How to Build a Profitable Blog Around Business Loans – Covering the US, UK, Germany & the Netherlands
Writing a blog is fun. It gives you a platform on which you can air your views and presents you with an opportunity to educate your audience. It can also earn you money.
Blogs can be serious or witty; however, they should always be entertaining and perhaps even provocative. But if you’re intent on writing an educational and informative blog, you must also ensure that the content is accurate, especially if it’s on the subject of money. Any money-oriented blog must be written with complete honesty and without bias, especially when the topic is business loans.
In this blog, we delve into the business loan sector with a focus on Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The Methodology Used to Dissect National Business Loan Options
The best options in terms of business loans include self-financing and getting loans from friends and family as they may not come with interest rates, or if they do, the rates would be lower than they would from traditional loan sources. However, the latter can cause severe personal complications for friends or family if the debt is not repaid.
For the purposes of this blog, we ignore these types of loans and focus on loans from banks and other commercial sources. Under each country sub-heading, we take a brief look at the national bank government-sponsored business loan programs. We then summarise the type of alternative digital loan options that are available in all four.
The German Government-Operated Business Loan Sector
The German fereral government has a range financial aid options for startups in the form of various types of business loans. They include:
- Reduced-interest promotional loans
- Guarantees
- Venture capital loans
- Non-refundable grants
Startups can apply for any of these funding programs, as long as they they satisfy the various criteria. Effective financial support is also available to fund enterprises through their initial phases of growth.
The top German federal government-backed public grants for startups include:
- EXIST Business Startup
- EXIST Research Transfer
- High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF)
- Gründung Innovativ
- BayTOU (Bayerischen Technologieorientierte)
- MEP (Markteinführung innovativer Produkte)
- Pro FIT (Frühphasenfinanzierung)
- ERP Startup Loan
The Government-Operated Business Loan Sector in the Netherlands
If you ‘e looking for help and information concerning government-backed business loans in the Netherlands, the best site to start with is the Business.go.nl website. The information you’ll find there tells you everything you need to know about the many ways of obtaining loans, including several forms of business financing, subsidies, and government schemes.
The Government Operated Business Loan Sector in the UK
The UK government offers startup loans to newly formed businesses. They range from £500 to £25,000 and are available to SMEs for expansion as well as starting up. They even offer free advice and guidance on creating your business plan. Visit the Gov.uk website for more information.
Another UK government-backed business loan initiative is the Recovery Loan Scheme, which is available to SMEs that require business finance to grow and invest. It makes available a total of up to £2 million per business group and up to £1 million for groups in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The loan amount offered is at the discretion of the lenders participating in the scheme. However, as an incentive, the government guarantees 70% of the loan to the lender.
The Government-Operated Business Loan Sector in the USA
In the USA, there are several government loan programs available via the SBA and the USDA for companies that will use the loans for specific purposes, such as the purchase of equipment, expanding operations or boosting circulating capital. They include:
- The SBA 7(a) loan guarantee program
- The SBA 504 loan program
- SBA microloan program
- SBA Express loan program
- SBA disaster assistance
You can get more information on any or all of the above-mentioned loan options from the SBA.gov website.
How to Create a Profitable Blog Focussed on Securing Business Loans
The most important prerequisites associated with creating any successful, profitable blog are passion and in-depth knowledge of the blog’s subject matter. We never stop learning, so being ready, willing, and able to conduct research continually in the business loan market is key. Products are coming onto the market constantly, and it’s essential to be aware of them and to gain knowledge of what they offer and how they work.
It’s also vital to identify the niche you wish to target. Do you want to focus on loan startups or SMEs in general? Is your target audience in your home country, or do you want to take in Europe or the USA?
What size of audience do you hope to grow? Will a build-it-yourself website from someone like Bluehost, Wix, or WordPress be suitable, or will you have a professional, custom website built? The ‘kits’ available today are pretty comprehensive. With a WordPress site builder, you can add plug-ins as and when required to offer your audience extra features. But, if you don’t have the time, there are plenty of website design agencies around you that you can use if it’s an affordable option.
Choosing a Domain Name
The first thing you need to consider before creating your blog site is to consider what domain name you would like. Domain names are important because they help people quickly identify the names of websites that are of interest to them. For example, in this instance, Businessloans.com would be an ideal choice. However, it’s already been snapped up, as have many names that would be desirable.
But you can search for domain names for free as many times as you like. So, you just need to put your thinking cap on and see what you can come up with – ideally, something that will resonate with your potential audience – perhaps something like Businessloanshere.com.
Getting your Blog Hosted
Once your website is built, you then need to launch it on the World Wide Web, and this is where website hosting comes into the picture. Many of the aforementioned website kit providers also offer a hosting option.
Monetising Your Blog
We’ve talked about ideally what you need to do in terms of getting your website up and running. But if you want it to be profitable, you’ll need to monetise it. Here are several ways you can go about this.
Offering Subscriptions
Offering subscriptions to your blog is an ideal way of creating an income, providing, of course, you have a captive audience. If you don’t, you could Consider hiding selected blogs (ideally those that would be of keen interest to readers) behind the paywall, leaving the rest of your content free for all to read when they land on and navigate your blog site. The more interesting and informative your free blogs are, the more likely you are to entice readers to subscribe to your regular updates.
Other options with subscription charges include putting the second half of each blog behind the paywall, or offering subscribers early access to new blog posts.
However, bear in mind that if you want to offer subscriptions, it’s essential to update your blog regularly with current news and information.
Offering Digital Products for Sale
Another way is via the creation of digital products that visitors to your blog site can purchase. In the case of business loans, for example, you could create a number of guides relating to applying through business loans. As regards this particular blog you’re reading, you could create guides for each of the targeted countries – namely Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA.
Digital products have the potential to be a lucrative source of income because you only have to create them once, with copies being available thereafter per payment.
You can even use AI to help you create digital products. Sites like the Leap make this process faster and easier. However, I would always recommend checking your facts very carefully when using AI. When you’re blogging about money, it is absolutely essential to ensure that the information you provide is 100% accurate and reliable.
Brand Partnerships and Affiliate Marketing
Developing brand partnerships with affiliate marketing opportunities is an excellent way of monetising your blog site. However, you do need to take great care with selecting the right partners. Ideally, you should only partner with brands that you trust 100% and that you yourself might use.
If you partner with brands that you’ve chosen simply to make a quick buck, you run the risk of alienating your audience.
Alternative Business Loans – Conclusion
We talked earlier about government-backed loans and grants in Germany, Holland, the UK, and the USA. As well as these sources, the other traditional source for business loans is the banking network in each of the countries. However, the complexity and time consumption of the application, the review process, and the reject rate, are making these traditional sources much less popular. Many business owners and entrepreneurs are turning to alternative sources, which include the likes of:
In Germany – Firmenkredit
In the Netherlands – Zakelijke lening
In the UK – Business Loan
In the USA – Business Loans
The types of business loans available in all of the countries we’ve focussed on here in this blog include:
- Angel investors
- Crowdfunding
- Invoice factoring
- Peer to Peer
- Venture capitalists
Whatever types of business loans the readers of your Business Loan Blog are searching for, you need to be able to comfort them that, with your help, the right solution is out there waiting for them.
