So you’ve taken over a little corner of the internet with a blog that you are, in all honesty, incredibly proud of. When you first started out you thought that blogging would simply be a hobby, something to do in your spare time. Now, however, that’s all changed. You’ve seen the potential that blogging has to be more than a hobby and it’s got you wondering whether your blog has the potential to turn into more than something that you do in your spare time – could it become a small business? The question is, how do you know if your blog (and you) have got what it takes to make blogging more than a hobby?
Your blog is well-designed & runs seamlessly
If your blog is going to be more than a hobby, it’s vital that you ensure it is as professional as possible. Because your blog will become your business’s hub, which means that it’s the place where people form their first impressions about what you offer as a business, it’s important that it looks professional – you need to ensure that your blog looks the part. If it isn’t as well-designed as it could be and has glitches, you need to change that. Contact a reputable website designer, and work with them to improve your blog’s design to make it look more professional. It also may be worth changing the website hosting that you have in place, to ensure that your site runs more smoothly and doesn’t freeze or crash. Remember, first impressions are everything in business.
You have a good following
Does your blog already have a good following and reach? If it does, this is a sign that your site has the potential to be more than just a hobby. If your following is still small(ish) don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you can’t turn your blog into a business, it just might be worth working on building up your following first and increasing your reach.
You utilize social media
Social media is one of the key marketing platforms in today’s technology-focused world. So if you want to transform your blog into more than just a hobby, it’s vital that you are already utilizing social media and using it to market your blog and your skills. What’s important is that you are clued up when it comes to social media marketing as well as content marketing, as if you want to make your blog more than a hobby, knowing how to promote yourself online is crucial.
You’ve worked with brands in the past
The chances are if you are a blogger, you’ve worked with brands in the past. The reason that this is important is because a big part of making your blog a successful business is linked to collaborating with brands on reviews, sponsored posts, and other opportunities. You need to understand how brands work with bloggers, what bloggers they like to work with, and how you can make your blog more desirable to them. If you haven’t already worked with brands don’t worry, what you want to do is do some research into it. To learn more about working with brands, the best thing to do is approach a couple of brands via email and ask what types of bloggers they work with and how so that you can get an idea of what to expect from collaborations.
A lot of bloggers dream of turning their blogs into more than just a hobby, the problem is that they don’t know what it takes to do that. Hopefully, the advice above has given you a useful insight into what it takes to make your blog more of a business than a hobby.