Business and Blogging

Success Tips For Small Businesses: What’s the True Cost of Blogging?

by Laura Spencer on February 1st, 2008

(www.businessandblogging.com) One of the biggest reasons that small business owners give for not blogging is the cost.

Yet, blogging is one of the most inexpensive and cost-effective ways for the small business owner to reach his or her clients - it’s just that most small business owners don’t realize it yet.

At first glance, to the non-web savvy individual, blogging might seem like something that is expensive to do. And if it were still the 1990s, they would be right. Back then, blogging didn’t really exist (at least not in the form we know it today). In the 1990s, only large corporations could really afford a professional-looking web presence.

What a difference a decade makes!

Today, with a little effort, even the smallest home business can set up a basic, but professional-looking, business blog as a way to interact directly with customers and potential customers.

About six months ago, Darren Rowse at ProBlogger created a list of his own blogging overhead costs. For the small business owner, this list is well worth studying. With apologies to Darren, I’m going to list some of the blogging expenses that Darren listed in his blog here, but with my own comments specifically for small business owners in italics:

• Internet Access - Many small business owners probably already have access for their home or business.
• Blog Hosting - I have watched the cost of blog hosting drop. It’s currently possible to get hosting in the United States (U.S.) plus support for less than $10 U.S. dollars a month. (There are probably even better deals out there). For an additional charge, some hosting companies will even set up the site so that all the business owner has to do is write blog posts.
• Computer Equipment - Most small business owners probably already have this equipment.

• Accountant Fees - Most small business owners probably already have an accountant for their business. This may be unnecessary if you are not planning to make a profit with the blog.

• Design/Technical Support - A beginning small business blogger doesn’t actually need a design team. There are professional business themes available for free. (More on that later.)

• Travel - A beginning small business blogger probably doesn’t need this.

• Periodicals and Subscriptions - Most small business owners probably already subscribe to periodicals in their industry.

• Blog Tools - I agree with Darren that there are a few low cost blog tools that beginning small business blogger might find helpful.

• Office Costs - A beginning small business blogger probably already has an office.

As you can see, it really doesn’t take a lot of out-of-pocket expense to start a blog.

In fact, the biggest investment that a beginning small business blogger needs to put into their blog is their time. (Some small business bloggers may also need to find someone to proofread their blog posts.) The time factor of blogging is significant, which is why I recommend that a small business start out by posting just a few times a week, rather than daily. For a very small business, once a week may be enough.

Not only does blogging NOT cost a lot of money, there are a lot of things that small business bloggers can get for free. Here are just a few of them:

• Free blogging software: Wordpress (It needs to be installed on your site, not hosted at WordPress), or Blogger (You can host your blog through Blogger. Some limitations may apply.)

• Free themes for your blog: From WordPress. Darren Rowse recently posted a list of free themes on ProBlogger. A recent post by Tara Kachaturoff over at Andy Wibbels blog points to over 100 free WordPress designs at Smashing Magazine. Really, I could go on and on.

• Social media: It’s free. Popular social media include Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn. That’s just for starters!

Of course, the drawback to using a free blog theme is that someone else might be using the same blog theme. That someone else might even be one of your competitors.

So, let’s just say that you did want to hire a professional blog designer. For that information, I turned to this post from top designer, Chris Pearson. The post is 18 months old, but in it Chris lists his starting price for blog design at $1500. Now, the post is over a year old and Chris is one of the best designers out there, so I expect that he charges quite a bit more now. My point is that you can get a good original blog design without breaking the bank.

Are you a small business owner who has been put off by the high cost of blogging? If so, what’s holding you back now?

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POSTED IN: Blogging, Small Business