Blogging as a Business

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By Carl Weiss

Blogs have been around for more than 10 years. During that time, millions of blogs have been written about every topic under the sun.  Some bloggers have even become superstars.  While blogging still remains a great way to promote any business, what most bloggers do not realize is that blogging can be a profitable business on its own.  That’s right, business owners are willing to pay a writer to handle the task of creating, publishing and promoting weekly blogs.  The reasons they are willing to outsource the job is simple:

1. They do not have the time or staff to take on the task.
2. They don’t understand the mechanics of blogging.
3. They have no way of promoting a blog once it is published.

Just as with most business headaches, a business owner’s problems can become your opportunity, provided that you have what it takes to research, write, publish and promote blogs for them.  In short, if you can write at an eighth grade level, know how to surf the web and are willing to follow a few simple directions, you can use blogging as the cornerstone of an online marketing business that you can build, grow and derive profit.

The Write Stuff

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Most people consider writing to be a chore about as uncomfortable as a root canal.  To them, the thought of having to come up with a story a week causes shivers to run down their spine.  This is chiefly due to the fact that they haven’t discovered the world’s largest free research library.  I’m talking about the Internet.

Over the years I have been paid to write blogs for everyone from chiropractors to plumbers.  While I knew nothing about these occupations when I took on these clients, I knew where I could learn all about their industries.  It’s simply a matter of point and click to read blogs and Newsfeeds related to any topic you can imagine.  Armed with a little knowledge of hot topics, coming up with fodder for a weekly blog is no problem at all.  (It also pays to interview the client in order to determine the things that make their business unique.)

Then it’s simply a matter of coming up with 4 or 5 ideas for blogs and bouncing them off the business owner.  Provided you get the go ahead for at least one of these ideas, it’s time to start writing.  While many pundits advise bloggers to create short copy of 600-800 words, if you really want to do your client justice you should strive for 1,000 – 1,200 words.  This equates to about two pages of printed text.  While writing a longer blog means a bit more effort on your part, the payoff to the client will be substantially higher than that achieved by short copy.  (I will cover the reasons for this a little later in this blog when I cover maximizing the blog’s marketing potential.)

Which Blogging Platform Should You Employ?

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Once you get approval from the client to publish your blog, the next thing you need to choose is the platform upon which you will be publishing all their blogs.  While there are a number of excellent free blogging platforms from which to choose, if you are hoping to give your client the biggest online marketing bang for their buck, there is only one correct answer: Blogger. 

Owned by Google, Blogger offers a media-rich template-driven system that will allow you to design, create, manage and promote blogs like no other blogging platform.  Blogger is easy to work with when it comes to building a blog.  Start by going to blogger.com and clicking on the link to get started.  Enter the name of the blog and then a potential URL. (Our URL is workingthewebtowin.blogspot.com.)  Once blogger approves your URL, all you need to do is select the template of your choice and click “Create Blog.” 

The beauty of Blogger is that you can add images and videos at the click of a mouse. You can use multiple sources as long as you provided you have permission an provide attribution for what you use. To make it even easier, Google has builtin links to YouTube and Picasa which are Google property.   Once the blog is written, the images and videos added, all you need to do is click “Submit” to launch the blog.  What could be simpler?

Courtesy of Workingthewebtowin.com

(If you have never used Blogger, click on the link to take a free 7-day test drive of our Blogging for Business e-course.)

Successful Blogging Produces Other Income Stream

Selling your blogging service is not the only way you can produce income from blogging or your blog. When you create a blog, the content of that blog can lead to the creation of other content products. A good example is our Internet Radio show. The content and impetus of each weeks show comes directly from our blog articles. You can use this research and content to create a Podcast, Webcast, resalable e/newsletter etc.… Along these same lines – if you produce a lot of articles about the same industry or topic, you can convert these articles in books and eBooks, both salable products.

