You can't surf the internet without being told that you can make thousands of dollars a month through blogging. While this is true in a few cases, it is not something which can be done by the casual blogger. The professional blogger treats their blogging like a business.
Here are some tips on how to run your blogging like a business.
- Niche blogging: Professional bloggers need to decide their niche, whether it be a blog about blogging, dog training or finding the perfect mate. Each one of the posts need to be focused on some aspect of the whole. Choose the niche with which you have the most experience and passion. If you choose a bland topic, you will lose interest.
- Outsourcing: To save time, the businessperson will outsource some aspects of the operation. You do not need to work alone. You might have strength in writing, but know nothing of web design. Judge the importance of the time it will take you to learn how to design your own web page. If you would rather be spending that time writing, outsource the design. The same principle applies to accounting and administration.
- Know what sells: Business owners will do their research before they go into business. They have an idea about what will sell. As a blogger, what things do you want to read? If you are planning on offering products, create products that excite you. If you are planning to sell information products, look at the sales statistics of the item.
- Branding: Every business, regardless of size, has a brand. With every post you make and each addition to the site, you are building upon that brand. Have a clear idea about your blog's purpose. Develop logos and an atmosphere. Do you wish to be informal with your viewers? Are you especially snarky? Wrap everything around your brand.
- Create contingency plans: Make sure that you always have a plan B. Have an exit strategy for your business. If your business model doesn't work, what actions will you take? Will you create another business model? Will you change your niche? Establish your parameters and contingency plans before starting your blogging business.
- Marketing: How do you plan to market your blog? Create a marketing plan which caters to your interests. If you already have a presence on the popular social networking platforms, how do you plan to capitalize on that exposure? Are you planning to use AdWords? Marketing determines the success of a business. Who is your target demographic? Have you maximized the potential of attraction marketing?
- Review the numbers: Be objective about your blog's numbers. Look at the number of regular subscribers that you have. Take a look at the sales that you have made. Evaluate everything about your blog on a regular basis. Look at it through the lens of a customer. Based on those numbers, do you consider your blog to be a success?
- Customer service: Respond to the comments that are received. As a blogger, this is your form of customer service. Use every interaction that you have as an opportunity to educate your customers and drive viewers to your site. Provide information which will attract advertisers to your site.
- Solicit feedback: Ask your readers what they would like to see in your blog. Businesses have customer comment forms which ask how their business is performing. You need to find out what you should offer your viewers. Ask your readers to be critical of your content so you can learn how to improve.
- Focus on content: Passionate business owners do not strive to give you the most mediocre product for the worst price. They want to give you the best products for the best prices. You need to do the same. You should post frequently to your blog, but create posts that have substance and meaning to you and your viewers. Do not give recycled content, put your heart into it.
Blogging for profit requires time, effort, and an eye toward business. When you decide to become a professional blogger, make the decision to run your blog like a business. Invest in your blogging as you would a business.
Image Source:Â TheSeafarer
10 excellent tips, James. Congrats for the post !
Hey James,
Great Post and these are 10 awesome tips.
Thanks for sharing :).
I like your pointers James.
As you note each post builds on your brand. Maintain a crystal clear focus on your purpose and you won’t have problems growing your brand quickly.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
If you know what you want and you have a clear goal and mission statement, it’ll make the journey so much more efficient! 🙂
Hi James,
Those are some great tips. The outsourcing tip is becoming more common, especially for the larger blogs. Most don’t develop their own designs, but rather will outsource it to a developer. Unfortunately, smaller blogs may not be able to afford to outsource some things, but over time they may.
Reviewing the numbers is an important tip since things can change quickly online. It is important to constantly review where you can improve things, and then develop a plan to improve them.
You’re right, outsourcing is happening a lot, especially since it’s so easy to find people to help you online…especially with job boards and people offering cheap labour. This makes it a very common occurence.
You always have to stay on top of the numbers! Recognizing trends is an important way of measuring your popularity and ensuring that your blog is run efficiently and effectively.
