Tag Archives: Full time Blogger

8 Things Every Pro Blogger Should Do Before Quitting Their Day Job

July 20, 2016 By in Blogging Tips Tags: , , , , , , , , 47 Comments

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If you are among those who are waiting for the right time to quit their 9-5 job, then I have to tell you that there’s never going to be a right time to quit. Quitting your day job after freelancing for a while may seem like a big leap, but with everything all planned out, it can be the best decision you will ever make.
Have you been freelancing or blogging for while and are now ready to take that leap into quitting your job and going Pro? Here are 8 things every pro blogger does before quitting their day job:
1.    Have the right mindset
It may sound strange to have this as the first thing on this list, but having the right mindset before you go into blogging full time is a must. Pro bloggers make sure that they are mentally prepared for full-time blogging because it is a lot of work. It comes with a lot of issues and challenges, so having the right mindset from the start does help.

There will be a lot of business challenges that you may not have experienced from your day job. You will  have a lot of responsibilities. Do not let this scare you. Having a “can-do” attitude will help you grow your career as a full time blogger.
2.    Have some money left aside
When you take that leap into the world of full time blogging, you have to make sure you have some money saved up that will keep you going until you start to get regular income. I know some bloggers who left their day job with nothing to fall back on, or some who left because they had no choice, and yet became successful. But most of these bloggers agree that they should have had some money saved up first before making that move. Having some money saved up to cover your bills and living expenses for some months is ideal.
3.    Develop a strategy on how you can earn money
Don’t leave your day job without having clients! Being your own boss can be exciting but you need to make sure that you have some sort of income coming in from your blog first before you go Pro.
4.    Market yourself regularly
Your blog literally depends on it. You need to constantly promote yourself and your blog so that more people know about you and what you do. The more people know about you and your blog, the higher the possibility of them reading it and becoming regulars. The more readers, the moe followers and engagement. The more followers and engagement, the more money.
5.    Have a schedule
Everything in your day job is planned out: your tasks, goals or deadlines. In the same way, you need to have a schedule for your own business. Have an editorial calendar. Note the days and the frequency with which you will write your blog posts. Set certain days or times when you will edit photos and promote on social media. Have everything concernin your blog all planned out.
6.    Learn the necessary skills

You have to realize that blogging will be a totally different experience from your day job. Most of your time will be spent working on your own, and you will have to be a jack of all trades. You will be writing and editing posts, taking photos and editing them, promoting your posts on social media, moderating and replying comments, handling taxes and bookkeeping. You can always employ others to handle some of these tasks but when you first start out, you will be doing them yourself pretty much. Learning these skills will help you run your blogging business effectively.
7.    Set up your working environment
Just because you’ work from home doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t treat blogging as anything less than a business. Create a space in your house that you can make as an office. Clear up your desk and set up the right environment to work.
8.    Get support from fellow bloggers
Although you will be able to work from the comfort of your home, and if you are like me, you would love it. But there will be times when you would miss a normal working environment. I know I do miss it sometimes. Building a relationship with other bloggers will help you transition into pro blogging nicely. They may have more experience than you do and you can always learn a thing or 2 from another blogger. The learning process is endless.

Are you a pro blogger? How did you transition into pro blogging? If you are not, would you consider blogging full-time?

A Niche Blog or A Non Niche/Variety Blog?

June 30, 2015 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 32 Comments

When I started Fashion and Style Police in 2012, I had only one niche in mind – Fashion. I wanted this blog to focus more on my personal style. So I took pictures every morning before going to work, showing off what I had on, and I wrote my posts in the evenings after work. After many months of blogging on purely fashion related posts, it started becoming a little bit boring, it became a routine. So I gradually introduced beauty, lifestyle and blogging posts and I have not looked back ever since.

I like a bit of  variety. It keeps me alert. I like scrolling through a blog and reading posts on fashion, beauty, personal style, lifestyle, blogging and even parenting. I enjoy reading variety or non niche blogs than niche blogs because I can type in the url and I can’t say for sure what the latest post will be on. I can narrow it down, but I can’t be certain, and I kind of like the uncertainty. Call me crazy bu I get a kick out of it. It is like flipping the pages of your favourite magazine knowing the regular features but not the exact topics in the new month.

