Cracking the How to Make Money Blogging Code

Just like cracking the code involves working with huge amount of combinations, learning how to make money blogging takes place in the equally vast and wondrous world of the blogosphere. While your blog can deal with wildly variable topics and content, the desire to make a living from your web asset is almost universal, being limited only by your creativity and starting resources such as traffic or audience size. Yet, the means of earning money with blogging are definitely (and luckily) finite, meaning that someone has already cracked the code and came up with several empirically proven methods that allow for blogging for a living or even “livin’ large” with it. Therefore, you are invited to take five minutes and read how these decoded monetization approaches can help you and your business grow in the long run.

1) Affiliate Marketing:

First of all, let us define affiliate programs: these are the schemes which allow you to receive commission as a share of sales of products offered by affiliates on your blog. Consider, for example, the case of Pat Flynn as one of the most influential bloggers, who writes about topics such as passive income and blogging. He earns an average of $30,000 per month from his affiliation with the Bluehost company alone. On his blog, he advertises Bluehost as a reliable hosting company and uses their services. The company supplies him with links and banners that he puts on his blog. When someone clicks on them and buys a hosting service from Bluehost, Flynn receives a percentage of the sum. Simple as that.

Make sure to check sites such as ClickBank, which offer valuable affiliate program options for a variety of products, with payout rates going up to 75% of the profits for top affiliates. Some of its alternatives include Rakuten Marketing, Commission Junction, Share-a-Sale and others.

2) Ad Networks:

Another avenue on the how-to-make-money-blogging roadtrip is to utilize the services of ad networks. This model involves using your website space to advertise brands and products, with the ads being served by the networks themselves. Take, for example, how Google AdSense works: upon creating your account you’ll receive several lines of code, which make it possible for Google to analyze the content of your site to serve ads that correspond to its content. Yet, none of this would be possible unless you pass AdSense’s own admission requirements. It can ask you for the proof that your blog is at least six months old and that it complies with its privacy policies.

Thankfully, you are free to get in touch with its more than viable alternatives and determine if their policies are more in line with your business goals. Benefits of working with ad networks are rather obvious, in the sense that you do not have to look for advertisers to serve ads on your blog as this is the network’s task. This frees up large resources on your part, which can be used for additional focus on perfecting your content. Bear in mind that your earnings will largely depend on the size of audience your blog serves or on the niche in which you operate it.

3) Independent Advertising:

If you feel like going independent, you’ll once again end up with banners being displayed on your blog, with an important difference: you’ll have to look for advertisers on your own and make deals with those who are willing to advertise on your blog. In this case, you’ll also have to take into account their preferred modus operandi in terms of offered advertising models.

A caveat: you’ll have to act proactively and be on constant lookout for potential partners. This means engaging in a lot of cold contacting and being prepared for some serious self-marketing work. Also, you’ll have to be wary of the amount of banners you serve, as having too many of them will lead to a loss of visitors, while having too few can hurt your efforts financially in the long run.

4) Paywalled Premium Content:

In addition to promoting other people’s stuff, you are also free to try your hand at creating yours and the best solution comes in form of digital premium content, which you can put behind a paywall. Among the most popular options for monetization in this manner are video tutorials and courses, together with e-books on the subject that corresponds with the content you already provide for free on your blog.

This approach involves balancing many plates at the same time, as you’ll need to determine what content is relevant for your audience to make them say: “shut up and take my money.” The TimothySykes.com blog dedicated to penny stock markets is one such example. In addition to regular content, its owner Timothy Sykes has created digital premium content that he sells through a membership area together with physical copies of educational DVDs.

5) Sponsored Content and Reviews:

Creating sponsored content means aligning your long-term marketing effort with an established content creation strategy. Sponsored content consists of articles that are paid for promotion of a company or product. These articles can be written with oblique or transparent references to your sponsors. Yet, you’ll need to focus on informing your readership about the product in the role of an influencer, rather than convince them to take a specific action in relation to it. The rates you’ll get depend on audience size, social media presence and the blog’s general outreach. This method is particularly popular with fashion and travel bloggers, who are able to turn their lifestyles into long-term business efforts while cooperating brands.

