I’m Kevin. I blog about personal finance, setting goals, and green energy/home design over at KMull.com.
As a reader of Blogtrepreneur you’re probably interested in starting your own business. Branching out - entrepreneurship and the lavish lifestyle that comes from success. Fair enough. I’d like that too. Are you actively involved in running a business? Have you started the dream? No? Why not? Look at the opportunity around you!
Blogging can be your first business. Let’s break it down in business terms:
- Barriers to entry – very few; hosting + domain, or use a free service
- Competition – millions, and more every day, but you can carve out a niche
- Metrics – can you tell if you are successful? Yes! Page Rank, number of RSS subscribers, unique visitors, Technorati links, etc.
- Requirement of high level of skills? No, just the ability to express your thoughts.
Blogging requires advertising and marketing in a multitude of ways: you can buy ads on Google, purchase links, and participate in free Carnivals of/Festivals of [your topic]. The Carnivals are sort of like going to giant conference in your niche with attendees from around the world. Except this time you don’t have to buy a plane ticket, stay in a hotel, etc. It’s all free.
You also must network to be successful as a blogger. Comment on other blogs, e-mail the authors personally. Work the link exchange game with bloggers that are bigger than you. Reach out to less established blogs and help them, too. You would be doing the same networking in any other business and blogging is no exception.
I started putting serious effort into blogging in February. My blog currently has a Page Rank of 2, and 33 RSS subscribers. I consider it a mild success thus far, and will continue to push forward.
So consider blogging to be your first business. I believe it can teach you some of the fundamentals you will need to get started on your next business. There is money to be made with text link ads, Google, or paid posts.
And if you fail, perhaps not that many people were watching anyways.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Charles // Jun 28, 2007 at 4:52 am
Kevin,
Nice post. You ended it with, “And if you fail, perhaps not that many people were watching anyways.” Failure is automatic for the person who doesn’t try at all. When we don’t try out of fear we fail before we even start. The overhead on blogging is so low that the worst that could happen is someone misses a season of television shows in the process of trying to build a successful blog, and that never hurt anybody.
I’m headed over to your blog now to check things out. Keep up the good work.
Charles McKeever
CharlesMcKeever.com
2 KMull // Jun 28, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Thanks for the comment, Charles.
I agree. Perhaps I should have added “and if the blog isn’t an overwhelming success…” or something along those lines.
3 Joe Norton // Jul 14, 2007 at 12:34 am
interesting article; I’m in the process of converting my blog into a business. Gotta be a business owner and not just self-employed.
4 Deron // Jul 17, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Good read. I just started blogging myself, so these types of posts are always good for someone new to read to keep the blogging wheels turning. Thanks. I’m heading to check out your site now.
5 KMull // Jul 18, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Thanks for the comments and feedback, guys!
6 Steven Snell // Aug 8, 2007 at 4:01 am
Kevin,
You’re right about the barriers to entry. How else can you start a business for such a small investment?
7 adnan // Aug 8, 2007 at 5:12 pm
(Butting in on the conversation)…hehe yeah exactly. Blogging is so risk hence why so many people are joining the ’sphere each day. Hosting and domain charges are dropping all the time and you can easily set yourself up with $5/month.
8 Steven Snell // Aug 8, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Yes, there definitely is a growing amount of competition (especially in certain niches). But it seems like much of the competition isn’t very serious or persistent. I think if you approach it with a long-term goal in mind rather than trying to get rich quickly you’ll be ok.
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