If you have turned your blog into a business, congratulations! You are one of the few bloggers who have elevated their game by turning their blog into more than just a hobby. Now, it’s a money-making machine that helped you achieve financial freedom.
However, you can’t rest on your laurels just yet. You need to find ways on how to improve your business blog even more so you open yourself to more opportunities down the line. However, the pursuit to greatness as a blogger leaves you vulnerable to new obstacles and challenges.
One of those challenges is minimizing your business blog expenses.
There are usually so many expenses involved to where spending money is the best decision.
Thankfully though, there are several areas in which you can get the best deal for your buck.
Here is a list of seven unique ideas on how to lower your costs and be able to save an extra dollar at the end of every month:
1. Make use of prior content
Being able to come up with new content is a challenge. This becomes somewhat intriguing when about 60% of B2B content goes unused once after publishing.
Don’t allow your business to go towards that route and re-use content that’s already been made.
To make it clearer on what we mean by re-using already created content, a few ways it can be done is by breaking down a lengthy blog post into smaller chunks and being able to make frequent Facebook posts with it. Or another example would be to create an e-book from the FAQ page on your business’s website.
2. Do public speaking
Even though it might seem slightly scary to some, they might have to do public speaking to give their business a boost, there are many substantial benefits towards doing it.
Being able to speak up in front of a crowd can allow other organizations and potential customers/clients to view you in a favorable perspective, especially when it’s done at no monetary cost. Many individuals seeking to become entrepreneurs love to attend such events and can learn a lot about your business and how you present yourself. It’s a great way to spread the word about your blog at a very minimal cost.
Keeping that in mind, before diving right into public speaking with little prior experience, attending a few upcoming events towards other brands and organization can be a great way to learn. After attending those events several times, going up on stage gradually would be a wise thing to do until you feel ready to take on larger crowds for more exposure.
To give you an example of bloggers who used public speaking as a platform to share their knowledge and elevate their blog brand, here’s Harsh Agrawal of ShoutMeLoud.com talking about SEO:
3. Hire influencers
Another alternative option from doing public speaking is being able to utilize influencers to do the job for you. There are many statistics to prove its high effectiveness.
- About 60% of consumers have reported that they’ve been influenced by a social media post or a blog review to go shopping at a certain store.
- 74% of consumers rely on social networks to see what’s trending and to buy what is to come.
- In 2016, influencer marketing has been able to surpass the effectiveness of print marketing
- 75% of brands have made allocated budgets for influencer marketing
- Businesses can get up to an average of $6.50 for every $1.00 spent on influencer marketing.
What makes influencer marketing such an amazing strategy is that it is much cheaper than mainstream marketing strategies and it brings a return on investment that is much higher. Even a Facebook Ad can be effective at first but after some time it will lose its mark on the consumer. With influencer marketing however, it has the potential of always making an impact by taping into new audiences with every influencer and can generate a much better outcome due to its word-of-mouth effect.
If you are not sure where to start with influencer marketing, going to firms like Social Bond, Upfluence, and Neoreach can be great to start off with. They can connect your blog to many qualified influencers from different platforms (social media and even fellow bloggers) to help kick start your marketing campaigns to a new level.
4. Use freelancers
If cash is too tight to hire full-time bloggers and if you don’t have time to write posts yourself, then another alternative is to hire freelancers and contractors instead.
With freelancers and contractors, you don’t have to worry about paying them health insurance and payroll taxes. You can diversify your current workforce by hiring a few and you can spend your money on areas the matter the most.
Also, most freelancers and contractors fulfill their jobs much better than employees. Since they focus on primarily one project you give them, they don’t get distracted with other business operations. For this to happen, you need to delegate your blogging tasks correctly so freelancers can do their jobs right.
5. Use secondhand equipment
Rather than going all out on buying a brand new equipment and supplies for your business blog, consider buying used items instead. There are so many apps and websites that help bring secondary buyers and sellers together to where you can find anything used, anywhere.
Buying secondhand products helps reduce your carbon footprint. Using pre-loved and serviceable units to run your blog just as a laptop, mouse, and others is healthy for the environment. You can find such items in consignment stores and local sales sites.
6. Accomplish work from home
Working from home is another great way to save money. By not leasing an office space, you already save a majority of your funds. You can even save money by writing off a part of your rent and living expense from business expenses to minimize taxes.
Check out the IRS website for more details on the definition of a “home office” and they can tax from you as a work from home professional.
If having an office at home isn’t possible, then maybe setting up shop at a co-working space would be more ideal than leasing your own office.
Run your business smarter by being savvy
Even though budgeting is a key factor in a business blog, it doesn’t mean you fend off the desire to spend extra money now and then. By following these idealistic ways to save money, you can make more as a result. You increase your bottom dollar at the end of every month without having to lose the business blog results you’re looking for in the long-run.