How do you Blog: – Why you should run your blog like a business

How do you Blog: – Why you should run your blog like a business

4b414cb49c771b89213fac92_1920How do you blog?

I know that when I first started blogging, I thought that I could just sit down and let the words flow. Somehow, magically, the words would appear on the blog. And the traffic would just flow from out of the blog ether. People would read my wonderful ideas and be suitably impressed. They’d fall at my feet and shower money on me. Cake, parties and big houses, oh my!

Boy did I have it wrong!

How wrong I was has been the subject of many of my blog entries in the past. Whenever I’m short of a subject I know I have a quick “Oops, I blew it again” story for my blog.  What is really scary is that every once in a while I’ll get lazy. I’ll try to blog that way again. Guess what? For some strange reason I end up in the same place. Strange, how that happens.

The truth is that you need to run your blog as if you were running a business. Because that is what you are doing. Even if it is a not-for-profit, it’s still a business.

I repeat, why?

There are many reasons that you need to approach your blog with the same level of discipline you would approach a business. Or perhaps the word is should. I’m sure there are people out there setting up their business in a slipshod manner. In any case, I’m going to give you six main reasons.

1. Blogging can get away with you.

Unrealistic goals are one of the most common problems with blogging. It’s inevitable. The desire to write about your subject blinds you to what is possible. You’ll want to have millions of readers. And that won’t happen. At least, not without throwing money at it. You’ll want to write everyday on it. But of course, that isn’t realistic. You’ll end up finding that you’ve bitten off a feast rather than a mouthful. You’ll find out that your blog is taking up more time than you expected and can maintain.

2. it’s lonely to write without feedback.

The main reason anyone blogs is because they want others to read what they’ve written. That’s cool, there’s nothing wrong with that. And it’s inevitable. Now, it could be just one step in selling products or it could be the sole reason. However, it will always be part of the explanation. And unfortunately, it’s lonely and unfulfilling to write and never be read. Without a reader, there really isn’t much fun to write. And unfortunately, traffic doesn’t just happen. Like any business, you need to plan, prepare and coerce it.

3. If you don’t get feedback, you’ll eventually stop

Think of this as the inevitable result of not having readers. Without feedback to sustain you, you will eventually get frustrated and quit. There won’t be anything to keep you going when the writing gets tough. At some point, you’ll find you need to do something else and you’ll just never return.

4. You’re likely to forget something

Whenever you do anything by a seat-of-your-pants method, you are bound to forget to do something. One of the characteristics of a well-run business is its ability to create processes or standardized ways of doing things. By standardizing how you work within your blog, you are less likely to forget an important step. This is especially true with the market strategy investigation. Many ego-bloggers forget to verify that there is a market before they start blogging. The result is that they also forget readers.

5. You’re likely to stop

One of the worst things you can do to a blog is to be erratic. Your blog needs to be consistent if it is to gain a consistent readership. Stopping even for a few days can cost you readers. They return expecting a new blog entry and find nothing. After a few false starts, they stop returning. A consistent schedule is the mark of a business. It’s seldom the mark of a hobby.