1. Can you start a blog that will generate a healthy amount of traffic?
You need a steady stream of eyeballs to your blog. This is why you need to build a blog in a niche with a minimum amount of searches.
2. Can the blog generate multiple streams of income?
In the industrial economy, companies were built around products. In the information age, companies will be built around the people. You can follow the same customer through a number of life phases. For example, you can build different blogs to service the same customer from high school to marriage. When you build a blog, you'll want to offer different services and products to your audience. Building a blog isn't about the products, its about the audience.
3. Are you writing blog posts with long tail keywords?
Now days, keywords can be so competitive, it would take an army of internet marketers in the trenches to achieve rankings. You would have had to start blogging years ago to catch up with the competition. However, there are shortcut methods that can be used to achieve rankings faster and the search engines love them. Whether you know the shortcuts, try and find the lowest hanging fruit. Don't overreach for the impossible. Sure, go after your dreams, just work your way there, step by step. Start a blog targeting a keyword niche that ranges from 40%-55% in difficulty.
4. Build Your Blog For The Long Term
Try focusing on high quality products and services to monetize your blog. I would never consider selling a one time product under $100. If you are going to sell a one-time product, make sure its targeted towards a more affluent audience. The middle class has been obliterated. So you either need high quality or high volume. And you probably don't have the resources to build a wide network of people. Otherwise, you need to focus on residual income products. All of it really boils down to the lifetime value of the reader. You can accomplish higher lifetime values either through high end products or leveraged service products that produce residuals.
5. Pick A Blog Topic You Are Passionate About
I've failed at creating a few websites. Most of those duds failed because I wasn't truly interested in the topic. A professional blogger loves what they write about. Setting goals that measure results will motivate you along the journey. You need passion to take you from one goal to the next. Once you achieve a few goals, it becomes quite addicting. Examples of great milestones are certain number of new readers, rankings for keywords and traffic goals.
