Guest post by John Gerber

If you’ve been blogging for a while, or if your blog concept includes commercial aspects, you have probably thought about whether you should formalize your blog into a business and how to go about doing it. If you’re like many bloggers, that thought can raise intimidating questions. Why should I do it? What do I need? Isn’t it expensive? Where do I start?

1. Why and when should I formalize my business? Your blog may have started as a simple online journal, a place to express your opinions, or as a side project. Once it begins generating revenue, it becomes more than any of those things. It is a business and should be treated as such. The process of formalizing your blog into a business means creating an identity for it that is separate from yours as an individual. From a legal perspective, that means establishing a legal entity (an LLC or corporation) and conducting all of the activities of the blog as that entity (i.e., signing in its name, keeping its own bank account, etc). Individuals commonly go through this process in order to protect their personal assets from liabilities of their business, since the owner of the entity, in most circumstances, will not be personally liable for the actions or debts of the business. From a liability perspective, when your blog consists only of original content you personally create, you are probably not facing considerable exposure. However, if you collect money on a regular basis, publish third party content, offer products or services, or have employees the blog should become a business entity.

2. What do I need? Your initial organizational needs include forming your LLC or corporation and obtaining federal and state tax identification numbers for it. This tells the IRS and the state revenue department that you have a business that will be separately making tax filings, and your bank will need the entity formation document and tax identification number when you open the business account. You will also want to consider registering a trademark for your blog, and possibly its logo/design, if you are building it into a brand. Finally, if you don’t have this already for your blog, you will want terms and conditions in the name of your entity for users of the site, among other things to protect copyrights, for third party posts and for advertisers. If you offer products or services, such as consulting, through your blog, then these same considerations exist for that line of business.

3. Isn’t it expensive? The good news is that there are a variety of resources available that keep the expense relatively low. State fees for forming an entity typically run, with exceptions, in the range of $75 to $150. The legal set-up for your business shouldn’t stop there, though. You will need a number of other documents, including client/customer contracts, an operating agreement if you’re working with a partner, subcontractor agreements if anyone else is contributing to the blog, and a non-disclosure agreement if you’re working with vendors. All these documents can be found online for a small fee.

4. Where do I start? It’s not required that you use an attorney to set up your entity. If you are the do-it-yourself type, your state’s website will assist you in making the necessary filing to form your entity, and the IRS makes obtaining an identification number straightforward on its site. There are a number of online legal resources (www.upstartlegal.com is one of them), as well, that will handle the entire process for you at a reasonable cost.

Do you think of your blog as a business? If so, have you taken any of these steps to formalize your blog as a business?

Guest post by Kim Dority – part 2 of a 2-part series on Professional Brands [Editor’s Note: The original article focused on your brand for traditional employment/career success. I have added notes for applying this information to your online/blogging career, designated with the “Editor” preface.]
Read part 1 – Build Your Professional Brand for Career Success

Having a strong, positive professional brand will open up opportunities for you throughout your career. Having a bad professional reputation, however, can sabotage your career in countless ways. Are you guilty of any of these brand-damaging behaviors?

Burning bridges with previous employers.

Had it with your job? Resist the urge to simply tell everyone what you think of them and then stomp out the door. No matter where you live or what profession you’re in, assume it really is a small world, and your unprofessional behavior may come back to haunt you in the future.

Editor: Don’t blast out a blog post or tweet letting everyone know just what you think about a particular brand or company. Instead, think about turning the experience into a productive blog post for your readers to learn along with you…without naming names.

Over-sharing photos online.

Yep, it may be fun to post Friday night’s bar-hopping escapades on your Facebook page, but keep in mind that photos posted online tend to be much more visible – including to potential employers – than you’d imagined.

Editor: Obviously, depending on your personal brand, this may be fine. But, if pictures of you dancing on the bar at the latest blogging conference is not in-tune with your standard online persona, you might want to think twice about them.

Not watching your online words.

Like photos, online communications (think blog posts, comments, association discussion lists, etc.) live on years beyond their original publication. Thinking about starting (or participating in) a flame war? Think twice – how would this look to a potential employer?

Editor: This is something I think the majority of bloggers, particularly women bloggers, know all too well. In our blogging community, it seems to happen all too often. One blog post about another blogger and/or their blog, leads to multiple comments, tweets, and other blog posts. Remember that via search engines, all of your words will live forever.

Sabotaging co-workers.

Word gets out quickly when you develop a reputation as a back-stabber. Play nice – when you help others succeed, they’ll be much more interested in helping you succeed.

Editor: Our blogging community can be a great benefit to each of us. I know that through recent exchanges within my own network, we’ve been able to help each other out with our blogs tremendously. But, it takes everyone playing nice and helping each other out equally.

Being unreliable.

Everybody drops a ball now and then, but if you consistently fail to meet deadlines, deliver papers on time, or show up prepared, you’ll develop a reputation for being unreliable and immature – regardless of how smart or talented you are.

Editor: If you agree to be part of a campaign that has a specific time line, then you need to meet that time line. If you’ll be unable to do so, the professional thing to do is to communicate with your contact for that campaign and provide a new time line that is agreeable to both parties.

Taking credit for others’ or team efforts.

A professional looks for ways to give credit to those who have earned it. If you take credit for others’ work or successes, you will develop a reputation as a selfish, untrustworthy co-worker. That reputation quickly makes its way to bosses and potential employers.

Editor: Give credit where credit is due. If you were inspired by another blogger, then say so. If you worked with someone on a project, then give them the proper credit.

Being difficult to work with.

You don’t want to develop a reputation as the person who’s temperamental, moody, arrogant, negative, or always taking offense at perceived slights. You want colleagues at previous jobs to want to work with you again, and recommend you to their new employers. If “difficult to work with” is part of your professional brand, everyone will find ways to avoid working with you!

Editor: I have heard that PR agencies do talk to each other. If you’re known to be hard to work with on campaigns, word may spread. The same for clients. People look for recommendations and your goal is to be recommended amongst your network and your network’s network.

Neglecting to say “thank you.”

Throughout your career, a lot of people will help you in various ways. Remembering to thank them, especially with a written note, is not just a professional courtesy, it’s how you build a reputation as a conscientious and appreciative colleague. Failing to do so marks you as unappreciative and selfish – characteristics unlikely to contribute to a positive professional brand.

Editor: Even in blogging and other online businesses, thanking those you worked with – as a client, on a campaign, etc. – will be appreciated. And yes, personal handwritten notes are still loved by many, but even an email will go a long way.

Do you tend to think about how your actions might affect your personal brand?

I’ve come across quite a few blog posts the past few days. I always seem to be sharing interesting articles with various people I think will like them, so I figured I’d share with everyone this time.

Here are some posts I’ve either bookmarked or stumbled this week. For more, take a look at my StumbleUpon or Delicious pages.

Social Media

How to Create a FaceBook Landing Page for Your Blog

5 Ways I’m Using Facebook to Drive Traffic, Build Brand and Increase Reader Engagement

10 Beautiful Social Media Infographics

Blogging

A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images

Comment on other blogs!

The Number One Way to Flip Your Blog into a Business

Personal

Our Pre-Motherhood Self

Retroacculturation. Retroacculturated. That’s me. Is it You?

I’m still not White, but am I American Indian?

What posts did you come across this week that you think I should read? It’s ok if it’s your own.

By the way, if you’re Latina and a blogger, please complete this survey. We will be presenting some of the results during our BlogHer Latinas in Social Media panel and of course, the survey report will have a much larger impact as it will help many learn about the Latina blogging community.