The Flagship Blog Project: Creating Multiple Blogs for Profit in 30 Day Cycles
Popular blogs are often read daily by a large audience. Reaching thousands of people, popular blogs can widely influence opinions and are terrific personal branding platforms as well.
These blogs can and often do make a lot of money. They produce regularly updated webpages which pull in large amounts of search or social media traffic. This converts into advertising revenue.
Flagship blogs also have large and loyal audiences and their attention can be monetized in various ways: creating and selling subscription-based access, info products, affiliate programs or joint ventures with other businesses/bloggers.
Since I love writing and making money online, I thought I could create a schedule of some sort and force myself to build large flagship blogs regularly for profit.
I thought about this idea for a little while and came up a plan.
The Flagship Blog Project: Working in 30 Day Cycles to Build Assets
Image Credit: meeting a pretty cute ugly
Create one flagship blog on the first day of every month and spend all 30 days developing and optimizing it. By the end of the month, the blog should be fully operational and only maintenance is needed: which means that you’ll only need to create content regularly while promoting the site.
When the first day of the next month arrives, repeat the whole process again by building and creating another new blog within the time frame of 30 days.
At the end of a year, you should have 12 flagship blogs and all of them should be fairly established with their core audience and regular readers. Depending on the niche and the blog’s popularity, each will bring in some steady revenue.
Put simply, this project involves the repeated use of 30 day blog production cycles to develop multiple flagship sites. The ultimate goal is to eventually set up a collection of blogs and make them into profitable assets.
Apart from multiple income sources, setting up multiple blogs allows you to experiment with a lot of things, in terms of marketing/promotion or monetization.
Playing around with each flagship blog will also give you experience-based knowledge, the type you cannot easily obtain through observation or a single blog.
Let’s take a closer look at how you can set up your 30 day blog development cycle.
Breaking the Schedule Down: Developing a Weekly Action Plan
Image Credit: yelling treeson
Having an overall idea of what you want to achieve is important because it allows you to set intermediate markers (daily pageviews/No. of subscribers etc.) which track progress towards these goals. Apart from having a list of attainable numbers, it is also important to create a time-based work routine: a weekly action plan.
The goal of an action plan is to divide your limited resource (time) into smaller chunks, thereby allowing you to spend a proportionate amount of attention on the tasks involved in developing a blog. For example, let’s break down the development of a flagship blog into a progressive four-week sequence:
Week 1: Setting up the Blog
- Research your intended niche and check out the competition
- Choose a domain name that is easily brandable.
- Pay for a good web host and set up Wordpress
- Hire a skilled designer or customize a free Wordpress theme
- Install all the necessary Wordpress plugins or addons
- Develop consistent branding (tagline, usernames, logos etc.)
- Optimize the website for visitors and search engines
- Write your first blog post.
Week 2: Developing a Strategy
- Develop a content development strategy.
- Start writing down content ideas and file them for future use.
- Create the necessary pages (Set up a great About page etc.)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed of news sources and notable blogs in your niche.
- Create an email marketing folder with contacts of blogs in your niche
- Create a list of social media channels that are relevant to the blog.
- Put up an ad looking for writers and monitor their applications.
- Write a few more posts for the blog.
Week 3: Marketing the Blog
- Create new + consistent social media/networking profiles (optional)
- Spend a few days creating one spectacular link bait.
- Promote the link bait by emailing popular blogs or use social media.
- Set up an actionable prospect list and start reaching out to other bloggers.
- Spend some time everyday networking with other bloggers
- Learn to use cost-free methods of marketing such as guest blogging.
- Purchase ads on relevant sites promoting your blog.
- Hire a few good writers and tell them your requirements.
Week 4: Maintenance and Transition
- Ensure that hired writers write a few posts. Give feedback.
- Create a regular posting schedule for yourself or your writers.
- Develop a second link bait and release it on social media channels.
- Reduce the amount of time spent on the blog by 50%
- Make preparations to allocate time for the next cycle.
The points mentioned above are not comprehensive and there are a lot more things you can do within each phase. These are just examples of tasks that could be done within the time frame of a single week.
You should set up a schedule that fits your resources, availability and skills. For example, if you have money to spare you could outsource a big portion of the work and focus on networking and strategy development instead.
Monetization Options and Marketing Strategies
Try to cross-market topically related blogs as it will help to increase readership, especially if one blog grows faster than the others.This tactic could be done in the form of contextual interlinking or display ads.
Team marketing is also a viable option to consider. A strong and active network will help a lot in the early stages of your site. Working with others will also motivate you and will give you ideas when you are unsure of how to best market your blog.
If you set up blogs in related niches, you can monetize them by selling ad spots across all of them as a whole. Networked ads will provide additional exposure for advertisers and make it easier for you to price your ads at a higher rate.
Another revenue-generating strategy is to sell the blogs off once they are reasonably developed. In the internet marketing niche, blogs with an audience, some reputation and revenue can get a sale price of over $10K. Even smaller blogs with less than 200 subscribers are sold for thousands of dollars.
