The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 56. Blogging as a Business

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Today we are talking with you about creating a mindset in which you treat your blog like a business.  Whether you are looking to blog as a hobby or replace your income, we want to give you some tools to think about right from the start and give you the information on what it would look like to build a business of blogging. Tune in to hear more! Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join the waitlist for The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode56

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey there, and welcome back to this episode of the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today, we want to talk about what we're going to call the business of blogging. And so what we want to talk about today is creating a mindset in which you treat your blog like a business. So first and foremost, what we want to say is when you start a blog, there could be multiple different reasons you do so. So all of those reasons are valid.

What our goal is today is to help those of you who want to grow a blog to earn an income. We want to give you some things to think about in terms of treating your blog like a business, because we believe that that is so important when it comes to creating a successful blog that can grow and serve you in that way. So some of you may want a blog as a hobby, or you're doing it as like a not-for-profit venture, or just a way to give information to people. And those things are all amazing. But for those of you that want to start a blog and you would like to grow that

to where you can earn an income, whether that's just a part-time income or you want a full-time income, you want this to be your main gig, you wanna replace your full-time job or you wanna like really build wealth with your blog. All of those things are possible. There's just some things that you need to think about.

And we want to give you these tools to think about right from the start. And I think I want to also hold space for anybody who's not quite sure. Maybe you don't understand the level that you could reach by blogging. I know when I started, Jennifer, you and I both had very different ideas,

I would say, when we started our blogs. So when I started, Jennifer, you and I both had very different ideas, I would say, when we started our blogs. So when I started, I didn't really know. I didn't even know how bloggers made money. And so that was kind of mind-boggling to me. But when you started, you knew that you wanted to make money. Right. I had stumbled across somebody sharing income reports for their blog. And at the time, I was on a break from being a full-time accountant. And so my mind was so excited seeing numbers associated with blogging. And so I went into this with the idea of instead of going back to being an accountant, I'm going to create a business to replace my income as a blogger. And you did.

And I did. business to replace my income as a blogger. And you did. And I did. And so I think that that's something to consider as you listen to this episode that you might not know exactly yet, do I want a hobby blog or do I want to start a business with my blog? Like we said, there's space for both camps here. We just want to give you the information on what it would look like to build that business of blogging. And first and foremost, the thing that you're going to want to ask yourself is how much time do I have? And then what are my goals? And we want you to be really intentional, but also realistic. I think too often we can kind of bite off more than we can chew. And then we backpedal and then we think we failed because we didn't really know what we were capable of.

And so you can grow a business with a few hours a week or work part-time. But that's something that you're going to want to ask yourself is how much time do I realistically have? This might mean taking an audit of your time, where you're spending your time throughout the day, looking at it. Could I find 10 to 15 hours a week to grow my blog? If you want to grow a blogging business, our recommendation is a minimum of 10 to 15 hours a week. And I know that many of you have full-time jobs and you're doing this on the side. We have a great episode with Christina Catalina about that. And so that would be a good one to go back and listen to. She's building her blog alongside a full-time job right now.

It's very possible people do it. You just have to get really creative with your time. And likely there will be sacrifices that you'll have to make in order to do that. But if you know that you want this to be another stream of steady income, then those are some things that you're going to want to consider and think about. And if you are going into this and you know, like you want to create some sort of an income from this, then I think it's important to understand that a blog is a business and give yourself permission to think about it that way. Even if you're not making

money yet, it's really important to go into this with that mindset. And so there's a few things you're going to want to start to think about as you start creating your blog. And I know this isn't necessarily the fun part, but we want to give you this information so that you have what you need to really think about what is best for you and your situation. We just recorded another podcast episode where we talked about our goal is to really empower you to have the information that you need in order to create what you want and to be successful. So when it comes to setting up a business with your blog, it's important to consult with somebody who's local to you that can understand the rules and laws in your state or potentially even in your city

so that you create a business that's protected and you're protecting yourself. So in some places, this might mean that you can just operate as yourself. In some places, you might need to set up a company like an LLC. And you also just need to understand, do you need to have a business license in your city to be able to operate this business out of your home, etc. So finding either a lawyer or an accountant who can get you started on the right foot and to give you all the information you need to make those decisions. It's a good thing just to talk to somebody right off the bat if this is what you're planning on doing. And they can advise you how soon or quickly you need to actually put those things into place. But I don't want it to sound

