When you see a lot of people that are killing it in the blogging industry, it can really intrigue you. Maybe you absolutely love blogging and you’d love to be able to do it as your day job? Maybe you’ve always wanted to turn your blog into a business, but you don’t know how? But you look to these guys and you’re in awe. You’ll start to think about how they do it, how they make money, and even how they can run a business! And it’s only natural for you to wonder how you can do it too. But the most exciting thing is, there’s no secret to making this work. Any blogger that wants to turn their blog into a business can. You just need to start treating your business like a blog, using these key steps.
1. Create A Marketing Plan
First of all, you’re going to want to market your blog as if it was a business. If you’re just putting a tiny bit of effort into your marketing, then you may only be getting tiny results back. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you really want to be able to start getting the interest in what you’re doing, you need to make sure that you’re really pushing what you’re doing. So sit down, and do your research into different marketing techniques. Find a marketing strategy template and start to write your ideas down with actionable steps for each idea that will allow you to start creating more interest in your blog.
2. Get Better Branding
How is your blog looking right now? Does it look like a hobby site that you created yourself or does it look sleek, smart, and professional? If it’s currently the former, then it’s time to make it the latter. Work with a blog designer that can transform the look of your site into something that looks like a professional business, not a hobby website!
3. Take A Professional Approach
Now, you also need to start working with professional solutions on your website. If you want to stay safe and make sure that your customers are safe, things like Jumio offers identity verification solutions or an SSL certificate. If you want to look like a professional site, you need to put the right steps in place.
4. Set Yourself Targets
Next, you’re going to want to set targets for yourself. Whether they are to get a certain number of views or to reach a follower count on a set platform, setting goals that you can reach is exactly what a business would do.
5. Launch Products
Then, you’re going to want to think of ways to really expand your business idea. Making money via affiliate marketing and advertising is very much the standard starting point with your blog. But you can definitely do more. Think about the different kinds of products that you can sell on your blog. Figure out which options your readers and customers may be interested in, then begin your research and start to create the products. Then, before you know it, your blog really will become a business in its own right.
6. Hire Employees
Once your blog has hit a certain level you will have to start bringing more people on board. It’s not easy to try and balance everything yourself which means that you may need to hire employees, either in a freelance capacity or full-time employees to help you with the website and day-to-day tasks. This may be something you’ve been considering but you must remember that there’s a lot that comes with hiring employees. You can’t just hire someone and pay them immediately; you need to give them specific perks and whether this is bonuses every now and again or specific things like vision insurance and health insurance, as well as making sure that you sort their taxes for them- there’s a lot to consider. Many blogs require hired help on occasion, but you’ve got to do it at a level that you can cope with financially and professionally.