Blogs are fast becoming lucrative resale assets, much like cars or houses.
How Can You Find Time to Create and Promote Content for Multiple Blogs?
Image Credit: Live on!
This is probably the number one question on your mind right now. It is also the biggest problem that anyone who owns multiple blogs will face.
It is difficult to create and promote content for many flagship blogs. The easiest way to do so is to get other people to do the work. You can hire ghost writers and staff/guest bloggers and get them to create content on a daily basis.
Alternatively, turn the blog into a team blog, whereby each member will blog on your site in return for exposure or revenue-share. Key point to note: You don’t have to be the blogger in the limelight. You could always play CEO behind a multi-author setup.
Think of blogs as media businesses, and not just platforms for personal expression.
Indeed, outsourcing seems to be the only viable solution because the more blogs you set up, the greater your content deficit. The articles you publish are incredibly important for a new blog because it determines if you’ll attract a core audience that’ll subscribe, read or link to you regularly.
Active promotion of your content is essential. If your websites are profitable, you could hire a marketer to work on a profit sharing basis. This could even be a fellow blogger or friend. You don’t need to hire a professional company. Blogs are really easy to market, once you know what results to expect and what to do.
Social media marketing is an example of a blog-friendly, DIY promotional method that works well and is relatively easy to implement.
Is the 30 Day Blog Development Cycle Really Sustainable?
The costs involved in hiring writers and designers needs to be carefully monitored because you don’t want to overspend. Ideally, you want to break even for each blog within 3 months, which is possible if you are skilled in growing it.
Perhaps this schedule will work best for bloggers or entrepreneurs who already own websites which generate revenue. Take a portion of your existing revenue and use it to fund your new blogs. The startup process will always be a little bumpy but the payoffs will come, especially if your site provides great value and is well marketed.
Development Cycles are Important Because They Drive You to Act
Image Credit: have a nice trip
Procrastination and laziness are obstacles to success. If you have the skills and ambition, all you need to make money is to stop hesitating and start doing it. You can learn all you want, draft up the most detailed plans and network till everyone says they love you but it all doesn’t mean anything, if you don’t take action.
If you love blogging and want to make money from it, go right ahead and set up a blog. Some people will tell you its hard to make money blogging. I say ignore them. It’s possible. It’s not a pipe dream. And you can do it, if you really want to.
Experts are only people like you and me. They talk about what they know or have experienced. For every 100 unsuccessful blogs they see or come across, there a thousand more that are successful. Don’t let statistics determine your future.
It’s really all up to you. All it takes is a serious desire to succeed and a willingness to learn. Keep an open mind and experiment as much as possible. You’ll find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to blogging and making money.
Anyone up for a Challenge?
Here’s the deal. From the beginning of next month (December), I’ll push myself to create one flagship blog every 30 days. I might not last for an entire year but I’ll go as far as I can. If I didn’t challenge myself, I’ll probably be too lazy to build up these assets.
I like having the pressure of time bearing down on me and I’ll make sure that I work twice as hard to get everything set up and done in 30 days. No excuses.
This article was partly written to motivate myself and partly because I thought some of you out there might want to attempt this 30 day blog development cycle too.
So, any takers?
For more ways to make money blogging, subscribe to Dosh Dosh today.
I would if I could. No time currently. I would have to set my time at about 90 days to do this. But currently I am experimenting with blogging and social networks. Once the experiment is done with one blog, time for the rest.
By that time, I will know layouts, monetization, and will have a folder of plugins I just upload and activate.
At least that is my plan. I actually got my wife in on the game, so 30 days just might be possible.
Very inspiring post, Maki! Not only do you lay out exactly what someone has to do, but you inspire them to do it. For myself, I’m going to put all that positive energy into my existing blog, because I don’t feel that I have it established enough just yet to be able to use it as proper leverage for adding more blogs.
Got to build up a solid foundation first. But thank you for the inspiration!
I have four blogs going simultaneously right now – all of which I started right around the same time (recently). Looking back, this 30 day production cycle would have been the better way to go. As it stands now, though, I got each one off the ground and each has some regularly updated content.
This is a challenge and a half. One of the things I have been wondering recently is how much writing in the social media/blogging field is actually lucrative and how much of it is talking in an echo chamber. I had listed some 6 or 7 other niches to explore, but was too afraid that it would mean spreading myself too thin.
The way you have laid it out almost makes it seem possible? I would be up for the challenge I think…
Do you have a budget for this?
This is what i’ve been looking for! A blog for a month! It’s a good idea for anyone who wanna start MONETIZING their blogs and develop a BLOGGING CAREER! DANIEL from DAILY BLOG TIPS is a shinning example for developing multiple blogs from time to time! I actually subscribed to his EVERY project
However, starting the FIRST BLOG may take more time on the LAYOUT and TEMPLATE TWEAKING. After that, it can simply be DUPLICATED ^_^
Nice post and good luck!!!
Thanks for the motivation. I’ve actually been thinking about doing something very much like this. But one a month sounds doable.
Hi Maki,
The challenge is a good idea and quite do-able if you have / build a good team.
