard and think creatively.

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NB: Dropping out of university or a well paid career is a big decision, so this list should be taken with a pinch of salt. It is a personal goal of mine, however, to encourage as many bright people as possible to start their own ventures and go it alone, and to avoid the common misconception that they will pursue their own business ideas ‘after a few years’ working for a bank or law firm. Stay tuned for a follow-up post on how dropping out can have the potential to really screw up your life…

So, In no particular order…

City boy: Generally creates wealth for larger companies and wealthy individuals
Entrepreneur: Generates wealth for him/herself and others in the community around them

City boy: Commutes to central London on packed public transport.
Entrepreneur: Works from home, or a cool loft conversion, or anywhere in the world if their business is internet based

City boy: Makes money from being very intelligent and professional.
Entrepreneur: Makes money from being very intelligent, professional, creative, brave, forward-looking, sociable and open minded.

City boy: Sidelines childhood dreams in favour of chasing a career someone else has told them is rewarding
Entrepreneur: Follows through with his or her ideas and dreams

City boy: Wins when someone else loses out
Entrepreneur: Wins when others love their product

City boy: Watches The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den and wishes they were one of the contestants.
Entrepreneur: Watches The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den and knows that most of the people on these shows have not got what it takes.

City boy: Earns quite a lot of money over a fairly short space of time.
Entrepreneur: Can make enormous amounts of money very quickly indeed with the right idea at the right time.

City boy: Bores others with stories of mergers, acquisitions and takeovers.
Entrepreneur: Has a vast bank of swashbuckling tales of screw-ups, innovation, emerging trends, social observations, lightbulb moments…..

City boy: ‘Looks forward’ to a relatively short career of 20 years then early retirement.
Entrepreneur: If all goes well can retire much younger (and richer), but probably won’t because they love what they do.

City boy: Stresses during a recession.
Entrepreneur: Loves the cheap rents and changeable environment an economic downturn can bring.

City boy: Gets sacked when his department has to make cuts.
Entrepreneur: Always has a job - who would sack themselves?

If you have anything else to add to this list, leave a comment below!

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