How To Turn A Hobby Blog Into A Successful, Profitable Online Business In 2024

One of the key questions I hear many new bloggers ask is how to turn a blog into a business that’s profitable. For many, the top goal is to make money blogging.

However, the steps needed to go from blog to business are often confusing if you’re a new blogger.

It sometimes seems like an impossible challenge to take a hobby or personal blog and turn it into a profitable business blog.

However, the truth is, that you can make a hobby blog into an online business with a few smart steps.

With the online presence, you’ve grown as a blogger, you’re steps ahead in building an online blogging business.

Even with a lifestyle blog that has many blog topics, with a bit of fine-tuning of your niche and re-positioning, you can still turn your site into a business.

This post will take you through some of the key steps you’ll need to take to turn your blog into a business in 2024, and start making money!

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

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Is Blogging A Business?

You may be wondering “Is blogging a business?”

The short answer is most definitely yes. Both lifestyle/personal blogs and business blogs can be a business.

However, the two different types have different strategies and levels of making money.

What Is Personal Blogging & How Is It Different From A Business Blog

Personal blogging is focused on sharing your story. The goal is to inspire somebody with your own personal experiences.

They are usually “lifestyle blogs”, with a broad range of interests.

For many bloggers, personal blogging is cathartic, freeing and a creative outlet. Making money is not a priority or not a goal, at all.

Business blogs are focused on business!

The main goal is to make money blogging. Or to use the blog as a source and support for a business.

I’m not talking about blogs that support a big brand. I’m talking about business blogs for solopreneurs, freelancers and other solo service providers.

Do personal blogs make money?

Some make the attempt to turn their lifestyle blogs into a money-making business. However, it’s much more difficult to do so than with a niche blog.

There may be a time when a lifestyle or personal blog is no longer a goal. Making money blogging requires a different mindset.

This is what we’ll explore in this post on how to turn a blog into a business.

10 Key Steps To Turn A Blog Into A Business

I’ll share with you a few key steps to transforming a blog into a business that’s successful:

1. Determine what kind of online business to start and your key consumer audience (or fine-tune your blog niche)
2. Create or update your mission statement
3. Change your site into a business site
4. Update your branding
5. Craft your key pages
6. Set up your shop
7. Add sales landing pages
8. Update your social media accounts
9. Adopt a business mindset
10. Launch your business

It’s straightforward when you have a plan in place!

1. What Kind Of Online Business Will It Be And Who Will It Serve?

So you’ve decided you want to turn your blog into a business. But how do you do this? What kind of business will it be? And who will it serve?

The first thing to do is to determine the viability of your business.

• Is your current blog niche very broad and all over the place? If yes, it’s time to fine-tune and make it a specific niche. So going from a general lifestyle blogger to an organization expert.
• Do you have a solid understanding of who is your key consumer (that’ll purchase your products/services), and is there enough demand for what you’re offering? For example, as an organization expert for busy parents, is there a big enough audience?
• What are your key target consumers’ pain points – is it possible to provide them with solutions with digital products and services?
• What will you be offering?

For many bloggers, the easiest transition is to online coaching, producing content for sale, or physical products. Sometimes it’s a blend of all of these things.

• Service: coaching and consulting
• Educational: e-books, webinars, online courses, masterclasses and more
• Resources and tools: workbooks, printables, swipe files, templates, designs, etc.
• Products: digital or physical – e.g. stock photos, labels, stickers, notebooks, daytimers, etc.

The last one is an interesting option. You can partner with a dropship print-on-demand company to sell actual, physical products. The easiest way to do this is via a platform such as Shopify.

For example, design your own notebooks and sell them on, let’s say, your mental health and wellbeing blog. Design them to appeal to your key consumer.

There are many options!

Choose your services or product types that you know will appeal to your readers and potential customers.

Send out a survey in your next newsletter to get an idea of what they’re open to purchasing from you. This will make you more focused on creating services and products that they will want.

| Read More: How To Monetize Your Blog Even With A New Blog

2. Create A Mission Statement

Before you take the next step to transform a blog into an online business, it’s time to create a mission statement. Or maybe it’s time to update it if you already have one.

• What sector or line is it in? Mine for example is in the blogging, marketing and online business (coaching/consulting, etc.) areas
• Who does it serve
• How does it help them?