I don’t think I can start with the challenge myself this December. But I could start it by the New Year – lets see how quickly I can wrap up my current pending projects.
I’ve got several great domains that I’m working on developing and would be interested in working with someone for a 30 day project.
Hi, Maki, I’m newcomer at your site and blogger novice. This post sounds like complete Science Fiction to me, and I do not understating completely(what do you mean under Flagship blog, sorry I’m no native english-speaker ) but I have to admit it is such a great motivation!
You made me want to start building new blogs although I hardly struggle with this one! Thank you!
Awesome post.
I would be interested to see the kinds of number that you could produce with this within the 1 month frame. Also, what kind of budget would you use & what kinds of specific advertising would you use?
This is Epic.
That’s all I have to say. History in the making…
Maki, will you be using Dosh Dosh to promote your new flagship blogs? Or will you try to prove to us all that your system works, even without the disposal of a large and loyal audience?
Sounds very tempting, frustrating and time consuming! I think you need one flagship blog to get the revenue necessary to play around. I’ll try it out when I have my first (or maybe last!) flagship blog.
Awesome post Maki.
I will be with you trying to build a blog for 30 days from December 1st.
On a different note, how can you break even in 3 months?
Francesco
Nefesco, thanks for the nice words, you flattered me.
Maki, good idea, and good planning list as well.
It is feasible if you work full time on the net, but I also think that you need to have one established site to begin with.
Someone with a small blog though should focus on making it popular first.
I will follow the advancements nonetheless, keep us updated.
I’m currently in cycle two of the same strategy, although my goal is one blog, website, or online idea a month. The hardest part as you mentioned is laziness. It’s good to know that even the authors of bigger blogs struggle with it too
Great post as usual Maki. I’m down to try it as well. It seems I start about a blog a month anyway, just with less focus than you layout here. Time may prevent me from keeping up, but you got my attention for now.
I’m in! Having followed much of your advice and having great success over the past year, I’m anxious to get started. I’ve had a couple ideas on the back burner for awhile that I need to move on.
Maki,
Thanks for the link to my article about customizing a theme. I like how you have broken down the activities involved for each week. I think it makes things see a bit more manageable for me. This system certainly seems like it would work for someone who knows what they’re doing. I’m sure it would be a lot of work and organization to keep that many blogs running unless the posting isn’t very frequently. I’m very interested to see your new project!
Wow! Maki, I’m amazed at your courage and determination. You go!! I’ll be here if you need any help. Call. Really.
Liz
That is one of the best posts I’ve seen. Even on this blog, and that’s saying something. I think this could work for anyone with some minor adjusments.
If I wasn’t already running 3 blogs I’d join you in testing this out in December. I’m afraid 3 is my limit for now. *L*
Maki,
This is a fantastic post, and I’d definitely be willing to take you up on your challenge of building up multiples blogs every month. I actually have a bunch of ideas in the works that I just never had time to develop.
In terms of time, you’re right that things are going to get very tight the more blogs you have. A lot of times people are reluctant to lose control of their “babies” and hire people to take over. I think the 80-20 rule is very important in this situation – where 20% of your effort leads to 80% of the results. It’s essential to focus on actions that lead to the greatest overall benefit. I wrote up a post on this here: http://www.winningtheweb.com/80-20-rule-productivity.php
I think it goes along very well with this flagship blog project. Good luck!
Excellent post Maki. I created a project plan similar to yours a few months ago, but never got around to implementing the necessary steps to make it work. I really believe if I follow the system you just provided and take action I will succeed. The problem with achieving success is people must understand that it rarely comes overnight.
This is extremely ambitious and I echo some of the comment made by Entrecard and Daniel Scocco.
For a smaller blog, is this feasible without a following or influential social media contacts?
Either way, it’s a huge challenge. Good luck!
Any thought as to starting a network for those who are taking the challenge? Not a Blog Network, but more of a social network. If everyone is seriously going to commit 1 year to this, it could be an incredible opportunity to share, socialize, support, etc.
Firstly Martin, I would love to be a part of any social network committed to the principals outlined here.
That out of the way I have to say this blog comes to my reader daily and I am amazed at the quality and quantity of content compared to others. I learn more from reading here than anywhere else, bar none. Since the concept of earning from blogging is entirely new to me I am deeply grateful for your writing and insight.
Please include me in this challenge if it breaks off, you can contact me at my site or by email.
Maki, this is interesting as I have been toying with a similar idea just recently. My focus however was on niche sites and I’m not sue whether that is what you are intending to do.
I know you mentioned connecting topics which seems are topics from whatever.
One thing that has always been on my mind is the question of whether to stick with what “you” know and are passionate about, or go with what’s wanted in the market.
Like you I need pressure to perform at my best and that always comes as self induced.
I am ready for this challenge, since it isn’t my first one either. (I wrote 100 articles for Dr. Mani’s challenge back in June) in 1 month and to my knowledge I was the only one finishing the task successfully (getting 100 articles done)
I did this to proof to myself that I can do whatever it takes to achieve something and your idea really appeals to me, so yes, I’m game. Plus there is nothing like stating in public what you intend to do to get your bum into gear.
