Blogging for Money

Blogging 101: it should be a course taught in school now, or at least part of a creative writing seminar. Blogging has truly become a way people communicate, share and dispense information. It’s a wonderful way to have a voice and be heard, especially if you have important things that you really feel passionate about sharing. Here’s the best part now – blogging for money. People are now making a living blogging. It’s a new world people, it’s a NEW world!

Blogging for Money

I’ve been blogging for about 11 years now. It’s something I love and truly have a passion for being I love to write and I love to communicate. It should be zero surprise to anyone that I wanted to go into journalism. Writing and communicating (to me) has always been a powerful way to express my feelings, my opinions and my loves. It’s also been a way that I have generated income for our family over the last 7 years. That’s right, I have been the sole provider of our family with my blog and social media for the last 7 years – blogging for money is something that’s important to me because it’s my livelihood.

Blogging is way more than a hobby for me, it’s a way of life and it’s my way to support my family. The stakes are VERY HIGH for me, so I take it extremely seriously and professionally.

Throughout the years I’ve been asking thousands of times from friends, family members, friends of friends and true strangers who someone can start a blog and then hopefully make money off of it. Blogging for Money has become something more mainstream. It’s not easy to do, but with hard work it IS possible. I’m living, breathing proof of that! I’ve seen many people start like gangbusters and then just fizzle out after a few weeks or a couple of months. Believe me – if it was easy – everyone would be doing it.

I’m happy to share with you 5 of my TOP tips when it comes to starting a blog and keeping with it. I truly believe that these 5 tips are very helpful and will start you on your way and keep you focused and motivated. Even if you’re not just starting out, these tips can definitely help seasoned bloggers, too!

Blogging for Money

Here are 5 Tips for New Bloggers Wanting to be Blogging for Money

1. CONSISTENCY – My advice is to blog once a day, 5 times a week. I know that seems like a lot, but in reality, it isn’t. You’re creating content and a reason for people to come back every day to check in. If you blog once a week, people may forget to check back in and don’t feel as invested in continuing with your continued content. I like to think of it as a reality show, people are tuning in for your content, for your story. You don’t want to give them irregular content when they visit. Make a commitment to blogging 5 times a week. If you are worried about coming up with that amount of content, make 2 or 3 of those days visually heavy by adding photos or videos. Make it YOU. Create fun content that will make people want to come back and visit.

2. SEO. The dreaded words – Search Engine Optimization. It’s important to make sure your posts are SEO’ing properly. This is something I still work on and still try to get better at. The better you are at SEO’ing your postings, the better you will be in searches. My advice if you’re not sure about SEO – either buy a book where it explains how to be successful at it OR hire someone to help you with it. Believe me, both great investments.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS. Make sure you’re in other spots… Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, etc. Blogging has evolved since I began 11 years ago. When I first started, it was just blogging. I would spend HOURS on blogs and leaving comments and searching blog rolls. Those days have kind of phased out, it’s all about popping up in other social media outlets. My advice is to choose one outlet and go CRAZY with it. You want to be present in as many as possible, but when you really hone yourself in one, it will help. I started in 2008 wanting to grow my Twitter. Then I moved to Facebook. It’s something that you can do at different times. The reality is, you need to be in other places, so you might as well be in them. And work hard at them. I would easily say right now that the 2 I would heavily focus on are 1) Instagram 2) YouTube (if you’re comfortable with video).

4. DON’T BE A WALKING AD. Stay away from doing ALL sponsored postings. It’s tempting, believe me… I know because it’s easy, fast money, but you do not want your whole blog to be sponsored content. People start to get tired of visiting someone who is just constantly blogging about a product they’ve been paid to promote. It gets old and there’s zero authenticity – it just isn’t there. There’s nothing unique or organic about that. You have to think long term, not short term… brands and companies are always looking for new bloggers to work with, many of them stay away if they see your blog is a walking advertisement, so be careful and beware. Just watch out that your sponsored content is balanced with non-sponsored content… my advice, 1 sponsored post per week.

5. SHARE SHARE AND SHARE AGAIN! Sharing really helps. The best blogs out there are the ones where the blogger shares a lot of herself or himself. I don’t mean you need to be a complete open book, but it is important to be open. Let your reader get to know you. Let your reader know why they’re at your blog. If you’re a foodie… maybe because you’ve always been obsessed with cooking/baking, share that story. If you’re a couponer… maybe it’s because you have a story as to why you needed to start couponing. Everyone has a story as to why they started blogging, make sure it’s shared. Let people in, they will want to stay.

READ —–> How to Create Engaging Video Content for your SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS!

Blogging for Money IS something I’m passionate about, so if you’re looking to do it – GO FOR IT!!

About Audrey

Audrey McClelland has been a digital influencer since 2005. She’s a mom of 5 and shares tips on her three favorite things: parenting, fashion and beauty. She’s also a Contemporary Romance Author.

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