So you want to be a blogger? Well, the first thing you’re going to need to do is kick the creativity  to the curb (okay, not totally) and think like an entrepreneur. Blogging as a hobby is all well and good, but if you want to make some real money, creativity alone just won't cut it. Instead, you have to be big and bold and operate like a boss. To do that, you need to treat your blog like the business you want it to be. Board meetings and pencil skirts aside, you’re going to want to get serious with your blogging strategy.

To start with it isn’t that easy to see an online creative outlet as a profitable business, but the skill will come in time. To get you there, you need to follow a few simple steps. As you start to see your pages as products, your readers as customers and take your traffic, conversion, and business proposition seriously, you should be well on your way to making it as a money-making blogger.

Start With A Strategy

Every good business will have a strategy, regardless of what their main activity is. So, if you want to start running your blog like a legitimate business, you need to start out with a strategy. But don’t worry, you won’t have to do this alone. Creating a blog strategy like this might sound complex, but if you follow all of the steps, you should find that you’re able to come up with a plan of action to start treating your blog like a business.

Do Your Research

With a good strategy behind you, you can  get started on taking your blog a bit more seriously. The first thing you’re going to want to do is to do some research. If you want your blog content to wow, you’re going to want to make each post count because quality is more important than quantity. So do some research to get some inspiration on what to write about. Look at what's trending, and keep an out for any gaps in content that you could fill with an original idea. Here's a good tool that can help you find out what is trending in your niche.

After researching, you should start to think about the way you can make your content count. Because not only do you want it to be shareable, you need it to be relevant to your niche too. So, to do this, try to ensure that every piece of content you create is interesting, educational, informative, or entertaining. It should have a purpose in terms of what it is giving to your readers.

Stay On Top Of The Competition

Just like in business, in blogging you need to know what your competitors are doing in order to stay ahead. So be sure that you’re reading their posts and following them on social media. That way, you can ensure that you’re offering above and beyond what they are, as well as coming up with original content ideas. Use more explanations, more graphs, more videos or anyway you can one-up your competition. 

Focus On Your Following

Growing your blog's audience is a key part of making it a business success. It’s important that you’re able to gain more traffic, increase your conversion rate and generate more money if you want your blog and your business to grow. So work on growing your audience and see it as your customer base. 

Facebook groups is one of the best ways to get eyes on your blog. Start a group around your niche and share links to your blog. Don't stop there, though. Also provide your group with a bevy of interesting facts, links to other's blogs and other fun stuff.  No one will stick around in a group that's only ads for your blog. If you want an example, you can join my FB group for writers.

Put Out A Product

A key element to treating your blog like a business is being able to offer a range of products to your customers. So, you’re going to want to think about the products or services that you can sell from your blog over time. This may not be something that you do today, but you need to be thinking about it. What you decide on will often depend on your niche and what your customers want. Tees and coffee mugs are big hits with comedy blogs. Ebooks, whitepapers and affiliate products are some other ideas.

Take Care Of Your Customers

To run your blog like a business, you do have to see your readers as customers. For this, you may need to find an identity verification solution for compliant product sales, create a CRM database or even conduct meetups. Just make sure that you put your readers first.

As you start to work through each step and follow your strategy, you should find that it’s easier to see your blog as a business than you may have first thought. Then, you’ll be on your way to generating a strong profit from your blogging business.