In the past, blogging used to be a hobby or something one would do in their spare time. Not anymore.
Nowadays, becoming a professional blogger can be a full-time dream career and a very fulfilling one!
You can choose between becoming a professional blog writer and write for businesses, marketing agencies or other bloggers, or you can start your own niche blog and focus on that. Many bloggers do both.
Here are 8 great tips to become a successful professional blogger:
1. Have the right mind set
There’s nothing easy about blogging for a living. It involves many hours on the computer and very often you’ll spend a lot of time alone in your home office.
It takes time to see results from blogging as a career and you should know things don’t happen overnight.
So your heart and your mind needs to be in synch and you need to be really passionate about the topics you write about, and about writing in general, always with a focus on helping and adding value to your readers.
2. Find your niche
In order to become a successful professional blogger, you need to find your niche.
And the easiest way to finding it is writing about something you’re truly passionate about.
Your writing needs to sound effortless, passionate and highly valuable. And you can only do this when you write from the heart about something you really enjoy.
So don’t choose your niche and topics just because is trendy. Choose it because you love it and you are authentic. That’s how you can make a difference and shine.
3. Study other successful bloggers
In order to see what it takes to be a successful professional blogger, check other bloggers in your niche and see how they do it.
Not to copy them, because your style needs to be unique, but to understand what it truly takes to make blogging a career.
You can even talk to them and ask them questions about their journey as bloggers.
Remember, experienced people learn from their mistakes, smart people learn from other people’s mistakes. So study other bloggers to learn from them.
4. Read blogging tips and advice
There’s lots of good advice nowadays for bloggers: tips on how to run a successful blog, how to make money from it, online tools to use, how to promote your blog or yourself as a blogger, tips and tricks, etc.
So don’t just write your blog but read high quality information about blogging and everything that is involved.
Gateway Careers has a great board on Pinterest full of amazing advice for bloggers.
5. Connect with influencers
You need to be prepared to do networking if you wish to be a successful professional blogger.
Connecting with influencers on your niche is key to get your blog noticed. This can be online on social media channels such as Twitter chats or Facebook groups, or by going to industry events, exhibitions and conferences.
If you have a blog with high quality content, connecting with influencers can open you many doors if they share your content or mention you in their websites or social media.
6. Learn ways of making money from your blog
There are many ways to make money from your career as a blogger, and some of the most successful bloggers in every niche make more money than they would ever do in a full-time job.
You can use affiliate marketing, use Google AdSense advertising, do promoted blog posts, paid writing to other businesses or agencies, have highly lucrative brand partnerships, amongst others.
There are differences in every niche, so research the best ways to make money from your blog in your specific niche.
7. Lead by example
Be prepared to lead by example when you become a blogger.
This means that in order to become a successful blogger, you need to put yourself out there.
You cannot hide behind a computer screen and words on a website. You need to show yourself to the world in order to gain a reputation, and gain followers and trust.
And also, you need to lead by example. This means that for example if you have a travel blog, you need to actually travel in order to experience the “real thing” and be able to advise your readers. If you have a fitness blog, you need to actually work out so you’re able to give information and advice, and so on.
8. Develop your skills
Blogging is not only about writing. You’ll need to develop a whole lot of other skills in order to be on top of your game, especially in the beginning when you cannot afford to outsource certain things.
So learn other skills such as social media marketing (to promote your blog posts), photography and image editing, website optimisation, graphic design, creating videos and tutorials, creating infographics, networking, etc.
Maybe there are many skills you’ve gained through your current or past jobs that you can now apply!?
9. Take it slow
If you don’t have the means to become a full-time blogger, do it on your free time in the beginning, alongside a full-time job.
This way you can test the waters and grow your blog and your following before you take the leap into becoming a full-time blogger.
If your dream is to become a professional blogger and you’re unsure how to do it, we can help.
Contact us now on 0845 45 900 35 or email info@gatewaycareers.co.uk for a free, no obligation, one hour career consultation with a Gateway consultant.