How to Defy the Odds and Turn Your Blog Into an Actual Business
Business Insider just did an interview with Abraham Piper (22 Words’ founder and Brainjolt’s Chief Creative Officer) about how to turn a blog into a business.
22 Words is Brainjolt’s flagship site with almost 5 million subscribers and a monthly Facebook post reach of over 500 million.
Even though it’s the 7th most popular mobile website in the US, it started out as a personal blog where each post was — you guessed it—22 words long. So Abraham understands the journey of the side hustle to the main hustle.
Here are his six main points:
1. Don’t be precious about your work.
“You’re a blogger, not Picasso. Most of us need to adapt, tweak, and even compromise how we create if we want to turn our efforts into money.”
2. Spend a ton of money on Facebook.
“Always strive for organic traffic, but to fill in the gaps, buy traffic.”
(Of course, the socially acceptable term in the industry is “boosting posts” not “buying traffic,” but whatever…)
3. Don’t be an early adopter.
“Let other people adopt early; let other people test new, risky strategies; let the big players with all kinds of funding spend money hand over fist on R&D. Then do what they do.”
4. Capitalize on your good fortune.
“You have to take luck when you can get it and wring success out of it for all you’re worth.”
5. Remember you can’t do this by yourself.
“This will take a healthy dose of humility. And a mega-dose of trust, because business partnership is almost as risky as marriage.”
6. Treat your site like it already is a business.
“If you want your hobby blog to become your business blog, it’s important to treat it like a business, not a hobby. It needs attention every day, just like any other career.”
There’s more meat in the full article. Check it out!
(A big thanks to Lindsay Dodgson at Business Insider for the writeup!)
