How to Stay Motivated When Blogging Isn’t Easy

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 04:00 AM PST

No matter what you've heard before, making a living blogging isn't easy. Despite what some YouTube guru may tell you, it takes years of hard work before you can ever enjoy enough of an income to live comfortably. In fact, some never see any success at all. With that being said, you must find ways to stay motivated. Otherwise, you'll end up throwing in the towel prematurely.

Four Tips for Maximum Motivation

Everyone finds motivation in different things. For some bloggers, the idea of generating enough revenue to live a comfortable lifestyle is motivating. For others, they simply want to know that people are reading the content they're writing. But regardless of what specifically motivates you, the following tips will keep you on pace:

1. Set Short-Term Goals

Every blogger has this idealistic view of where they want to be in three, five, or ten years. But the problem is that many don't know what they're doing up until then. "It's those annoying, time-consuming, in-between parts that keep most people from truly attaining the financial success that they desire," entrepreneur Timothy Sykes believes. "While they want the amazing end result, they don't understand how much work is required to actually get there."

That's why it's critically important that you set both short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goals – which may include daily, weekly, and monthly checkpoints – keep you motivated in the present, whereas the long-term goals give you vision for the future.

2. Accomplish Two Things Every Day

Have you ever had one of those days where you spend 10 or 12 hours at your desk working on various tasks and putting out fires, only to look back at the end of the day and wonder what you really got done?

You should never end a day without being able to accomplish at least two things. They can be incredibly small things – such as sending out five tweets or responding to comments on your latest blog post – it doesn't really matter. The point is that you should finish very day knowing that something positive has been done.

3. Track Progress

If you've ever worked for a major company in a sales or marketing role, then you're probably familiar with progress reports. Managers often require weekly, monthly, and quarterly progress reports so they can track how things are going in different areas of the business.

As a blogger, you should be tracking your own progress. You can do this via Google Analytics. It's as simple as checking in, identifying specific metrics, and then compiling those numbers into customized progress reports that you can look back on in the future to see where things are going.

4. Network With Successful People

"If I were starting out in blogging today knowing what I now know I'd invest significant time each day into connecting with others online," successful blogger Darren Rowse admits. "The old adage of 'it's not what you know it's who you know' rings true in blogging."

When you network with other bloggers, you're able to see what they're doing, bounce new ideas off them, and even enhance your blog's visibility through guest blogging relationships.

Thankfully, networking with bloggers is fairly easy. Most of it actually takes place behind your keyboard and via social networking platforms, message boards, and online communities.

Push Through the Hard Times

Blogging isn't easy. It takes months and years of consistent writing, marketing, and networking to build up an audience that allows you to enjoy financial freedom and make a difference. With that being said, make sure you're finding motivation – especially in the hard times.

Original post: How to Stay Motivated When Blogging Isn't Easy

ProBlogger: How to Monetise Your Influence Type: Micro-influencers

How to Monetise Your Influence Type: Micro-influencers

Posted: 07 Dec 2016 05:00 AM PST

monetisation-for-micro-influencers

Welcome to the next post in our series on monetising your influence type. Last time we looked at Platform-Specific Superstars – a small percentage of all influencers. This time we're going to take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Most of us fit into the category of "micro-influencer", and it can be an exciting place to be!

Who are Micro-influencers?

Call them what you will – micro-influencers, long-tail influencers, the "Power Middle" – who are they and why are they getting so much attention?

There is no one defining characteristic or measurement that defines you as a micro-influencer. Generally it's those of us with an online audience of less than 100,000 followers, be that a social or blog following. Some define it more specifically as having 500-5,000 followers, the power middle crowd have been defined as having 100,000-250,000 followers. You won't get a straight answer from anyone, so let's look at something other than just audience size to help figure out if you're a micro-influencer (my term of choice, so I'll use that from here on in).

Generally, as audience size goes up, engagement comes down. As marketers get smarter and realise the power of engagement over reach, their gaze has drifted to micro-influencers. Here's why, neatly summed up in a graph from research done by influencer marketing platform Takumi on half a million instagram accounts.

You could argue that the focus on the superstars and celebrities is warranted – 1.7% of 100,000 is still more people engaged than 9.7% of 1,000. However, here's where it gets exciting for you if you're a micro-influencer.

The Advantages of Being a Micro-influencer

As a micro-influencer, the people who engage with you are likely to be more connected to you and more aligned with your passions, niche and generally of a similar demographic. It's more likely that they actually know you, or have followed you from the beginning of your online presence – they know, like and trust you. This is why reaching a smaller number of your specific and engaged audience can be better than reaching a larger number of potentially less relevant followers of a bigger influencer.

