Published on April 11th, 2012 | by Lynn Fang

6 Business Ideas for Green Bloggers

Everyone has trouble thinking positively about money. Most people think you can’t make money without doing something bad, something against your values. Some think if you have a lot of money, you’ll lose your hold on your values, you’ll be disconnected from the “regular folk”. But it’s about time this mentality about money shifted.

With more and more green businesses emerging in the marketplace, it seems our collective beliefs about money need a little re-evaluation. Here are 6 business ideas for green bloggers.

Green bloggers can watch their money grow

Money Matters

Money at its intrinsic core is not good or bad. It’s simply a system of exchanging value. If you think about it, having more money would help you serve the world even more. You could support more worthy projects and donate to your favorite non-profits. And even if you’re super frugal and mindful, there are still costs of living to cover.

How to Turn your Online presence into a Business?

1. Start an Etsy Shop

Many eco-conscious bloggers are already going this route. If you have a knack for making your own eco-friendly goods, an Etsy shop is a great idea. All you need after that is a website and social media presence to start marketing your goods. For example, Simple Boxcar is a handmade knitting store from Ani Lacy. Ani is also in the process of opening Upcycled Yarns, a store on Etsy funded through Kickstarter. The yarns will be sourced from thrift store T-shirts and sweaters. Herban Lifestyle is a certified all-organic homemade, plant-based personal care store. Frugally Sustainable is full of handmade lotions, salves, itch relief sticks, and other herbal remedies for everyday issues.

2. Self-Publish an eBook

If you’re adept at writing, you can write and publish your own ebook. These days, ebooks are super easy to self-publish. There are a huge variety of self-publishing platforms available now, that offer cheap or free publishing services.

Lulu.com publishes ebooks and real books and offers distribution and marketing plans to all major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBookstore.
CreateSpace is a publishing service from Amazon.
Free Kindle publishing is also available from Amazon.
Smashwords is an independent publisher and directory of ebooks.

Because there are now a huge variety of ebooks available, it’s important to make sure you choose a unique and personal topic. Ebooks can be a huge endeavor, but if you have the right plan in place, it can become a great source of passive income in the future.

3. Offer a Coaching Service

You can literally choose to offer coaching in any area of need: personal growth, business, marketing, writing, green living, branding, etc. The green business community can certainly use as much support as possible. If you offer something that’s typically non-green, such as Web Hosting or Web Development, you can target your services to the eco-conscious community. You can source your power from renewable energy, such as wind or solar.

In what area could you become an expert? Develop expertise in that area, along with a unique approach, and target your services to a specific niche. There’s a lot more nuance to the art of successful coaching, but these are some of the basics.

4. Become a Green Consultant

If you can get certified as a green business consultant, you can work with local businesses and show them ways they can save money going green. The hook for most business owners is, well, business. If you can show them that going green won’t harm their business in any way, either by raising costs or turning off customers, than there’s really no reason they wouldn’t want to go green. It would actually be a marketing asset, inviting the growing green market to come do business there.

5. Design Your Own eCourse

Some say people won’t pay for information (such as blogs or ebooks) so much as they will pay for a course. If you’re an eco-conscious blogger, than you’ve probably got a lot of great knowledge to share. Ultimately, what makes a course memorable and engaging is the connection the students form with the teacher. It’s important that you have a lot of great knowledge and resources, but also make sure you tune in to your students’ needs. Connect with them and entertain them as you teach.

If you’re good at teaching, then design your own ecourse! You can teach just about anything, from toxic chemicals to conscious lifestyle habits. Here are a few ideas to stimulate your creativity:

Intro to Green Living
Intro to Environmental Chemicals
How to Live Plastic-Free
Organic Gardening 101
Frugal Living 101

Who would take these courses? I imagine anyone interested in their family’s health and welfare would be interested. There’s a lot of interest in green living, but people often have a hard time committing to new lifestyle habits. What they really need is someone nice to guide them and perhaps a community of students to support them in their efforts. Even though there are tons of free information available online on how to live green, it’s easy to get lost. And it’s easy to lose momentum. With a structured environment and a real teacher, people are much more likely to succeed at living green.

6. Build an Eco-Store

If you’re really business savvy, build your own digital green goods store. Stock it full of your favorite plastic-free, BPA and phthalate-free, all-organic products. Or specialize in one product that is needed in the green community.

A Note on Marketing

As with any business idea you choose to pursue, marketing will have to be a part of the game. You can connect with your favorite green bloggers and Etsy shop owners to grow a support network. Guest post at your favorite green blogs to gain exposure, and maintain an authentic social media presence.

{Money photo via Shutterstock}

Are you interested in starting a business with your green blog? Would you try any of these ideas?