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This post isn’t about viewing your blog as a business—it’s about actually setting up a legal business structure for your blog. Why would anyone want to do this? After all, in some ways isn’t making money online sort of the “anti-business?” Well here are a few reasons you may consider setting up your blogging structure as an actual business:

• Tax purposes. Where I’m from (Texas—USA), I can either report my income from my businesses as miscellaneous income on a Schedule C tax form, or I can keep everything separate and report my different streams of income how I choose (quarterly, yearly, etc.). I like this option because it helps with my personal accounting to keep everything as separate as possible.
• Business purposes. If you have ever tried to get offline businesses to promote on your blog, they sometimes look at you like you’re insane. Some business owners in my area view blogging or any other online-based business as somehow less legitimate than offline business. If your blog is set up as a legal business structure, it may be easier to convince them that your blogging efforts are not just fun and games…
• Personal reasons. I found that creating a business name (DBA) and getting a separate bank account just for my blogging business helped keep me on track with my goals.

So how do you go about setting up your blog as a business structure? For me, it was dirt cheap and dead simple. I knew I wanted a sole-proprietorship since they’re the cheapest business structure available to me and easiest to get started. Taxation would be attached to my personal income, but I could have my own bank account and separate accounting for my business.

1. First, I needed to set up a DBA (Doing Business As) through my county clerk office. This cost me $16, and was required for the state to reserve my “business name” and get a bank account in that name. Next, I took the stamped DBA certificate to my bank and opened an account for my business with a $200 initial deposit. A week later, I had my very own business credit card linked to that account!
2. Another way of structuring your business is via an LLC or S-Corporation. These structures are generally more involved to set up and cost a bit more ($2-300), but they’re great for a more streamlined taxation route and almost a necessity for businesses with more than one owner (if you were to start a blogging business with a friend, I would recommend an LLC rather than a General Partnership). LegalZoom can help with the legal aspects of getting these structures off the ground for a pretty good fee.
3. Once you’ve legally registered the name of your business, you may think about getting a business account for your newly formed business. Wells Fargo has a good account at the time of this writing, but check out what the credit unions and local banks in your area are offering. You want an account that offers no required minimums and no monthly fees. Sometimes, you’ll need to set up an auto-transfer from a business checking to a savings account to qualify for no fees (a hassle, but you can often manually transfer the money back the next day!).
4. Finally, you’ll want to tell Google about your new business. If you don’t know what to put for your physical address, check into a P.O. box or just add Ste. 123 or something to your home address (I did this for the first company I started, and it worked like a charm!).

Once you’ve set up your business, you’ll be completely legal (at least in America!) to do business on or offline, and you’ll be much more set to approach offline advertisers who want to see some evidence before they invest in your blog. I hope this post got you thinking a bit about your ideas for business blogging, and if you have any questions, let me know!

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