The Business Of Blogging

If you’re running a blog – chances are it could turn into a business. You might want to keep things simple, but if you’re gaining traction and growing an audience, it’s likely that people will look to pay you for sponsored content.

This can go two ways – you might refuse this offer, or you might accept it. If you do accept it, it could herald the age of your blog being your job, and not just your hobby. Blogging can be pretty serious business, and if you’re making money off of your blog, you need to train your mind to treat it that way. You’ll have to treat your blog like a business run from the comfort of your home, and you’ll have to stick to working hours. You’ll need to promote more and network more. You’ll have to do a lot more that sounds a bit closer to the world of business than the world of blogging.

Blogging can be pretty serious business, and if you’re making money off of your blog, you need to train your mind to treat it that way. You’ll have to treat your blog like a business run from the comfort of your home, and you’ll have to stick to working hours. You’ll need to promote more and network more. You’ll have to do a lot more that sounds a bit closer to the world of business than the world of blogging.

How can blogs make money? Well in a number of ways. By selling webspace to advertisers, blogs can gain money from sales gained from purchases made via their site, blogs can charge for unique content (this is very hit and miss, though), blogs can write sponsored content for others, or blogs might exist to sell products created by the blogger. There’s a lot of money involved with blogging.No blog will go far without a good website though, and plenty of decently sized blogs have bad websites – which is something to avoid. There are plenty of platforms out there which will allow you build a good website or you can of course work with a

No blog will go far without a good website though, and plenty of decently sized blogs have bad websites – which is something to avoid. There are plenty of platforms out there which will allow you build a good website or you can of course work with a web design agency to build a great website platform to do your blog justice.

If you are running a blog as a business and making money from it, you do need to ensure that you are registering things the right way. It might not be that you register your blog as a business, but if you’re earning money you will need to register as self-employed. Obviously, this does differ from country to country, so read up on your tax rules and if you are making money you do need to pay tax on that if that’s the case in the country in which you are based. This will also vary if your business makes money paid to you by sponsors, or if your blog is selling products. It all depends and is heavily circumstantial. It’s for this reason that talking to an accountant is a good idea. Get your affairs in order, or you might be penalized.

Obviously, this does differ from country to country, so read up on your tax rules and if you are making money you do need to pay tax on that if that’s the case in the country in which you are based. This will also vary if your business makes money paid to you by sponsors, or if your blog is selling products. It all depends and is heavily circumstantial. It’s for this reason that talking to an accountant is a good idea. Get your affairs in order, or you might be penalized.

If your blog is a business, you also need to market like a business. If you are selling products, applying a good foundation of SEO to your descriptive copy is a winning formula and using the keywords that work for you will help greatly. You also need to think about your audience. If your sponsored content is too ‘constant’, you might lose a portion of the audience which helped you gain access to

If your sponsored content is too ‘constant’, you might lose a portion of the audience which helped you gain access to sponsored content in the first place. That said, you are providing something for your audience at no cost, so you do deserve to make money from your platform. Just assess the situation and if your blog is becoming a ‘hard sell’, it might be time to switch things up.

If you’re creating content, that can still be good for business. Some blogs and websites started off as a complement to the author’s content – whether it was visual, audible or written. A good example of this is the audible area – a podcast. Podcasts come in the form of blog posts which link to RSS feeds which update podcast players. This is the content – matched with the written word on a website.A lot of podcasts do sell merchandise, so when the content is matched with copy/written words – an

A lot of podcasts do sell merchandise, so when the content is matched with copy/written words – an eCommerce platform is built on top to maximize the profitability of the product (the podcast). Shirts that commemorate the podcast, physical editions of the podcast and other merchandise are sold by the host to make money from the main content – the podcast. This podcast might even be sponsored if it has enough listeners. You can probably see how an additional arm of content can be quite the money spinner. Aaron Mahnke’s ‘Lore’ podcast sold shirts, books and even sold the rights to be made into a TV series.

The business of a blog is just like any other business. Sell your product, pay your taxes – you just need to take the needs of your audience into mind.