BAL 5: The Purpose of a List

We’ve been talking mostly about the technical aspects of BAL (Building a List), now let’s talk some non technical stuff. Let’s start about the purpose of a list. Why are you building one?

Really the answer should be two reasons. One, of course is to make some money. But the second is you should have a desire of some sort to be writing about. It’s usually something you are good at, or a topic you notice details about. If you don’t have the desire, the whole process will be boring and harder to do.

So start by making a list of all the things you enjoy and all the things you do well. When you are done, circle the areas you think money can be made in. Then highlight the areas you know you can make money in. It’s safe to say your list will be about the highlighted areas, with a few dabs in the circled ones.

For me that list is something like this [strikethrough=circle, bold=highlight]: Blogging, Traffic Exchanges, Gaming, Google Earth, Ministry. I just took a few categories from the list, and obviously I write most about traffic exchanges. Blogging and Gaming both are huge and can make tons of money online, but for me I might be able to make something off it, not will.

Some ways you can figure out if something is going to be profitable.. Try searching Click Bank and see if products come up. Try searching Google and seeing how many results come up (and how many ads). Profitable areas usually will have lots of products or lots of ads.

Coming up with the purpose can be the toughest area. You might actually scrap the idea later. It’s ok if you don’t make a million dollars off your first list. I’m more interested in seeing you create one in the first place. Most people don’t have a list because they don’t know how to technically speaking.