Ask Jo Malone: Go for low-hanging fruit to get your business going

Small business agony aunt Jo Malone explains how to get a business going quickly while keeping your customers at its heart.

Dear Jo

I started a blog to inspire busy Londoners to get healthier and fitter a year ago and I’m at the stage where I think I can successfully monetise it.

But how: paid-for downloads, integrated advertising or sponsored blog posts? Which should I go for?

It’s great that you have hit upon an area that is proving increasingly popular. There is such a spotlight on health and wellbeing at the moment and having found your voice and gained an online following, it’s time to build business muscle and transform your blog from a hobby into a profitable and growing brand.

Enthusiasm is essential in any business but don’t let it run away with you. List all your ideas from advertising, sponsorship and collaborations to brand ambassadors and guest writers.

Your priority at this stage should be to identify the ideas you can manage alone and will quickly provide a profit enabling you to invest across more projects further down the line. Often in business you choose the low-hanging fruit first. These should be the ideas that can be executed straight away.

If you aren’t sure where to start, ask and listen to your most loyal followers by encouraging constant feedback and use this as research. What would they like to see from your site? How does your blog benefit them?

Hamish Nicklin, managing director, AOL UK: “I love the fact the internet is so democratic and enables everyone who has a voice and a passion to be a publisher.

“The answer all depends on how large your audience is. My advice would be to focus the majority of your efforts on building your audience and keeping them engaged with amazing content, both text and video. Think in an open way. How can I distribute my content on other platforms to get more scale and brand awareness?

“One idea would be cross-posting your blog on The Huffington Post to reach our audience of 214 million global readers. You retain all rights and can link back to your own blog.

“There are many ways to monetise your audience. You could join a blogger network, which can help create bigger sponsored ad opportunities for you and other blogs. You could talk to video platforms such as AOL On, which can help you distribute and monetise your own video content to other publishers, but can also give you access to a huge library of premium video for your blog that you can also build revenues through.”

I love writing my own blog on the Jo Loves website. Each month, I pick seven things that I love ranging from food, fashion, travel and of course fragrance. Remain true to your brand and the rest will fall into place.