super scary. It kind of can if you've never been involved in anything like this. But I think both of our experiences have been overall, it's fairly simple to get these pieces into place. And we've had multiple students do so as well. Yeah. Also knowing where you're spending your money is an important thing that you're going to want to keep track of. So like our family uses Quicken right now to keep track. My husband is, he's a finance guy. So he did all that. He did all that setup. But if you don't want to use something like that, even just using honestly like an Excel spreadsheet and just keeping track of the things that you're spending money on. If you're setting up a blog, for instance,

you're going to have some expenses in that, like your hosting company, your theme, different plugins. So you're going to have some expenses there. Just know what you're spending. That way, when you go to report to taxes, that can be a business expense and you want to account for that in there. And then also just to know how much you're spending versus how much you're earning. So maybe set up like a profit and loss statement if you know how to do that. But you want to know where you stand because anything that you're going to do, you want to make sure that it has a purpose and intention behind it. Jennifer and I are both very mindful of the money that we spend in not just Spark, but also in our own blogging businesses. And we're never going to be the people who are

going to tell you just to spend it. Like, yeah, sure, just buy that. Or if you hear about something new, yeah, sure, you should invest in that. You always want to ask yourself, what's the intention behind this? And what am I going to use this for? Is this going to help move the needle or not? And so those are just important questions to ask yourself, because you could easily go down a rabbit hole of spending thousands of dollars because people are going to offer all kinds of help. But do you need it?

That's something that you really just want to have honest conversations with yourself about how much you want to grow, how much help you're going to need and all that. Something else that you might want to consider is a PO box for marketing purposes. This is something that we do recommend all of our students get because when you send out email marketing, or if you connect with brands and they send you a product, you don't want to give everybody your home address just for safety reasons. And so a PO box can help that as well. Just help you. It's just a safety barrier, essentially. And I want to rewind just a second on those income and expenses, because I think no matter what entity you have, you should consider setting up a separate bank account to keep track of all of that.

It just makes sense to keep your blog income and expenses separated from your personal. Agreed. So I actually did not set up my LLC until this year. It was advised by my accountant that I didn't need to. And then this year, we sat down with Whitney Bauer and had a conversation. And Whitney was like, you need an LLC. That's what you need for your business. And so I had just had a separate account, but now I have a business account and all of that. So I tell you that to say, even though I wasn't an LLC until 2022, I started my blog in 2017. It wasn't really advised to me until 2022 to set up the LLC. It just depended on who you asked. So know that. Know that you

might be told one thing from an accountant and another thing from a lawyer. I would just ask yourself who might know a little bit more about the capacity of what you're working with here in a blog. That is something I would... If you're talking to your accountant, for instance, ask them if they understand truly about what a blogger does and all that. If they don't, then reach out. Reach out and try to look for somebody who might be able to give you more solid information there. And that's not to say that accountants are bad or whatever. It's not. But not everybody works with bloggers every day. And that's okay. But there are a lot of bloggers. And so obviously, we're all getting help from somebody. So there will be resources available to you to find.

Obviously, we're all getting help from somebody. So there will be resources available to you to find. Speaking about the legal aspect of it is you're also going to want to consider a few other things such as a trademark. Now, you do not need to have a trademark in order to set up your blog, but it is something that you're going to want to ask yourself, how serious am I taking this? We invited Whitney Bauer onto the podcast. And so we have an entire episode about trademarks that we'll link in the show notes for you. This is something that we cannot advise you. Yes, you have to do or no, you don't have to do.

But we do feel it's very important for you to have the information so you can make the best decision for yourself. And having a trademark essentially means that you are protected under different categories, such as content creation and things like that, to make sure that nobody else can use your name and also make sure that you're not using somebody else's name. And those are just helpful with protection. And so that's something that you might want to consider listening to and gaining some more information on as you are researching maybe a domain name, or maybe you do have a domain already and your blogging business is picking up and you're not quite sure what you need. You might want to consider a trademark as well as you grow.

