1. Does the blog have a minimum potential of 30k visitors per month?

When people drive to the store, they are spending time, money and mileage. When people surf the web, they are spending just time. This is the the most important reason for researching the minimum search volume for your own blog. You need way more traffic than foot traffic in a mall. A lot of internet traffic will have no intention of buying anything. I track the sources of a lot of my traffic. I've noticed a lot of visitors from school and government ip addresses during working hours. Those people actually are a good source for customers. However, a lot of them are still just wasting time. If you make 90% of your money from 5% of your customers, then you need at least enough traffic to build a viable blog.

2. Can the blog generate multiple streams of income like e-books, services, products, memberships etc...?

Companies were built around products in the industrial age. Companies are built around the customer in the information age. Your blog can make it expensive to find a new customer or inexpensive. If you focus more on the product, the reader acquisition cost becomes higher in the long term. If you focus more on the reader, the acquisition cost becomes less. I refer to cost as a relationship to time, not just a face value number. For example, you can build different products to service one reader from proms to weddings. You can tie a brand to the experience. You can create several blogs and tie them together. That increases the lifetime value of the customer. That decreases your cost of obtaining customers in relationship to the whole business. You might spend $900 to obtain a customer. How long do you keep the customer? When you build a blog, you'll want to offer different services and products to your audience. Start with one and get it working. Then expand. Building a blog isn't about the products, its about the audience.

3. Are the keywords realistic to target?

Some keyword niches are so competitive, you really need a marketing budget to get ranked. You would have had to start blogging years ago to catch up with the competition. However, there are shortcut methods that can be used to achieve rankings faster and the search engines love them. Whether you know the shortcuts, try and find the lowest hanging fruit. Don't overreach for the impossible. Sure, go after your dreams, just work your way there, step by step. Aim for a blog keyword niche that ranges from 40%-55% in difficulty.

4. Is there residual income opportunity?

Certain blogs that promote one-time products are profitable because they offer a higher priced product. I would never consider selling a one time product under $100. If you are going to sell a one-time product, make sure its profitable. Otherwise, you need to focus on residual income products. All of it really boils down to the lifetime value of the reader. You can accomplish higher lifetime values either through high end products or leveraged service products that produce residuals through your blog.

5. Am I passionate about the subject?

I've built some real dead beat blogs. They failed mostly because I just wanted to make money. A professional blog requires you enter into a groove and keep sawing out your niche. That takes passion. Setting milestones that measure results will motivate you along the journey. You need passion to take you from one step to the next. Once you achieve a few milestones, it becomes quite addicting. Examples of great milestones are certain number of new readers, rankings for keywords and traffic goals.

6. Can I jump-start traffic with an existing domain?

This is one of the shortcuts the search engines like. Bloggers will often give up a project too soon. You can use this to your advantage. Sometimes the blogger will leave behind a slew of backlinks still pointing to their domain name.

7. Is my profit margin at least 50%?

From my experience, you need at least a 50% profit margin to leave enough revenue to expand your project.

8. Can we offer any automated customization?

Customers love to pick customizations for their product or service. If you can automate this process, you will be well ahead of most other blogs and businesses.

9. Is our blog and products/services unique enough to prevent price wars?

Be unique so you don't have to try and compete on volume. There is no reason to limit yourself as a resource with all the cost effective methods for creating products now days.

10. Is there enough supply of the products/services?

If you are using another party as your supplier, make sure there is enough.

1. Research the best keyword niche that aligns with your passion. Pick a keyword niche that will generate a healthy amount of traffic for your blog. Use three tools. Adwords.Google.com (keyword tool), SEOChat.com and SEOMoz.org

2. After deciding on your niche. Look in expired/used domain name listing sites for a 4-5 year old domain. Domains with existing back links are even better. Older domain names will get ranked easier.

3. Decide which platform to start blogging on. Not all platforms are built for the pros. Decide between Blogger, Word Press or BuzzyBeeMarketing.com Set up your first blog. Optimize the blog installation for search engines where applicable. Buzzy Bee is already designed for search engines. Word Press standalone will needs modifications installed by a pro.

4. Plan Your Content

1. Keep your content focused on topic. Don't start blogging about any tangents like your dog learning new tricks. A little insight into your life is good when you are a blog star. However, when you start a blog, keep the content focused entirely on your audience.

2. Don't practice unethical blogging like SPAMMING, Black Hat SEO or Paid Entries Without Disclosure. The blog-o-sphere will ridicule you left and right if you practice shady techniques.

3. Research, research, research!!! Focus on a winning niche that you can target. Don't try and eat the whole pie. Niche yourself!

4. Update your content frequently. When first starting out, update your content every single day. Then make sure you communicate to your readers when they can expect new blog posts.

1. Successful blogs stay focused and update regulary with valuable content. They schedule their updates so readers can predict when to check for new posts.

2. Successful bloggers will engage the audience by asking for their opinions and feedback.

3. Great bloggers mix valuable messages in with optimized content for search engines. Its not one or the other, its both.

4. Awesome blogging means being patient too. Don't post your latest content right away. Let your latest writing sit a while, then come back and review it. This requires scheduling posts and staying ahead of the curve.

If your web host offers an easy install for wordpress, I highly reccomend that as well. Otherwise, if you want to start a professional blog, you will need to learn some html/php or hire someone. Wordpress does require quite a bit of customization if you want to go pro.

1. Why should you start a blog? I like Daren's answer. Here's my answer. Blogging can give you a voice. It's a lot easier to start a blog than try and get on television. Just remember, anyone can write great content. That's half the battle. You need to get people to your blog using various methods from search engine optimization to social networking.

2. There's multiple ways to approach the same topic. You can write about the news in that market or make a cartoon column. You can create an educational blog. There's many angles. Find out what your audience wants first.

3. Convergence is a really important word in future talk and internet marketing. The convergence of micro blogging and blogging will yield powerful changes. Just remember, social networks like Twitter are leveraging your creativity and time. Find a way to leverage Twitter in a healthy way for the community. Don't SPAM Twitter or use a bot. Find a way to build attraction on these new micro blog sites. Start a blog that's narrowly focused on one type of avatar and offer value.

4. Will Newspapers be replaced by blogging? Once again, I like Daren's answer. In my opinion, I don't think you can replace a newspaper with a blog. I think the whole media industry is transforming. For instance, people used to be centered around towns, schools, communities. I see in the future how people will be centered around social networks and interests, not bounded by physical limitations.

5. Will blogging be around in 5 years? Its important not to get caught up in terms. Look more closely at the changes and principles that the trend is riding. Blogging is built on top of some prinicples like

1. Community Without Physical Limitation

2. Intellectual Capital Creation

3. Everyone Has A Voice, Democratic

Start a blog so you can get in the market now. Then you can ride trends and transform your site.

Whether you have your own small business or are manufacturing a product, there's probably a story or information you can share with your following. As the internet matures, the competition will increase. It will pay dividends for years if you get into a market now. Starting a blog gives your own piece of real estate. Domain name age does matter. Blogging isn't for people who want immediate gratification. Owning a business is like planting seeds and waiting for the harvest.

You should start your first blog with the aim to be profitable. You want your basic costs covered by revenue plus profit. Then you can develop your exit plan. You should always build your blog with the idea that you will exit by hiring a shost writer. That's your first step to building a blog empire.