Martin Jones raised a great point there which ties in with your recent post about creating a “network”. Is that what you are trying to do here?
Anyway, sorry about my rambling on for so long
I find that there is overlap of time and tasks in between, which is not looking good.
If I had time, I’d look up to it, but I think managing a few blogs itself is good enough. I like the scheduling.
I can help you in the project. Let me know if you wish so.
Sounds like a fun (though exhaustive) project. As someone who’s started and then quit several site/blogs, this would be a great project to get them going with regular postings again. I’ve been toying with some type of content publishing strategy for awhile now, and your suggestion of focusing on one each month makes it sound much less daunting.
If you start a group participating in the challenge, I’d love to participate.
@ Patrick
You’re welcome.. all the best for your existing blog!
@ Nancy
I actually don’t intend create any blogs in the marketing/social media niche… I’m a little tired of it. Time to play around with something new. I think the internet marketing niche is great for making money if you have a strong community and know how to network/brand yourself. Great for selling consultancy services, that’s for sure.
@ Bob
Yeah.. probably 1K for each blog I start. I’m putting in revenue I get from my other websites. It is quite possible to do this challenge on a very low budget. You’ll need to go the guest blogging/free WP theme route and you’ll probably need to do lot of writing for yourself. There are couple of ways to circumvent budget problems and maybe I’ll do a post about it.
@nefesco
Thanks, Daniel has a good thing with his mini network.
@ FreshAdriaticFish
Flagship blog refers to large blogs with a sizeable community or audience. This is as opposed to small niche blogs which are purely created for search engine visitors and affiliate/adsense income. I guess you could also define it as a blog you really want to grow, until it becomes a front runner or reputable brand in its niche.
@ John
I would use StumbleUpon ads for baits and may also purchase some banner ads or reviews. I’m not really too big on advertising but I added that point in because I know some people have a big budget and love to advertise for traffic and buzz. I won’t be doing much advertising in the early stages, that’s for sure.
@ Entrecard
There isn’t really a system here…. with or without leverage, a blog’s popularity will depend on your content marketing skills. Having said that I might use Dosh Dosh to recruit writers/bloggers.. and since I’m exploring unrelated niches, I don’t think I’ll publicize the sites too much on this blog.
@ Guadagnare
Technically you can break even if your costs are low. Creating your own themes and writing your content are ways to do that. You can actually try doing that for the first two blogs and then try to make them profitable as soon as possible… this will give you some extra revenue to play with for the other blogs.
By then you should hopefully have some leverage (networks/transferable audience) to run with and that’ll grow the other blogs faster. Putting up direct ads by the end of the second month is something I have in mind for all the blogs.
@ Daniel
Sometimes a site of mine just refuses to reach the tipping point and blow up. Perhaps its the audience or just the diminishing passion I have for it… trying hard to make ONE blog popular first can be a difficult thing to do as well. You can reach a dead end and get disappointed. Good point on being focused though.
I’m going with a different approach here… try to bulldoze my way in various niches, play around a little and push them through my networks. Some will take off fast and some might not. But yeah like you said, it can be time-consuming for someone with a full-time job… time management and outsourcing are key.
@ Freelancing Sam
Laziness is a really good friend of mine.. sometimes I’ll end up watching films all night instead of working on my sites and I often do. It’s far too easy to tune out and get complacent. Hence, this time-based plan for success.
@ Steven
You’re welcome. Getting good writers for the blogs is a huge concern of mine. I would be able to write for at least 2 more blogs on top of Dosh Dosh but I think having dedicated content team for each blog is really very important.
@Liz
Thanks for support! I’ll let you know if I need any help
@ Mariam
It’s definitely possible if you work hard at it. Remember this, most of the large blogs now were nobodies when they started out. It all comes down to working really hard and smart at the blogging game. Don’t forget to keep building up your contacts.
Other bloggers, friends or supporters will be a huge part of your eventual success.
@ Martin
Yes.. I’ve actually got a post about the starting a network and it’s still open for people who want to join. You can find the post below. I’ve also linked to it in the article: http://www.doshdosh.com/the-bloggers-guide-to-team-marketing/
@ Monika
If you are hiring bloggers or getting others to write for you, you don’t need to be passionate about the topic you choose. A slight interest will do. If you’re going to be writing everyday for a blog, you better be passionate about the topic or you’re gonna burn out really fast.
The team marketing network is still on, I’m in the middle of setting up a private site and will actually send the invites tonight.
@ Mani
The weekly schedule I’ve written about is a rough sketch and I think they are progressive, hence the slight overlap. When it comes to actually developing the blogs, a lot of stuff is done on-the-fly… so I’ve made each week as broad as possible and focused on four common phases (Setting up, Strategy, Marketing and Maintenance).
Thanks for your offer of help.. I’ll keep that in mind.
@ Krista
Yeah it sounded exhausting to me too.. but I think breaking it up into each month makes it less daunting and more manageable. It shouldn’t be hard to create one blog in 30 days… which is a lot of time if you stay focused.
