How to Make Money Blogging (It’s Not What You Think…) - DailyBlogTips

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How to Make Money Blogging (It’s Not What You Think…) Posted: 12 Dec 2013 01:19 AM PST This is a guest post from Tom Ewer. Becoming a professional blogger is a dream career for many people, but making enough money from your blog to provide a full-time income isn’t easy. If you’ve been reading DailyBlogTips for a while, you’ll know it’s possible to make money from your blog and you probably have a good idea of how to do so in theory. However, it’s an all too common story for bloggers who have done everything by the book for months or even years to still be struggling. Maybe you’ve built up your traffic, promoted your site and monetized your blog but still find you’re stuck earning peanuts for all your efforts. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. But don’t throw in the towel just yet — it is possible to make money as a blogger. Not only that, it’s possible for you to be making a full-time income within just a couple of months. No, I’m not talking about some dodgy get-rich-quick scheme or the latest black-hat techniques to trick Google into sending your site thousands of visitors. There’s more than one way to make money blogging and if you’re having trouble monetizing your own site, it may be time to consider writing for somebody else. How to Make Money as a Freelance Blogger The problem with trying to make money through blogging is that in most cases, it takes a long time and a lot of content before you can build up the traffic and followers required to effectively monetize your site. There is no easy short-cut here. You might get lucky and get picked up by The New York Times or Huffington Post and you can speed things along a little with guest posting and other promotional techniques, but in general you need to be prepared to work hard for a long time and with very little income to show for it. However, there are plenty of blogs out there that have already achieved a level of success and are making decent money for the owner(s). Once blogs reach a certain size, they become quite a challenge for one person to manage and keep producing high quality content. What do these blogs need? Writers. As a blogger, you’ve already proved you have writing skills. Not only that but you know how to format a post for easy reading, optimise it for search engines, find and insert appropriate images, promote it on social networks and interact with readers and commenters. All these skills make you highly qualified to work as a freelance writer for other blogs. Finding Blogs to Write for There are thousands of blogs out there looking for writers so it’s probably easier than you think to get started as a freelance blogger. An easy place to start is by looking through the postings on freelance job boards. One of the best for new freelance bloggers is the Problogger Job Board. You can also have a look through the job listings on sites like Elance, oDesk and PeoplePerHour. Be warned that there are a lot of very low paid jobs on these sites and it’s easy to fall into the trap of undervaluing your services. There’s no shame in taking on some lower rate jobs when you’re just getting started (they provide useful portfolio fodder if nothing else) but always keep in mind that you are a quality writer and you deserve to be paid fairly for your work. Blogging requires just as much effort as any other kind of freelance writing. Some job posters are simply after low-quality bargain basement blog posts for SEO purposes and these are the types of listings you want to avoid. However, there are usually a few gems if you take the time to look. You can also try contacting blogs directly to see if they’re looking for writers. This can be effective as you’ll be facing less competition from other bloggers and you can go directly to the blogs that interest you and cover topics you’re interested in writing about. Some bloggers advertise when they’re looking for writers but there’s no harm in sending a quick speculative email even if there’s no mention of other bloggers working for the site. Getting in first and showing your enthusiasm not only gives you a better chance of getting the job, but you may well be able to negotiate a better rate. Advertising Your Services as a Freelance Blogger As well as going out and actively looking for work, you want to make sure that it’s easy for clients to come directly to you. If you’ve been blogging for a while, this is easy. Your blog acts as a ready-made portfolio to showcase your writing skills and it’s simple to add a “Hire Me” page to provide details about your freelance writing services. On your that page you should include links to sample posts that you’ve written for other blogs, a couple of testimonials from some happy customers and details about your experience and interest when it comes to writing topics. If you don’t have any samples, get some guest posts published or at least link to your best posts on your own blog. Some freelance bloggers also like to publish their rates on their website while others prefer to give personalized quotes when they are contacted. If you do choose to publish your rates, bear in mind that while it may save you a bit of time in negotiation, you’ll lose the flexibility of setting different rates for different clients and it may make it harder for you to raise your rates in the future. Another excellent way of advertising your services is by adding a link to your site and a couple of sentences about your services in your bylines for client sites. While this is not always possible (some blogs may hire you on a ghostwriter basis where your articles are published under another writer’s name), it’s always a nice bonus when you can get it and you may even want to consider accepting a lower rate for high authority blogs that offer you a byline on posts you write. Get Started as a Freelance Blogger Today Working as a freelance blogger is a great career model as there are so few barriers to entry and you can get started right away. You don’t need years of experience or big-name clients to make it as a freelance writer – your writing speaks for itself. If you’ve been trying to make it as a freelance blogger for a while now without much success, it may be time to rethink your plan of action and focus some of your efforts on writing for others as well as your own blog. Not only is it a great way to make money but it can also help you to build your blog audience and drive traffic to your site – you may well find that after a few months of working as a freelance blogger, your own site starts making some money after all. Have you ever thought about offering your services as a freelance blogger? If you have any other questions or ideas, leave a comment below.   Tom Ewer is the author of Paid to Blog: a comprehensive online course for freelance bloggers. He is also the founder of Leaving Work Behind. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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ProBlogger: 10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home

