Is a blog a viable platform to start a business? A lot of people will start a blog as a fun way to share thoughts and ideas and then monetize it to make a few bucks every month. But treating it like a business could open the doors to a lot more income and opportunities.
Now, I’m not saying that you have to treat your blog like a business to be successful. I know a lot of bloggers who just love to write and still replaced full-time incomes through affiliate revenue.
However, establishing it as a business has a lot of potential for making more money and growing.
The gist of the idea is to help motivate and inspire you to take the site and yourself seriously. You don’t need to necessarily build a business, but using the mindset can be incredibly helpful.
Why Treat Your Blog Like a Business?
There’s nothing wrong with blogging for the fun of it. You don’t have to consider your blog a business to drive traffic or make money. Nonetheless, doing so often results in gaining a lot more than just a few bucks from AdSense each month.
Some of the benefits of turning your blog into a business include:
- Increasing Traffic
When you’re an established leader in your niche, more people trust the content. This includes search engines such as Google. - Improves Link-Building
Backlinks are still considered an important aspect of a successful blog. Maintaining it like a business will affect how often people link to your content. - Making More Money
Zeroing in on your niche and building your reputation often leads to generating more revenue. And there are a lot of ways to monetize your blog, which I’ll go over in a moment. - Establishing Yourself as an Industry Leader
Although it’ll take a lot of high-quality content before you’re seen as an industry leader, treating the blog like a business improves your reputation while building up authority, expertise, and loyalty among your readers. - Motivating Yourself
Probably one of the primary benefits is that of motivating yourself to do more with your site. It’s all about taking your blog and yourself seriously to be successful.
It’s true that you can accomplish all of this without sticking to a business model. However, you’ll find a lot of it easier to come by when you have the right mindset and purpose.
Treating the blog as a business is more about changing your perception of the content and how you view the site. It helps boost motivation as you work to keep your “business” afloat.
It’s all about embracing a professional frame of mind.
What If Your Only Asset is Content?
Take a look at the popularity of platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. Most of the successful creators started with nothing more than their content. From educating to entertaining, content is an incredibly valuable asset.
Some of the most profitable of these pieces of content are often free to make.
Let’s take the WriterSanctuary YouTube channel, for example. The two videos that make the most money on the channel were based on the free writing platform, Reedsy.
These numbers are purely from YouTube AdSense and don’t include anything I may have made from affiliate marketing or selling merch.
What about on the blog? In the past 28 days, the article for the best writing apps has generated $4.41 in AdSense revenue. Again, this doesn’t include any affiliate or other sales that have happened over the past month.
In addition to the AdSense income, I also sold a copy of A Freelancer’s Tale.
My point is that content is a viable asset to base a business. Instead of a tangible product, you’re providing valuable insights, information, or entertainment.
How to Start Your “Blog Business”
Starting a business isn’t as difficult as some might think. I’ve set up several and helped build a few more, and the hardest part is coming up with the initial investment. For a blog, however, that investment is relatively small.
That is unless you want to add your own products and eCommerce platform. I’ll go over that in a moment.
So, how do you get started building a blog-based business from home?
Use Self-Hosted WordPress
First, it’s always best to use your own hosting. Some people are perfectly fine using free web hosting platforms, but they don’t offer nearly the flexibility and customization that comes with something like self-hosted WordPress.
Why use WordPress hosting? Well, consider how more than 43% of the entire Internet is powered by WordPress. You can create everything from a static page to a full-on eCommerce business. And because of its popularity, there are tutorials and communities that can help you build anything you want.
I’ve been using WordPress to drive all of my blogs since 2010. It’s been a reliable and highly affordable system. For a single blog, it’ll only run you about $106 for a three-year contract at GreenGeeks. That breaks down to roughly $0.10 per day.
Anyway, you can use any blogging platform you’d like. I only mention WordPress because I know what it’s capable of and how easy it is to create any kind of website. Not to mention that it’s extremely cheap compared to various hosting methods.
Create a Business Plan
A business plan is a document that outlines goals, various strategies, and how you plan to achieve them. For most businesses, it’s perhaps one of the most important documents, especially if you’re looking for investors.
From a blogger’s perspective, though, a business plan can be quite simple and then expanded over time.