This leads to another reason why it's good to be a micro-influencer: trust and authenticity. Micro-influencers are less likely to publish as many sponsored posts and ads as bigger influencers, and when they do talk about brands their recommendations are more trusted by their faithful followers.

One of the reasons why micro-influencers can be even more trusted than everyday customers when it comes to recommendations is the 'expert' factor. Expertcity, another influencer marketing platform, discovered that micro-influencers have 22.2 times more 'buying conversations' than regular consumers and more consumers find them to be more believable and credible, more knowledgeable and better at explaining products than regular consumers.

expertcity-influence-drivers

So maybe that's why their study showed that 82% of consumers are "highly likely" to follow a recommendation made by a micro–influencer, compared to 73% who are highly likely to act on a recommendation from an average person? It could be that the word of a micro-influencer could hold more sway than that of a friend in situations where an 'expert' opinion is more valued.

The Disadvantages of Being a Micro-influencer

It's all the the word 'micro' – you may have better engagement and influence over a more specific target audience, but too often reach wins out. In order to get the same reach of a macro-influencer, marketers need to work with a group of micro-influencers, and that's hard work. Finding influencers, negotiating with them all and managing multiple content pieces vs working with just one big influencer – many marketers opt for the second.

However it's not all gloom and doom, because it's often the group of micro-influencers that will deliver superior results, especially when it comes to conversion rates. Again, as a micro-influencer your audience is more specific, more connected to you and more likely to engage and act on your recommendations.

Monetise by Working with Brands

Whilst it's encouraging that marketers are realising the value of micro-influencers, they can still very much try and earn your influence rather than pay for it. For example, they're more likely to offer discount codes or giveaways for your audience, rather than pay you to do a sponsored post.

Rather than be frustrated with this, look at it as a way to prove your influence. If you can show a prospective brand partner proof of how you positively influenced your audience for a brand, then you're more likely able to convince them that working with you on a paid basis is less risky and will ultimately give them a return on their investment.

Your first hurdle will be getting on their radar, so here are some great tips on marketing yourself. Start small and build up as you build up your evidence of influence. Focus on your engagement rates and other evidence that proves your influence, like testimonials from your followers. Get to know your audience demographics, either through the insights provided by the social platforms, Google Analytics or by directly surveying your audience. For more ideas, check out How to Pitch Brands When You Have Low Traffic.

Monetise via Affiliate Marketing

Put that recommendation power to work with affiliate marketing. Whilst normally a high-traffic strategy, affiliate marketing can work for micro-influencers too. Your best approach is to carefully select the products or services you affiliate. Choosing a few highly relevant products that you have a close affinity to will serve you better than promoting anything you can think of and hope it sticks. What are the products and services you use and love and find yourself naturally recommending?

Also consider the value of the product and the level or type of commission being offered. Naturally higher priced items can net you higher payouts, but make sure you can stand behind why your audience should purchase them. Affiliate programs on recurring services often offer recurring commissions, so you are rewarded for the lifetime of the customer, not just a once off payment. Examples of this include email marketing and other software services.

If you're going to give affiliate marketing a go, remember it's more than just dropping in a few links and hoping for the best. Don't forget the 'marketing' part – create great content around the product, tell your story and it will resonate more with your audience. Want to know more? Check out this podcast episode by Darren on how he makes money with affiliate marketing (even though he's not a micro-influencer, many strategies are the same).

Monetise by Selling Your Own Products

If you have influence with an audience or community you have built up, no matter the size, one of the best ways you can monetise is by creating something for them to buy. Whether it's an ebook, a course, a membership community or an event, you are in a great position to listen to your audience and create what they need.

An excellent example of this is when Lisa Corduff from Small Steps to Whole Foods decided to run a free challenge after having run a small blog and Facebook group for a couple of years. 550 people signed up to her challenge which she then transformed into a paid eight-week course which she has now launched multiple times to create a six-figure business. You can hear her story here. With less than 15,000 Facebook followers and just over 1500 Instagram followers she's definitely a micro-influencer who is punching above her weight due to the trust and connection she's built with her specific community.

So, are you a micro-influencer? Are you having success with any of the above monetisation strategies? Which one appeals and feels most achievable for you?

The post How to Monetise Your Influence Type: Micro-influencers appeared first on ProBlogger.