If you're feeling a little overwhelmed with any of this business or legal setup, here's what I would suggest that you do. The game you said we did a podcast episode with Whitney Bauer about trademarking. And so go listen to that and see how you feel and what you learned from that and see how it applies to you. And also we have another podcast episode that we will link with another attorney, Jamie Lieberman. She is very experienced in the online space and working with bloggers. And so she goes through important legal steps to think about as you're starting your blog. And she gives some really good perspectives. So listen to those episodes that we have available to you. And then just start within your own community, networking with people that you might know and see

if they have recommendations for an accountant or an attorney that works with small businesses so that you can just reach out. Most will at least give you a consultation or let you know if they would be a good fit to work with you or to be able to answer your questions. Yeah. And I think that both Whitney and Jamie both said, don't freak out. Yeah. Yes. It's never anything to freak out about. So take a giant deep breath right now. If you're like, well, I'm not blogging because this sounds really complicated. Just know that you don't, you don't have to have everything like this figured out. These are just things we want you to be aware of. For a long time, we kind of avoided

these conversations. And then we felt like that was not right either. Like we avoided them because we're not attorneys. And so we can't give legal advice, but you guys should still know that these are things that you need to consider. Do you want to start a blog, but you aren't sure what to do first? Are you still wondering what you're going to write about and who your ideal reader is? Have you researched blog platforms only to be left with even more questions and have no idea what platform to build your blog on? Guess what? We created the Blog Depot just for you.

The Blog Depot is a nine-module course that was designed for someone who thinks that they want to start a blog, but wants to build a solid foundation and ask themselves the important questions before jumping in. In the Blog Depot, we will help you understand what you need to build a successful blog and important questions to ask yourself. And we do it all with our self-paced online course and membership community. You get access to the course and community forum immediately upon signup.

And as a special bonus, we do a live coaching call with Depot members every month. So you can talk to us about your specific questions and needs. We want you to feel confident when you decide to finally start blogging someday and the blog Depot will help you do it. It's only $47 a month, but if you sign up today and use code U B P 50, you'll receive 50% off your first month. The link to join us is in the show notes, and we can't wait to help you build your solid foundation in the blog depot. So let's lighten it up a bit. Let's talk about time blocking instead. How's that sound? Perfect. It's time to move past the legal piece. Okay. So if you know that you want to grow a blog as a business, content creation is going to be king.

And therefore, if you know that you have to create content, you obviously have to have time in order to create said content. So a while back, there was somebody who said that consistency wasn't always important. It's the persistence, being persistent. And I loved that because there are weeks that you can work more than others. That's just life. But being persistent towards your goals, I think, is really important. So something to consider is look at your calendar. You can look at it on a weekly and monthly basis. I do both.

And block off the time necessary to work on your blog. Batch your work if you need to. Know when you can work on certain things. Don't be afraid to work ahead. This past year, we've gotten really creative with the podcast, for instance, and working ahead. And I can't even tell you what it's like, the weight that has come off of our shoulders in regards to just having content done ahead of time, instead of scrambling at the last minute to get it done. We set a goal at the beginning of the year that we're going to have a podcast episode out every single week and we did it.

And I think there might've been one week that we got something mixed up and we had to kind of scramble the last minute. We lost track of time. One week out of 52 weeks. And so if you make that commitment to block your time and make something important, we totally know that you can do this and just plan, plan for things to come up. So when you're thinking about batching your work or blocking off time, know that something might, I mean, our lives are all like at any given moment, something can kind of get in our way or there could be an obstacle or whatever. So just plan ahead and know

that you're not going to be able to do all the things and that's perfectly okay. You're going to hear a lot of different things that you should be doing to grow your blog. You just need to sit down with yourself and ask yourself, how much time do I have and what am I willing to do? What am I willing to learn? I think that also depends on, So if you're creating blog content, do you have a Pinterest strategy? Do you know how to do the photography and all those things? You want to ask yourself, where are my gifts? Where are my strengths? And focus on those first. Because if you have to learn a bunch of the other things, it's going to feel really overwhelming very quickly. And so focus on what you do know and what you can work with, what you know, first and foremost. And then I would suggest learning like one new thing at a time.

