Blogging is no longer merely a way to vent about your grievances to an audience that extends beyond your friends and family. Blogging is now business. Businesses are expected to make money, but blogging takes it a step further. You can actually use your blog to save money. This unusual business advantage should be better understood so that you can start saving as well as earning. Here are some ways you can use your blog to save money.
Taxes
First of all, it is critical to think of your blog as a business. This means business accounts at your bank with business cards. All of this helps you keep your expenses well documented for taxes. Remember, if you pay for the internet and even equipment related to your blog (like a computer) you can deduct these as business expenses.
This includes all promotional material, equipment, and expenses that are directly related to building your business. By doing this, you create a discount on what you owe the IRS. This can be substantial too, as taxes are often the biggest expense a business incurs.
Miles and Cashback
If you create a business account, you could also create a business credit card. When you choose your credit card, keep in mind that they have advantages like cashback on purchases and points for miles traveled. Take advantage of these benefits. It’s hard enough to profit in business. If you squander benefits you deserve, it’s that much harder.
This can be particularly valuable if you are a travel blogger and use your miles to purchase flights. Not only can you travel at a discount, you can make money on your blog and write all of it off on your taxes.
Take advantage of cashback sites and coupon site offers. Often times they will create an affiliate program where you can participate and get bargain pricing on stuff you were going to buy anyway. This can be specifically valuable as there are discounts on things like web hosting, which you obviously need to have a blog, and photo services which can be necessary to your sites aesthetics.
These sites can also provide discounts on potentially valuable services like email outreach programs, bookkeeping, social media marketing tools, and writing tools, like Grammarly.
Relationship Discounts
Often businesses will create mutually beneficial relationships. For example, my business will give you a discount on our products if you give us the same discount or place an ad in your posts. This is a great way to save money. Not having to pay full price is tantamount to making money, and that income isn’t taxable. An untaxed penny saved is an untaxed penny earned or something like that.
A great way to get discounts is by offering to do a write up. For example, you could do a review of a business (this works well with restaurants). The business will often offer you some form of discount or incentive to do so and also in an attempt to influence your write up. These quid pro quo setups can also develop over time and become a valuable benefit to your business. Also, if you are a merchant or small business owner and need working capital to grow your business a merchant cash advance might be a fast and easy option for you.
If your business grows, you can extend the benefits your employees and return the favor to your trading partner. This often creates a good public relations campaign along the way as well. Both parties in the quid pro quo recommend the other in referrals.
Effective Business Credit Card Practices
Most credit cards charge no interest if you pay off your balance every month. Therefore, using your credit card is like getting a free loan on purchases. Buy now, pay interest free later. If you combine this strategy with having your money-making interest in a bank account, you made a month’s worth of interest on the money you spent but didn’t use immediately.
You buy now, pay later, make money on your money and get purchase points and miles as well. Some of these bonuses might seem small, but when you do all of them, they add up. And, if you were going to spend the money anyway, you might as well get the most out of it.
SEO And Link Building
An important marketing practice on the internet is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you have a blog, you can save money on this important marketing practice as well as make money. The way you can save money is by understanding that content that links back to other sites is valuable. Therefore, if you want a site to like to you, it cost money because that link improves your blog’s value within search engines.
If you want a site to link to you it can cost hundreds of dollars. However, if you create a link exchange, you can link to another site and they link back to you free on both sides. This is a way to create SEO value that is normally expensive.
Additionally, and this is the good part, you can become a site that SEO companies are willing to pay in order to publish their work. Because they are doing the expensive SEO labor, they are willing to pay you a fee to publish their work which brings value to their client. You win, they win and their client wins. Your blog makes a little money and you have more, fresh content on a regular basis.
It is critical that you understand that your blog isn’t merely a site where you vent your issues with the world. It is a valuable business that can make you money and save you money. Begin treating it as such and enjoy the benefits of being a small business owner immediately.
