Are You Running a Side Business Without Even Noticing?
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What if I told you that you are running a business without knowing it?
Throughout March, I wrote articles about running a side business: Starting one. Making sure it doesn’t break your life balance. You read the articles and thought that you might start one too - some day.
And all the time, you already had a business.
Before I officially announce the end of my second article series on running a side business, I want to bring your secret business to light.
This won’t take long. And it won’t be painful. I promise.
Here’s a question for you: Could it be that your blog is, in fact, a business?
Don’t answer yet. I want to set one thing straight: the fact that you don’t yet make any money from your blog doesn’t make it any less like a business.
The indicators
If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, I think it’s time for you to start thinking of your blog as a business:
- You have goals: Sure, your main reason for blogging is the sheer fun you get from doing it. But still, you are not just writing for the fun of it but also track unique visitor counts, RSS subscriber counts, and numbers of comments per post (just to name a few). And you write consistently, without leaving your readers wonder where you go during your long hiatuses.
- You market your blog: You are ready to put in some effort in order to reach your goals. You write guest posts on other blogs, you do a bit of search engine optimization to make sure your blog gets indexed by Google and Yahoo, and you ask your friends to tell their friends about your writing.
- You have a vision: You know your topic, and what it is that you want to deliver to your readers. But not just today. You also have a - maybe vague - idea of what you want your blog to be a year from today and you keep correcting it as you go.
- You read about blogging: You are passionate about becoming a better blogger. You read ProBlogger, Skelliewag, NORTHxEAST, and the like to find out what you should do next to better please your audience and to make your blog better known.
- Your blog is NOT on Blogger, or any other hosted platform for that matter. You run your blog on your own hosting, with your own domain and your custom made WordPress theme.
- You are making money: I said that if you don’t make money from your blog it doesn’t mean that you are not running a business. But the opposite is also true: if you do make money from your blog (through ads, affiliate links, freelance writing opportunities), your blog is indeed a business activity and you should consider it as one.
So, after looking at these indicators, what do you think: is your blog a business?
Yeah. So what?
If you answer yes, you might want to check my side business articles again, reading “blog” wherever I say “side business” (or just “business”):
- How a Side Business Forces You To Balance Your Life
- Dream Big, Set Goals and Make Things Happen
- Side Business, Smart Business
- How To Triple Your Week Without Anyone Noticing
- Finding Balance: Make Plans But be Quick to Act
- Planning Your Life, Business and Everything
And I guess there will never be a better time and place than this for linking to my recent articles about blogging over at NORTHxEAST:
- Three Common Interview Mistakes And How You Can Avoid Them
- Ten Practical Tips for Writing in English
- Love and The Other Ingredients for a Perfect Blog
- Be Insanely Useful and Make Your Readers Come Back
- How To Show That You Are Serious About Blogging
Have fun running your side business, blog, life, or whatever you want to call it!
The side business series ends here, but I’m sure we’ll still revisit this topic quite a few times throughout this year. After all, you can’t really separate life and business from each other, can you?
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April 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Yeah, it’s a side business. And a conscious one too. I have been having trouble with #3 though, but I’ve got that sorted out too. I’m going to start another side business (blog) to cover the other topic :)
I missed your series on side businesses, but I’ll be back to read them for sure. Great titles!
Lodewijk van den Broek’s last blog post: 7 Little Timesaving Tips for the Workplace
April 9th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I’ve known all along that my blog is a business. It just took me a while to figure out how to run it like one. :-)
I think I’ve got the hang of it now, though.
Excellent post, Jarkko! Stumbled.
Joshua Clanton - Design for the WEB’s last blog post: It’s the Content, Stupid!
April 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi Jarkko - I have started to think of my blog not only as a business, but also as an extension of what I do…
NOW, I just need to figure out how to make some money from it. ;)
Mark H.
Lifestyle Design Consultant
mark @ mytropicalescape’s last blog post: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Where Would they Go?
April 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@Lodewijk: Congratulations for your first year in blogging! It’s a great achievement.
Yep, maintaining a clear focus on your blog sure is a tricky one - and one that I struggle with as well.
@Joshua: Good point! That would make a great post title as well: “How To Run Your Blog Like a Business”.
Thanks for the stumble!
@Mark: Well said! I like to think of business in general as an extension of what I do… Whatever that means :)
April 16th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I’ve never really thought of my blog as a business, but the idea is intriguing. I always felt that my blog was just a venue for me to dump my thoughts in a somewhat articulate manner. If anyone commented with positive feedback, that would just be a bonus.
Aside from adding a Google Adsense plugin, what other ways could this idea of “blog as a business” be exploited without alienating your users with ads and uninspired articles for the sake of “getting something posted”? I don’t post to my blog as often as I guess I should, but that’s mostly because it is more of a casual hobby for me.
On the other hand, I have been aching to find the right on-the-side business that wouldn’t affect my day job.
I’m a software developer, and I like the company that I work for, so I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that relationship in any way.
On the other hand, I do host my own blog (not using Blogger), and am very concerned about putting all my eggs in one basket career wise, so I am interested learning more about running my blog as an un-intrusive business.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:03 am
@J. Bobby: You have some really good thinking and analysis there. Thanks for sharing!