Nothing more frustrating than telling people about your blog and getting a comment that goes something like this: “Oh that’s so cute, but what do you really do for a living?” It seems like many people associate the word “blog” with a cute vanity hobby rather than running an actual business. Regardless of how you perceive blogs, one thing is for sure. It looks a lot easier than it is. If you’re thinking of starting a blog or if you’re one of those people making the “so cute” comment, please read along because we’ll be sharing what it really takes to run a blog. Or as we prefer to name it these days: running an online business.
1. Website Maintenance
From the actual website design itself (and making it work properly), to web hosting, plugins, WordPress issues, dealing with spam and 101 other things that have to be managed in the back end: it’s pretty intense. Whether you like it or not, running a blog means you need to know a thing or two about everything tech.
2. It’s time consuming
For the outsider, it looks as if running a blog pretty much looks like this: you snap a photo, you write up a little text, and there you go: post online. Wrong! A good shot, story and post has been thought through. Your photos require a certain lightning, a particular location, plus: you almost never get a good shot in one time. Then there’s the after process: editing, making the photos align with the story, trying to make it resonate with your readers.
3. Your vision
Without a vision, you’re nowhere. Turning a blog into a business can be compared to the process of getting a diploma, but more complicated. Getting your diploma is your ‘final’ goal and in order to reach that goal, you spend 4 years of your life taking whatever steps it takes to get there. The only difference between turning a blog into a business and getting your diploma, is that you have to figure out the path yourself. Turning your vision into a business and figuring out the way to go is one of the biggest challenges we’ve personally ever had to deal with. Nothing is sure and you have to figure out everything by yourself.
4. Creativity flow
Your creative brain has to be up and alive at all times. And that’s not easy. Coming up with new topics, be entertaining or write a deep story is maybe easy to keep up for a few weeks. But keeping that creative spirit up all day and every day? It’s certainly not easy.
5. Finances
If you do well, blogging allows you to earn a very decent living. Little disclaimer: you first need to be willing to sacrifice and invest 3-4 years of your life without getting much in return except free stuff. Blogging as a business means finances. And finances are not fun. At least we think! The endless negotiating deals, exploring different ways to make money. When you’re in it for a while, you certainly learn the tricks of the game and it will become easier, but the process is never an easy one. Oh, and have we mentioned administration yet? Big sigh.
While running your own website, online platform, or blog (whatever you like to call it), is really fun, you shouldn’t underestimate it. Full time commitment and perserverance are required in order to make it work and run smoothly. Oh, and you need a dose of luck.