I already set up a network of bloggers interested in marketing their websites so I might not be starting a group specifically for the challenge. But I’ll see how it goes. Could always put something like a forum up real quick.
@ Everyone else
Thanks for the comments and feedback so far!
Maki,
Perhaps, I’m not getting the concept here, but are you saying that working on one blog and turning it into an authoriy blog will NOT get us to our financial goals? I’ve seen a number of bloggers focus on one site and turn that site into a monster site. There is also the possiblity of adding other tools such as podcasting and videocasting to increase traffic.
One new blog every 30 days is a lot of work unless you have a solid team of contributors. You talk of laziness, but I’m thinking of mental and physical tiredness just from thinking of all the work.
Once again, I might not be getting this, but it means you have to become an expert in so many niches or find a really good group of people who are the experts and who want to write under your brands. Can you get all that in place within 30 days?
I’d quite interested how you make out because obviously, I have a lot to learn.
Gisele
I never said that and I don’t think there’s even a hint of that in my article. Obviously focusing on building ONE big site would payoff because you are pooling your resources into the same place.
One blog in a month doesn’t feel tiring to me… not when I love building sites and making money.
Like I’ve mentioned in my article, you can hire writers, work on a revenue share basis or get guest bloggers. You don’t have to be an ‘expert’ in niches like entertainment or technology (e.g), at least not in the beginning.
Yes, you can definitely get all that in place within 30 days. It’s actually a lot of time when you think about it. ^_^
Good Plan
12 blogs for 1 year is too much for me.
Actually, in this month (November) of the year 2007, I already has 5 blogs running, I spend 3 months to do 1 blog.
Like you mentioned, do it step by step, slowly and steady.
The money will come later ..
Good luck
I still think you need an existing flagship blog to startup this kind of project. The reputation and branding will help big time.
This is similar to some of the Linux development cycles, just that they are focusing on a single product but you are starting a new product every 30 days.
Hmm, how building these 12 blogs as a subset of a mega network blog just like a Linux project? Just a thought.
I am interested in joining if you find I am qualified.
I hope you do a good job Maki, as for a blogger who is working hard for the day job don’t have the time for such experiences so I would like to watch yours:)
Maki ~
Your creativity, intellect, and entrepreneurial spirit never cease to amaze me when I read your posts.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Need to fix my feedreader it seems.. got this update just now..
Anyway.. nice way of outlining stuff maki.. even if one doesn’t actually setup 12 blogs in a year, the format can be followed by any one wishing to setup even one.. its so concise and to the point.
but don’t you think the initial costs.. before the revenues begin to flow are higher in this case…the writers, the promotional costs, hosting .. and opportunity costs for that matter..and if for a reason plan doesn’t work out.. how wud u recover the costs…is selling the only alternative?
I am not saying that u need to provide us with a fail-proof plan… but wondering how one would keep the options open without a big cash blow out
I think this concept could be scaled down for people that don’t have a ton of time on their hands right now. Say one flagship every 90 days. However, the problem with this is the deadline is still a ways off when you start so the procrastination creep could definitely set in. Before you know it you have a domain, skeleton blog, and not much content sitting out there on the web wasting space and money.
The route for a person with a day job could be to do 4 flagships a year, but still have the goal to finish in 30 days. That way if you run over a little you’re not running into the next blog, but you’re still pushing yourself to get things done by the end of 30 days.
Great article, it’s indeed a tough project, but might i dare ask if you know anyone succeed with the tactic? The whole scheme involves a long waiting period and a pretty large amount of cash (promotion, staff) invested.
Maki, I would love to take on that challenge with you – currently I have 2 blogs in other niche markets that are on the backburner. However, I am now on a steep curve of learning the “tricks and trade” of promoting my blog. While it works very much the same way as IRL, the pace, culture and dynamics are very different.
Probably another few months when I’ve gotten the “hang” of things, then I’ll start when you’re probably starting your 4th or 5th new blog!
Maki,
What do you do with them once they’re created and you’ve moved on to the next blog? Sell them?
Thanks!
I think the idea isn’t very new but you have given a lot of attention to the details and that really helps. Thanks a lot.
Recently I have started a blog on Finance and I am planning to develop more on different topics. I am in for the challenge.
Really enjoy these ultra comprehensive posts maki, you must nearly have a book’s wrth of material by now!
Nice idea. While I have nice stream of revenue coming from my non-blog sites, I can make use of that money to hire writers to write on my new blogs.
But there’s a problem. How much do I have to pay to the individual writers to keep all the blogs going? I think there is a lot of first time investment involved in this kind of project, because it’s impossible to maintain so many blogs without outsourcing.
This is a great post and great idea, I have been looking for a great strategy for creating more blogs and I really like your ideas.
Very nice post but very unrealistic. I created a new site at thetechbrief.com and I have 5 writers working on it producing 5 articles a day which is a pretty good rate without overwhelming the reader. My traffic is going up at about 20% a week which is not bad. My point is, it will be very hard to do this in 30 days. It’s only been 6 weeks since I launched but I am from profitable or even covering my hosting fees
The content in my opinion is excellent, so I am not sure what I am doing wrong and why traffic hasn’t taken off as fast as I expected it to.
