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Professional Blogging – What you can expect

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Professional Blogging

I should start out by warning you – If you’re here looking for quick and easy direction to professional blogging, then scroll down to the end of the post and read the 7 Quick Tips. If you’re in it for the long run then keep reading.

In all seriousness, if you’re considering making the switch to full-time blogger then you must learn: “if you work hard, your hard work will directly affect how successful you will be.” Not every blog begins as a business and not every blogger wants it to be one. The reality is that it’s not as easy as many bloggers anticipated and it’s certainly more difficult to turn that hobby into a business.

There are a lot of things to consider; with everything from traffic to writing, from developing better photography skills to creating better content – even understanding how to build income/revenue. My intent in this post is to provide a guide that can hopefully answer some of the key questions you might be thinking about or have yet to consider.

Professional bloggers:

– Have defined what they want people to say about their blog.
– Have loyal readers and a community they must engage with.
– Put their reader and content first.
– Diversify their revenue streams.
– Are a Brand.
– And take this blogging thing quite seriously.

Professional bloggers make money from their full-time activity of blogging (well they should be, either direct or indirectly) so let’s explore how to do that.

Monetization Strategy

In order to do any activity as your full-time job you most likely need it to generate money. As a blogger you have many options available to you.

  • Some, but not all, are:
  • affiliate marketing
  • ad networks
  • sponsors
  • brand partnerships
  • digital or physical products
  • donations
  • freelance services (writing for other blogs, etc…)

The key takeaway is that you need to have multiple streams of revenue/income on your blog to make enough money to devote all of your time to it… Also, the method(s) you use to make money must be a good fit for you and your reader. If you already have an established community around your blog consider what they want, need and like and align these with your monetization strategy.

Testing

The ability to be in constant testing mode is important to your success. Full-time bloggers use free traffic measurement tools to compare and understand the traffic generated by each piece of content and narrow down what’s working.

Every full-time blogger you speak to seems to have a unique perspective on what determines a successful blog but what they all do is test and track.

Rules

With every business, there are rules that must be followed. Even if you are familiar with things like copyright and trademarks, I recommend that you read more about FTC disclosures, defamation, and privacy laws, you won’t be sorry. If you’re ever in question consult a local SBA or attorney about any regulations or forming an official business entity for your blog.

Resources:
Compyright
Trademarks
Libel Slander & Defamation

Taxes

Like a business, if you’re making money blogging full time, you are required to pay taxes on that income. I’m no tax expert so make sure to consult your CPA about your projected income and potential tax liability.

Reality

Creating new content is a major priority of the full-time blogger but the need to actively grow the community is equally important. Bloggers know that in addition to these blogging pillars, there are business challenges.

Do you have what it takes? I do not want you to be pessimistic but I do want to caution that you likely won’t be an overnight success and capable of making a living when you start. So you might need to hold onto your day job before considering taking blogging full-time.

Tips

Some people would call blogging “passive income” because of the potential to generate money from old content and this is what full-time bloggers are doing. But I want to be clear that in using the word “passive” I’m not referring to “not a lot of work.” If you have a blog you know it takes an incredible amount of work to run and maintain it. For those interested in going full-time or making money from blogging here are some tips.

7 Quick tips to blog full-time:

  1. 1. Automate / schedule as much as possible
  2. 2. Grow and develop an email list
  3. 3. Have a strong contact form (great blogs do)
  4. 4. Have your blog URL in your email signature.
  5. >5. Focus on ongoing education and hard work
  6. 6. Set specific hours, both start and finish, for working.
  7. 7. Success is directly correlated to how well you establish long-term partnerships with reputable brands, and connect with real people.

Conclusion

My hope with this post is to provide some insight and inspiration as you start and grow your own blog so that one day, if you’d like, you can go full-time blogger. It’s a big job and should not be underestimated. Thankfully, although it is especially hard to start, it gets easier as you build momentum.

Thank you for reading, I’d love to hear what you think. Do you like our blogging series? Let us know in the comments below.

If you’re looking to improve your blogging and you’re not on our email list, make sure you HOP ON IT to ensure you don’t miss out on future posts.

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