6) Consultancy and Freelance Services:

This one can be seen as going the extra mile from selling your own digital products, as your efforts are now taken to a whole new level at which you interact with specialized clients in addition to your regular audience. The key prerequisite is building a substantial audience that has full confidence in your ability to function as an expert in a particular field. These freelance services can include translation, ghostwriting, photography and other skills that you consider your forte.

In addition to these, having a blog allows you to organize webinars as one of the most lucrative monetization avenues available. One of the best platforms available for webinars is GoToWebinar, which has acquired a number of competitors over the years.

Conclusion:

Decoding the monetization code for you blog means being left with various pieces of the puzzle whose place in the mosaic of your blog will be ultimately decided by you. Preferably, you’ll achieve this after some heavy-duty field testing paired with a hefty dose of dedication and long-term planning. Whichever method you choose, the best thing you can do in advance is to have a clear vision regarding the balance between your money making and content production efforts, as well as in relation with the status of your blog as an authentic product of love & creativity that you now put on the market.

aricle source:

http://blog.revenuehits.com/blog/cracking-the-how-to-make-money-blogging-code

Make These Top 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog a Reality

Resources on making a living from blogging are often adorned with images of people whose screens act like money printing machines, with blogs taking the role of a mythological cornucopia of our internet age. These are usually accompanied by pictures of people who earn money by blogging on beaches, with their villas creating a shadow in the background. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why the blog monetization process may appear like anything but hard work and long-term dedication. So, if these two lie at the foundation of your work ethics, you are the best possible candidate for investing several additional minutes to learn more about top ten ways of turning your blog monetization efforts into reality.

1. Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing imposed itself as one the more popular methods of turning your blog into a source of revenue. This boils down to engaging in performance-based marketing, where bloggers get a commission if their site successfully refers visitors to a company that offers products or services. Commissions are based on the value of purchases of the items that you recommend to your visitors, with usually highly variable rates.

Commissions are received via affiliate programs that serve as the basis for engaging in this sort of marketing business. There are many quality programs at the blogger’s disposal whose choice will be determined both by your good judgment as well as your ability to make your content fit seamlessly with the products offered as part of this arrangement.

2. Advertising:

For many bloggers, this the first association when it comes to monetization of their web property. This model works similar to old-fashioned advertising in newspapers, in which you use your site’s space to advertise various brands and products. This approach can involve dealing directly with advertisers, which usually entails offering them proof that you have a sufficiently large audience following, or working with ad networks that make it possible even for smaller publishers to run ads on their blogs.

3. Selling Digital Products:

If you feel that affiliate marketing or advertising sits uncomfortably with your content, you are free to cut the middleman and create your own digital products and sell them to your audience. These can come in form of ebooks, PDF guides and edutainment videos that can be put behind a paywall. In any case, you’ll have to carefully consider what content will be made available in this manner, taking into account the size of your audience, niche and other factors. Consider using tools like website visitor recordings to see how your audience reacts to these kinds of offers and tweak the offers accordingly.

4. Offer Your Freelance Services:

This one seems like a logical upgrade of selling your own digital products, which is now taken to a whole new level, where you interact not just with your audience but with specialized clients as well. The essential prerequisite is building a large enough audience who would have full confidence in your ability to act as an expert in a particular field. These freelance services can include translation, ghostwriting, photography and other skills that you consider to be your forte.

5. Become a Consultant or Coach:

Your expertise in a particular field can also be utilized in a more hands-on manner, if you decide to expand your blog to serve as a platform that offers consultancy or coaching services. These include having special scheduled sessions with the members of your audience who require your guidance, advising and training in relation to a particular problem or need they have. Provided that you convince them that you are able to help them, the existing audience will serve as a reference point for other clients who may require your assistance.

One of the examples of a blogger-turned-coach is Mark Schaefer, whose {grow} blog about marketing served as a stepping stone for him to become one of the most sought-after branding coaches and business consultants in the world.

6. Writing Paid Reviews:

Another method to monetize your blog is to devote your attention to writing paid reviews, in which you get free sponsored products in line with the niche you operate in, and evaluate them for your audience. These can take form of standard reviews as well as advertorials, in which you need to align your content with the overall marketing effort. This is best helped by honing your skill with native advertising and upgrading your level of expertise relating to relevant products. Once again, make sure to use website visitor recordings to feel the pulse of your audience.