@ Emad
Very unrealistic? I don’t think so. I have broken even in one month and set up a few blogs in 30 days so I know its possible.
Your blog is probably is not as successful as you think because you aren’t marketing it or monetizing it enough. It might be overkill to have so many writers producing high volume stuff on a new domain which doesn’t have much search engine trust. You ain’t gonna get much longtail in this way. Better to blog less and produce higher quality content for other blogs social media for links first.
@ bmunch
I don’t think having a flagship blog in place is a prerequisite to do this cycle. Sure its nice to have, but when your blogs are in different niches…there are not many cross-over advantages. Having them all as a network is a good idea that I’ve considered and I’ve mentioned that in the article as well….Feel free to do the challenge on your own if you’re interested.
@ maneesh
Every venture that is potentially profitable will have a risk. Creating blogs for money is the same. I guess the way to reduce your costs and the risk factor is to know your limits and abilities.
If you don’t have too much money to spare, don’t spend too much money initially and try to make the first 2 blogs profitable first. If you know that you have time and the skills to make most sites lucrative… then its just a matter of plowing ahead and creating the sites.
Watch your spending and track the returns. Cut down on costs if things don’t go well and draw up a projected revenue plan to keep your focus.
@Brenda
Definitely. If you don’t have a lot of time, one flagship every 60 days would work as well. Just tweak the time schedule to fit your resources. It’s a good idea to do 4 blogs in a year but still within a 30 day cycle. That shouldn’t be too difficult.
@ Tibi
Well, I’ve actually created sites before in 30 day cycles so I know its possible. You don’t really need a lot of cash in the beginning to make it work… IMO, the most important factor is time and a desire to really work at it.
@ Ivy
Nice to know that you’ll be doing the challenge too in a few month’s time… all the best for it!
@ Chris
Selling is a possibility but I think I’ll keep the blogs as I move on to the next one. The more sources of revenue the better. I’ll probably look back at all the sites in 6 months to a year and then decide which ones to keep and which ones to sell.
@ Mohsin
There are many ways to go about paying a writer. Like network blogs, you could go with a percentage of overall earnings or pay them on a per pageview rate. If you are paying per post, $4 to $10 is a decent rate that most writers would accept for short posts. Or you could leverage your network and try the multi-author/team blog model.
I was on the eve to start my blogging journey, and your post came. Perfect timing Maki. thanks for the motivation.
So 3.2.1 go
I have taken to your idea like a fish to water!
I’m a compulsory domain purchaser, and I’ve bought some domains that are simply lying dormant, which I want to start using actively.
Taking your idea, I actually cheated and started before the first of december, but figured if I could start up two before christmas, I would be able to relax a little in January
The first blog is, well, about registering domains, and domain name hunting. (Just started it an hour ago) I’ve started with a few ezine articles to kick off the project, but I will link it with auto-generated content from one of my other projects, which index and publish domain name auctions, in order to combine the two, and make the site much more interesting for visitors.
Now, my next project will be… hmm.. not quite sure. I have some domains that I could use, but I have no idea what the content should be about, as I simply just bought the domains with no real idea or goal for them.
Should we keep a monthly tally to keep track of our progress somewhere?
Well Maki, we both know that the theory is easy but the practice is only for the brave ones.
12 different blogs – that’s a lot you know? Having to write 12 different articles each day, then networking… Easier said than done. This is a full time job after all.
Maki your post is nice. I like it. One of your earlier posts you mentioned to make a team of bloggers or something like this. What about that?
…and here is me thinking the 50,000 words in 30 days was a mad idea. Sigh… I’m gonna be working hard in 2008.
What a fantastic post!
Think I’ll be joining you, but not until January, already have 3 niches figured out and started some research – but busy throughout December with other commitments. Are late comers ok?
WoW! You read my mind! This is my plan. However if you really did read my mind, you certainly cleaned it up first and then exponded on the plan.
Okay, your idea is much more developed than mine and a little more aggressive. I have just started my first site and my second is planned for January 1. I think that I will probably go to every other month for a new launch.
Good luck to you (and me)!
Now that’s what I call a great post! Very in-depth and informative. I think this is a great idea you have here.
I actually tried it once a couple years ago with mini-niche sites. I did well for a few months and then for whatever reason I stopped.
This post has re-inspired me to go on this journey again. I think blogs are the way to go because they are just easier in so many ways.
Thank you very much Maki!
Trent Brownrigg
i truely agree with your words of advise. I’m also doing the same to start something – so come and visit http://www.xanga.com/idot60
I have kind of stumbled onto doing this for similar reasons, but in rather less orderly fashion. My existing blog, originally motorcycle only, became a travel/biking blog and then a more general topic blog and lost focus. It was trying to do too much.
I started two niche blogs so that all three can travel in some appropriate direction. The two newest began in November and October. Both will be monetized in due course.