Fashion Blogging

Many bloggers set up various blogs for various niches. I wonder how they cope with their many blogs because I could not cope with a second blog I set up last year purely for reviews. I just could not focus on running two blogs, Fashion and Style Police won in the end and the other blog I have not visited nor published a post since last year August.

I know some people prefer writing and reading niche blogs. (Just check out the comments in this post). I wanted a blog that will enable me WRITE and I wanted to be able to write on fashion, beauty, blogging and lifestyle on the same blog without any restrictions.  You won’t see me writing about food, technology or pets for example because I have no interest in those topics.

As long as the topics have a strong, common theme, it is OK to have a variety blog. I see beauty, fashion, blogging and lifestyle topics as having a common theme for a loosely defined audience. I do not see beauty, fashion, technology, parenting and food as having a common theme, or maybe it s just me.

Creating a multiple niche blog opens more doors to various opportunities as I write on various topics, various brands in different sectors will be interested in sponsoring posts, giveaways and reviews on Fashion and Style Police, which is a plus. I know many successful multiple niche blogs like Cupcakes and Cashmere, Coco’s Tea Party, Forever Amber and many others, so it is very possible to be successful as a multiple niche blogger as long as you have a common theme.

Also, I write for myself first before my readers. I know some say the reverse should be the case but I find that posts I write from my heart and for myself have more views and more engagement so it is a win-win. Just check out my evergreen content.

Now over to you. Do you prefer reading/writing Niche or non niche blogs? Sound off in the comment section.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading your comments.

How To Attract The ‘Right’ Traffic To Your Blog

June 24, 2015 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 30 Comments

If you want to attract just anyone to your blog, am sure you will find various posts/articles online everywhere telling you how to. This post is different. When I think of attracting the ‘right’ traffic, I am thinking of attracting people who will like and comment on my posts, follow me on my social media channels and most importantly, visit my blog again.

Most blog visitors make up their mind about a blog within seconds of reading it, so that first impression will determine if they visit the blog again or not. A good first impression will mean a good blog layout, fewer ads, and many other factors, but that will be a topic for another day. Let’s focus on attracting the ‘right’ visitors to your blog.

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Here are some tried and tested strategies that have worked for my blog:

Facebook Groups

Join the relevant Facebook groups in your niche. There are so many of them on Facebook. For most of them,  you will have to request to join but you are usually accepted within hours of requesting. I am a member of UK Bloggers Group, Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle Bloggers Group, Fashion Bloggers and UK Blogger Opportunities and they are all amazing groups. I like UK Bloggers Group in particular because there is a lot of engagement within the group. I have learnt a lot from the group members and my traffic and blog engagement has increased since I joined. That is what I mean by the ‘right’traffic. I have also discovered some amazing blogs and  bloggers.

Facebook Ads

Still on Facebook, I am assuming you have a Facebook page for your blog, if not, stop reading and create one now. If you do have one, set up a Facebook ad to promote your page. You can set it for as long as you like and spend whatever amount you are comfortable spending every day for as long as you want. You can select the specific countries you want your audience from, and the age, gender and their interests. I have found this very useful in attracting the right traffic to Fashion and Style Police because people who are interested in what I have to say, like my page, and engage with my blog.

Twitter Chats

I take part in various weekly Twitter chats. The hashtags of some of the chats I take part in are #fblchat, #bdib #fbloggers. I attract the right traffic when I take part in these chats. I also discover new blogs to follow and make new friends so they are quite good. Check out relevant Twitter chats in you niche and get involved. Your blog will thank you for it.

Twitter Harshtags

I use relevant Twitter hashtags in my niche to promote my blog content. I use #fbloggers #bbloggers #bloggers and so on, depending on what the post is about. I attract like-minded people to my blog and I find that they comment, like and/or follow my blog. That is the right traffic.

Comment on other blogs

I usually find the time every week to comment and follow other blogs I like. I find that 99% of the time, the blogger visits, comments and follows me right back without me asking for a follow back. Let me also add that I take the time to actually read the post and leave a ‘real’ comment. I tend not to visit and comment on very big blogs. I go for smaller blogs or blogs with similar following and engagement as my blog, I find that I attract the ‘right’ traffic when I do this as most of the readers are genuinely interested in those smaller blogs than the very big blogs, and they visit my blog and subscribe in one way or the other.

So there. You have the secrets to my blog engagement.  Share some of yours in the comment section if you have a blog. If you don’t, tell me why you enjoy reading my blog.

 

 

 

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