So something like:

“The MargaretBourne.com site is a blog for new and growing bloggers, sharing useful blogging tips and business strategies. The goal is to get them past the overwhelm and to scale up their sites into successful online businesses.”

It’s very simple, straightforward and to the point on what it does, who it serves, and how it helps them.

It also conveys a bit of the value it offers to them: “to get past the overwhelm.” This is exactly what I want to do for my readers and clients. Make blogging EASIER to figure out!

3. Turn A Hobby Blog Into A Business Site

The next step for turning your blog into a business is to change it to a business site!

You may need to update and choose a unique blog name that better reflects your business.

This will require some technical work with your hosting provider, as well as redirects so that you don’t lose your links in search engine results.

What do you need to change?

• Change the dynamic home page and change it into a static home page with your business information
• You may need to upgrade to a new theme that’s designed for businesses (check out Kadence for a fast, simple but customizable theme, Bluchic for feminine themes, 17th Avenue, Restored 316 and one of my new favourites – Pix and Hue

Your existing blog theme may have limitations that prevent you from transforming it into a business site.

Make sure it has WooCommerce capabilities so you have options for monetization.

Once you have the basic structure of your site changed, it’s time to update how it looks and the perception it creates.

NOTE: If you’re starting a new blog from scratch read this post on Starting A Blog with self-hosting.

| READ MORE: Gorgeous Feminine WordPress Themes To Elevate Your Blog Into A Business

4. Update Your Branding

The next step to transforming your blog into an online business is to update your branding.

When you’re doing a rebrand, there are many things to consider:

• Do you need to change the site’s name? (Harder to do, but there are steps to ensure you don’t screw up your good SEO)
• Will you need a new logo?
• Is it time to change your brand’s colour palette to work with your business/target audience?
• You’ll need to update your keywords for your business, and messaging on your site that ties into your mission statement

You’ll probably also need to change your photography to suit your business.

This includes getting a better headshot of yourself, either taken by you (or your friend/partner and edited well). The best is a headshot by a professional photographer. A cost-effective solution is to partner with a new professional photographer that charges less.

5. Update And Create Your Key Pages

Your old About Me page won’t suffice. It’s time to do a complete overhaul of what you’ve written before.

Turn your blog into a business by writing new copy for your key pages:

• Updates About page (note I omitted the “Me” because you have to start thinking more about them – your target customer)
• Create a Services page where you outline the types of general services you offer
• Contact Me page

Always consider what your potential customer is seeing first. Are you speaking to them and their needs? They don’t necessarily care to read first about how you’re a big coffee drinker.

They’ll get to that later in the About section. They want to know if you can help them with their problems. Address that first!

If you’re having trouble with your About section, here’s a helpful worksheet.

| Read More: How To Write An “About Me” Page That Converts Readers Into Customers

6. Set Up Your Shop

If you’re selling services, such as coaching and consultations, there are three ways to go about this:

1. Preparing and sending manual invoices, with payments set up through PayPal, direct transfer, etc.
2. Through a platform such as WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin), Calendly or Paperbell (a client management platform)
3. Through a third-party platform, such as Podia

When I started my blog coaching business, I used WooCommerce to sell my blog coaching sessions.

I set up “product pages” to include the details, and then the client would purchase the session on my site. No need to take them to another website.

Now I’m using a specific page on my site where I talk about one-on-one blog coaching in greater detail.

My call to action is to have a potential client contact me first before I share the link on my Confident Blogger Academy (on the Podia platform) for payment.

If you’re selling digital products, platforms like SendOwl or Podia are great options to get started. Podia is a favourite because it also gives the opportunity to create and sell courses. SendOwl is good for selling digital files and has a reasonable starter package price.

You can also send digital products through WooCommerce, but the setup and delivery system for digital products is a bit more complicated.

| READ MORE: Podia 2024 Review: Why It’s A Top Digital Selling Platform

| RELATED: The Top 15 Online Coaching Tools For Business Success And Productivity

7. Add Sales Pages

Your “Services” page will not be enough to attract potential clients. This is why you need to set up sales pages. People want to know how you can help them and what kind of specifics you offer.