7. Sponsored Content:

Similar to writing paid reviews, this method includes generating and placing content in collaboration with various brands, depending on the niche in which you operate. Yet, the focus here is on informing your readership about the product as an influencer, rather than convincing them to take action in relation to it. The rates a blogger receives depend on audience size, social media presence and the blog’s general outreach. This method is particularly popular with fashion and travel bloggers who are able to turn their lifestyles into job-like arrangements with brands.

8. Create an E-Store with Physical Products:

This method requires putting additional efforts making it viable, as you have to produce both content and products that need to compete with a myriad of other e-commerce sites. Your chances of standing out from the amorphous crowd depend on the niche and the level of your knowledge of what your audience wants the most in terms of these products. One of the less risky approaches to monetizing your blog in this manner include starting to produce and offer items with a more universal appeal, such as t-shirts, mugs and other similar products.

9. Have Your Audience Support You:

Provided that you have loyal audience that wants to support you in exchange for having access to ad-free and transparently produced content, going the way of crowdfunding and donations seems like a reasonable monetization method. It gained traction among bloggers engaged in more creative pursuits, such as artists, writers and others, as it allows them to create content unburdened by the vicissitudes of having to provide for the author’s daily existence. Today, crowdfunding platforms are almost omnipresent and you’ll have no problem in picking the right one for you.

10. Blog Sale and Resale:

Finally, your blog can always be sold for a short-term gain, or in case you need an investment cash injection. This usually entails having a large enough audience and stable content production infrastructure on your blog whose sale can thus become a lucrative opportunity. Another approach involves buying other blogger’s property and rebuilding it, followed by its resale at a higher price.

Provided that you can build a blog with a value, this strategy can net you a handsome income, going up to $20,000 within the scope of just a few months.

Wrap-Up

Blog monetization is a long term effort that rewards every minute of dedication and creative atom that you put into it. Think of it as a Lego-like structure whose construction requires careful thought and patience, rather than being built upon stories of overnight success and unrealistic outcomes. Thus, acquainting yourself with monetization methods described here can be seeing as laying down your first brick in designing the commercial foundation of your blog.

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5 Actionable Tips On How To Earn From Google AdSense

Google AdSense has been a mainstay for numerous bloggers and website owners looking to monetize their web assets. Even if you are not a total newbie, finding your way in the labyrinths of this goldmine can pose a challenge if you want to milk this cash cow in the most advantageous manner. Also, just as every mine, this one has its own pitfalls and hidden corridors, which are to be avoided. If you pride yourself on your willingness to learn, let us help you find shortcuts to making more money off Google AdSense and securing long term monetization.

An Ideal Ad Size?

First of all, you can start by finding the best size for your ads, which often appear either too big or too small to a layman’s eye. Before you jump to conclusions that having bigger ads means having equally bigger chances at striking gold with AdSense, think again, as your wisest course of action in this case is going wild with experimenting.

Still, you may want to hear advice of the Big Boss Google itself, according to which wide-format ads usually perform better compared to their taller counterparts. The reason for this is an optical one, as the ability to read more text consistently without having to skip lines all too often makes these ads more reader-friendly.

Google also points to 160×600 wide skyscraper, 336×280 large rectangle and 300×250 medium rectangle -shaped banners as being the most efficient ones. In this manner, you have covered about 70% of ad impression formats on the global level, yet bearing in mind that the market features more than 15,000 differing ad sizes. All of this points to a need to keep an eye on general recommendations, while nurturing your willingness to experiment on a regular basis in order to ensure better click-through rates.

Quality Placement via Heat Maps:

Moving beyond ad size, the next most likely question to come to a website owner’s mind is the issue of positioning. This is important, as your ads are to be placed in the manner that will incite the visitors to click on an ad more frequently, while browsing and interacting with your content, thus garnering more clicks and driving better revenue.

First of all, your reliable ally in securing better CTR is the use of heat maps. The redder an analyzed section is, the more desirable it is for ad placement. Based on this, most bloggers agree that the best placement position is “above the fold”, with this term denoting the part of website which can be viewed without the need for the visitor to scroll down. According to this approach, placing ads close to the very top of the page makes it less likely that your readers will ignore them. At the same time, you need to keep in mind that Google can penalize sites with excessive top-placed ads, making it necessary to provide content in this section of the page as well.

