Blog/podcast creation: where to start

[Winston]

Partly motivated but the WCI's great product, I've decided to start a blog/podcast. I'm excited because the scope and content is novel and a passion of mine, but this is new territory for me. Does anyone have any advice or good resources to check out related to this? I'm interested in materials reviewing how to get started, monetize my efforts, etc. I'm sure WCI, PoF, have opinions on this but I'm willing to bet many of you other forum participants do as well.

thanks!

[The White Coat Investor]

http://smartpassiveincome.com

http://problogger.com

Those were the two resources I was given at the beginning of my journey. They served me well. If you think I'm doing well blogging, check out Pat Flynn's monthly updates. He made $166K last MONTH.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

Congrats, Winston. Do you have a specific topic / niche?

I've been learning on the fly. Here's a good starting point - a how to start a blog page from Financial Samurai.

Best,

-PoF

 

[YYjames]

The White Coat Investor wrote:

http://smartpassiveincome.com

http://problogger.com

Those were the two resources I was given at the beginning of my journey. They served me well. If you think I’m doing well blogging, check out Pat Flynn’s monthly updates. He made $166K last MONTH.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the post. I am myself interested in this - quick questions for both PoF and WCI

1. Obviously, passion is needed for blogging. But from the purely effort put in vs ROI is this a good business/venture to do (purely business wise). Pat Flynn income is insane!

2. Looks like popular blogs are aggregators of primary services that they then affiliate market to reach bigger scale. Looks like Pat flynn has 60K coming from Blue host links? rest of his income is from other products that would be bloggers/web marketers can use (email, launching courses, podcasts etc). So he is a resource of "how to start online thingi" and affiliate markets that. Same thing at WCI - financial products for docs. So question is: should one focus on a niche like this and be an aggregator?

3. I have a non-finance blog and service idea; Jim, could I email you and pay you to consult/opine on the efficacy of the idea as a webservice and how to market it? I much rather hear you than pay for expensive "hey launch this for $12039029348 course"

 

 

[Post deleted at author's request.]

 

 

 

 

[MedSchool Financial]

Hey Winston and YYjames,

It's great to hear that the entrepreneurial spirit has taken hold, and you are both interested in getting into the blog/podcast content space.

I would reiterate the sentiment shared by WCI for Pat Flynn and problogger as go to's for the ins and outs of blogging.

As Pof, mentioned identifying your niche is important and I would also then add that you identify your preferred medium as blogging calls for one approach and podcasting a slightly different approach. Once you getting a good handle on one, can always add on one or the other.

for example purely from start up costs: fairly low with blogging and may be a little more upfront with podcasting as it would be preferable to get a quality mic and may call for some sound editing.

For Podcasts I would recommend checking out Tim Ferris - http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast

Another podcaster doing well in this space is John Lee Dumas at http://www.eofire.com/ , much like pat flynn, John Dumas is killing it with income of $214K last month

Two pieces of advice that I would say has served all of us in this thread and anyone that embarks on this journey well is to just get started and to be Patient, because most ventures online or brick/mortar take years just to break even. So do it for the love of the game because it is fun and enjoyable, but plan on being in it for the long haul. Get started, because a lot of learning happens in failing fast and failing often.

Best regards,

Dr. J

[The White Coat Investor]

Perhaps too little has been said about selecting the right niche. You need a niche that is broad enough, but not too broad, monetizes well and is EMPTY. You can only get so far copying the most successful blogger in your niche. I mean, go try to do what Pat is doing. Who's going to read you? The bigger the niche the more room for multiple voices, but it doesn't matter how good you are at writing or what you have to say if you enter an overcrowded area of the internet.

Like any business, you need to find a need that isn't being met, and meet it.