Sales pages are carefully crafted pages that address the problem your potential clients may be having – offering them a result if they purchase your product or service.

You speak to the problem they’re having and show them how you can transform their situation. So for example, you could do something like:

• Help them do something more easily
• Make them feel better about themselves
• Help them be better at something

There are many pre-made sales pages that you can purchase that offer great templates. I like the ones from Bluchic as they’re easy to add and implement.

You’ll need to focus on your copywriting to create a reason why the page visitor should purchase YOUR services.

Finally, your sales page will lead your site visitors to wherever you want them to go. In the case of services, it’s usually to email you directly to take the next step as a coach or consultant.

For digital products, you can add a link to the product page for purchase (as I did with my course sales pages – eg. Pin It Better course).

8. Update Your Social Media

Next, turn your blog into a business blog by ensuring that your new branding and messaging are consistent across your social media accounts.

If you’re using your existing social media accounts it’s always good to pre-warn your followers that changes are coming and briefly what they’ll be.

It builds anticipation and helps you weed out those who aren’t interested in your new direction.

Remember to update:

• Twitter
• Facebook page
• Pinterest
• Instagram

You’ll also want to update your LinkedIn if you’re offering services. Remember – this is YOUR business. You’re now a business owner.

It’s wise to position yourself in a professional way.

PRO TIP: Tease your upcoming “official launch” for a week or two leading up to the big reveal of your new site. This will prime your followers to keep an eye out for what’s coming up.

| Related: 100+ Marketing, Blogging and Business Hashtags For Instagram

9. Adopting A Business Mindset

This is one of the most important elements for success when you transform your blog into an online business. It’ll take time to get used to thinking differently.

Adopting a business mindset means you still need to think about how you’re helping people solve their problems, or transform their lives.

However, it’s also key to focus on how you’ll smartly monetize your site and scale it up over time.

Four ways to adopt a business mindset with your online site and blog include:

1. Stop thinking of your blog as just a resource. Start thinking of a site where people go willingly to invest in a transformation with which you can help.
2. Think about the affiliate or product/service you want to promote in your blog post and write your content so that it flows naturally. Every blog post that I write has at least an affiliate link that might spark interest to purchase. Before, I used to write with just \on the blog topic itself. Now I think of how I’ll monetize the post.
3. Consider how to grow your business. How will you scale it up? What will you start with as a service or product? How can it evolve into something bigger? Plan and strategize on how you’ll get there.
4. To make money, you’ll need to smartly invest in it. This is inevitable.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is that:

“…everybody is a potential ally that you can turn to when you’re looking to grow your business.”

From a beginner who’s following you to get ideas, to a seasoned professional who works in a similar field as you.

Use smart business etiquette to reach out to them, help them out, network, etc. Don’t just think about the money.

You never know when somebody you’ve willingly helped out, free of charge, will give you the support that can boost you to the next level.

10. Launch Your Business

Now that you’ve completed all of the key steps of turning a blog into a business, it’s time for the big launch.

The best ways to launch your new business include:

• Posting on your social media accounts
• Sharing your news with your email newsletter list
• Posting on your LinkedIn, and making the official change to your new “job”
• Announcing it to your family and friends on Facebook / your personal social media accounts if you have them
• Let your allies and others in your network know so that they can help promote you and your business

There you go! A few easy steps to creating a big reveal.

Take It Step By Step

No more wondering how to turn a blog into a business!

You’ve now got all the key steps to transforming your blog into an online business. How fast you do it is up to you.

There’s no set timeline you need to follow. For some, the transformation is quick. They get down to business (pun intended) quickly and can launch a new site in a matter of weeks.

For others, there’s more time needed to think things through and plan and implement the changes.

At the end of the day, you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something great with your new business site.

Keep promoting it, promoting yourself and being present where your key audience is, to start generating traffic and income.

Don’t lose heart if you’re not making huge amounts of money from the start.

Every great business evolves and grows over time, with trial and error and blogging mistakes along the way.

You’ll get there too!

Related:

• A Complete “Start A Coaching Business” Checklist
• How To Fix A Blog That’s Not Making Money
• Key Investments to Make To Grow Your Blog And Monetize It

QUESTION: What’s the biggest challenge for you to transform a blog into a business? What’s standing in your way?

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