Top 10 Reasons to Mind your Blogging Business

I am grateful to Casey Benedict for this excellent guest post about how to get the best from your Blog. Casey is the founder and editor of TasteStopping,com, an excellent site which publishes rejected food photography. She is currently developing a website devoted to connecting food bloggers with the PR industry.

Follow Tastestopping on Twitter @tastestopping

Every Blog is a Business. Here are the Top 10 Reasons to Start Minding Yours.

Here is what it means to think of your blog as a business:

10. Taking yourself and your work seriously.

In any activity we undertake repeatedly (cooking, driving, yoga, knitting) there is the underlying assumption that hopefully some level of mastery will be achieved. Blogging is no different. By thinking of a blog as a business, you’ll get there more directly and you’ll be able to measure your progress along the way. Knowing where your site ranks with Google and Technorati, knowing how many visits and page views you have each month, having a clear “About” page on your site: these are examples of taking yourself and your blog seriously. When you begin to do this, those around you will naturally follow suit.

9. Factoring intangible expenses into the larger picture of your blog.

For instance, think of your work in terms of billable hours. If minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and you work 10? 20? 70? hours a week on your blog, that means each year you are giving away at least $3625, $7250 or $25375 of your time. But would you actually work for minimum wage? Probably not. When you factor in what you’d realistically like to make at a paying job ($25, $35, $50 an hour?), the bottom line for your blog is sobering. By assigning a dollar value to your time, you can be realistic about what you’re donating to the foodie community. How long will you be willing to work for free?

8. Beginning to think of the bigger picture and your long term goals.

One great way to do this is to create a mission statement. This is invaluable for any blogger. You can read this article for an in-depth discussion of the why’s and how’s. Viewing your blog as a business from the outset will help you craft a more compelling mission statement. In turn, your mission statement helps you focus on what’s important and strengthens your brand.

7. Creating systems within your blogging

Instead of recreating the wheel every time you are asked for a marketing piece (bio, stat sheet, blog overview, writing history, recipe portfolio, etc), have all of your materials written out, polished and ready to go. This should carry over into your blog, as well. Have something written to cover an area where you will have repeated demand without having to rewrite or edit every time you respond.  Another way to consolidate tasks is to pick one time of day to do certain things, like answer emails, and only do that during the allotted time. There are many other ways to streamline your processes if you just give it some thought.

6. Putting your blog to work for you

Thinking of your blog as a business will allow you to open up to new opportunities to develop your brand. You’ll become aware of and open to unique opportunities to market your site and make money with your blog. Writing for other blogs, consulting for other bloggers, reaching out to your local business community with your particular expertise (recipe development, event planning, social media integration, website design)—these are all opportunities that will appeal and make sense when you are thinking about your blog as a business.

5. Making yourself more attractive to potential business partners

Sponsors, publishers, print media and PR agencies will want to work with you when they see that you know why you are a blogger and you are clear about what you can offer them. Business partners will know that you’re worth investing in because: you have presented a unified, consistent message (having taken the time to craft and follow a mission statement); your marketing systems are streamlined (which makes you more efficient in responding to their inquiries); and you have a handle on the data they want to see (such as your stats and rankings).

4. Carrying yourself in a manner now that will positively impact your future

Imagine negotiating your salary at a new job. If you accept $50,000 a year instead of pushing for $70,000 the difference will impact your wallet multiple times over your stay in that position. When the yearly 3.5% cost-of-living raise rolls around you will lose $700. Compound that by the 5-7 years of working at that job and you’ve forfeited thousands of dollars. Even worse, imagine the cost of living raise is a 10% holiday bonus each year and now you’ve passed up tens of thousands of dollars by undervaluing yourself from the beginning. OUCH!

The sponsorship deals you make now, the rates you set for your advertising space today will all influence the deals and negotiations to come.  Remember that when you are tempted to undervalue yourself and your work.

3. Making some money

While not everyone needs to make money working on their blog, it is still an important goal to have. It will help you clarify the worthwhile opportunities versus those that are simply time and energy wasters. It will validate your hard work and create more flexibility for you. Right now your blog is potentially a pile of expenses (web design and development, hosting, internet service, etc.) Business and money go hand in hand. Turn your blog into an asset rather than a liability.

2. Realizing that your blog is NOT a hobby.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a hobby as: a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation. Nothing about blogging matches that definition. Staring at a blank post screen is not relaxing. Capturing the perfect photo on your point and shoot is not relaxing. Repeated rejections from FoodGawker are NOT relaxing.

If you are lucky, you may enjoy working on your blog, it may even bring you happiness. When you start to make money with it you will be one of those rare individuals who gets paid to work at something s/he loves. Forget pretending to be a hobbyist. Be a role model.

1. Putting an end to denying or excusing bad behavior

Hobbies, being casual expressions of our creativity, have few boundaries imposed on them. It is probably not a big deal to knit at the dinner table while your kids and spouse finish their meal. But taking a business call or answering a corporate email on your iPhone during family dinner is a different story. Continuing to view blogging as a hobby is a subtle form of denial for many bloggers which allows their blogging to encroach on time that should be reserved for other things. Businesses need a general schedule, appropriate business hours, regular holidays, personal days; and non-business hours should be free of business deals, calls, emails, transactions, and other interruptions.

You’ll find as you view your blog as a business and not a hobby, you’ll set clearer boundaries about your time and resources. As a result, those you connect with through your blog will respect your time and value your work more. This brings you right back to number 10, creating a beneficial cycle that, if you let it, will help you continue to evolve your business.

Casey is co-founder of Eat, Write, Retreat, an intensive, hands-on weekend for food bloggers in Washington, DC which will take place next  May. Contact her at casey@tastestopping.com

Thanks Casey, great post with some good points to think about for all bloggers, number 1 certainly strikes a chord with me!