Yeah. I think way more important than doing all the things because you will hear all the things to do to grow your blog. I mean, we still get caught in that trap and like, oh, we're not doing this and we're not doing that. So it's taking that. Guess what I did this week? What'd you do? I completely deleted the TikTok app. Good. I'm like, I'm not going to do this. I don't even want to grow on this platform. Take it off your plate. I took, I, it's totally gone. I just deleted the whole, the whole damn thing. That's so good. I don't want to learn TikTok. Like I don't call me old, but like that, this is an example of that. Like I have no capacity for TikTok. Like I don't call me old, but like that, this is an example of that. Like I have no

capacity for TikTok. I don't want to learn it. I don't want it to be a time suck. Like I don't want it to be something that I feel like I have to learn. And so I just totally got off. That's okay. You guys. Yeah. It's, it's being intentional. It is making an intentional decision. Do you know that like, if you invested in TikTok, you might be able to grow your business? Sure. But you're making an intentional decision that you wouldn't enjoy it. It would add stress to your life. So you're just going to walk it back and you're going to say, I'm going to focus on the things that I know will grow my business. And so it's taking some of those things off your plate and getting back to that core and just setting up your blog

the right way from the start. That's the place to start. You don't have to start on every social media platform. Just get your blog set up and optimized. And then start thinking about creating content in a way that is really helpful to people out there that you are trying to serve. So that is learning about SEO, learning about keyword research, and just being really mindful of the audience that you want to serve and creating content that at your heart and soul, you know, will help those people. You're marrying up what they're looking for and providing it in a way that's really true and really authentic and just investing that time to do that piece of it really well. I think doing things well is better than doing all the things.

And I think too often we tell ourselves, I can do this and this and this and this and this, and then we don't do it well because we're too, we're spread too thin. So that's what we're saying is focus on what really matters. Focus on blogging should feel joyful in my opinion. It should, because it is truly like, I love this. This is so much fun to do. And so if it gets to the point that it's not feeling that way, then you might need to pull something back. Like what am I not enjoying doing? And either how can I get help with it? Or how can I come at this a different way? Or can I completely take it off my plate?

Those are important questions to ask yourself because it truly should feel, for the most part, enjoyable. As with anything, there are things that we love to do more than others for sure. But make sure that you're making time for the things that really do. The way I like to say it is light your fire.. Like what are the things that like when you sit down to work on it, you're like, I love this. Like this is the part of blogging I was created for and ask yourself, how can I do more of that? Because your audience, the people buying the things that you're selling, the people who are connecting with you, they feel that fire. They know when you're passionate about those things. And so don't be afraid to spend more time in those areas that bring you a lot of joy. Yeah. That's exactly how you're

going to know. When we say focus on what's important, you're going to know what's important if you think about those things that really make you happy and propel you forward. Because you don't want to do this just to make money or just whatever, like whatever else, like you need to be getting something out of it for yourself too. And so really being intentional about what you enjoy about it and setting goals for yourself based on that, that's, what's going to help keep you focused. Absolutely. Absolutely. Email marketing is an essential piece of blogging. Growing your email list is just as important as SEO and keyword research in our opinion. And in order to grow your list, you need a reliable platform that will allow you to connect with your community and turn them into email

subscribers. That's where ConvertKit comes in. ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators like you that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease. ConvertKit allows you to grow your audience and reach, put your funnels on autopilot, and earn an income with your email list, all with an easy-to-use platform that is approachable, even for beginners. Click the link in our show notes to learn more about the different plans that ConvertKit has and how it can help you propel your business to the next level. Something else as you grow is planning to get help if you need it. So if you are new to the podcast, you might not have heard our story yet. I actually started as Jennifer's VA. It's always funny to me that I say I was your VA because we were next

door neighbors. So it wasn't virtual in any sense. Yeah. We should tell them what a VA is. It's a virtual assistant if you don't know. So it's somebody that basically doesn't have to be anywhere near you. They just help you online with your business. Yeah. And so I started as basically her Pinterest manager. I was making pins for her posts and uploading them into her WordPress that she could use. I don't think I was pinning for you back then right away. I might have been, but I think I just started making pins.

