Hi everyone,
On Monday, I blogged about Life as a blogger, so today, I thought it's only right to give you all some advice about starting your own especially if I tempted you with the perks of being your own boss! ;)
I started blogging few years back, but this year, I turned it into my full time job and completely committed to it. I started with reading a very useful book called Blog INC. written by the amazing blogger Joy Cho from Oh Joy. I highly recommend it if you are interested in blogging and turning it into a business.
Blogging Summarised in five points: (Supported by my favourite quotes from the Blog INC Book).
1- Choose a platform. The easiest and free ones are blogger and wordpress. I started with blogger, but after a while I found it to be limiting to what I wanted to so I moved over to squarespace. I pay an annual fee, but to what I do and want I think it's totally worth it. You can also choose a social app to blog from. If you are starting out, then apps as blogs is a great start. I know few ladies who are only on instagram (I reviewed it and included a quick how-to-guide) and consider it to be their blog. The newest app that could be the prefect blogging outlet is Storehouse (I reviewed it and included a quick how-to-guide).
"blog can be whatever you want it to be—a diary, a visual essay, an editorial space, a place for discussion and debate, or a scrapbook of inspiration."
"but blogging full-time really is a full-time job (and then some)!"
2- Pick few interest areas and blog about them daily or weekly.
"Bloggers serve as tour guides of their specific interests, passions, or skills, taking their readers on a journey through images, text, video, and interactive conversation."
3- Keep posting new content and getting your posts out there. You have to really believe in yourself and your written/spoken word. At the start, only a handful will read your blog, but then the number will grow and opportunities will present themselves.
"Had I not started my blog, all of these amazing things wouldn’t have happened."
4- Be supportive of other blogs, read them and collaborate with them. You can have all the blogs you like in one place on apps such as Bloglovin and Feedly.
"you should also read other blogs, especially those you think would enjoy your blog as well. Leave constructive and fun comments on these blogs and follow them on Twitter or Facebook. Soon their readers (as well as the blogs’ editors) may begin to take notice and click over to your site."
5- Blogging could be turned into a business with some work. It is not straightforward, but once it grows and makes you a profit, it can only get better.
"three main sources: sponsored ads on my blog, affiliate links to clothing I’m wearing (where I earn a portion of the click-through sales), and earnings from my book."
"Typically, it’s a good idea to wait to offer ads until your traffic is at a level that is worth your time and enticing to a sponsor. I recommend a minimum of 1,000 visitors a day or 100,000 page views a month before launching an ad program."
Hope these pointers were helpful. If you want more tips, read Joy's book because it has been a great resource to me and join supportive blogging communities such as Blogtacular and Blog Society. They have a lot of great advice.
Happy Blogging! :)