Identifying High Paying Keywords:

As your income from AdSense will largely depend on the ads that your visitors click on, making sure they do it in case of high paying ads means a shorter wait on securing a stable revenue source. Since ads are shown according to the keywords related to the content, having high paying keywords is a means to secure equally high PPC.

Knowing that the most expensive keywords are related to insurance, loans, mortgage and the like, you may conclude that they are not related to your niche. Yet, despairing over this is pointless, as they are really difficult to rank for in any case, making it obligatory for you to identify keywords that are both related to your niche and easy to rank for.

In order to effect this, you need to avail yourself in keyword research tools such as SEMrush, Google KeyWord Planner, Ahrefs and others. They will help you in identifying targeted and high CPC keywords that sites rank for. Keywords are also important in the sense that they determine the type of ads that appear on your website.

 Targeting keywords means exerting a degree of control over securing placement of meaningful ads on your site. At the same time, having keyword density that Google deems as being too high can risks penalization, meaning that you need to exercise measure and caution with them.

Outsmarting Smart Pricing:

Smart Pricing scheme was originally introduced by Google in order to protect advertisers. According to it, they receive a discount based on the popularity or perceived value of your website. In essence, this is based on the sites’ click through ratio. Some consider this to be one of the reasons for having sites which are earning peanuts from ads, making it obligatory for you to try to avoid being “smart-priced” by Google.

One of the general suggestions to avoid this is to ensure consistency between ads and the content you produce. This goes hand in hand with considering the removal of some excess ads. Another method involves placing AdSense ads on older posts as a means to keep CTR at a desirable level. Similar effects can be achieved by displaying ads only to visitors who arrived at your site via a search engine.

Ensuring Ad Contextuality:

Finally, having quality content and treating it as its royal majesty is another fool-proof method of securing higher earnings from AdSense. No matter what placement or ad format strategy you may employ, your income is bound suffer with poorly targeted audience and content that is not aligned with the ads you prefer to be placed. Since AdSense advertisements are contextual, Google’s robots will always scan your content to determine its relevancy to the placement of ads. Provided that your website follows a consistent content creation strategy, chances are that displayed ads will have more relevancy to your audience as well. In turn, your visitors will be more likely to click on ads, thus earning you more money.

Wrap-Up:

Looking for ways to monetize your virtual property usually ranks highly among web owners’ priorities. Even if you have other primary sources of income, generating extra revenue is always welcome. One of the most popular ways to achieve this is to work with Google AdSense, which, despite its simplicity, leaves enough room for optimization of its earning potential by application of some of the above described approaches. You will achieve best results by combining awareness of these methods with the willingness to experiment with all of them in the field.

source article: : (http://blog.revenuehits.com/blog/how-to-earn-from-google-adsense)

Miss These Profitable Business Ideas at You Own Risk

The existence of any business establishment, project or venture depends upon its economic performances. Obstacles are plenty, when you want to start a good profitable business, small or big, full-time or side line, hurdles appear at every phase of the development of business. Fear, lack of capital, and shortage of good money-making ideas are just a few of the many walls, that you bang against. The key to success however is, scaling the wall and jumping over it, and proceeding to the next wall that comes in front of you. Ideas for profitable business ventures are simple, and though some of them start off as small passive income ventures, some indeed turn out to be very profitable.

List of Profitable Business Ideas

Some ideas for beginners have been elaborated here, take your pick. Remember, the better your idea, and more the creativity, more shall be your profit.

Internet and Online Business

There are countless online profitable ideas that can be used for home-based affiliate business. Such businesses include internet advertising and cash only surveys. In some cases, people can also take up content writing and writing for blogs.

Event Planning

Event planning, wedding planning, and event management have come into prominence in the recent past, and believe it or not, people are ready to pay a lot to have their events planned. The best thing about such business is that the 'work' though tedious is enjoyable. And, it's not just a single event, there are companies who give contracts to event planners to plan meetings and corporate events thought out the year. The task is challenging, but sure is fun.

