Blogs are not a business
February 12, 2006 · Print This Article
I wanted to follow up on my earlier point, about bloggers who are missing the point. It seems to me that the reason I’m thinking about this in such different terms is because I just don’t see blogging as a business. Sure, it’s very possible to make money with your blog, but the simple fact of making money doesn’t make you a business (even if the IRS want’s to tax you as one).
A business is something that becomes an entity upon its own. Small or large, the businesses we grow, if successful, will continue whether we’re present or not. The best businesses are the ones that develop to the point where the people that operate them are interchangable. If a business depends on any one person, it will fail as soon as that one person is no longer available. Blogs are the complete opposite of a business. A blog is all about the person who does the blogging. This is why I think that having your blog on your own domain, as opposed to a subdomain of a blogging service is not a major issue.
It’s not an issue that just occurred to me yesterday either. Over a year ago, I thought it would be a novel idea to buy someone’s blog. It was a novel idea. Maybe too novel of an idea. I think people still struggle with the idea, even when the blog isn’t as personal as the one I bought. After a couple of months, the blogger of the blog I bought and I decided the best thing for both of us was to transfer ownership of the blog back to him. The lesson learned was the blog is such a personal thing it’s difficult to separate it from yourself. In other words, it’s about the blogger, not the domain.
Moving a blog from a service’s subdomain to a domain of your own need not be a major undertaking either. Even with thousands of blog posts, with modern day technology the content can be readily enough moved. Naturally, I always recommend keeping current backups in case anything should go awry. If the people who read your blog don’t follow along to the new url, they really weren’t paying attention anyway. That leaves only the SEO questions. Those are the questions you should be asking when you want to move from a subdomain to your own domain. How long will you be in the sandbox? How will you get all those backlinks to switch over to your new url? But, really, how much were you depending on search engine traffic anyway?
That brings me back to is it a business? The search engine traffic may be very valuable to you if you depend on your blog for your source of income. In that case, a slower transition to your new url is in order. But, I’d urge you to take time to reflect on the vulnerability of your income source at this point. If you think that moving your url might compromise your ability to earn revenue on your blog, how would a major illness hit it? A true business would continue to operate while you’re in the hospital, or even if your on the beach on a tropical island. For those of you with successful blogs, what pace do you make yourself sustain to maintain that success? How long do you envision yourself working at that pace? And what do you plan to do when you’re done blogging?
On a side note, I do think that the success of a blog network has inspired some others to begin the transition from blogging to running a business. Good luck guys!
A few links to blogs that discuss making money with your blog, worth a look anyway.
Problogger.net
Bloglogic.net
Blogkits.com
Masternewmedia.org
[...] I have just finished reading and responding to this blog post. It reminded me of something I read in the best selling book The E-Myth Revisted and an entry by Peter T Davis a few days ago. [...]
Blogging can easily be turned into a business and already has.
Blogs can easily be set up in a way that the posters become interchangeable in the same way that different actors can play the same role.
Well, it isn’t really the blogging that you’re talking about being a business then, is it? If a company hires people to blog, sure it’s a business, like Weblogs, Inc. But, it’s not the people doing the blogging that have a business, they’re professional bloggers for sure, but they’re not business owners. AOL is the business owner of that gig. The bloggers are employees.
I think blogging in some cases could be defined as business.
What is the difference between som of the niche blogs and a pure web based newspaper? Nothing. Sure, it may be a one man show, but so is many business around the world.
If you provide something that could generate revenue (and that revenue over time exceeds the costs) that the public want to read/be part of, it’s a business.
If I give people tax advice and get paid to for it, I’m doing business. If I write about the same advise in my blog, people comes to read, and click on some ads, and I’m making money - why is that not a business? Sure, the business will not go on if I go to the hospital (you argues above) - but hey, my live person consulting business would not either.
If you give people tax advice (I assume you’re a CPA), then that’s your profession. Sure, you can make money being a professional CPA, no doubt. Same as you can make money from being a professional blogger. The difference being subtle, but a profession is different than a business. And, I do know people who make well into the six figure range with their profession. Certainly good money to be made in some professions. But, the amount of money you make doesn’t turn a profession into a business.
What is the difference from a local newspaper that have 1 employee, prints a 3 page “newspaper” 2 times a week and sells it to about 250 people in the local comunity and a person who writes about a interesting subject in his blog 2 times a week and have 250 readers.
Is the one a business, but not the other? Just curious on what you actually put in the word “business” (I know it’s not a cooperation og a firm, but in my books, it’s still business)
I’m not talking about the difference between a company with one employee vs. a company with hundreds, I’m talking about the difference between the employee and the owner.
Yes, the owner of a company can also be an employee, but this is the subtle difference, can you take the owner/employee out and does the company still function?
It’s a business, but not every blogger chooses to use it that way. The vast majority of people use it as more of a hobby. Making money from it is hard work. Also, using it to springboard your main business is probably a more efficient and stable long-term approach than using it for ad revenues solely.
[...] Hmmm. So, blogs are not businesses, eh? “A business is something that becomes an entity upon its own. Small or large, the businesses we grow, if successful, will continue whether we’re present or not. The best businesses are the ones that develop to the point where the people that operate them are interchangable. If a business depends on any one person, it will fail as soon as that one person is no longer available. Blogs are the complete opposite of a business.” [...]
On 2/12/2006, you made the following statement:
“A business is something that becomes an entity upon its own. Small or large, the businesses we grow, if successful, will continue whether we’re present or not. The best businesses are the ones that develop to the point where the people that operate them are interchangable. If a business depends on any one person, it will fail as soon as that one person is no longer available.”
My father has successfully run his own business for over 20 years as an Automotive Technician and salesperson, specializing in Toyota. When he moved his business from one location to another, he made attempts to keep the same phone number, as this made it easier for his customers to locate him.
I agree that — when we speak of blogs — the content itself is more important than the domain name because that is what attracts followers. The same is true of any business. Changing his phone number did not hurt his business because he created a band of followers that sought him out!
But I am straying from the topic. You allege that a business is not a business unless it can operate without us. To that I must disagree 100%. My Dad is an honest businessperson who has earned the trust of hundreds of people. It is his name that made Mortensen Motors, Inc. such a success in Howard County, Maryland. Unfortunately, the individual who purchased my Dad’s client list has not had the same success because you can’t sell individualism, honesty, and integrity. These are qualities that make a business successful, and they are not qualities that are interchangeable! Way too often in today’s society do we see businesses that completely ignore the human factor, and it is those large corporations who are more apt to stab us in the back!
When my Dad retires, Mortensen Motors will most likely be disbanded. But this isn’t because it wasn’t successful; instead, it is a result of the human factor, which consists of things that aren’t interchangeable. In a way, a professional blogger running his or her own business, and who follows those same principles of honesty and integrity, are no different than my Dad and the business that he built.
James, this post has nothing to do with your father, whether or not he’s successful, or anything at all to do with automotive technicianss and salespeople. My apology if what I wrote offended you, but I really don’t think it would be productive for me to comment on what you’ve written about your father. Thanks for reading my blog, though.
Really good thought and witty posts here.