Who would have thought a decade ago that professional blogger would have been a legitimately viable career? And yet, there are many out there, making money while writing about the topics that they are most passionate about. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s not impossible. If you’re willing to invest the time, money, and effort it takes to build your blog and your audience, you could be making money from it in no time at all.
Things You Need if You Want to Be A Professional Blogger
If you ever wondered how to become a professional blogger and earn a living like this, here are a few things you’ll need first.
A workspace
Doing your writing from in bed very quickly becomes old. It becomes hard to truly engage with what you’re doing. When you’re blogging professionally, you’re doing a lot more than simply writing, too. You’re taking the time to find inspiration, to research your content, to get engaged with the community, to keep the site working and more.
You need a real work environment to ensure that you can stay comfortable, engaged, and motivated. Look at these tips on how to create a real home office so you can make a space where you are always switched on and always able to fully concentrate on the work that’s needed of you.
A good chair
One of the most important tools in that workplace is your chair. Technically, your table is also a big part of the equation. We’re talking about posture and how so many people that work from home (or simply at a desk) get it wrong. For instance, the top of your monitor should not be any higher than the top of your eye line.
Similarly, you should not have to reach up to type at your keyboard. Nor should your knees be raised due to having a low seat height. Make sure that you invest in the furniture that allows you to correct your posture when you work. Otherwise, you’re most definitely looking at back pain, neck pain, and joint pain somewhere in your future.
Top-of-the-line internet
This cannot be stressed enough. The quality of your blog and the growth of your traffic and community are both directly influenced by your productivity. Your productivity is directly influenced by how good your connection to the net it. You’re going to be producing and consuming content much more than the average web user. This means you need a quality connection.
Take a look at this internet plan especially if you’re in a home with multiple people on many devices. It’s easy to lose “your share” of the bandwidth if others in the home are playing games or streaming TV and movies. The interruption is not only going to sap away at your potential productivity, but you’re likely to get more and more frustrated every time you have to deal with lag while you’re working.
A secure connection
Everyone should be careful about the data they share online or keep stored on the computer. When your ability to make money actually depends on that data to some degree, it’s even more important that you keep it safe. Especially if you’re working with any companies that, for instance, send your news that has an embargo on it.
Besides investing in premium anti-malware software, there are also handy devices that act as a firewall for your entire network, protecting you from hacking attempts. They’re portable, so they can even help you protect your data if you’re working in a café or in the library, for instance.
Protect ya tech
Your data isn’t the only thing you need to safeguard. Your hardware could be at risk as well. Power surges are the greatest risk of all, and they aren’t as rare as you might believe. If a power surge hits your computer, it could make it completely unusable and could erase or damage all the data you have on your hard drive.
For that reason, make sure you’re investing in protective gear like these surge protectors. It’s a wise idea to have a backup device in case you’re unable to access one, whether because it’s malfunctioning or because it’s working through some updates. Having a tablet paired with a wireless keyboard can make for a decent replacement for a laptop, for instance.
Digital backups
As mentioned, your data is important. You might have plans for the blog, posts that you’re working on, crucial information from companies you’re working with, site analytics stats and more. You want to make sure that you don’t lose them if there is a problem with the hardware. Looking at protective measures like this Cloud backup solution can make sure that you always keep hold of the data you need.
Even losing the original copies may no longer be such a big deal. What’s more, using Cloud storage makes it a lot easier to share resources with any potential partner. You can work on any device and any location, and still be able to access the most important documents and files thanks to its online-only nature.
A brand
We have covered most of the practical needs of the blogger, now we need to talk about what, exactly, makes you a professional. There are a lot of bloggers out there, and you have to be able to stand out amongst them if you plan on gaining the kind of audience that can help you turn pro.
This is where your brand comes in. Your brand isn’t only the unique visual theme, the name of the blog, or the logo you might use. It also relates to your writing voice, your particular niche, and anything else that can help you stand out against the competition. Finding a unique brand might simply mean catering to an audience that’s currently underserved. Investing in professional quality presentation to go with it is simply a bonus.
Your blogging community
Having a large, engaged audience who is ready and willing to read, comment, and share your content is crucial. If you want to convince brands to work with you, then that audience is going to be what convinces them to agree. You have to show them you have the reach to offer them something for their sponsorship.
Learning how to build and engage with your community is a must-have skill. This means not only thank them for leaving comments but taking the time to respond, choosing topics that foster conversation, sharing your content on social media and engaging with the community there, as well. Most successful bloggers are now well aware that the majority of the conversation happens on social media, not the comments section, nowadays.
A process
When you first look at it, a career in blogging might seem easy. Getting paid to write, what could be so difficult about that? However, the process of putting together posts, of researching, of writing, and editing are all a lot more draining than you might believe. Especially when you have to do it again and again. That’s why it’s worth creating a systemized approach to creating and disseminating content.
Take a closer look at this 6-step writing process to see how to ensure that you remain productive when it comes to your blog. After all, being able to keep it relevant and to produce new content for your audience will always play a huge role in the growth of its community.
Plenty of inspiration
Where do you get the subject matter of your blog posts from? It’s likely you’ve decided on what topics you want to cover, whether it’s business, lifestyle, fashion, movies, video games, art, or something else entirely. But the day-to-day inspiration for every individual post can be hard to simply summon up on your own. You need to make sure that you’re plugged into the world that you’re writing about.
If you’re writing about movies, then make sure that you’re paying attention to industry news, release dates, and so on. Become more engaged with the material than your audience. It’s the only way that you can gain enough insights to make the kind of content that they simply wouldn’t think of.
An eye on monetization
After all, we’re not talking about becoming any old blogger. These tips are all about becoming a professional blogger, which means making money. The truth is that there are plenty of ways to monetize your blog but monetizing it to the extent that it becomes your sole career is incredibly tricky. Many bloggers use it as the base of their brand, but look into other content production as they grow, such as podcasts, livestreams, books, or working with online publications.
For now, strategies like joining an affiliates program, or allowing advertisements on the website can help you turn the blog into a revenue stream. As the audience grows, you may become a partner in influencer marketing campaigns, as well.
Lastly, you can’t get into blogging without a little patience. While you should be writing (and finding) content for your blog at all times, you should expect that growing the kind of audience that can really help you make money takes time. It also takes a blogger that’s constantly willing to learn how to make their writing more engaging. Good luck and happy writing.
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