For instance, your initial goal could be to reach a certain number of visitors per month using specific content and marketing strategies.
Creating a business plan for your blog is an exercise in taking the process seriously. Although you probably aren’t looking for investors, it’s something that will get you in a professional state of mind. No one has to see it but you and it can help drive motivation to keep your “business” going.
Establish Revenue Streams
There are a lot of ways you can monetize a blog. AdSense is one of the easiest and among the most popular, but it usually has a lower pay rate compared to other methods.
Some of the ways you can make money from your blog include:
- Ad revenue (AdSense, Mediavine, etc.)
- Affiliate sales commission
- Setting up courses
- Writing and selling eBooks
- Paid sponsored content
- Selling ad space directly
How much money you make in any of the above depends greatly on your content as well as your audience. Take time and select the revenue streams that will work best for you.
Have a Business Mindset
Having a business mindset gets you in the mood, so to speak. This is something I’ve been teaching since I started as a ghostwriter for Textbroker. The more professional you view yourself, the more professional others will see you.
A business mindset involves looking at your blog and making decisions that are best for its success and survival. It can affect everything from the appearance and layout of your site to the general content strategy you wish to employ.
Think about it; your blog’s appearance is essentially its digital real estate. Having a clean and useful layout is as vital online as it would be for a brick-and-mortar store.
Also, if you want to sell ad space to other businesses or negotiate terms for affiliate marketing, you need to interact with them on that level.
Set Business Hours
It’s always a good idea to set business hours for your blog as any other company. That way, you’re motivated to publish blog posts at a certain time, perform routine website maintenance, go over analytics, or any other related tasks.
For example, let’s say you want to spend three hours per day working on your blog. In that time, you can write a new blog post, look for new affiliates to add, or work on creating online courses.
The idea behind setting specific business hours is to get you in the right frame of mind to perform those tasks. You’re essentially accountable to your “business,” which will motivate you to keep it going.
In practice, these hours can be any time in the day when you’re the most creative or productive. Aside from you and anyone you want to help you create the blog, the business hours don’t directly impact visitors.
Dress the Part
If you want to feel professional and business-like, don’t work in your pajamas. Dress how you would if you were to own and operate a business in the middle of town.
Remember, we’re trying to create a professional mindset. Showering, dressing, and basic hygiene can go a long way to reinforce that view of yourself.
There are times when I’ll even put on deodorant and cologne despite never leaving my house. For the most part, I am sitting at my desk at home in the exact same clothes I would wear if I worked in an office at some big corporation.
The bottom line is never underestimate how getting dressed up can affect your professional mentality.
Set Up a Genuine Office Space
Another method that will get you into a business mindset is having an office space separate from your home life. You want your home to feel like a sanctuary from work and professional life. The last thing you want is for your office space to disrupt that idea.
For example, I had to move my office into my bedroom for about six months. During that time, my stress level escalated and I lost my sense of sanctuary. My office was the first thing I saw when opening my eyes in the morning.
Of course, not everyone has the space in their homes to set up a separate office for the blog business. But anything you can do to separate it from your home life is ideal.
You don’t want your home associated with stress and anxiety, two things that can easily come from owning any kind of business.
Create Content Your Audience Wants
Part of your business plan should include a content strategy, or perhaps a series of strategies. These will help you develop content that your target audience wants to consume.
Having a content strategy unique to your blog is critical if you want a successful business. After all, content no one wants to read won’t generate revenue.
The Internet is full of various content strategies, and it’s not a bad idea to give a few of them a try. When you do, keep in mind that you can alter them to fit your specific needs.
For instance, I know that reviews, tutorials, and lists perform very well on this blog. So, a lot of my more prominent content centers around those types. Then, I drill down further into specific topics or brands I’ve reviewed according to popularity.
This is in addition to the blog-to-book strategy that has performed relatively well for me in the past.
Double Down on What Works
Once you find something that works for your blog, double down on it. This can be content, advertising placements, color schemes, marketing methods, social sharing platforms, and more.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t change things up and experiment. You won’t know what works until you try it with your audience. However, keep utilizing what does work until you discover something else that has potential.
For instance, this blog used to be the go-to source for Textbroker content. Yet, I’ve found self-publishing and various blog topics to perform even better after experimenting a bit. Plus, I am more focused on writing books nowadays.
