Do you have a plan? For your blog I mean? Is there an ultimate target you are pursing or are you simply going with the flow? A blog isn’t simply a blog. They vary a lot. Some bloggers target a mailing list to upsell products on the back end, while others intentionally help people to raise their social profile.

Whatever your game or intentions, you need to understand how important it is to have a plan. Sometimes when people go blank on me when I talk about plans I try to use the analogy of a railway and it’s tracks.

See, a railway can only arrive at its destination if it travels on the tracks. The tracks allow the train to travel on a predestined route to arrive in time where it is supposed to.

While we can hardly judge time frames in terms of arriving when it comes to blogging, we can certainly figure out what would happen if we were to just go about our blogging without any route. We would amble about the blogging landscape like a drunken lunatic, not really knowing where we will be tomorrow.

Maybe you are happy to do just that. But unless you really only blog for fun, you need a road map. Otherwise you will get hopelessly lost.

The biggest problems most bloggers face is distraction. In my last post I mentioned some ways to shut off distractions effectively and Dennis of Direct Sales Web Marketing, a faithful reader, added to my tips with another important comment.

Ironically, distractions happen most of the time when we don’t work to a plan. If we were to focus on a road map instead, we wouldn’t go sightseeing elsewhere. Therefore creating that blogging road map is a must for any blogger who hopes to eventually earn money through or with their blog.

Here are some ideas on how your blog could help you to just do this:

• Use your blog as a membership site
• Brand yourself with a blog and use it to attract clients
• Affiliate blog
• BANS blog
• Establish yourself as a leader within your industry with the help of a blog and then sell personal tutoring memberships
• Use a blog for Adsense marketing
• Use a blog to compliment your business website and stay in touch with your clients
• Use a blog for training purposes
• Create a video blog with tutorials
• ad your own idea

As you can see, any of the above methods have the potential to help you make money. There are more ways but I’m sure you get the idea by now.

All of those blogging models need a clear road map, an executable plan of action, allowing you to follow along step by step while you focus on and build your business.

I suggest if you haven’t bothered with a blogging plan up to this stage, you sit down and really think hard about where you are really headed with your blog. It might take some effort to do this, but is worth every bit of it, since it can help you waste time for sure.

What do you think? Do you blog with a clear purpose in mind, or are you happy to go along with the flow?

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