Investment

There are countless ways to invest and get a lot of returns on your investments. With a good study of stock markets, commodity markets, and Forex markets, a handsome profit can be churned out. Though investing is deemed to be among the most profit generating business ideas, it can turn out to be very risky, hence, exercise caution and get knowledge about the market before investing.

Catering and Supplying

Often considered to be among the profitable ideas for women, there is no reason why men should not do it. This business can turn out to be really profitable upon growth of reputation. Apart from taking up catering for parties and events, you may also start supplying regularly to office canteens, cafeterias, diners, and even some restaurants. The three profitable small businesses, namely catering, cultivation, and event planning can be clubbed together for an even more sound profit.

Cultivation and Gardening

One of the greatest thought that was presented by Karl Marx is that man 'creates' something either from nature or simply out of nothing. Cultivation and gardening are the most primary and also the simplest steps towards 'creating'. If you have a good garden, then planting and selling vegetables, sprouts, and other types of edibles can become a really, really profitable business. Among all the small business ideas, this one is the simplest, because you can cater to any customer right from your neighbors and colleagues. Another plus point is that there would be many people who would be ready to purchase from you, since your garden's yield would be obviously more hygienic and healthy. Apart from catering to such consumers, you can also supply regularly to grocers in your locality. Fact is, your profit margin is bound to be quite high as this is one of the most profitable small businesses.

The key to making these ideas successful is to jump at every good business opportunity and be as creative as possible while executing the task at hand.

to see more go to:https://businesszeal.com/profitable-business-ideas

Economic Makeover - The Most Secure Way You Can Earn Income From Home In Less Than 3 Months

For the first time ever, I will disclose a ground-breaking way you can earn secure income in less than three months.

In my opinion, if you start a business opportunity, you will experience true financial freedom. However, there are a lot of business opportunities that are not legit and are rip-offs. To avoid being another failure statistic, I would recommend that you consult with the non-profit organization, Better Business Bureau to see if the opportunity you choose is legit or not. The Better Business Bureau is popular for non-biased reviews on business opportunities.

However, if you are having trouble finding the best opportunity, even with the help of the Better Business Bureau, do not worry. In my opinion, finding an opportunity is half the battle. To be successful in this industry you must have a firm understanding on other things pertaining to a business opportunity.

Joining a business opportunity is the most secure way to earn income from home in less than three months, in my opinion. If you master these three things, it will not matter which opportunity you join because these three things are more important when it comes to making your chances for economic success greater.

• Marketing:

Most opportunities have bad reputations because the rates of success are low. People join the opportunities with high hopes and dreams of making a lot of money but end up going in debt even more. Before you join, I would recommend that you asks questions in regards to the marketing methods of that opportunity. A red flag to look out for is if the up-line tells you that they use the "warm market" approach when marketing. The up-line are the people who are responsible for recruiting new members to the opportunity and they often like to pitch the "warm market" approach. The warm market approach is basically going after family and friends to sell products and services. This tactic is extremely ineffective and can cause you to dump money into a business that is designed to fail.

• Compensation plan:

It is important to look at the compensation plan of an opportunity before you join it. The compensation plan is an outline from the opportunity to you that will share how you will get paid. In my opinion, if the compensation plan is too complicated to understand, I would recommend that you move to another opportunity because compensation plans that are hard to understand are a red flag.

• Time it was founded:

Make sure to check the amount of time that the opportunity was in existence. In my opinion, I believe if an opportunity is 25 years and older, then the opportunity is safe to join. You do not want to be with an opportunity that has only been alive for 10 years or less. You want to make sure that before you invest your energy towards any business that it is worth it.

Right now, You can learn a fool proof method on how to reinvent how you earn a living, escape your 9 to 5, and earn secure income in less than three months by clicking Three Month Economic Change

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Marc-Eddy_Drouinaud_Jr/2289154

Six Store Set-Up Tips When Starting a Dollar Store

Proper store layout and set-up is one of the actions which most impact your sales when starting a dollar store. In this article I will provide six valuable tips to help you get started down the path to a store layout which maximizes dollar store merchandise sales. These tips are designed to help you set-up and then stock your store when you prepare and to open your business for operation.

