So, you want to be a blogger? Who wouldn’t! You get to be your own boss, work from home in your PJs, and write about topics you’re passionate about. Tons of people create blogs as a hobby for the pure sake of enjoyment, but if you want to turn your skillset into a successful career, you’ll need the right tools of the trade.
What do you need to quit your day job and become a full-time entrepreneur with a reliable source of income? Here are nine essential tools that can help turn your blog into a profitable business.
Equipment for Work
First, let’s look at the necessary hardware your future career will require:
- Laptop – Obviously, the thing you’ll need first and foremost is a reliable laptop or computer that enables you to research, write, edit, and upload with speed and efficiency. A PC that crashes regularly risks hours of hard work going to waste, not to mention majorly disrupting your workflow. Step it up and invest in equipment you can count on.
- Cell phone – If you want to turn this thing into a business, you’ll need to be available around the clock, even while you’re away from your computer. You might receive bids for guest posts or affiliate marketing, and if you take too long to reply, you might miss out on an opportunity that gets your foot in the door for something great.
- Mobile gear – On that note, you should pick up accessories that allow you to blog on the go. A portable charger, cloud-based storage system, and wireless mouse will make you mobile-ready so that you can write whenever and wherever inspiration strikes.
Business Basics
Below, are three fundamental things you’ll need to get your blog up and running:
- Website – To create your own blog, you’ll need a website platform to publish your content. While there are many different options on the table, setting up a blog on WordPress is one of the most popular choices. It’s super easy to do, taking less than 30 minutes of your time and requiring little-to-no experience on your part. There are endless templates you can choose from with tons of plug-ins that allow promoting a product or service in exchange for a commission.
- Portfolio – Another way to bolster your business is to apply for blogging gigs posted across various job listing sites such as BloggingPro and People Per Hour. You can direct them to your own site for references of your work, but it’s smart to create a writing portfolio that demonstrates your knowledge and talent on a number of niche topics. Positioning yourself as an expert in your field is a surefire way to land the job and beat out the competition.
- Marketing initiatives – It’s also important to promote yourself with marketing strategies that can increase your online visibility and build brand awareness. Tweak your website so that it’s optimized for the search engine and grow your social media accounts to get your name out there. A business will be much more willing to pay you for a sponsored product review if they can see that you have a large following.
Productivity and Efficiency Apps
Finally, there are software platforms that can take a lot of legwork out of blogging so that you can run your business more efficiently and productively:
- Image editing – You might not be a graphic designer, but there are tools such as canva automation that allow you to easily create custom images that you can add to blog posts as headers or place throughout the content to enhance the page’s visual appeal. Doing so will make your blog seem far more polished and professional.
- Project management – Every blogger needs some form of project management platform to keep track of their various assignments’ details and deadlines. Falling behind can feel like an impossible hole to crawl out of and it’s the number one way to lose clients, so it’s your duty to diligently stay on top of everything on your plate—especially as your business grows and you become increasingly busy.
- Quality control – To cut down time proofreading and editing your work, you can enlist the help of extensions such as Grammarly to ensure you deliver top-notch, error-free content to your clients that keep them coming back for more.
There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes of a blogging business, but these nine tools can help get you the start you need for a shot at success.
