Five Things EVERY Blogger Needs To Know Before They Go FULL TIME!

Five Things EVERY Blogger Needs To Know Before They Go FULL TIME!

My friends! I’m coming into my TENTH year of blogging and today I want to share five things  I wish I had known sooner! If you want to be a blogger full time, you really need to think about these things as truly, they are important for both NOW and THE FUTURE! Also, if some of these things seem boring, I’m sorry, but blogging and content creation isn’t all about swishing your hair and testing out new lipsticks…. Not if you want to make it your full time job anyway! Let’s go!

SEO

SEO was something I knew about but didn’t really understand for a long time, but truly, you gotta NAIL it!!! If you can get your SEO right, you will see the benefits of it for years to come! Long after the post has been published and you stop sharing those tweets about the post, the traffic will keep flowing onto your site from google and keep making you money! If you are on wordpress, download the plug in Yoast, as that is super helpful, but aside from that, just have a read up and try to figure it out, as I promise you, once you get to grips with it, it will really help you out!

You Can’t Do It All!

It’s true! If you are a one woman show, you can’t do it all! There are SO many platforms and each one can take up so much time; I’m talking blog, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tik tok, podcast, Facebook… the list is endless! My advice is to sign up to them all so you secure your username in case you get into them at a later date and then focus on just a few key platforms and really figure out what you are doing and grow your audience on there. Pick platforms which suit your personality and skills the best, for instance, if you are funny, go for Tik Tok and Instagram reels, if you love being in front of the camera, focus on YouTube and IG TV, if you love to write, go for your blog and write chunky captions on your instagram grid pictures. Just know you can’t do it all and you need to focus on fewer platforms (which can be monitised) and focus on them!

Set Up A Pension

If you want to blog full time, not only do you need to make enough money to pay your monthly expenses, but you really need to set up a self employed pension. You don’t need to contribute much per month, but you need to contribute and you need to get it set up so it’s ready to go! Personally, I would recommend either Aviva or Pension Bee, if you use my refer-a-friend code for Pension Bee you get a free £50 payment to get the ball rolling and I will get one too as a thank you. But honestly, I am recommending them because they are easy to set up and you can see all your pensions in one place easily AND you can see your projected retirement pot too!

Don’t Rely On Sponsored Posts

I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but please, don’t rely on sponsored posts. I have been blogging almost 10 years and if covid has taught me anything, it’s to not rely on sponsored posts! They truly are like busses, you don’t get any for months and then 5 will come along at once. Also, if your entire business is based on sponsorships and then something happens like… you need to take 5 months off for health reasons or there’s a global pandemic. Then you are SCREWED!! Consider easing into being a full-time blogger by having a part time job, or thinking about other streams of revenue which are blog related, like adsense, affiliate, content creation for brands and so on. Sponsored posts are great, but if they suddenly dry up, how are you going to pay your rent?! Personally, I made most of my money last years as an Airbnb host, but if I hadn’t had that, I might have really struggled.

Follow The Money

Finally… follow the money! Even if it’s just a small win, it’s a win! Everything is scalable and if you are making a small amount in one place, don’t think of it as a one time stroke of luck, think of it as something you could grow. For instance, if your rate for a sponsored Instagram is £250 but you haven’t had a sponsored post in 6 months, but you made £70 last month on YouTube Adsense, then maybe you should consider putting more time and effort into your YouTube channel as that could be £500 in a year with a little hard work. OR maybe you could pitch YouTube content to sit alongside the Instagram post you have pitched. Similarly, if all your blogger friends are working on getting sponsored Instagram posts and you aren’t getting any but you are seeing a nice amount of money in your Reward Style account each month, then double down on affiliate and make some income that way! On the flip side, you might get approached by a brand because they love your videos and they want you to create videos for their social media accounts, it could be a nice way to make extra income and who knows, you might find more brands want to pay you to create their content for them too! My point is… think outside the usual sponsored post box and follow the money that’s naturally coming your way!

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I hope this post about being a full time blogger is of help, let me know if you have any questions, as I am always happy to help! This post contains affiliate links and refer-a-friend codes. All opinions are my own.

Blogger Frequently Asked Questions…

Can you be a full-time blogger?

Yes, you can be a full time blogger, but you might want to ease yourself into it with a part time job and using the other part of your week to blog and build up your income. You also want to focus on different ways to make money as a blogger; adsense, affiliate etc. and not just focus on sponsored posts. Finally, it’s worth having a few months rent / mortgage and expenses saved up. Personally, I would advise 6 months, but this can be hard, so maybe just a few months would be good! This year has taught us anything can happen.

How much does a full-time blogger make?

This really depends on the niche of the blogger and the following size, as well as the quality of the content and the influence the blogger has. Some full time bloggers with a smaller audience might struggle to clear £15-20k a year, whilst the top tier megastar bloggers are often making over £1,000,000 per year. However, this is a rare and privileged position to be in and not make get to that level.

How much do bloggers make per 1000 views?

Blog adsense might only pay a $2-3 per 1000 views, where as YouTube adsense might pay more like $5-6 per 1000 views. However, if you have a very targeted niche, you might make more. Either way, you will need a LOT o views per month to make a full time income through adsense, so you might want to focus on adding to this income with sponsored posts and affiliate sales.

Is it worth being a blogger?

Yes, it’s REALLY fun! However, if you are here for the money, it’s not really worth it! Only the very few and very lucky reach the dizzy heights of internet fame and big bucks. Most bloggers produce 90% of their content organically and only 10% is paid for by a brand. If you are happy producing content for the love of it, then being a blogger is great fun, but if your sole intension is income, then you might want to think of other options. Sorry! Also, it can be costly being a blogger as you will need to invest in tech and photography, as well as hosting a site.

How can I increase my blog traffic?

• Write posts people want to read
• Write posts that help people
• Nail your SEO
• Promote posts on social media ESPECIALLY Pinterest
• Don’t spam links
• Focus on a niche
• Create beautiful imagery
• Support your blog posts with video content
• Write better titles
• Create sharable content
• Support other bloggers

Is blogging or YouTube more profitable?

They are both equally profitable, the rewards for both can be big (and small!), it really depends what suits you and your personality the best. Personally, I LOVE blogging and I make most of my money on my blog, however, I have been blogging for a lot longer than I have been posting on YouTube. A lot of the biggest influencers find that YouTube is much more profitable than their blog, but YouTube is a much longer game and creating videos is not for everyone.

How do you start a free blog and make money?

You can start a blog for free on WordPress.com, however, if you want to make money from it, you really need a self-hosted wordpress.org blog which means you have your own URL and you can make money from it. Technically you shouldn’t be charging for sponsored posts or adding affiliate links or adsense code to a wordpress.com blog. Having a self hosted blog isn’t too much money, but it’s an investment worth making. On the flip side, you can open a YouTube channel for free and make money on that without paying for anything except your camera, lens and laptop. You can even edit on iMovie for free!