The answer to this issue lies in making a thorough research of the market you operate in. Knowing all the variables of your market will enable you to answer questions such:

Who is your market?

You have to build a complete profile of your prospect. It’s not necesarily coming up with percentages for each segment. but before addressing a market you have to know what is that they’re interested in:

just buying your products;

getting involved in the business opportunity you offer;

both

Another set of data extracted with your research must address their needs, fears and desires. A wise thing to do is employing these three aspects into distinct categories in your future blog in a way that would enable your prospects to find quick (preliminary) answers to their problems.

You want your future blog to be a complete library about your niche market.

What is the niche you are focusing on?

Choosing a broad niche as your target market it’s very tempting for most marketers out there, but sticking with specifics will get you where you want to go – being a reference for your market.

Don’t judge by the popularity a market enjoys at a certain point, but instead ensure there is a constant demand for what you’re selling.

Who are your competitors?

Take note if they are just selling or have a community established around them. If there isn’t any, be quick and become a trusted ally for your prospects by putting good information to their fingtips. If there is a community in existence, take advantage of your flexibility and fill in the gaps that the competition neglected. Expand subjects that they’ve covered superficialy.

Will you have enough content?

Providing constant quality content related to your niche will be the most challenging demand. That’s the truth. Maybe that’s the reason why the average life span of a blog, in general, is just of three months. Nontheless, if there is demand for what you’re selling it will always be stuff to elaborate on.

It’s just a matter of being genuinely interested with your niche. If you’re selling cars today and refrigerators tommorow there is no point in launching a blog. If you can see yourself writing on your blog after twelve months from now you should make the preparations for launching your own blog.

Can I use my personal blog it to market my products/services? A side question that I’ve heared time and time againg…

My answer: it’s not advisable. Your visitors should either be interested about you or your products. These two cannot work hand in hand. Nothing personal, just business. Just deliver quality content with your marketing blog and branding your name should become an enjoyable side effect.

• One thing that blogs AREN’T good at is overnight results.

It takes commitment to tackle a market and making a name in your niche. And this is done by constantly providing valuable information which deals with the fears, needs and wants your prospects experience.

Before buying, the prospect has to be ensured that he has a clear picture about what the product/service should deliver. As Darren Rowse said it, you want to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond. So, branding yourself and attracting endless leads to your business is a perfect manageable task today due to Blog’s capabilities.

Make your market research and identify the content categories you’re blog should have. Only after getting this process done, should you think about launching your blog.