I’ve begun work on an online course that’s going to teach people how to build a Blog as the central hub of their online business.

I get approached by people with online business ideas each and every week and they ask for my advice on their products or service idea.  I love helping people out so I don’t mind offering my opinion or advice, but it really surprises me that nobody is seeing the flaw in following a business model based on the “I have an idea so I should start a business!” theory.  Allow me to explain.

The Idea to Business Paradigm

The idea to business paradigm of launching a service or product is based on the theory that the primary success factor of a business is whether or not it starts with a “good idea”.  I hear people saying things like “I need a good business idea, then I’ll start my online business” or “I have a really good idea, what do you think?  Do you think it’s going to be successful?”

Questions like these imply that the “idea” for a business is the central determining factor for the success of an online business.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  An idea is just an idea, I have dozens of “good ideas” every week.  Most of them better than the ones people approach me with.  That’s not an ego statement, it’s just that I open myself up to ideas and I journal a lot so they come to me while I’m brainstorming in my journals.

However, an idea is just one little tiny part of a business model.  By itself it’s pretty much worthless.  The business model that you wrap around the idea is the value in a business, not the idea itself.

I really don’t know where the theory that ideas equal business success came from.  Perhaps from the days when people used to try to invent things like machines and patents.  Wherever it comes from, I think the “Idea to Business” paradigm is one of the riskiest paths to take when building an online business from scratch.

I mean how do you really know if your idea is going to be successful?  How do you know if you’re going to have a receptive audience to your idea?  How do you know if you can build it for the right price?  How do you know if the timing for it is right?  How do you know you can market it effectively?

There are so many possible points of failure, I think it’s not a very wise path to take in business unless you’re a large corporation with a multi-billion dollar budget for “guessing” like this.

A Better Alternative

For small businesses and online entrepreneurs there is a much better and less risky model that I think everyone should adopt.  In today’s online world I think it’s the absolute best path to business success.

The model revolves around building a community of people who you attract through a central Blog such as this one.  Instead of trying to invent some kind of idea that tries to guess what kind of product or service you could go to market with, you build a community instead and let them tell you what kind of service or product they want from you.  Let me explain.

Here’s the “Idea to Business” Paradigm:

1. Come up with a brilliant idea.
2. Create/Develop/Manufacture the product or service that the idea provides.
3. Try to find a market for the idea.
4. Try to convince that market that they need that product or service.
5. Try to sell the idea to them at a specific price.
6. Pray it works.

Instead, the “Blog Business” Paradigm I recommend works like this:

1. Build a Blog.
2. Provide valuable content/resources in an area of interest you are passionate about.
3. Attract a loyal audience of followers.
4. Engage and build relationships with your followers.
5. Find out who they are, and what their biggest challenges are.
6. Create a product or service to solve those challenges.
7. Sell it to your audience.

See the difference?  Instead of trying to come up with some kind of brilliant idea that nobody has ever come up with, and then try to find a market, motivate it to accept the idea and try to market it to them before someone else copies your “brilliant idea”, I advocate a much saner and way less risky path.

You first build an audience of Blog readers who are attracted to your energy and the free content and resources your provide.  You provide them with a lot of free resources which builds trust and authority.  You then build a genuine relationship with them.  Not some kind of fake “I just want to sell you crap” relationship, but a “I really do care about you” type relationship.  Then, you let your audience tell you what kind of service or product they would like to see from you.  Then, when you build it, you already have an audience for your product.

Even if someone sees your idea, and they copy it, they don’t have the relationships that you do so that curbs your risk.

My Blog Business Course

For several years now I’ve been thinking of creating a Blogging course based on my experience with building this Blog and making money online through it’s success.  However, I also knew that I had to first build a larger audience, stronger relationships and that the timing had to be right.

In the last several 6 months I’ve been testing the waters to see if the timing is right.  I began by offering private coaching/mentoring at a discounted rate to really connect with what my audience’s needs and wants.  By working with people one-on-one it gave me the opportunity to really zero in on the specific areas that people are having challenges in when it comes to building an online business.  Based on this experience, I am creating a course to teach people how to build a successful Blog based online business.

I’ll release more details as I go along, but for now I’ll just say that it is going to be a complete course for building an online business and not just a Blog.  The course is going to focus around a central Blog that you build as your main hub, and then expand out to a business model of your choice for your monetization strategy.