Tip #1)

• "Map out your planned store layout as soon as you have a lease."

 While you should have examined the site before agreeing to lease it, that examination probably doesn't include every little detail about where product displays. However once you have a lease, it is time to invest energy in carefully drawing out exactly where all of the fixtures in your store will be placed. This is the time to make sure every single square inch of sales floor space is being used to its full potential. Carefully map the layout for your store.

Tip #2) 

• "Run gondola fixtures from front-to-back of the store."

While some spaces may be better utilized running fixtures side to side in your store, the majority of the gondola fixtures should be set-up to run front-to-back. Also, as you diagram the final fixture layout, be sure to provide adequate space for shopping carts to comfortably pass while in the aisle.

Tip #3) 

• "Break long runs of fixtures."

with an open aisle running side-to-side to allow shoppers who do not wish to proceed further down an aisle to move on without back-tracking. This will also create a space to add high-volume-sales end caps for the display of merchandise.

Tip #4) 

• "Place large merchandise display areas in front windows and the store lobby."

Maximize the exposure of dollar store merchandise to shoppers even before they enter your store by creating displays along front windows. Then, as shoppers enter the store, be sure to set-up displays so shoppers instantly see huge quantities of merchandise and also instantly start making purchases.

Tip #5) 

• "Utilize the precious area around the cash registers carefully."

 If this area is properly set-up, the area immediately surrounding the checkout area will routinely yield the highest sales-per-square-foot in your store. Select new products, hot impulse items, and other eye-catching merchandise to display. A couple of words of caution; do not over stock the counter area and cramp the room for customers to place their items and utilize space all around and behind each cash register.

Tip #6) 

• "When first starting a dollar store it is important to make initial dollar store merchandise purchases to ensure large displays are fully stocked."

Always remember to buy products in quantities large enough to properly stock window areas, the front lobby, and all end caps. The worst thing to do is to allow any of these areas to appear to be half-filled with merchandise.

There are several other important considerations when first establishing the layout and initial ordering of dollar store merchandise for your business. However these six tips will prove to be invaluable when starting a dollar store.

Are you interested in starting a dollar store? Check out our website and start your own dollar store business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bob_Hamilton/33152

How to Start a Business in 30 Days: The Complete Guide-part5

Week 4: You’re now in business—start selling!

You’ve covered your bases. Now, you literally have no excuse! This is the time to get out and talk to people. Start selling, continue advertising, and follow up.

Day 22: Uncover your USP

Your “unique selling proposition” (USP, also called a “unique value proposition”) defines what makes you unique. You will need a USP if you’re going to start directly “selling your business” to potential customers.

Figuring out exactly what your USP is will take a bit of creativity and soul-searching.

As you have done throughout the planning and startup process, consider analyzing your competitors and other companies. How are they selling themselves? How do they portray themselves? What do they say makes them unique? If you’re not sure, take a look at their advertising and marketing messages. This is generally where you’ll find the USP or variations of it.

Don’t just analyze what they sell, analyze what they say they sell.

As you look to creating your own USP, put yourself in your customers shoes. What do they want? What do they value? What are the benefits of your product or of choosing to work with you rather than a competitor.

If you’ve already started your business, you can also uncover your USP by figuring out the real reasons that customers bought your product and not a competitor’s. And the best way to do this? Ask them! If you can’t ask your own customers, because you don’t have any yet, ask your competitors’ customers why they chose your competitor?

Day 23 and 24: Start introducing yourself on the phone, start pitching your business, start in-field sales, start reaching out

You do need to create a list of prospects before you reach out. This will help you focus on targeting the right areas and the right people. Do your research. If you’re selling a high-end product, you don’t want to target/cold-call customers in a low-income neighborhood. And, if you’re selling a product suited to children, should you really focus on the section of town that all the college students live in?

Even if you don’t win immediate business in this step, you’re actually marketing your business and spreading word. When people later do need to use your service or buy your product, they may well remember you from that initial call you made.

Tim Berry suggests making 50 calls in 150 minutes. That means no longer than 3 minutes per call. This will help you stay on target.

If you’re doing in-field sales, it may be wise to first research a customer before reaching out and asking to visit them. This will save you both time and money.

