Help - Business Plan for content based web site

I have 2 college books on start business, took 2 different courses and I still can't figure out how to make a proper business plan for Content based website.

The closest example I could find is a magazine business plan.

I've asked before for some help on this but I was wonder if there are any examples out there. With the huge increase of personal blogging and content driven sites there must be an example of a business plan.

All business plans usually focus on who your getting money from for all the demographics and so on, and how your going to get this money, but for publishers its not like we have to try and sell our ad space, we use adsense. So the majority of the business plan should explain how we are going to get visitors, not sell our advertising.

Out of all the business plans on the internet, you have service based business, tons of retail type business, e-business, magazine, everything expect for some good content based site plans.

I run gaming sites, I use to run diablo2.com, i run diablo3.com now for someone else, and in the last year begun grabbing domain names, such as GAMETVS.COM, GAMINGTVS.COM, WORLDOFWARCRAFT2.ORG, WIIPODCASTS.COM ELDERSCROLLSV.COM, EVEONLINE2.NET, EVEONLINEII.COM, EVERQUESTIII.COM GUILDWARSII.COM, LINEAGETHREE.COM, NEVERWINTERNIGHTS3.COM, STARCRAFTTWO.COM
WARCRAFTIV.COM, WORLDOFWARCRAFTTWO.COM, this isnt spam because none of those sites actually work, so no point going to them. Gaming sites can make serious money but I still can't get a professional looking business plan done.

Thanks for your time, dave

 

Errm, there are many aspects of a business plan. I'm not sure which part do you need help in?
e.g. revenue sources?
traffic sources?
goals and timeline?
etc...
I'm assuming a little here that you have the full picture in your biz plan?

 

I have no problems with rev sources, traffic sources, goals and timelines, I just have a hard time explaining it in a business plan, its hard to explain. All these business plans give you an outline of what you need, but a lot of the outlines and examples do not fit at all with a content based site.

Maybe I'm focusing too much on copy/pasting my info into a traditional business plan outline, I'm just not sure if its ok to make a business plan that doesn't look like traditional ones.

Its so hard to explain, which Im sure is making it hard for you to answer lol

 

Who are you creating this business plan for?

 

Well the problem is that many content site owners never make one. I have one, but I'm not particularly keen on sharing it with people as a model. I'll eventually create an outline/template though for one of my sites when I get a chance. In the meantime, a few points:

1. You should certainly be looking for ways to monetize it other than adsense. Sell individual ads, sell your own reports, ebook, etc. on your content site. You could have exclusive members-only content. So yes, you do still need to discuss where you're getting money. And if adsense is "it", then you should go back and rethink that a little bit. Diversify, and you'll protect yourself, and make your site more viable in the long-run. But re-thinking is what "planning" is all about.

2. A magazine wouldn't be a bad place at all to start, especially if the plan you use as a guide has an online component. Content sites are a lot like online magazines. The difference isn't in swapping income sources for visitors, but rather swapping circulation for how to get visitors.

3. Retail, e-business, magazine... a content site really combines them if you sell any informational products there, plus need to grow readership, plus need to deal with online advertising and Internet marketing. So choose one in each of those more common areas that you like, and pull the elements that apply to your site. Then piece them together a bit and voila! You'll have a nice outline for your plan.

 

I'm creating the business plan for outside funding and myself.

1 - I do plan on having more then one source of income, I Was just saying how a content based website is a bit different then any other type of business when generating income. I already have plans for afil program, subscription and direct advertising sales, but in my business plan I generally give each a value based how much I can make per thousand visitors from each. Makes income perdictions a lot easier.

Example
I say I'll make 2 dollars per thousand visitors from traditional advertising, an extra .25cents per thousand visitors with subscriptions, extra .50cents per thousand through direct advertising/sponsors and another extra .25 from afil programs, allowing me to make roughly 3 dollars off every thousand visitors.

2 - the example plan has no online compenent. However "swapping circulation for how to get visitors" is a very good idea. The example plan though only mentions they will sell 1 page ads for X amount, but does not go into any other detailabout how/who they will get those ads sold. The vast majority of the plan is based ofcourse on subscription rates, which will only make up a smal amount of my income, but maybe replacing the circulation parts with my own data for visitors would work.

Thanks