As blogging becomes more and more popular, many bloggers want to rely solely on blogging for a income, which is fine, I even rely on blogging to. What many bloggers, especially new bloggers don’t understand is that blogging is not a walk in the park. You cannot imagine you can just open a blog one day and make thousands of dollars a month the next. If you want to make serious money blogging, you need to be even more serious about blogging. That means treating your blog like a business.
A blog is no different then a business
Blogging is the same thing as running a business, whoever told you otherwise deserves a slap in the face. Blogging requires time, lots of thinking, planning, responsibility and work. On most days I spend at least 7-10 hours working on Robswebtips. Don’t just look at me as a reference, when I was talking to Darren Rowse from Problogger the other day, during our conversation through Skype he was telling me how he works 12+ hours a day. Now your probably still wondering how a blog is related to business, so let me break this down for you.
A blog requires constant planning
If you plan on running a successful blog you need to have a plan. You need to plan your next blog post, how your going to attract more readers, increase your income, new product idea’s and so on. This isn’t a one time thing either, you have to constantly plan new idea’s to stay on the upper edge. Each day over 8,000 blogs are created which means more competition. For Robswebtip’s I plan every single day on how I plan improving the site, whether it’s new promotion idea’s or new product idea’s. I’m constantly planning new idea’s, and so are all the other bloggers who take blogging seriously.
Blogging requires a lot of responsibility
When you run your own blog, you are your own boss. You don’t have a boss standing over your shoulder yelling at you all day to do something. You have to do it. And if you don’t do it, guess what? Nothing! It’s your loss. When you are your own boss you decide what you do, when you do it and however long you want to do it. If you want to work 10 minutes a day, that’s your choice. If you want to work 10 minutes a month, that’s your choice to. Nobody is stopping you. Responsibility is something that really separates people who are their own boss, and people who work the 9-5.
Blogging requires work
Don’t be fooled, blogging requires a lot of work. Don’t be fooled when you hear bloggers work 2 hours a day and make six-figures a year. The truth behind that is, these bloggers have slaved 10-12+ hour days working and building their business to this point. They didn’t wake up one day and decide they’re just going to work 2 hours and make six-figures.
Look at Gary Vaynerchuck, author of Crush IT. Gary makes 60 million yearly, but he also works 18 hours a day. You have to break the mindset that blogging is a walk in the park, it’s not. The luxury side of blogging is your making money by doing something you love (hopefully) and you’re able to work these long days to the reason that you love what you do.
Group Discussion – Are you treating your blog like a business?
What I just stated throughout this article are all key-points to running a business. Blogging is no different. If you want to make a full-income blogging, you need to become serious about blogging.
What’s your thoughts?
Do you think blogging is like running a business? Are you treating your blog like a business? If no, why not. If you do, what are some of the things you do to treat your blog like a business?
If you need help taking blogging seriously, or you want to work with me one on one you can join my eCourse and it includes my blogging bootcamp where you can work personally with me for free. Go ahead and sign up, if your serious about improving yourself.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Blogging like a business is super important if you ever want earn money from blogging. If you blog for personal reasons then who cares about thinking like a business… but if you care at all about profits then you should think like a businessman.
You’re right on the dot man. Hopefully this post will help other bloggers see that to.
There is NO easy way to make money. Blogging is no exception. Continuing on the Crush It reference, if you go into something strictly for the money, you probably won’t succeed. With blogging, it takes time, passion, commitment and unless you really care about the topic you’re writing about, you won’t last and you won’t make any money.
It’s fine to plan to optimize your blog, but it’s certainly not easy money. If you do, then you have to treat it like a business, because it is a business. If you’re not blogging for money, you don’t always have to approach blogging with a business mindset, depending on your goals.
David
Community Manager, Scribnia.com
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I like how you emphasized that there is “NO” easy way to making money, because that is very true. Blogging is hard work, and to make money from it is even harder. Think about all the work it takes to build credibility and readership. It takes time.
This is something that I we oftentimes forget! I was reading earlier today about creating a business plan, and one of the key points was the need for an exit strategy. How many bloggers have an exit strategy?
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I doubt not many, that gives me an idea for my next blog post. Going to right it down now. Isn’t it amazing how a comment can lead to a blog post? I think you’ll like this one ;D
Glad I could provider some inspiration! That is one of the reason I believe bloggers should hold conversations with their readers, because a lot is gained from comments.