That’s something else to keep in mind: don’t be afraid to evolve with your audience. It’s how you remain relevant.
Remember Quality Over Quantity
A single high-quality piece of content will outperform 10 low-quality articles. That’s more of an opinion based on my professional experience, but humans and search engines hold high-quality posts in higher regard.
This often involves diving deep into topics, providing the best answers possible. In other words, the plan is to keep your visitor from having to search again for more information.
It doesn’t matter how fast you crank out content if it’s incomplete or incoherent. And since content is your number one asset for a blog business, you need to make sure it’s the best around.
Think of it like this, how would you feel if you bought a can of your favorite soda and it was only a quarter of the way full? You’re not going to be the best if you only half-ass the content.
Invest in Improvements
Outside of paying for hosting, it’s not a bad idea to invest in things that can help you improve the business blog. You can do a lot using free versions of plugins for WordPress, but premium tools can help you take the site even further.
Premium graphic design tools, photography equipment for blog pictures, keyword research services, and hiring freelance bloggers are just a few investments that could prove extremely beneficial.
For example, I’m using some of the money from AdSense to pay for the premium version of Yoast, Advanced Ads, and the premium version of the theme on this blog. Plus, I plan on buying software and services to review for additional content ideas.
The best part is that a lot of these improvements can be used as a tax write-off as they are used to keep your business going. But that will also depend on your location. Not everyone’s tax codes are the same.
Consider Selling Your Own Goods
I kind of touched on this a moment ago, but a lot of bloggers will add eCommerce to their sites in addition to the content. That means the blog can still attract an audience while the online store is set up for merchandise.
There are a lot of ways you can sell your own products. You can hold inventory for tangible goods, focus purely on eBooks that you’ve written, or any other digital asset you’d like to sell.
Some will go so far as to add drop-shipping to their blogs, which centers around selling products from a third party.
Take a look at the merch store I added to the nav bar. In this case, I’m using Fourthwall as a print-on-demand service, but I’m also going to add my printed books as part of the store’s inventory.
Perhaps the hardest part of selling your own goods is the prospect of marketing. Though, that’s true regardless if you have an online store or not.
How Long Will It Take to Make Money?
Generally speaking, it can take six months to a year before a blog starts generating any noticeable amount of money. And even then, it depends on the niche, content, monetization methods, and traffic numbers.
If you’re only focusing on ad revenue from AdSense, it can literally take years before you replace a full-time income from a blog.
The most successful blogs in terms of revenue make money from being diverse. Some of these methods may work exceptionally well for you while others may completely flop. It really depends on the content and your target audience.
With that being said, viewing your blog as a business can help with motivation and determination. There’s a greater sense of urgency to make certain things happen as opposed to a personal blog. At least, that’s the idea for a lot of people.
No matter how you slice it up, though, making money is all about the traffic to your blog. The more visitors you have, the greater the chances of someone clicking a link, buying an affiliated product, buying an eBook, or anything else you have available.
Perhaps the best goals you can create for the blog are anything that is related to its content. You can’t force people to read your post, but you can control things like number of times you publish per week and what keywords you’re trying to target for search.
It’s all about the foot traffic.
Should You Get an LLC or Incorporate the Blog Business?
Setting up an LLC or corporation for your blog business isn’t really necessary. For the most part, viewing it as a business is more for your mentality and motivation to build something grand.
However, there’s also nothing wrong with creating an LLC or perhaps even a C-corp. It really depends on just how much you plan to do with your blog, brand, and content. Business entities get quite a few benefits and protections as opposed to sole website owners.
Not to mention the fact that taxes are much easier to manage if you keep the “business” separated from your personal income.
If you’re unsure, spend some time looking up the different business types that are available. As I said, you may not need to go that far depending on how much you really want to do with your blog.
A Blog Business Can Be Fun and Profitable, But…
It can take a lot of time and effort to pull in a decent amount of money. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight. The underlying idea of treating your blog like a business centers around motivating yourself.
You don’t even have to call it a business. It all comes down to your mentality of managing your blog in general.
Essentially, this is just one strategy among many people have used to do more with their blogs. You can still be successful without the business mindset. But a lot of bloggers have experienced greater returns by taking themselves and their sites more seriously.
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