And then after I got that down, then you taught me how to like schedule pins and do things like that. And I was actually working. I wasn't even working. I was sharing content on Instagram for free. And Jennifer was telling me, you need to take yourself more seriously. And as doing kind of her, her work for Pinterest, it was very interesting to me. I had no idea how she was paying me, but I knew that she had gotten to a level that she was wanting to grow. And so she had hired help. She had hired me. And as virtual assistants or professionals or whatever, you can find them to do all kinds of things. If you reach that point in your business, figure like, I don't have the capacity for that. You can find assistants that can help with emails, with social media, maybe it's copywriting, Pinterest management. I hire out my photography.

So I come up with the recipes and then I hire those out. Photography has been something that I have not felt super confident in yet in my blogging. I haven't had the time to focus on photography as much. And so that is a business expense that I plan for in my business that my photography is hired out. And that is worth it to me versus the stress of trying to learn photography at this point. And so you just have to ask yourself, do I want to do all the things? Am I capable of doing all the things? And will that allow me to grow the way that I want to grow?

And those are important questions to ask yourself, whether you have been blogging a long time or whether you're just starting and take yourself seriously. Like if you're sitting here listening to this and you're like, I really want to grow a business. I really want to do this. Like I want to start a blog. Believe that you can like, like know that you are capable because you are. You absolutely are. I don't think that blogging is just for a special group of people. I think it's for people who are willing to never give up. I think it's for people who can be persistent and they can persevere and are willing to learn new things. I think blogging is a very creative career that if you feel like you're in a career that does not allow you to be creative, it can really pour into you. And I think that's one of the things I love the most about it is that ability

to not just do the ins and outs and day to day, but this is always something new and changing. And that's super fun. Something else to know is that blogging ebbs and flows. Before we got on this podcast, we were looking up our stats over the last several years. And you can look at trends and you can look at the years that you've grown and the years that you've fallen, the years that you've stayed the same. And that's just really interesting data to know. And you don't beat yourself up over things like that as you're growing your business or if something didn't pan out the way that you want it to. You just use it for data to fuel your next decision. And no, I mean, there's going to be times that you're going

to either invest in something or spend your time doing something. And you're going to be like, that did not work out the way that I wanted it to. But honestly, that's part of being a business owner. Not everything always works out the way that we think that it's going to. But using that information then to fuel the next decision that you make in your business. Yeah, I felt like it was a little bit easy to... Or I felt like I kind of want to beat myself up a little bit when we were looking at some of those stats, when I looked at some of the years that were down. But you really have to think about the alternative. And to me, doing this

business is what's important to me. And so I just wanted to choose to be thankful for what I have been able to do with this and know that the future can hold different things because I can always make changes to what I'm doing now in order to achieve some of those things that I've dreamed about and kind of put on the back burner. Time flies by quickly. So I think that's the important piece. Just don't be too hard on yourself. Just be intentional and always be willing to look at the stats, look at the results, and take those with a different perspective, not so personally, but more from a business aspect and just use that information to help you make different decisions moving forward. Yep. Beating yourself up about anything,

it just doesn't serve a purpose. It just keeps you stuck. And so the goal with growing any business, whether it's blogging or whatever, is just using that information to move forward. And don't allow yourself to say, would have, could have, all those things. It's just use it for growth. And no, have a minute, have a pity party if you need to. It's fine. But then move on. Because it's not going to allow you to grow if you stay in that space for very long. And we all have things that we can look back on, not just in business, but things that were like, oh, I wish that that would have gone differently. Or that's a bummer. I let myself down there and that's okay. Because like you said, time moves very quickly. And sometimes time truly does get away from us, but we just want you to take yourself seriously. Know that you're capable of doing anything that you are thinking of and don't sell your value short. You don't

have to be a complete expert to be a blogger. You can just share your experience. Maybe you have education, maybe you have a unique perspective that is all worthy of having a blog. And I don't want anybody to say, well, there's no space for me because there absolutely is. Blogging is still very relevant in 2023. There is absolutely still space for you. There is a community out there waiting to connect with you just as you are. You don't need to be anybody else other than yourself. And we hope that this year that you'll decide to do exactly that. Yeah. I don't want anybody listening today to feel overwhelmed and hold themselves back by any of this because you can do it and there are resources.

So if you're feeling that way, listen to the other episodes we've provided or reach out to us on Instagram and we will reassure you. We will point you in the right direction. We will make sure you get past this hurdle. Yep. You can do it. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes for those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist

is also in the show notes, go out and make today a great day.