Treat Your Blog As A Business

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I received the following email today from a fellow blogger (who asked not to be named) in response to my entry on how to write paid reviews worth reading.

Kate, I get the part about more information in reviews and all but if they’re only paying $7 how am I supposed to pay my bills AND write great entries? I don’t have that kind of time.

My response was simple: write fewer reviews and you’ll eventually make more money for each one you do write. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem terribly simple to her and so began an exchange of emails in which I encouraged her to view her blog as a business and in which she explained to me why that’s simply not possible.

Since I haven’t heard back after my last reply, I can only assume she spent the rest of the day working on making that $7. I closed out that very same day having earned $149 before breakfast. No, I’m not trying to brag: I’m merely pointing out that there are advantages to treating one’s blog as a business.

But first you’ve got to change how you view your blog and your role as the blogger.

1. You’re already in business. From the moment you held your blog out as deserving money for reviews or a place offering advertisers links you’ve been in business. Think of your blog as a Mom & Pop store: you’re working for yourself, and you’re not trying to fool anyone into thinking you’re Wal-Mart. But what separates you from the guy on the street corner holding out a can and asking strangers for money is that you are seeking to exchange a commodity for the money you earn.

2. Your writing is your product. Note that I did not say your paid entries or links are your products. If that were the case then advertisers would pay for the mere placement of a link on a static site regardless of traffic. There’s a reason, however, that higher-paying opportunities to go higher-traffic sites: advertisers want greater exposure, and that requires good writing that draws in regular, repeat visits.

3. Your hours of business affect your profit. Imagine a Mom & Pop store that opened only when customers stood on the sidewalk, cash in hand. Sure, they might make a buck now and then but think of all the customers who just kept walking because the place looked closed or the times someone decided to go elsewhere because they didn’t have time to find out if the place was open or not. Your blog is just like that store f you’re updating your blog only when you’ve got a paying opportunity — or when you’re throwing up intervening posts just to get on to the next paid opp: you’re losing traffic and quite possibly money.

I am not suggesting in any way that you create a blogging schedule, although there are certainly some high-profile blogs making a great case for using an editorial calendar. Personally, I like to write about whatever strikes my fancy in the morning’s headlines or other blogs that I’m reading. But even while doing so I tend to maintain a schedule of sorts that involves email and news reading over morning coffee, writing drafts before my son wakes up, polishing entries for posting on breaks during homeschool and commenting at other blogs sometime after dinner.

4. Word of mouth can help you or hurt you. Anyone in business knows that the very best form of advertising is “word of mouth”. For Mom & Pop stores that means customers who found what they were looking for, had a pleasant experience and go on to recommend the place to friends. For blogs that means readers experiencing the same thing. Your readers also consist of other bloggers — all of whom possess the power to give you “word of mouth” advertising with their links. If you want to put that to work for you then you need to start writing things other people want to link, and not merely a slew of $7 entries.

5. Supply and demand affects you. There are umpteen blogs born daily. Most of them are bad. Most of them are written by people also looking to make money with their blogs. Advertisers, as a result, have their pick and choice among millions of sites. What they’re looking for are sites that are in demand: sites with high traffic, high subscribers and high authority among their peers. Those kinds of sites, when it comes to blog advertising, are surprisingly short in supply and that is why their authors can charge more than a mere $7: they’ve got leverage.

6. Give customers a reason to return. There’s a lot to be said for frequenting Mom & Pop establishments. I, personally, prefer them: the customer service is often superior to that of Big Name Stores; the selection is usually out of the ordinary; and I enjoy the personal touch their proprietors bring to the experience. Your blog readers want the same thing, and you have the power to give it to them.

Be yourself on your blog and not just some blogging equivalent of a high-pressure salesman giving readers one advertising pitch after another. Invite your readers to participate by asking open-ended questions to engage them in the comment section. Don’t waste your readers’ time by cramming your blog with irrelevant links: turn down some of those link requests and prune non-topical sites from your blogroll or move them to a separate “Links” page.

7. Don’t try to sell cheap stuff. I can’t emphasize this strongly enough: every entry says something about your blog and your writing skills. Every one. That lousy entry you post today may cost you readership (and hence money) in the long run and you won’t know it.

When you take the time to hit the g-spot with your reviews you might make less money today but you’ll be demonstrating to your readership that you deserve their repeat traffic. You’ll also be showing advertisers that you’re capable of hitting that g-spot if they hire you, too.

8. Investing in your business pays off. Every Mom & Pop store knows that the best way to attract more business is to invest in the business they have today: maintaining it, fixing what’s broken and keeping their inventory sparkling. Even when there are no customers in sight you’ll find proprietors dusting the place, lining everything up just so and standing there ready to greet anyone who does happen to enter their door.

If you want your blog to pay off you need to have that same professional attitude. Rather than thinking (as the blogger who emailed me did) that you don’t have time to make your blog more appealing to readers invest the time today to make it happen. Yes, you should spend time cleaning up your sidebar, making sure your pages load quickly and all of those other behind-the-scenes tasks that keep a blog running well.

But the very best investment you can make in the business that is your blog is to practice blogging by blogging more. For free. Your skills will improve and, with them, your readership as well as the monetary value of space on your blog.

Think you’re too busy earning that $7 now?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Building Traffic (Blogging 201), Make Money Blogging. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Tagged in: blog | blog traffic | blogger | money | paid blogging | paid reviews

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