Can you start a business with only a blog?

By Bruce · Thursday, July 30th, 2009

I have received a lot of email about starting a business with just a blog. The answer is a resounding yes!! Although this blog site concerns itself with using a blog to attract an offline audience for a “brick and mortar” location, a blog is a natural to start if all you want to do is sell a product or service via the internet.

You would start out planning in the same way you would in planning an offline business blog. You need to define the purpose of your blog. Identify your target audience. Make sure you plan on tying in to as much online groups, forums and directories as you can. Then launch your blog with a lot of great content. You want to position yourself as the expert in your niche as soon as possible. Make as many people notice you as the “go to” person for your product or service.

As mentioned earlier, when you start a blog, you become a publisher. Think in terms of publishing and you will now know your role in communicating with your audience. Know that your audience is very hungry for the information you present. It could be a new product launch, a promotion to retain customers, a contest or drawing to attract new customers.

Your sole job is to make sure you keep the interest of as many people as you can. That is why, in this period where Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites are the place to be….for now, it is the place to hook up your blog. There are many widgets that connect your blog into the latest “tweets,” or “MySpace” comments. What works now is what you should use.

Later down the road, there may a new killer application that takes over Twitter and other social network sites. Always be on the lookout for the latest trend on what everybody is on for networking. I will bet your bottom dollar that there will be blog developer out there that will make a widget that hooks your blog into the latest of social media inventions.