I am currently feeling my way through the issues of posting regularly and how to interweave them all.
This article was really very timely and has given me some ideas. I’m going to run with the three, for now, and see how that goes.
This is a lot of work to handle. It seems like it should only be focused upon by the full-time bloggers.
-Mike
Hi,
thanks a lot for that post. It’s funny, it’s arriving just right for me, as I am creating a new blog. I want to take out the adsense thing of my first one, my professionnal one, because I think now it may hurt my brand more than anything else and build a new one, more able to give me money as well as giving me some pleasure talking about something I really care, children education.
So you have given me the footsteps I needed to move on the good way.
have a very nice day.
Pascale
Maki, thanks for the answer.
Yesterday I did go thru your site and find some articles which helped me to understand better what you were talking about!
Your whole blog is great, great pictures, great post, great advices… I hope reading your blog will help me shake up my blog a little. I’ll definitely try it!
Thanks for motivation.
Sanja
@ Sanja
Glad my explanation and the other articles helped. If you have any questions about terms you don’t understand, feel free to email me.
@Pascale
You’re welcome! Good luck with your blog about children education!
@Linda
Yeah.. I think its always good to have defined focus for each blog, that way readers can immediately pick up on what its about and they tend to subscribe faster and read it more often. Blogs with general topics will work but you need to have a strong cult of personality there..
@ Trent
You’re welcome! Good luck with your future blogs.
@ Nick
Just to clarify in case some readers got the wrong idea.. I am not looking for people to collaborate with me on my quest to create blogs in 30 cycles. I’m going to do this on my own and basically I wrote this post so you can use this rough framework to do the 30 day cycle on your own as well. So January (or any other date) is perfectly fine…
@ Mig
Yeah the hardest put is to put the theory in practice. As I’ve mentioned in the article getting other people to write for you is important… especially if you plan to create many blogs. If you only plan to create one or two.. you could easy create the content yourself..
@ Shams
My previous post was about bloggers working together as a team to promote our websites… its not really related to this 30 day cycle. Basically I had the idea of bloggers networking together and helping each other promote our own websites. Check it out and send me an email if you are interested.
@ Domain Name Registration
Good to see that you’re so enthusiastic about it! It would be good to have a diary or a private blog to keep track of your progress somewhere. This helps you to stay focused.
@ Everyone else
Thanks for your comments!
I guess good examples are Matt from BloggingFingers and Kumiko from cashquests since they have excellent track records of selling their own blogs..
But i think selling blogs after the blog gained PR would yield more value rather than selling one that has some sort of alexa ranking..
Domain is a good selling point as well – nobody wants to buy your own name like johnchow or michaelwoo right?
However, i still feel a little unethical for people to build blogs based on their name or the author and sell it at a profit – it’s like selling your readers out.. matt is known for matt – kumiko is known for her agressive writing style.. i’ll be damn if you sell doshdosh.com XD
I think one needs to be flexible. Rather than fixing it as a 30 days plan, one should introspect, write down and decide what is the optimum time. After all we dont want people to start and cut off in half just because they did not plan.
@Althaf
I’ve already mentioned several times that the scheduling is flexible and you should create a cycle according to your resources. I wrote it in the article itself.
I’m picking 30 days because that works for me. According to my experiments, it’s fairly easy and develop a solid blog within 30 days. The timing is just tight enough to give you a sense of urgency and relaxed enough to spread out your tasks.
@ Michael
Generic names is good for branding + selling, no doubt about that. I won’t be selling Dosh Dosh and even if I wanted to, not many would be able to afford my price.
Maki,
I noticed you answered my comment. That’s brilliant. I’ll tell you that since reading your post a few days ago, my mind has been turning and turning because I’m now asking myself how can I work this model and which new niches should I consider exploring via this model. I actually have a few ideas in mind. I’m not sure if it will become 12 new blogs, but I’ll certainly be adding blogs to my list.
Thanks so much for opening my eyes to the possbilities.
Gisele
This is not only one of my favorite posts of yours alone, but I think it’s one of the best written posts out there about blogging! It’s discouraging how hard it can be to find good posts like this that break it down step by step, and have enough content to link to within the post! Anyways, I’m a huge fan, and great job!
Wow . . . A great post.
Greatly appreciated by newbies like me.
Would like to take up the challenge though I don’t know how long I will last.
At least, like you said, you need to take action to succeed, I will take the action this time.
Good Luck To Me & You..
Would it be better for all these blogs to be interrelated? In other words say all be in the health field so that they could boost each other, reference each other or should one explore different niches.
Very tempting but for starters like me, I guess having one blog to focus on for a few months is better. In this way one cas access his/her ability in managing, developing and promoting his/her blog. If he/she can do it well, then that would be the time to consider starting another blog.
Maki, great post, my partner and I started November on our 30 day challenge! Our blog is a site that I’ve owned for a couple years and finally am getting around to developing.
I’m chronicling the project on my blog:
http://www.brandon-hopkins.com/category/projects
Nice post and ideas indeed. I’ll developing things like that along the way and maybe can share with you again Dosh Dosh
I love the enthusiasm Maki and the concept is great, however I’m tired just thinking about it!
