Technology has a beautiful way to freak me out; this isn’t the first time I got jinxed. My iphone gave up on me the other day and now my ASUS Eee PC 1000H netbook just got conked. I happened to be working on it; went for a break and then came back to see that it got into this never ending loop of “Sorry, windows couldn’t load due to a software/hardware change“.

It’s been two days now without that little monster in my hands and I feel stripped bare. What does that tell me?

• Technology is like an unpredictable, arrogant teenager: You never know what a teenager might end up doing, would you? Nasty, young brats. All these gadgets are like that — iphone, blackberry, android, laptops, leaptops, failtops, whatever. It just doesn’t get any better for you when you have been working on a project and your system suddenly crashes, hurling you right back into stone-age.
• Go find your cloud: I was just thinking about the obvious advantages of cloud computing and using web-based tools for all our web related work. It was like all those tools were grinning at me with that look that seems to say ” I-told-you-so”. So like a monkey with a tender coconut, I am all weary but still excited about the fact that with Google Documents, Zoho Suite, etc, I don’t have to depend on a cranky laptop or PC with an even more juvenile and unpredictable Microsoft XP.
• Without back-ups, you are playing a tricky video game with one life: Life is complicated as it is and we humans excel at making it even more complex. We could do little things to make our lives better and yet we don’t do a thing. In my case, I didn’t. I had no back-ups for all my work. I have been working on several projects and all of that just got vaporized. Can you imagine the pain of re-working on all those projects? There are some nifty online back-up systems which can continuously update all data on your computer on a redundant server (with another back-up).

Now, I know. Have you had an experience of losing all your data just like that? Do let us know here, we will feel better with others having swallowed the bitter pill I just did ( We are sick, aren’t we?)

In an earnest endeavor to treat blogging as a business, I had started a series of posts explaining how exactly it is to be done. Part 1 of this series introduced the concept while Part 2 explained how business planning has to be done. Let’s now dig further into the secrets of running your blog as a business.

Most bloggers tend to take up blogging as something that resembles self-employement, except that the way the blog behaves is exactly like a business – you work first, pay yourself last and wait for the revenue to flow. The approach itself is flawed. Successful one-person businesses do certain things most bloggers won’t do, for instance:

Do you re-invest in your blog?

Most bloggers start blogging, put up some posts, continue posting and the effort goes on and on. Eventually, most bloggers will even start making money. However, ferry wheel stops there. The money is just earned and is never ploughed back into the business. Successful businesses invest a part of their profits back into the business until it grows upto the size it was intended to. Out of X dollars coming in, what percentage did you re-invest into your blog again? You could have purchased a paid wordpress theme; you could have paid a guest blogger to write for your blog and much more – a lot could be done with that money flowing in.

Do you leverage?

Most bloggers work solo. They actually spend time thinking of some great concepts, relevant posts, networking, linking, the works. Now, that’s a nice little job that you are doing. Unless your blog is boingboing.net, problogger.net, etc, you can never make huge amounts of money by wedging your time in. You got to let someone else do certain things for you. Outsourcing is a great option, but it is fraught with its own black spots. It is nevertheless, a mandatory requirement to run your blog as a business.

Do you have a business model?

I insist on having a product that could be sold or at least a service you could render. If you are blogging about a niche, it means that you would have done renough research. In that case, I am sure that niche would love to buy an informational product that delves deeper into the topic of the niche and you would have to create that info-product then. But there is a way this model has to be kicked into place. The basic way is to set-up an autoresponder, collect email id and then start giving away a free report or a free ezine/newsletter that provides more information and develop trust. When your prospects are ready, they would buy.

These 3 secrets are to be understood and assimilated immediately.

We had started off with an introductory post on “How to Run Your Blog Like a Business – Part 1: An Introduction“; it’s now time to get into specifics. You can’t get started on practically anything – much less a business– without a plan. So what plans would you make for your blog? How do you get started? What must be included and what must not be? This post explores that part.

There are typically two broad aspects of your plan that must be covered: the what business part and the how to run it part.

Start with a profitable business model

A blog is just a platform and not a business by itself. So, content business — a business that sells information is a no-brainer, easy, quick and profitable form of a business model. Of course, there are other business models  like running an e-commerce site but using the blog as a channel development or business development tool rather than a business by itself.but I am not getting into it right now.

Needless to say, your content distribution must have a plan of its own. Given below is a plan I had made originally before I started off on blogging and thinking of blogging as a business. I think it’s a perfect platform to start from.

You may ignore the “client” part since this mind map has been done to discuss what a professional blogger blogging for other clients was supposed to be doing. But the rest of the map sits fairly accurately with the business plan for the blog.

How do You Plan To Run This Blog Now?

If you notice the diagram clearly, you may see that the running of the blog contains two important parts : Content Development part and the “Drive Traffic” part. You may now decide on a strategy to go about this as efficiently as possible.

As an entrepreneur, you have to think of ways you can contribute and hence keep costs low, while trying to leverage you time and allow others to work on certain areas of your business. For instance, if you are good at writing great content, you could choose to do the “content development” part yourself while you invest in a Virtual Assistant to drive traffic for you.

Decide on the Niche

Plenty of information, including a post on blogging elements, already exists on how to find a profitable niche for your blog. I won’t cover anything about it except to state that posting original content on your blog is very important regardless of what niche you  choose to operate in.

Take Action

All the planning in the world goes to naught if no action is taken on it. Planning looks good on paper and has these strange tendencies to screw up in reality which still isn’t a justifiable excuse not to take action on a plan you had so painstakingly deployed. So get out there and start doing. Success should come to you, sooner or later.

It’s funny that there are so many blogs out there that take birth and many more that aim so high, but without a gun.

Blogs are apenty; but blogs with a definite purpose, aim, structure and plan are rare. The biggest and the fastest growing blogs do have them but the little, just-started ones don’t — it’s amusing to note that it doesn’t need much except a plan and the will to execute it.

I was just reading the Blogging Blueprint by Yaro Star in which  he talks about how one could actually run the blog like a business. I find it pretty insightful and interesting except fr the fact that it doesn’t delve into it exhaustively. It leaves a lot to your imagination and I thought I will fill in the gaps with a series of posts that can help you get started with blogging as it were a business.

Overhaul Your Mindset

The first step a blogger needs to take to run blogs as a business is to ensure that the mindset is all set. Most bloggers tend to take this approach to blogging and stick to it : Experiment with free blogs> take to self-hosted blogs> Post vigorously> get lost in the melee> cry in despair> give up; go back to job.

Nah…this can’t cut. You got to follow this path instead : Take to self-hosted blog> Research niches> pick profitable niche> Post great content and set it to publish at a pre-determined frequency> bring in a professional bloggger, outsource to ghost writers or invite guest bloggers ( for pay or for their self-promotion).

Even before you start the whole process, you should have the end in mind: to run your blog as a business and not as a fancy job you could do off starbucks or your bedroom.

Here’s a Checklist for what would qualify as a business:

• A rock-solid plan — as to where the business is and where it ought to go.
• The business must utilize “leverage” — the collective effort of a team whether on-site or remote)
• A business must have a model in place — how does it seek to provide  value and earn revenue. Does it sell anything? Information,Informational products, services, products, and ad space will all qualify to be things that can be sold.
• A business must have grea products as mentioned above and a system for efficient operation.
• Finally, a business must have  ways to collect money, an accounting system and a proper system that monitors cash-flow.

Think of how you could apply  this to your blog. Every kind of a blog can be built and expanded to fit this model.