Tom´s last blog . . .Your Small List Can Equal Big Profits
Agreed
I agree with you, Rob. Running a website is like a buisness. I am just starting out on developing my blog more since july. I am constantly researching and staying up to date with my niche which is computer hardware and software for consumers, and planning which posts are worth writing and which topics had been written about too much online. I think in order to make a profit to my blog. I have to try my best to be an expert in my niche to gain credibility. I spend a lot of my times on Yahoo answers, forums, and other website to promote my site by being an active member. Currently, my traffic been steadly increasing from 20-30 visitors a day to 80-120 visitors a day on Google Analytics.
Johnson Yip´s last blog . . .Show and hide common icons on Windows 7 desktop in Two steps.
I’m with you on that, I have to continue to read new articles to stay up to date with stuff and continue to provide value to my readers. One thing you should see is that their is really no such thing as a “expert” because EVERYONE even the big leagues are still learning something new. One of the best tips I can offer to you to gain credibility is to “keep it real” and to keep helping others.
Good information, dude. Thanks. But be careful when you say that Gary makes 60 Million per year. That’s not exactly correct, as far as I know. I assume you’re referring to the revenues of The Wine Library store? Sure, maybe that’s doing 60M… but I doubt that Gary is personally “netting” 60M through his own personal businesses. Be careful with putting out info that can come back to bite you in the ass later on. I’m impressed with your work. Keep on going.
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Thanks for the advice and feedback as well. As for Gary, I’ve known Gary personally for a couple months now and through his book Crush IT and Wine Libary TV and other things he does, he makes roughly 60 million. Keep in mind, he runs Vaynermedia, speaks at Keynote conferences, personal consulting etc. I appreciate the advice though and I will make a mental note in my head for future reference ;D
I just watched Lisa’s case study video on Youtube. Your success is inspiring especially for such a young age. I hope to move towards blogging for a living as well. I wish you the best!
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Thanks for the kind words
I’d recommend checking out my blogging eCourse if you want to become a better blogger. It’s free.
Hey Rob, I’m a regular visitor to Lisa Irby blog. I found you via her latest post, I wanted to tell you that you’re very inspirational young man, you show what dedication and hard work can accomplish. Keep up the good work.
Hucky
Thanks a lot Hucky
I appreciate your kind words.
Good post Rob,
Fully agree that if someone is bent on earning a blog income then they need to treat their blogging as a business. The problem is that many people don’t know what “treating” something as a business is. They see successful bloggers and to them all they see is that there are posts and display ads and they think that that is all there is to it.
The bloggers with staying power soon realize that they need to do more, download or subscribe to blogging tips etc. and start to visit successful blogs to see what they can learn from those blogs — often there are golden nuggets in the comments alone.
I think that those who persevere begin to grow (some grow really fast, others take much longer) as long as they apply the new things they learn. The learning however will never stop.
Wishing you continued success…………..valentina
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Great points you stated Valentina, lots of new bloggers (I was one of them at one point) tried following the Probloggers thinking I can pull six-figures in one month, however I was wrong and it wasn’t so easy. That’s why I constantly try to say in my articles and video’s that this is not easy work.
I agree…blogging is hard work. I like video blogging better, but you don’t get the full benefit of SEO without written content. I am also looking to create a blog for my website http://www.ThinkandGrowRichConcepts.com , but there are so many components involved in this site that I’m not sure if I would need a blog for each component.
For example I teach people how to create Audio, Video and eBook products to sell for profits…or post for fun. However, another major component to success is mindset. If your mindset is not focused on success, you will fail and continue to do so until you understand how successful people think.
So the question is should I have 2 blogs, or could I use 1 blog for all of the components of this website? What do you think?
Check out the site Think and Grow Rich Concepts
I think using all the components in one would do well, you would just need to tie in specifically how it works. So like if you were telling others about mindset, you could write a post about “Why blogging requires a good mindset” just so it stays related.
Coming to your from Lisa’s and reading all this good stuffs is both motivating and inspiring, thank you so much, once again, maturity has been proved that it comes from the mind and not just about the age, you are simply wonderful!!!
Thanks for the kind words, they truly mean a lot.
Is there any other way to make money with blogging beside posting ads?
Yea check out my eCourse
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