Even if you outsource the writing just management alone is a big enough job. It could all get quite demanding in short period of time.
I’m more inclined to build one authority blog and get it to the point where it sustains a viable income on only a few articles a week – sort of what you do here at DoshDosh (at least I think you do – I don’t know what your income is for this blog). Personally I don’t think that is possible within a month, but hey, I hope you prove me wrong.
Good luck with the experiment.
I do about the same with standard websites and overlay wordpress to keep em freshhhhh
While I cant see myself undertaking something this big and on this timeline, I think I could do 1 blog, with 1 quality post, once a week, for a year.
And I thought it would be interesting to blog about it along the way…. I’m going to track revenue, expenses, keywords targeted, traffic… pretty much everything. It may be interesting for those looking to build their own sites, to see what actually comes of it.
I’m keeping track of my blog’s birth over at this site:
http://www.thinkdavis.com/
(I thought it all after reading your post, so thanks for the inspiration… it all started yesterday)
@Gisele
You’re welcome… feel free to contact me anytime if you have any more problems/queries.
@ Dav
Thanks a lot and I’m glad you found the post useful.
@ Pony
Interrelated blogs would help.. as I’ve mentioned in my article, it would help you to sell network ads better. A good way to do this is to create 3 umbrella/parent blogs each on a specific topic with the rest of your sites falling into related fields.
Or you can create blogs in completely different niches and stop creating new blogs to focus on the existing ones. After a while, you can use each blog to launch smaller blogs in related niches.
@ Brandon
Your 30 day challenge is quite the same as my own but all the best for it.. hope you guys make lots of money. -)
@ Dave
Thanks for letting me know about your project… one blog should be easy to handle so good luck with your site!
@Yaro
Thanks for dropping by. I already have a few authority sites but I’ve been getting so lazy… there’s always a lot more money to earn.
You know what they say… nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Okay, I’ll take you up on your challenge. I have 8 sites that have been bouncing around my desk for some time. And they aren’t all just blogging sites:
1 Consulting Services
3 Open Source software projects and/or Web Services
2 Resource/authority
2 Blogging
Setting a 30 day (or other aggressive) schedule is important in that it causes the producer to focus on what’s required to make the deadline and eliminate extraneous activities. (Since you don’t have forever, you can’t just spend another day or week researching which font you should use…)
Also having a regular cycle encourages the producer to develop systems/templates/procedures that are both effective and efficient. (Something that the e-myth guys are always preaching.)
If you develop a set of systems/templates/procedures as you produce sites; as you learn what works and what doesn’t, you can tweak them for the next site. And note what needs to be retrofit on existing sites.
I anticipate that when I have my first 8 sites done (on July 31, 2008) I will take a month out to retrofit the existing sites with what I’ve learned in the process. Then I’ll get back on the merry-go-round and add another 4 sites.
How do you want me to check in at the end of each month with my progress?
well,this i have to disagree with maki.I have a friend who is doing that too.Apparently,he has build 3 blogs so far in 2 months and non of them is working well.In fact,he is earning pennies with it and there is so little motivation in doing it.Further more,when there are better niche blogger,these blogs will be obsolete and this will push down the blog to the pits of google organic search
you give me a very great idea, i’m a new blogger and currently working on two blogs for this month and hope to sustain this in the coming months profitably.
This post is outstanding!
. Thank you.
I am running only one flagship content blog and it takes me up to 2 hours every day to write, post and market it.
I think that full concentration for 30 days per blog is really enough to gain initial audience and daily readers.
In the first month of existing of my blog (June 2007), I made more than $100 in online sales. This is not too much, but I was very happy.
I might try this out, I have a few domains I could try this out on.
This is an awesome post Maki! I’m actually in the middle of building a few blogs right now. Thanks for the tips. =).
That’s a great post. I am actually starting to do something like that, with branching out one of my topics to a different blog so that I may get a more stable following of readers. Planning to make a new one come the beginning of December.
I accept the Flagship Blog Challenge. I am a green newbie. Want to monetize a website. I did not monetize my personal blog but want to do so with a Flagship. My question is can Maki or someone look at and critique the site? Thanks for the inspiration.
I have two blogs now and a couple ideas for new sites. I’d love to jump in on the blog challenge. I think this sounds like a fantastic idea for building new blogs AND for doing some much needed marketing and improvement to existing ones.
Thanks for the idea and the challenge.
The motivation is good but why we don’t federate the blog motivation on make one blog where all of us can write about?do you know how much benefit we can have back?
cheers
It is really appreciable and if someone is able to do it, it will obviously provide him a steady income. Please do share your experience in this regard in due course of time!
I just launched my first Flagship Blog! It is, http://www.proserviceprovider.com/ It is specific to my service industry.
Thank you very Much for all your work, i spent 4 hours reading your different posts! now you are my motivation! thank you once again
amazing plan… let’s see how many get to flagship no 2 or no 3
Full RSS feed