Rules for Startups Blog Profitable

Van Williams of Pyra Labs was an interesting post a few days ago entitled "Ten Rules for Web Startups that has some interesting points - some of which may be relevant also for the bloggers in the start mode. Items in bold are Evan - the rest is my attempt to adapt it to the blogs.

• Close - Evan suggests focusing on the smallest possible problem to solve - good advice to start a blog and a business. I asked in an interview today so my advice is that bloggers and one of the first things I said was to think carefully about where you choose. While there are some successful blogs around that have no tight niches, there are many more to choose a narrow niche and hard work to master. It's old advice I rabbit on about a fair bit - but the adage of being a big fish in a small pond is probably one of the best advice I have given in this business.

• Be Different - At this point Evan talks a bit about the competition (something there are plenty of blogs these days!). There are plenty of tips here that it is entirely appropriate for start-ups blog. Yes there is competition - deal with it. Do not let that discourage you, because competition can actually be good for your blog. There is always a way to differentiate themselves from the "competition." Find the spaces around the niche that others are missing, be creative, a scandal, to be extravagant - do what it takes to stand out from the crowd.

• Be Casual - key phrase here -. If you want to hit the big home runs, create services that conform to and, indeed, daily living help people without much commitment or identity change "I think this is quite true in start-ups blog too - but not always. There are opportunities with blogging to become a natural part of life for people - to meet their needs very easily. Naturally, people surf the web looking for information on any subject - bloggers have the opportunity to be on the other ends of these searches. That being said there is also the opportunity with blogs was unacceptable, entertaining, surprising and unusual in ways that are a natural part of everyday life.

• Be Picky - It is very tempting to try to make your blog all things to all people. I constantly get emails from people telling me that my blog should be this way or that. The fact is that I decided to do a blog ProBlogger help people make money with blogs and that will never stray too far from that. I know I could easily distracted by all kinds of tangents and the opportunities I of this blog - but I'm slowly learning to pick up my address carefully.

• Be User-Centric - I think this is very clearly an important part of business start blogging. A blogger has to step into the shoes of your reader's potential and create your blog from that position. Listen to your readers, responding to them and involve them whenever possible.

• Be Selfish - "Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. Create something you want in the world. Being a user of their product" -. Again, a good lesson for bloggers. Although it is sometimes tempting to start a blog "about money" that has little interest in - the blogs that I enjoy reading blogs where the blogger is totally obsessed and in love with what they are writing. Choose a topic that I would write about free if there was anyone ever going to read and probably going to attract others with a similar obsession to yours.

• Be Greedy - Interesting title for it. I'm not sure I had enough words that way - but it's true here. If you're wanting to create a profitable blog, company, store, lemonade stand .... you have to start making some money at some point. I know some bloggers whose model is completely free to start with free ads, give it all away hoping strategies that can add revenue streams later and I always wonder if it's a smart strategy. Business is business and there comes a point where you need to start adding some sources of income to their blogs if you want to turn a profit.

• Be Tiny - I'm not sure if this is exactly where Evan was coming, but my advice to new bloggers has always been to start from scratch and from the place that are often get IM inyo of bloggers with plans mass to hire hundreds of bloggers and begin to thousands of blogs (I'm not exaggerating - is a monthly conversation seem to have) - but when I dig a little into your plan who discover they have little experience in blogging, little understanding of the problems and no real place to start. One of the keys to the business we've built is that it has been a gradual and slow evolution in time. I started a blog and built it over a year. He added another and worked my butt in little by little and overtime was able to free my time to other work to devote more time to blogging. Did the majority of small (one man in the spare bedroom with a PC for 5 years) and to this day remains "small" (a guy in a home office (I got kicked out of bed) with a Mac ... . and a very good screen :-)).

• Be Agile - This is probably the best point of Evan. The flexibility and the ability to jump to the right opportunities as they come by absolute key. Note point 4 of not taking every opportunity - but we know that their ability to change direction / way address very quickly can be key to the success of a blog. This happens every day with posts to write - but also at the larger picture. I know there have been two or three important decisions that I made (in each case very quickly) that have completely changed my way of living.

• Be Balanced - I read this part of the message to Evan and asked if he had been talking with my wife. Balance between work and life is the key. Life is too short to spend all staring at his computer (as beautiful as your screen may be)!

• Beware - Each list of rules needs a warning like this. I agree. There are no rules. I know from personal experience. Sometimes things that should not work to make things work and should not do. The key is to experiment and track the results. Adapting on the fly.