Well said and solid tips on how to treat a blog like a business. In my opinion, anyone who tries to make money online by using their own website should actually treat them as a business while at the same time focus on what’s important. The list above just about says it all. Well 9/10 as I would only like to add on the #1 item and that is, you really do not have to be solely focused on one niche. It can be as much as you can manage and have one that is your flagship. Thumbs up!
I guess you don’t have to be focussed on one niche…it can be effective for your blog though 🙂 of course, you can always take on more as your blog is your own unique creation!
Great tips. most people wouldn’t realize until they actually start blogging that it’s very much a business. It’s really not much different than opening up a store. You stock the store with affiliate products and the traffic to your blog is just like customers coming to the store. They will give you patronage if you show them good customer service and demonstrate that you are reliable. So it’s really a good idea to have a plan before you set up shop on what kind of service you will offer and how you will achieve your goals.
Of course! You’ve got to set up a good image and make sure people want to take a look around your store…so taking proactive steps towards that is incredibly effective.
This 10 points is very helpful to run your blog better. Thanks for share such a interesting share post with us . I also run my blog and your tips really help me to improve my sales.
That’s great! I’m glad I could help 🙂
Hey James,
As far as a good business man goes, if your business model is not working only a fool would keep doing something that isn’t making them money. The most successful people will constantly try new things if things are not working out the way they want them to. Switch up their plans.
Most importantly, don’t get discouraged if you are not an instant success. You can learn a lot from failing.
Too true Garen…if you aren’t making money, you’re obviously doing something wrong and have to adjust.
Us blogger look at he internet as a big audience of people..yes it’s true we can’t talk to all of them..but as long as we network with an few then..we can start to grow by spreading the word..this is how we make money online..by spreading the word..just another form of marketing.
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
“spreading by word” the most effective form of marketing a blog, it goes on like a chain reaction.
Getting people to talk about you is incredibly effective 🙂
Hey James, Excellent Tips,
My favorite is “Customer service”, I’ve tried this myself by responding to every comment left on my blog and the results were amazing. I was getting traffic from all these bloggers.
People felt that not only do they get their questions answered but when someone new visits that post and sees that all comments have been answered, it kind of gives them a push to comment if they have any questions regarding the topic.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Yeah, multiple comments are quite encouraging aren’t they? It means there’s a discussion going on and that makes people want to get involved 🙂
Hi James, Thanks for this wonderful article. I want my blog as my main business and I am trying everything to make that happen. Hope I will get succeed in this.
I would add a little competitive snooping on to the list. Who are your competitors, what are they doing right in your estimation, and what can you do better than they do?
Good idea! It’ll help you know what you’re up against…and what you can do to stand out.
Hello james,
I must say good tips.But making these tips in to reality need a big positive attitude and huge effort.
Regards |Madav
Love the points, and will definitely try the : “Customer Service” point first.
Thanks for the idea James, looking for more to come!
Seriously as long as we network with fellow bloggers . We can start to grow by spreading the word and rock the business . Thats what we need to learn ! Being Probloggeris no easy , once you do all good karmas , success will hold you
Very inspiring article James , Love it 🙂
Thanks Ajinkya 🙂 Working together really helps and is vitally important.
“An idea about what will sell” is really good and effective for any person and every business. It’s also a great post.
Yeah, you can’t just put the content there…you’ve got to make sure it gets around! Thanks for the comment 🙂
First you must know where to find people who are interested to buy the product that you sell, then you have to write text that will convince them buy product that you sell.
Hey James,
Very Interesting blog. I found lots of tips here.
Great blog.
Keep blogging and have a nice time. 🙂
I just love blogging and as i get spare time from busy schedule i start working on it. Wonderful post, I really enjoyed reading it!
Wow! really wonderful and creative post, I just visited first time on your blog by searching letter format. Thanks, i’ll back to reply.
Hey there Ian, thanks very much! I’m glad the post was enjoyable 🙂
Hi James!
Great tips for blogger community, I like your post. Have a great day & looking forward more tips from you. 🙂
You have made a very sharp observation regarding finding a niche. The broader you take your blogging topic, the bigger is the chance that you will write a little about everything with nothing essentially different from what other people offer. To have a successful blog, ideally, you have to be expert in some definite niche, and offer your readers value with this exact expertize.
