As a blogger or internet marketer, you can already appreciate the value in being able to start a business or web site of your own no matter where you are.
You could be in your parents basement, a data center, or even just through occasionally visiting a local coffee shop with internet access.
The bottom line is, starting a business through blogging is a million times better than getting involved in a retail brick and mortar business.
Sure, it will take time and lots of passion and work… but what business doesn’t?
In this post we are going to cover some of the main reasons why starting a blog of your own and looking to make a business out of it is so much better than starting another retail store or business that may be destined for failure.
Granted… a retail business does come with it’s benefits, such as a more than likely stable business model and actual products and services, but at the same time it does come with heavily inflated costs and a high risk rate.
The Start Up Costs are Nearly Nothing!
Take the time to think about the start up costs to open your own retail store, or even get involved in a franchise. First you have all of the legal papers, the monthly rent (usually thousands of dollars), the stress of managing a staff and paying them.
Then on top of all of that you need to worry about franchisee costs and eventually turning a profit! It’s no wonder that so many “real world” businesses are closing down and going bankrupt.
Now lets take a look at the start up costs of building your own blog. ZERO. Yes, the cost is actually zero if you wanted to create a bare bones self hosted blog through WordPress.org.
However, let’s be realistic. Having your own domain name ($10 a year) and hosting ($10 a month), and a custom design and logo for your blog will go a long way.
Still, compared to the costs of starting a real world business, you are still saving potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Every Day You are Branding Yourself and Your Business
Retail businesses need to do a lot of advertising for their businesses, and offline advertising can cost a lot of money. The way web sites and blogs work is quite amazing.
People come to your site and if they find it useful they will keep coming back, a lot like how a pizza shop might work. The big difference is that you can get hundreds of people to visit your site for the price of a pizza, compared to the hundreds of dollars it may take in offline advertising.
Just through guest blogging in itself you can build your own branding and traffic to your site without having to pay any upfront costs. Comparing the advertising and branding opportunities through blogging versus offline advertising there is a clear winner.
Blogging Opens a World of Opportunity
Let’s face it, unless you have one of the best pizza shops or diners in your area, you are not going to get much publicity or free exposure.
Being a blogger and eventually becoming an authority in your niche can open up whole worlds that you never thought was possible. Once I started my own blog at ZacJohnson.com, the opportunities just started flowing like crazy.
I’ve been offered to speak at conferences all around the world, was featured on ABC News and have met with amazing people… all a result of the blog.
What’s the last retail business you can think of that’s been able to get this type of exposure lately?
Blogging vs. Retail Business
I know… I know… it may seem a little far fetched to compare blogging to offline businesses, but it really shouldn’t be!
The days of starting a local business and having to deal with staff, rental costs, taking out loans and trying to turn a profit, is a broken model. Take all of that same effort and investment and look at what can be accomplished in the world of blogging.
TechCrunch, ICanHazCheeseburger, PerezHilton… all mega million dollar wordpress blogs… yes, it is possible.
Are you on it?
Zac Johnson is an online marketer with 15 years of experience and a blogger at Zacjohnson.com. He is also the founder of PPC.org.
I agree with most of what you said. I believe it is easier since I know many have tried the “bricks and mortar” businesses many times.
Online, it is much easier to reach your audience.
Zac, I agree with you about blogging vs retail. In fact, blogging vs online retail (ecommerce) may be better too!
I’m starting to see better results from my blog than I am seeing with my online store!
So, I think you are spot on with this one!
Mark Sanders says
Before venturing into a blogging business about
tie wraps, I was into retail and it was not as cheap and beneficial as a blogging business. So when I shifted to blogging business, I was able to save thousands of dollars and make my product more popular as well.
Yesterday i was watching a video on Mashable Youtube channel about Zarleey and in that interview the CEO of the company says that its very easy to open a company now as compared to the 10 years back. So the point is that internet has change the way we business and now everyone can run business with very small amount.