Day 25: Follow up on prospects you’ve reached out to, people you’ve pitched, and so on

If someone expressed interest or gave you a very specific reason for not taking up on your business offer, there are a number of follow up approaches that may get them to reconsider their initial refusal.

This could include:

• An endorsement from a mutual friend
• A meal/meeting in a non-business environment
• An invitation to visit your facility
• An article about your company—something that will give you credit or that they will find relevant

Remember, the key with following up is to consider what new information you can share that may change this person’s perspective. What might they be interested in that you missed sharing on that first call?

Day 26 and 27: Figure out how you’ll maintain an ongoing relationship with customers/clients and then build, maintain, and engage with your customers/audience

Now you’ve build up an audience or won your first few clients or customers, you’re going to need to maintain the relationship. For many businesses today, this happens in the form of social media accounts, which can often stand in for a customer service team.

That said, you should still have a way for people to get in touch with you or with someone in the company when they need to resolve an issue. And you should make this clear so that they don’t do it publicly on social sites and so that you don’t sour the relationship.

Other things you could do to maintain your relationship with customers/clients includes:

• Wishing customers a Happy Birthday when it comes around
• Offering discounts for loyalty (perhaps for being with your company for a year?)
• Sending seasonal greeting cards
• Congratulating customers on business or personal achievements (maybe highlight a customer’s success on your site/social platform—with permission of course)

Regardless of what you choose to do to maintain the relationship, remember that as with advertising your business, this isn’t something you do “once off.” This is ongoing work. But it is also work that will help you understand your customers and adapt to their needs based on feedback.

Day 28: Choose your accounting software/online bookkeeping application

The main benefit of using good accounting software is that it will make your costs and expenditures visible which will ultimately result in more responsible financial decision-making.

Beyond that, if you are accountable to lenders and investors, these statements will prove you’re trustworthy and help you avoid financial damage.

A few top-rated accounting applications worth looking into include:

• QuickBooks Online
• Freshdesk
• Xero
• Sage One
• Zoho

Take some time to familiarize yourself with accounting principles and statements as well. Do you understand which statements are important when it comes time to file taxes? Do you understand how to log your costs and expenses?

If not, speak to your accountant, or to a bookkeeper. They should help you get up to speed. Eventually, you’ll consider it second nature!

Bonus:

Day 29: Use LivePlan

I’ve also allocated a day to getting set up with a LivePlan account, partly because I recommend the software having used it, and largely because the Scoreboard feature in LivePlan will make managing your business a lot easier.

Scoreboard is a business dashboard that will give you immediate insight into your state of affairs. How much cash do you have on hand? What are your expenses? What are your profits? How do these things stack up against your forecasted data?

Scoreboard is most powerful when linked with your accounting software. As it integrates with many of the major accounting platforms, you shouldn’t have a hard time drilling down into key metrics to figure out how you’re doing.

If nothing else, familiarize yourself with your key financial metrics from the start. You may have to put in a bit of time to learn more about what is most important for your business, but at the very least, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your cash flow. Without cash on hand, your profitable business could still fail.

LivePlan is also a good place to keep the live draft of your business plan. If you set this up earlier—in week two—you should find it easy to simply spend the day learning Scoreboard and your key metrics.

Day 30: Rest

If you’ve followed this 30 day guideline, give yourself a day of rest. But, don’t be surprised if you can’t. While running your own business will allow you to decide what you want to do, it will also be a full-time responsibility and you’ll be in charge of making sure everything is going to plan.

Conclusion (and Disclaimer):

Much of the structure and logic behind each step is thanks to guidance from Tim Berry’s book, “3 Weeks to Startup.” However, I have reordered a few steps and added a couple to give you a bit more time to get set up. I have also added an additional week for two reasons:

• Most people are comfortable with chunking to-dos and challenges into 30 day segments. I wanted to do something that felt both “familiar” and manageable.

• I can’t imagine writing a business plan and getting hold of funding for a business idea in a day. I’m sure it can be done, but if you have never started a business before or are unaware of the funding opportunities available to you, you may want to spend more time doing research and speaking with business development associations in your town.

Now: tell us how you’re doing? Have you decided to take the challenge? Share your thoughts with us in the comment below or on Twitter. 

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