Many people have opinion that blogging is just a hobby or part time job but not something you can earn a living from. This is so wrong! Everyone can start a blog, but not everyone can succeed. Why? Simply because like any other business you have to have what it takes.
Blogging is a good career choice because offers ability to be your own boss, flexible schedules, to work on your on terms, when and how you want. All you need to start blogging is laptop, internet and passion.
Curious to find out if blogging is a right career for you? Let’s see…Blogging is a good career for you if…
IS BLOGGING IS A GOOD CAREER
YOU LOVE WORKING ALONE AND BE YOUR OWN BOSS
Do you love the idea to work alone, or you more a team person? If you enjoy working with people or in team than think twice.
It will take some time until you are able to earn a full time income from your blog and hit the road and work under the coconut tree, until that time comes, you will most probably work from your room.
You have to be able to sit and get the work done. Working in an office and working from home are totally different experiences. At home you can get easily distracted or tempted to watch Netflix all day long. There are many productivity tips you can follow but if you are ok with spending time alone this process will be way much easier for you.
If you love working on your vision without a boss who can limit you than this is a perfect job for you. Living on your own terms is the biggest advantage of being your own boss.
YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE AND YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE TOPIC YOU PLAN TO WRITE ON
You have to love what you are doing. Content is the most important part for any blogger. You have to be passionate about the topic and have a certain knowledge to share. Passion will motivate you to do more research and share valuable information. If you love what you do you will find motivation to get through obstacles way more easier. If you are expert in your field and share your knowledge and values that align with you, you can build a trust bond with your readers.
YOU ARE READY TO LEARN NEW SKILLS
You don’t have to write like a professional writer, no worries, you just have to convey the information to your readers in simple but effective way. Take a look of this post. There is a headline, small intro, few subheadings and paragraphs under each subheading to explain it. Just a simple structured post that clarifies what user was searching for. You will for sure upgrade your writing skills just by writing. If you are more talkative person you can use text to speech on google doc and talk, and the software will turn your speech into text which you can than easily edit and there you go you have your post ready.
However, there are many skills that you can learn and that can help you in blogging business, like working in WordPress, graphic design, search engine optimization (how to make your site visible on Google and other search engines), email marketing and list building, digital marketing, branding, entrepreneurship…
Nowadays with living in digital era it is really easy to obtain this skills from free sources like YouTube or to take some of many online courses available on learning platforms like Udemy, Edx, Skillshare etc.
I suggest you check Income School and PassiveIncomeGeek on YouTube. They are really helpful and provide lots of value.
YOU DON’T EXPECT OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
Usually people think that blogging is one of the get-rich-quick-schemes online. If you think the same than forget about it, you can stop reading further…But if you don’t expect a quick success and you are ready to put some effort, you can make this work. The biggest mistake most beginner entrepreneurs do is they give up to quickly. After six month of seeing low traffic they get disappointed and lose motivation or move to a different business model. Do not be one of those!
It is so important to know that it takes 8-12 month to get rankings on google after you publish posts. You can work on marketing your posts on social media. That is great too, but as a professional blogger with a mind to make your business a source of a passive income one day, you should concentrate the most on organic google traffic, which means writing the posts you can rank on. So it will take some time.
Seeing months and months a low traffic can make you want to give up, but if you persist and continue to work on your blog in a smart way, you can succeed and I assure you will.
HOW BLOGGING MAKES MONEY?
The ways you can earn money with blogging are through;
Ads – By using premium ad networks. Why premium you may ask? Well because using Premium Ad Networks such as Ezoic, Ad Thrive or Mediavine you can earn triple or more than using AdSense. To apply for premium ad networks you need a certain amount of traffic.
Affiliate Marketing– you get a commission if someone buys a product that you recommended in your posts. Let’s say you bought something from Target that you really love and you want to share that item with your readers, if you put affiliate link of that product and your reader purchase, you get a small commission, with no any additional charge to customers.
Sponsorships and Guestposts – You collaborate with brands and write a post, such as your review of their product etc. Or someone pays you to publish a post with a link back to their site, this post can be written by them or you.
Selling your own digital products – The best decision for your business is to create your own products that will produce value to the reader and will help you build your brand. You can create an eBook, course, tutorial, guides etc.
Here is the post I have written about Blogging Tools and Resources that I am using, where you can see which affiliate networks to join, what gateway I am using to sell my digital products and many other things that help me manage my business and work 4 hours a week.
IS BLOGGING STILL PROFITABLE?
Blogging is still a profitable business, always was and it will be for years to come, and if you google blogging income reports you can see how much bloggers are making. There is a great video on YouTube from Income School where they share their in depth research results from thousands of websites data analyzed. They explain in that video how much you can expect to earn in terms of traffic and number of blog posts. You can watch it below. Here is a quick recap of how much you can expect to earn with blogging.
NOTE THAT ALL POST ARE EXPECTED TO BE AT LEAST 8 MONTHS OLD (ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED TO ACHIEVE RANKINGS ON GOOGLE)
As you could already realize, it is possible to earn a full time income from blogging. This is not a get rich quick thing but a real job that will take time and effort but it is totally worth it. If you are working on creating a high quality content it will take you around 2 years to be able to make a full time living from blogging. This is an achievable goal.
IS BLOGGING WORTH IT?
Blogging is definitely worth it because the consumption of content is high, people always search for information’s, companies are putting more and more money into online advertising (ads you will show one day on your website), there are few ways you blog can earn so you can have a few income streams from one business.
HOW TO START BLOGGING AS CAREER?
People have different stories to tell, some of them knew exactly what and how to do it properly and build a blogging business, others started their first blog as hobby and then turned it into a business. Many of them searched for work from home jobs and tried all and nothing worked so they started blogging too…They spent hours and hours learning and trying different strategies to make it work.
Well I am here to help you skip the errors and trials to not get confused by so many information out there and to start with a clarity and confidence your blogging journey. Wondering what you need?
To start blogging as career you need a good business plan and a self-hosted website. Did you decide to make a blog but have no idea how to start, I wrote a post about how to start blogging with bluehost.
CONCLUSION
Online business models are more and more popular and as someone who really tried all, blogging is certainly one of best choices. If you found yourself among this facts do not wait the right time, start your blog today. You future self will be thankful to you. We all want more free time to do what we like, travel or spend time more time with our children or loved ones. Take your first step in creating a blog by downloading an online business checklist below and track your progress while creating a profitable business.
Suggested read; How To Start A Blog With Bluehost