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A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating - Part Four

Author Cameron Martel | 13.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Four: Product Research and the Product Itself

Before you progress your blog updating business any further you should already have the following:

• An idea of the time that it will take for you to make each blog update - You will need to know exactly how long it will take you for you to update a blog. Remember, the product itself is going to be focused on daily or alternating blog updates, and the more than you can do (and the faster that you can do them) the more revenue you’ll be able to generate.
• A website - The total cost to purchase your website/hosting is $90 or so initially (if you use Crucial Web Hosting), and then $9.99 per month after that. I will be setting up a Crucial-specific how-to on how to get your website designed, uploaded, and launched in a matter of minutes that anyone, even someone who has never heard of the internet, will be able to follow.
  However, so long as you have hosting and a website you are good to go. Your domain name should be something related to blog updating or outsourced content, such as “www.updated4you.com“. You want the name to be catchy, memorable, and relatively short.
• Decent English writing skills - Since the product is a blog update, and you will have to write said blog update, it is important your writing skills are up to par. If not, perhaps take a bit of time to reacquaint yourself with spelling, fundamental grammar mechanics, and writing style.

Once you have those elements in place you are ready to move forward and take your business from planning to operation.

Product Research:

This is one of the most important parts of your business plan and it is something that you should give a lot of thought to. Your product is going to be what maintains a client- you can “sell” anyone just about anything (if you know how), but retaining them as long-term clients is where the product quality and value come into play. Your goal should be to offer a product that is fair to both the customer and to your business, has value for the customer, and is something that your customers would be happy to recommend to friends.

As we’ve mentioned in prior articles, the product itself can be offered in the form of packages. For example, you may want to offer your “core” package, or the package that you expect to do the most volume with. This package should be set at a median price point so that it is not too expensive or inexpensive. Offering 20 blog updates a month for $200, for example, may act as your core package. From there you can offer less expensive packages (10 blog updates for $110) or more expensive packages (35 updates for $300), giving your customers variety and choice.

If you are fortunate to have known competitors take a look at their offerings and pricing. Basing your initial start-up packages off of their rates may convert a few customers on the basis of uniformity and familiarity. However, your long term success will be the result of you offering products, services, and packages that are unique and value focused. The bottom line is that you are a service, and keeping your customers happy is your number one priority.

Create an account on webmaster/blogging message boards and start asking what people would feel is a fair price for 1 daily blog update. Remember, people are going to reply ultra-cheap ($1/post, for example) and highly speculative (up to $30 a post, for example). Our initial research has shown that charging roughly $10 per update for lower volume orders is price acceptable.

Estimated Suggested Pricing:

This is a rough outline of what you could charge upon the launch of your new business.

• Baseline Blog Package - $110 for 10 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.
• Core Blog Package - $200 for 20 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.
• Advanced Blog Package - $350 for 40 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.

As you become more experienced you could offer graphical integration, longer update lengths, or long term updating packages. You may do well to offer a 10% discount to customers that purchase four months of updates or more- a bit of incentive never hurt anyone and people love a good deal.

The Product:

All of this talk about “product research” and “product value” doesn’t necessarily define what the product actually is. The base product that you could offer would be a blog update- you log in to their content management system, either write the update or copy/paste the update that you’ve prewritten, check it for any grammatical or spelling errors, and post it.

The whole process should take you under 20 minutes from start to finish for a 400-500 word update. Always ask the client how to log in to their content management system and for a username and password- don’t forget what they are either!

The product is quite basic, but what you’re really offering them is time. By allowing you to update their blog for them you are essentially allowing them to automate their blog. So long as you do a good job with the updates they will continue to allow you to update their blog, and hence stay active as a paying customer.

Need Examples?

Still unsure of what a “blog post” is? Good examples (as well as examples for websites to approach) are:

• CareerRamblings.com - (http://www.careerramblings.com) - This website is updated three times a week (on average). Each update is a new post that is around 400 - 500 words long. An example of a good post is “Conducting a Job Interview: The Right Answers“.
• AffiliateWeb.org - (http://www.affiliateweb.org) - Updated once or twice per week (judging by post stamps), each update is around 400-500 words long. An example of a good post is “Writing Search Engine Enabled Content: Five Essential Tips“.

Essentially, a blog post is little more than a post talking about the topic that the blog is based on. You don’t need to worry about graphics (unless you’re charging for them) or HTML/PHP programming (content management systems are just type and post). Keeping the product simple will keep your productivity high.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!