It’s a business!

In the past few weeks, I have read a number of articles on the net, on various blogs that had a similar theme.  Reading these articles really reinforced some things that I already believe, and helped me reconsider those thoughts, and as I reconsidered, I came to the same conclusion that I had already developed in the past, which was the conclusion of the authors of the articles too.

Basically, the theme of these articles is about earning money online, and the fact that doing so is a business, not just a time to play around.  Many people start blogging, or some other way of earning money online, and they will put AdSense ads, or something similar on their sites, and earning a little money.  But, even if they get up to a decent amount of earnings, it would seem that they never quite make the leap to considering what they are doing as a business.  They never get serious about it.

Think about this.  When you have a business, do you just “do it when you feel like it?”  No, usually when you have a business, you have a schedule of the times when you are supposed to “work” or be at the office, or whatever it is that you are doing as your job or business.  The same thing when you are earning online, you should have a schedule, and you should follow it.  Not just do it when you have the urge.

The first article that I read along this theme was from Jim Kukral.  I always enjoy reading Jim’s blog, and he offers some good ideas.  In many ways, I feel that Jim and I have been on similar paths in our online earning over the years, so following what he is doing is something that helps me in my own quest to develop my business further.  One thing that Jim said in his article that really echoed with me was:

We’re no longer bloggers anymore, we’re “publishers”.

This was nice to read because I have been saying the exact same words myself for about a year or more now.  I don’t consider myself a blogger, I consider myself a publisher.  One of the things that made me make that change in nomenclature is because my most popular site is one where I have about a dozen different writers who contribute to the site, so I don’t write everything there.  I publish it all, though.  So, I truly am more a “publisher” than a “blogger,” and being a publisher also tends to give off a more serious tone than being a “blogger,” in my opinion.

The next article that I read about this was written by Darren Rouse on ProBlogger.  Darren points out in his article that when he finally decided to get serious about his blogging, that is when his success grew in multiples.  His wife gave him an opportunity that he could try out full time blogging for 6 months to see if he could make a business out of it.  If he wasn’t developing into a full-time business (with full pay) within that 6 months, he had to go find a “real job.”  Well, that stimulated Darren enough to do the real concrete things that a businessman does to grow his business.  Instead of just doing what he felt like doing, he started taking serious steps to turn what he was doing into a business.

For me, until we start considering online earning as a business instead of a hobby, or “just something we do,” we cannot reach the level of success that we should.

Check back, I will be writing a serious of articles on this theme over the next couple of weeks.  Let me know what you think too, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.