BloggWP

Posted: 08 Sep 2009 07:55 AM PDT

In this post I’d like to share a simple exercise that helped me to grow ProBlogger beyond being just a simple blog {image by deserttrumpet}.

How are you planning on expanding your blog?

Yesterday as I was going through some files on an old computer I stumbled upon a brainstorming document that I’d written 4 years ago about this very site - ProBlogger. I wrote it almost exactly 1 year after I started this blog.

In the document I’d set myself the task of brainstorming a variety of ways that I could expand ProBlogger beyond being just a blog. While I knew the idea of a blog helping bloggers to make money from and improve their blogs had potential - I also knew that there was potential to build something more successful and profitable by going beyond just having a blog.

For this task I gave myself permission to dream big and to come up with things that I may never implement.

Here’s some of the possibilities that I’d jotted down:

• ProBlogger Forum/Community - where readers can interact with each other - possibly a forum
• Job Boards - a place where bloggers looking for work can find jobs and where advertisers can find bloggers
• ProBlogger Training/Speaking - develop training modules to do with groups of bloggers
• ProBlogger TV - a video section of the site
• ProBlogger Shop - selling merchandise but also tools for bloggers
• ProBlogger Services - a consulting service for bloggers
• ProBlogger Ad Network - an ad network for bloggers to join to make money from their blogs
• ProBlogger Books - self publish a book about how to blog for profit - perhaps a downloadable book.
• Start Related Blogs - starting blogs on topics related to blogging (SEO, different platforms etc)

There was a lot more in the list (in fact there were about 40 ideas) but these were the first on it. I wrote a paragraph or two on each idea - fleshing it out with extra details.

Of course there’s a variety of things that I’ve done and not done with these ideas:

• Some became a reality (Job Boards, Writing the ProBlogger book and starting TwiTIp for example)
• Some I’m still planning on doing (our Community Section will hopefully launch next week)
• Some I tried and abandoned (for example I tried a shop where I sold T-shirts for a while but it never really worked)
• Some I evolved into other things (the TV idea evolved into semi regular video posts)
• Some I plan to do in future (those ones are in my secret file)
• Some I’ve never done and probably never will try.

Whether I’ve done all of the things that I dreamt of back then doesn’t really matter….

What’s important (to me at least) is that I put some time aside in the very early days of my blog to dream, brainstorm and come up with ideas of how to take my site further than it was.

Your Homework

Today I’d like to invite you to do this type of exercise for yourself.

How might your blog look in 4-5 years time? Create a list of 10 ways that you might one day expand your blog.

OK - I know this seems like a pretty crazy task for some of you because I know for a fact that many ProBlogger readers are just starting out and are still in their launch (or even pre-launch) phase - however I do think that this type of exercise can be helpful even if you don’t do much with the ideas you come up with.

For me this type of brainstorming has not only led to concrete ideas and plans but even just the process of dreaming has inspired me to keep growing my blogs. I also think that having some bigger possibilities in mind can sometimes help you to shape your blog in the here and now.

So open up a document or grab a pen and paper or a whiteboard and start to dream and brainstorm about how you might one day expand your blog.

While I don’t want to limit your brainstorming by giving you too many ideas - you might like to think about some of these:

• different mediums you might like to add (video, forums etc)
• other related blogs you could start
• services that you could offer
• new categories that you could write about
• new sections of your site that you could add
• new features that you could offer readers

If you’d like to share some of what you come up with please feel free to share some of your thoughts in comments below.

In the coming weeks I’m going to share a variety of ways that I see blogs expanding that I hope might give you a little further inspiration on this topic - but in the mean time do the exercise for yourself and see where it might lead you!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.