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10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:39 PM PST This post is from ProBlogger Team member Stacey Roberts Finding it hard to make time to blog? Me too. In fact, that's one of the biggest issues people tell me they have when trying to write. Often we're blogging from home alongside other work and family commitments, and it can be hard to switch between them when we need to. If you've only got 90 minutes in which to write that day, all the good intentions in the world don't necessarily mean you can use every single one of those 90 minutes to their capacity, churning out a brilliantly-crafted blog post and three witty tweets to wow your readers. I write from home with two toddlers, and juggle my own blog in addition to freelance writing and my  work here at ProBlogger. When I sit down to the computer after a morning of LEGO fights and snack time, I'm not always inspired and motivated to be productive. I have to make myself use my time to its potential, which is a heady mix of prior organisation and brute force. I've come up with a couple of ways to get my head in the game, when the game could be called off at any minute. 1. Create a ritual There's nothing better than a physical distinction between one task and the next. For me, it is to make a cup of tea, which is leftover from my days as a journalist, and tells my head it's writing time. You could make a cup of coffee, fill your water bottle, or put on the same playlist every day. Whatever helps your brain train get on a new track. 2. Walk around the block If you work at home, it can be tempting to work from the couch in your pajamas. And while that's definitely one of the perks of the business, it doesn't really help your productivity. Get dressed, walk around the block and pretend you're walking to "work". Grab a cup of coffee on the way into your office, sit down and start your day. 3. Move to a new location Sometimes a change of environment is just the kickstart you need to find your writing groove. Not feeling it at your desk? Get outside, sit at the kitchen table, go to a cafe – wipe the slate clean and start again. Don't be afraid to move to find your groove! 4. Be prepared Nothing blanks me out more than sitting down to an empty white screen. Where does one start? What if you can't come up with a good headline, and then you can't figure out what's the most important thing to cover? Before you know it you've spent half an hour idling with nothing to show for it. I find I work best when I've taken a few minutes prior (even days prior) to roughly sketch out what I need to cover in my post. Then by the time I sit down, I've got anything from a couple of words to go on, to a whole skeleton outline I just need to flesh out. This helps enormously, as even when you type the first sentence, you can get into the flow. 5. Work solo We like to think that we are multi-tasking ninjas, but research has shown you really don't get as much done as you think. So in order to train your brain to work to its potential, you have to be tough and shut down any distractions. If this is hard, then tell yourself you can sneak a peek every 15 minutes, but you need to get stuff done in that time. So much of writing is self-discipline, and when you don't have time to waste it's even worse when you waste it. 6. Spend two minutes digging around in your brain When you sit down to write, just take a few minutes to think about the tasks ahead. Don't write anything down, don't look at anything, just fill your mind with what you need to accomplish. This will help you stop thinking about distractions and get your mind in the groove of what lies ahead. It's a great way of getting some demarcation between what you've been doing, and what you need to do, and also works as a bit of a brainstorm for today's tasks. 7. Spend another two minutes sketching out ideas Now spend a few minutes jotting down those thoughts. I often find it's a mix of items for my to-do list, post ideas, something to share with my readers on Facebook, and points I want to cover in my posts. This also means I'm motivated and inspired to get to work on these items, and also ensures I'm not sitting down to the dreaded blinking cursor without anything to kickstart my creativity. 8. Don't start from scratch One of the best things I learned about writing novels is to stop when you're inspired. It sounds counter-productive, but if you stop once your wave is over, you’re at a bit of a loss where to start when you pick it back up. This can mean you waste valuable time trying to come up with what to write about next. Picking up where you left off when you were in the groove means you can start with all cylinders firing, which does wonders for your productivity. There's nothing better than starting off with a good chunk of work under your belt, it lessens the guilt you feel when you fritter your time reading eight Buzzfeed articles instead of getting stuck in. Or that might just be me. 9. Do the worst thing first I know I'm tempted to leave the hardest thing for last as I "warm up" with easier tasks, but I also then find I'm still dreading the job while I'm doing other things. And often my time gets cut short and I've got to find another time to get it done. I find I work best if I sit down and get the big job out of the way first, almost like ripping off a Band-Aid. Everything you do after that is gravy. 10. Use recent notes If you're anything like me, you will look at some notes you wrote three days ago and they make little sense. "Mirfin? what's a mirfin? It looked important, too…". So while it's useful to jot down notes when inspiration strikes, it's even more useful if those are recent notes and you can still recall what you need to do and when. I often email myself notes, or use the notes function on my phone and laptop. Sometimes I even go beta and use pencil and paper, hence the mirfin. But the shorter the timeframe, the better for you. I'd love to hear what helps you get your head on track when working from home. Any tips you'd like to share? Stacey Roberts is the content ninja at ProBlogger.net, and the blogger behind Veggie Mama. Can be found making play-dough, reading The Cat in the Hat for the eleventh time, and avoiding the laundry. See evidence on Instagram here, on Facebook here, and twitter @veggie_mama. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home

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