"A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links."

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write content on an ongoing basis. As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see "what's new." Then they can comment on it or link to it or e-mail you if they choose to do so.

A blog can be a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

Finding answers means that you will have to do some Market Research to define size of this market, it’s area and develop whether a need or wants exists. You can then assess if you are able to generate enough profit to make a living. You will also have to find answers to these 2 questions:

ØWho competition is

ØWhat is different about your product

Wanabee entrepreneurs often say “I’m not trying to make a lot of money, just to cover my costs of living”

What they don’t realise is that they will discover that it’s very hard to make sales – far tougher than they probably anticipated. And that’s just offline world.

What about online world then? That’s just as tough. Cheaper, but tougher because of millions of websites all competing for that piece of pie.

But to succeed, you need a great product. This means that market research needs to be done.

Your Market Research needs to find out:

ØIs market actually interested in this product ØIs price about right ØAnd thirdly, how many will you sell

Before officially launching a new product or making improvements to an existing one, you need to know it’s potential sales volume before any resources devoted to it, are not wasted in a unplanned attempt to find a substantial enough market for it.

The activity used to establish whether customers might buy, is called market research.

There are 2 types:

(A)Desk Research

This is about researching any past records on matters relating to proposed venture. This kind of information can be gathered from publications, internet and trade publications of competitors, to give you indication of popular trends.

(B)Field Research

This involves active fieldwork – interviewing potential customers, preparing questionnaires and getting them filled out by public at arranged events, and always by selected target groups known as ‘segments’.

These segments of population may carry out tests oranswer questions on a certain topic.

A good questionnaire will:

ØAsk questions which relate direct to information needs ØBe brief ØNot ask personal questions ØQuestions are asked in a logical order

To help interviewers operate a questionnaire, sometimes a prompt card is used. This means that if several or all questions have same range of set answers, they can be numbered and respondents answers can be recorded as numbers.

Marketing

Okay, I wish to discuss subject of Marketing first, as it’s tricky to get right, and most people DO get it wrong.

In my opinion, there are way too many internet ‘experts’.

ØMost are self appointed, as ease of web allows anyone to set themselves up as one.

You never truly know who you’re dealing with, so please be careful.

Let’s get through what marketing actually is. “Marketing is anticipation and fulfilment of a consumer need – profit.”

Fulfilment could mean anything, and as far as web is concerned – it does. It could be to write and post an article, but whether that satisfies a need, only customer can decide that one.

The implication of Marketing is that for any company to pursue it’s objectives and generate a profit, it needs to find out what it’s customers want to buy and then simply meet those needs.

In order for you to be successful - You MUST build up a profile of customers:

ØWhat they want to buy

ØWhen they want to buy it

ØWhat they do

ØWhen and why they do it

In a nutshell, what will encourage them to buy or use your product. You have to study their habits and motivations. That will give you Gold, so to speak!

This is what all that Market Research is for – to give you that information.

Understanding Customer Behaviour

This is so important! The customer IS king, so we need to understand thinking behind a purchase decision, then and ONLY then can we sell effectively thus (hopefully) satisfy that need and want.

Which is your main Goal.

Buying Decisions

Buying goods or a service is not as simple as you may think. Customers do not make purchases without thinking about their requirements, well some don’t think when buying off net – that’s for sure.

An organisation that understands why customers make these decisions, who buys, what they buy and how they pay, can design products to attract attention of consumers, (but not all necessarily do cater for customer needs) – but do become profitable from it.

Social factors as a trigger to buy

Developers, manufacturers, and distributors of products must be interested in what makes people buy. And that is Motivation.

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist educated at Brandeis University, created a hierarchical picture of human needs. Motivation, is related to purchasing intent, and has a major effect on why and what people are buying for.

Hunger – we need food

Warmth – buy clothing