Thanks for sharing!
Exact expertise is a good way of summing it up 🙂 If you’re too general in the content you put out, chances are you’ll alienate people…not everyone has the exact same tastes and interests as you as everyone is unique!
Thanks for the comment 🙂
Hi. I like the tips :). But one got my attention – create contingency plans. I vane never done that. I am still not sure if this is necessary. Also I do not think that it is always possible to have contingency plans. Could you give some examples so I can understand better the need for this.
Thanks.
Basically, what I meant was have a back up plan so you can try something else if your current method isn’t working. Say, for example, if you have a specific schedule for posting on your blog, and you find you’re losing readers. You then change your posting schedule to a different one that you’ve worked out, which can make all the difference to your blog. That’s an example of having more than one plan in place, so you know what to do when the methods you do implement are not as effective as you’d hoped.
I hope that helps! 🙂
Sure, but the first time, when you starting with this business, it’s like we talk. It need much experiences.
This article is very useful for me. Thank you very much.
Hey BBT! I like the tip in the middle, the one about branding.
I recently started a company named Butterfly, and I will do my best to brand it on my blog. You should totally join me on my journey, even though you seem pretty occupied doing other things 🙂
Hi James,
This is a very valuable article, I’ve bookmarked it and I will re-read it every time I need to. Thank you very much for sharing this great article, also, another great tip is to ….. BE UNIQUE. The more unique you are the most copied you will be too, and who copies from you, helps you dirrectly. Keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Maria
Hi, awesome tips, i totally agree with that it’s important to outsource just because sometimes there aren’t enough time to do everything, everytime
Thank you for the tips!
If more people treated their blogs like a business, there would be a lot more blogs out there that’s useful and with great content similar to this one.
Great job with this post, I hope other bloggers are reading.
yes its quite important to consider blogging as a business in order to succeed..
This was very good to see.
Im about to start some new niche blogs in swedish nad the information here is gonna help med do that.
Thanx!
Petter
10 awesome tips. Thanks for sharing!
Great stuff! Nice and well written tips. I love this kind of “10 tips” I think its a great way to promote your site.
For your blog to be taken seriously as a business entity there needs to be a defined organization with regards to the content. By having clearly defined categories, archives and design layout, you are insuring that your content will be absorbed in the most efficient means possible by your readers
I’ve always been doing that 🙂
I recently started a company named Legendary PR (2008), and I will do my best to brand it on my professional blog. You should totally join me on my journey, even though you seem pretty occupied doing other things related to online marketing and other stuff 🙂
Hi!!! 🙂
I liked this post because of great information. Especially about branding. I love to brand and when I do that, I get myself customers. People that I event have known before buy my products. Its something to think about. When you are a business man!
I have a new company and now im trying to brand my name via twitter, facebook and my personal hompage.
I believe that everything from which one wants to earn money should be treated like a business. This could be blogging or any other activity or hobby.
After choosing a niche, I consider the outsourcing the be of utmost importance. Only outsourcing could allow you to expand and succeed. If one is entangled in writing, he / she would not be able to do the graphics, website maintenance, back links, etc. Outsourcing frees the mind from worries of other work and helps in focusing on one thing that you do best.
Awesome tips, will help me a lot!
I agree with all your points except #4 (branding) – i’d say online what’s most important is *voice* which is related to branding but is different from the traditional sense of brand marketing. Nice post overall.
Hey BBT! I like the tip in the middle, the one about branding. I recently started a company named Sunshine, and I will do my best to brand it on my blog. You should totally join me on my journey, even though you seem pretty occupied doing other things 🙂
What a fantastic post! I follow pretty much all of the tips that you mentioned apart.
Distractions are something that is my biggest problem as I will easily let things like a game on Facebook, reading a blog or even doing some cleaning, pull me away from writing.
I don’t find the need to hire an editor as when I’m not distracted I can handle all the work myself easily.
Thanks for your tips about blogging and I agree that you should take your blog seriously.