I think it would also depend on the person, since some of the people don’t really have a thing for writing. However, I’ve noticed that more people use social media for retail business (such as Facebook). They sell their products online for free (they don’t have to pay for web hosting and for their domain names).
starting online business is a risk free, we can start as less as $100
I love online ventures
Hi Zac,
Good stuff!
We see multi-billion dollar businesses started from garages. Massive ventures being built online. You noted the wordpress blogs above. Why not me? Why not you? It’s ours too, we can have the fame and fortune, and make that kind of difference, if we dream big enough and work intelligently and persistently to make our dreams come true.
The pros outweigh the cons, big-time. Online businesses cost little to start, and allow you full creativity in building a campaign to grow your opportunity. The possibilities are limitless: social sites, article marketing, blogging, whatever. Network with online pros. Learn from the best. Make a powerful impact where you show up. Establish authority, expertise, posture, and attract your dream life. Create it now!
Retail might be prospering but if I had a brick and mortar could I have traveled Southeast Asia for the past year? Nope. Tough to stay in Bali for 3 months or Phuket for 3 months while opening and closing a physical shop for 7 days each week. My cyber shop is open 24-7, 365, and I can run things from anywhere on earth. Not a bad gig
Thanks for sharing your insight Zac!
Ryan
Hi Zac,
thanks for sharing.
A blog is a wonderful way to promote your business offline, if you can keep it alive.
You need to post with consistency and create a community around it.
Blogging is a great way to find new customers in your audience.
Rebecca Pearson says
When you do blog business, you have already created a good reputation with your readers, therefore, it’s much easier for you to be able to do business.
I may have to be on the fence on this one, sice i am yet to have any credible metric to show which one supercedes.
However, common sense tells me that people prefer to buy from popular online stores, but then, people also prefer to read popular blogs…
Well sometimes it actually depends on the people if they are more comfortable in blogging business or with retail business.. I just hope this can help..
yes blogging business is nice, opening cost is nothing and everyday we can brand ourselves.
Hi Zac, building an online business is certainly much easier than building a brick and mortal business however the reallity is that in order to have a profitable online business you have to spend a lot of time or money too, and it’s very rare to have a stable income from the first month, anyway someone can much easier start an online business and if he/she can spend time he/she can get a full time income on the long run, thanks for sharing…
From a different standpoint it also depends in the kind of person, you’re not going to tell a butcher to stop cutting meats and start blogging, if he doesn’t like it, in my opinion people should follow their dreams, and do what makes them happy, because we all know what happen when you’re in a job that you don’t like, the information provided it’s great, but this is a topic that its open for different opinions. Some people are good in something but their really bad in others.
As a matter of fact, during the era of global recession and economic downturn, more and more people are turning to the internet for their shopping. This is where bloggers can cash in by writing reviews, products and much more. So I agree that an online business is here to stay.
Agreed the cost and risk of a retail business is high, whereas a blogging/online business is relatively risk free and very minimal in cost.
Personally i believe that both can be beneficial though. If you do own the bricks and mortar then you have a good long term investment even if the business inside changes. The online aspect can also boost business provided they are compatible.
Yeah, Techcrunch is everywhere and it being a WordPress site ( a CMS) and of course free of cost! Well, you certainly know how to encourage and influence your readers. Moving on, the thought of starting a blog is within everyone of us, but how many succeed is in no relation with the people who give up on blogging. Time definitely is a factor that all of us have a little or no patience, but with respect to blogging it must be an exception cause the results are always positive for a sincere and smart effort.
I truly enjoyed reading this post. This posts is very dear to me as before entering the blogging business, I was perplexed whether to choose a retail business or the blogging business for myself. But I selected the blogging business, and one thing which I particularly love about blogging is the factor of creativity and passion involved in the endeavour. Thanks for highlighting the fine line of distinction between the two.
I think like any other aspect of retail store operations, blogging should be carefully planned and executed to create value for the reader. Done incorrectly, a business blog may not be the best return on investment and could actually harm the retailer’s reputation. However, once retailers learn how to blog properly, they’re finding a blog can increase sales and build customer relationships and more quickly as compared to retail business.