PB106: How to Go Full Time as a Blogger

Note: this episode is available to listen to in the player above, on iTunes and Stitcher  7 Things That Contributed to Allow Me to Be a Full Time Blogger Today I’m going to talk about going full time as a blogger. I received this question from Charlotte. “When did you make the transition from blogging being just a hobby to blogging as a profitable business?  What was the turning point for you and/or what were the major changes you made to get where you are now?” Today I’m going to share the 7 things that happened when I went full time. These aren’t a blueprint or a step-by-step, these are just what happened with me and my blog. For a little context, I started blogging in 2002 as an experiment and a hobby. After a while, I got hooked on the idea of creating content and interacting with readers. After about 12 months, I started dabbling with AdSense and Amazon ads. Gradually after about another 12 months, it became a part-time job. Two years in things started to escalate, and I knew this was going to be a full-time job for me. In Today’s Episode The 7 Things That Contributed to Going Full Time In this episode I want to share 7 things that contributed to me taking my blog from part time to full time. Note: I also highly recommend you listen to episode #48 How to Make $30,000 a year Blogging in which I talk in very practical terms about building different income streams up to make a living from blogging. Partly it was a tipping point in traffic - Once I started making money, I became more pro-active about traffic. Growing your traffic is important. Thinking more about my readers than me - I started to write for my readers, instead of writing for self expression. I started paying attention to what they are searching for and tried to anticipate their needs. There was also a bit of a mind shift - If you want your blog to be a business, you have to treat it as one. pushing harder with finding advertisers thinking more strategically about content thinking about diversifying traffic streams starting new blogs/projects looking what others were doing learning more about SEO Setting a deadline and treating my blog like a business Diversifying income streams - I decided not to just rely on AdSense, and added other networks like Amazon. I also started exploring direct ad sales and affiliate marketing. Later on, I even created my own products to sell. Work towards finding a second income stream. Another thing that I think contributed was that I focused more on what others were doing, collaborating with other bloggers - I became more of a collaborator with other bloggers. I went to conferences, invested in my learning, and started partnering with other bloggers. I partnered with Andy Wibbels on Six Figure Blogging. There are still opportunities for other bloggers to promote each other. Having a product to sell - My income streams really began to escalate when I had a product to sell. My first product with Andy didn’t last that long, but it was a great learning experience. Think about how you can create something to sell on your blog. Thinking not just about search traffic, but about a longer term connected reader strategy - Nothing wrong with SEO, but it is risky. The customer is also gone forever once they leave.