☛ First focus on establishing a crystal-clear empathy with the audience I was planning to serve, so I know what their problem is, how they feel about it and what they currently do to try and solve it. The best way to learn this in my experience is in person, over the phone or a distant third is via monitoring discussions in groups, blog comments, forums and social media.

If I do not do this step well, I will not have an audience or make any sales down the line, so it is the vital first step.

☛ Once I know my audience I would craft a clear offer based on the position I want to take within an industry and focus on making sales as soon as possible. In my case, since I know blogging and email marketing, that offer would be reflected in the new blog and newsletter option form I would set up, as well as the email sequence and blog posts that follow. All these things lead people to the product or service I was selling so I could attract buyers.

I want to know I have buyers before I build out the rest of my platform and cement my brand.

☛ Assuming I have done these tests and I know I have a buying audience, then my focus is simple to improve traffic and conversion. I expand what is already working, add more traffic sources, make more offers and run split tests to improve results.