6 things you didn’t know about blogging for work
This is a collaborative post.
I have written a few times about my blogging for work before as I know many people are intrigued by it or would like to consider it for themselves so this time I wanted to share 6 things about blogging for work that you might not know and might be interested in.
Keywords and search terms
When a blogger writes an article they don’t just write what they think a reader wants to read. They also have to write what people are searching for.
This means that instead of writing about something just for fun it turns into researching the keywords or phrases that people are currently looking for.
For example, I would write about making soup without a soup maker and ensure that my article includes everything about that rather than just homemade soup. this gives it a better chance of showing up on Google and with other search engines.
Accounting
Bloggers who blog as a form of income need to declare their earnings, pay taxes on them and make National insurance contributions.
Whilst it is entirely possible to do your own taxes it isn’t for everyone. Some people find it easy whilst others would prefer to pay a professional and get a sage accountant to do their books for them.
Whether you do your taxes yourself or pay someone to do them you must do them! Blogging for work is just that, work and involves paying taxes!
Expenses need recording
Like the point above about doing your accounts, you also need to keep track of expenses, that ream of paper you bought to print contracts out or the whiteboard to plan content can all be marked as expenses before calculating tax.
Nothing happens immediately
You may have a great blogging idea or have a new niche you know will be popular but the chances of earning from it immediately are extremely slim. If you are blogging for a business you really need to know this so you can work out your finances accordingly.
Things change
As with any job, things can change. It is important to remember that if you have a self-hosted website that is your space and unless you stop paying for your hosting or domain or get hacked you have that pretty secure space online.
On the other hand, social media is not there forever! By this I mean that you could easily lose your access to a profile, and the platform could be deleted or suddenly become less popular.
Do you remember MySpace? Who uses that anymore? Blogging means you need to keep on top of things changing and keep your business current.
There is a lot in the background
There is a lot more to blogging for work than you see as a reader. Not only the things I have mentioned above but things like the design of your site, maintenance of your site and doing boring jobs that no one really enjoys such as fixing broken links!
Like any job, it isn’t all fun! There will be bits you have to do and don’t want to do and bits that you have to do to keep your site running but that earns you nothing.
Other articles you may find helpful
How to make blogging your career