From Blog to Small Business

Deb’s note: I started writing this post on the plane to Las Vegas (and BlogWorld) last week. Since then I’ve seen Darren Rowse’s post at ProBlogger called, “The #1 One Reason My Blogging Grew into a Business.” Check it out if you can, it’s a must -read for anyone who wants to blog for a living.

FWJ began four years ago as a blog filled with leads for work at home moms like me. As you know, it’s evolved quite a bit over the past few years. Something happened this past spring that caused me to change my outlook about FWJ. Instead of a simple blog or network of blogs, I treated it like a business. Don’t get me wrong, I was always business-like in my dealings and accounting, but in June, I took it to a whole new level.

When I lost my full time job, I decided I wasn’t going to look for another. Instead, I wanted to work harder on making this network more profitable, and more beneficial to those reading it. Instead of looking for a job, I was going to make FWJ my full time job. It made a difference.  Instead of simply posting and building traffic, I’ve also been:

• Meeting with accountants to find out my next course of action as a small business owner.
• Negotiating with advertisers
• Researching advertising, traffic, SEO and other blog building techniques
• Working hard on branding
• Working hard on FWJ’s (and Deb Ng’s) social media presence
• Forming lucrative partnerships which will enable this network to keep going
• Doing some heavy analysis into the demographics of this community and other freelance writing communities
• Networking, not only with other freelancers, but with other people and businesses to form mutually beneficial relationships

Some of the things I learned at this time:

• You can’t please everyone
• You have to spend money to make money
• Networking totally rocks
• If you focus on one thing, instead of multitasking, you’ll have better results
• Sometimes you just have to go for it

Some of the changes I noticed since devoting my full time attention to FWJ:

• Traffic has seen a significant increase
• Advertisers have been coming to FWJ, instead of the other way around
• Ad revenue beyond private sales (Adsense, etc.) has increased to the point where it’s a full time income
• A major online brand inquired about purchasing FWJ
• Lots of Tweets and ReTweets featuring FWJ links
• Community growth
• A whooooole lot of email
• More links to blog posts at FWJ
• Major brands have taken notice

This is only a few months worth of work and effort. Can you imagine if I had put this much time and energy into FWJ since day one? Of course, that wasn’t possible because I needed to help provide for my family. However, being patient and persistant and not giving up over 4 1/2 years enabled met build FWJ and see it to its potential.

Luck vs Hard Work

Someone once told me I was lucky. This has nothing to do with luck. I worked hard to build this network. It became a huge part of my life. I focus attention to it every day. It’s kept me up late, and caused me to rise very early. It’s been the subject of blog wars and forum spats. It’s my life, not luck. I have to tell you, it’s not easy to come up with content every single day for 4 1/2 years.

Is it Worth it?

You bet it’s worth it. I’m not going to claim to be some expert, guru, A-list problogger, but I managed to find something that I love – something that works. It’s been worth all the time and effort I put into it. As Darren Rowse said in his post about blogging as a business, when I stopped treated my blog as a hobby and more as a business, it began to work for me.

If you want to make your blog work for you, know that it’s not easy. It’s not as simple as opening up a blog, stocking it with keywords and slapping on some ads. There’s a lot of research, promoting and networking involved.

Tell us the story of your blog. Is it a business? Can it become a business? What are you doing to ensure its success, and what are some of the results you’ve seen since beginning?

5 Reasons You’re Not Making Money as a Blogger

Thanks to that famous $100,000 Google check and the whole “make money online” craze, everyone who blogs thinks they’re going to earn enough money so they can quit their day jobs and retire in style. It’s a nice thought. Realistically very few people make hundreds of thousands of dollars blogging each year. It’s not a stretch to earn a livable wage as a blogger, however.

If you’re spending all your time blogging and have very little in the bank to show for it, you may be taking the wrong approach. Whether you blog on your own, or blog for someone else, there are plenty of factors to ensure a profitability. Not knowing enough about what it takes to make it as a professional blogger, or making the wrong choices can hinder your success.

1. You’re Not Giving it Enough Time

Blogging takes time.  If you’re starting your own blog, or your pay is contingent upon traffic, please know you’re not a failure if you don’t have thousands of hits and page views in the first few months. Very few bloggers become overnight sensations. How can you gain immediate traffic if no one knows you’re around. You have to build up a community first. Read up on traffic building techniques and become involved in other like minded communities. You’ll find a slow steady rise in traffic helps to build buzz. Promoting a blog is a full time job in itself.

If you blog for someone else and your employer expects heavy traffic immediately out of the gate, find articles and blog posts on building traffic and help him to realize this doesn’t happen right away. If you’re starting a brand new blog, chances are it’s not going to earn any money for some time. If your pay is contingent on traffic, remember you’re only going to be earning pennies for at least the first few months, and probably some time after that. Read more