Blog traffic produces gold! Once you build up traffic and subscribers to your blog you can sell ad

Screen Print of when we hit 80k page views.

space (banner and in column ads) to clients looking for exposure. You can also use your site to generate leads for your company and for other companies as well. Lead generation is a thriving business on the Internet. It’s important to point out, that once you create an audience, you now have a new revenue stream you can tap into in a multitude of ways.

The Billboard in the Desert

Before you start patting yourself on the back, you need to consider the fact that even the best blog in the world will do a client little good unless there are people to read it.  Without an audience, a blog is only a billboard in the desert.  When it comes to building an audience, this is another area where Blogger shines.

At the base of each post are several items with which you’ll need to become familiar.  The first is the “Comment Area.”  This is where readers can leave comments on the blog.  Below that are social network icons for Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  Any reader that clicks on these icons can share the blog with their followers.  This is good, since building a following for a blog is mostly a function of social networking.  It is also another way for you to get paid.

Speaking of getting paid, this is the best part about digital marketing.  Unlike web design or app development, which is typically a one off project, blogging and social networking are businesses that provide recurring revenue that pays month after month.  (We contract with clients for 1-year whenever writing blogs or manage their social nets.)  This means stability when it comes to generating revenue. 

Feeding the Need

Of course, knowing how to blog won’t put any money in your pocket unless you know how to market your services.  When it comes to finding clients, there are two schools of thought: Advertising and Networking.  While you can spend money on advertising your services, the most cost effective way to jumpstart your business is to purchase 1,000 business cards and start attending networking events.  You’d be amazed at the number of low cost and no cost business networking events taking place around town.  Some networks are come one come all, while others are exclusive to certain types of business models.  The simplest way to sort them out is to peruse portals such as Meetup and Eventbrite that announce business networking events.  You will find that some of the meetings are held in the morning, some in the afternoon and many are evening affairs.  The latter is especially good if you are looking to keep your day job for the time being.

Courtesy of  garysteinblog.blogspot.com

Other than looking for prospects, these events are also a great place to meet agency owners who will work with you.  (Especially if you give them a piece of the action.)  Most agencies are only too eager to work with bloggers, especially if they have clients under contract.  This could be another money making opportunity for you, since many agencies will extend their umbrella of services to your clients while giving you a slice of the pie in return.

For example, our Working the Web to Win agency offers a wide variety of marketing services including web design, SEO, mobile marketing, social networking, directory marketing, email marketing and digital video production.  We even offer a service where we will produce and manage internet radio and or TV shows. We offer a 20% commission to any agent that brings us a client.  We will even white label our services for participating agents.  (This means they never have to tell their clients that they are working with another service provider.  They just tell them that they offer these “Other Services.”) 

When it comes to generating either a part time or full time income from blogging, the more creative you can be the better.  That also goes for having your clients' interests at heart.  Once you have the means to generate a substantial audience, then you will have an opportunity to monetize your client’s blogs. Because if you can show your clients how to start turning clicks into cash, then it won’t be long before you can kiss that day job goodbye and start making a substantial income from blogging as a business.

In this article I have discussed how you can turn blogging into a business that produce many income streams. I go over methods of production and include a section on how to market your blog.

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If you found this article useful please share it with your friends, family and co-workers. If you would like to learn more about this subject, visit the notes page on this blog for the BlogTalkRadio show dated 9/29/15. I recommend checking out "The Write Stuff – How to Blog & Make a Profit", "Marketing Your Blog in the 21st Century – Part 3 of Blogging 101", “The Magic Formula for Blogging Success: a Training Series for Bloggers“, or "Internet Marketing: Lessons Learned & Best Practices Part 4 – Content is King".  You can also search for other related articles by typing in “Blogging” in the search box top of this blog.

If you feel your business could use some help with its marketing, contact us at 904-410-2091,We will provide a free marketing analysis to help you get better results.  Don't forget to Plus us on Google+ as well. If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form on the right hand side bar and we will give you immediate access to it. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.

Carl Weiss is president of WorkingtheWebtoWin.com a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida that routinely works with bloggers and other online marketers. 

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