6 Steps to Take To Become A Full-Time Blogger

6 Steps to Take To Become A Full-Time Blogger – How one woman dove into blogging with 2 feet and is now making more than a full-time income in less than a year!

This is a guest post from my friend, Alexis from FITnancials. Alexis started her blogging as a virtual assistant for a big blogger and that gave her a lot of insight into what to expect from being a full-time blogger. She is an amazing blogger and has great tips to share with you! Enjoy!

Learn how to start your own money-making blog here for $2.95 per month!

More tips to help you learn how to make money blogging:

• How to Start Using Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers
• Can You Make Money Blogging in One Year?
• 5 Signs Blogging Isn’t for You (& 1 Sign You Should Start Today!)
• October 2017 Blogging Income Report: $12,007
• The Blogging Class that Made Me a Full-Time Blogger
• FREE top affiliates to join for new bloggers!

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One year ago, I decided to take the leap and go full-time on my blog.

The month I decided to go full-time on my blog, I was making around $1,000 a month. I live quite frugally and don’t have many bills, so living off this was very doable. Plus, I was ready to create a life that I looked forward to living every day.

One year later, I’m making at least $4,000 to $5,000 a month from my blog.

Going from $1,000 to $5,000 in under one year wasn’t easy, but I did it after making many mistakes and trying out new strategies on my blog and social media platforms.

Below are 6 things I did that drastically improved both my blog’s page views and income, as well as actionable tips to help you with blogging.

1. Create a survey

By creating a survey, you can find out what your readers want to hear from you. This drastically changed things for my blog because I was finally writing post after post about topics I knew my readers wanted to see. This dramatically increased my page views and it also increased my email opt-ins. By knowing what my readers want to see on my blog, I was able to create an email opt-in that helped solve their problem on what they are struggling with.

My survey came back with some seriously surprising results. I found out my readers preferred to read about making and saving money, and not so much about health and weight loss. This helped me a ton because I published less about health and more about money.

• Use a free survey site either through a website like Survey Monkey or create a poll on Facebook.
• Ask your readers what they are struggling with or what kind of topics they would like to see covered on your blog.
• Write about topics that other blogs don’t cover due to it being gross or controversial.

2. Reach out to brands

In order to increase my sponsor post income each month, I make sure to reach out to new brands regularly. Many bloggers wait for brands to reach out to them, however, if you’re trying to increase your income, it’s a good idea to reach out to brands. You’ll get more opportunities this way. And if the brand isn’t ready to work with you yet, you’ve at least developed some kind of relationship with them.

• Check out my in-depth post on sponsored posting. You’ll learn how I make $2,000+ per month from sponsored posts every single month.
• Create a “work with me” page on your blog so brands can easily get in touch with you. Make it easy for people to contact you on your blog. I can’t even count how many times I wasn’t able to contact someone on their website due them not having a contact page.

3. Affiliate marketing strategy

Affiliate marketing can be a little tricky for bloggers. Some are afraid to use affiliate marketing as a stream of income because they are afraid they’ll come off as shady or money-hungry, but that’s not the case at all.

In order to succeed with affiliate marketing and improve my income, I have done the following:

• Took the best class for learning how to make a full-time income from affiliate income.
• Move my larger payout affiliate links to the top of the post
• Make it clear where the links are. I bolded and made this a shimmery gold color. You could go for a color that is even more bold, such as pink or orange.
• Make the links clickable. For example, instead of writing, “Click here to learn more” you could write, “Click here to get more information on how to triple your income from home”. Make your affiliate links sound exciting and click-worthy.

4. Create share-worthy social media photos

After much time and effort, I have finally learned how to create the perfect pin. Pins that are bright and long by far do the best, and creating viral titles do even better. You need to make your pin stand out on Pinterest and you also want the Pinterest user to click on it immediately, instead of them simply saving the pin.

• Use viral and emotional words such as secret, how to, shocking, incredible, and unbelievable.
• Create 2-3 pins per each post to see which pin does best
• Create a style that matches your brand
• Use the recommended image size for each platform

5. Be more authentic and transparent

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned the past year is to be myself on my blog. Readers want to be able to relate to you and see that you are going through difficult times as well. This does not mean that readers want to see you struggling 24/7, but instead they want to see you going through similar things they are in life, and how you’re overcoming these obstacles.

• For example, if you’re a mom and writing a mommy post on how people can improve their time management skills, you can write a little bit in the intro about how you’re a mom who has several kids and how it’s often hard to find time for yourself, which is why time management is so important.
• Or, if you blog about blogging, you can write about how you had a “bad” month and how you’re overcoming the “bad” month.

6. Talk as if I’m talking to a friend or family member

Usually, when people read blogs, they don’t get excited by reading a post that sounds like a research paper. They want to connect with you, the writer. I focus on writing my posts as if I am talking to a friend or family member, and since then, I’ve noticed my comments have increased which helps interaction with readers and other bloggers. Your readers will trust you more, which can help increase affiliate income since they are more likely to buy if trust has been established.

• Practice writing like you are writing to a friend or family member instead of writing as if you were typing up a research paper
• You can even try recording yourself with an app that will convert your voice to text. This can help establish posts with your authentic voice.

If you want to go full-time on your blog, create an actionable plan that will get you there. Find out how much money you need to make a month on your blog per month to quit your day job. Then you can create even larger goals from there. Read blogging income reports from other bloggers and figure out what worked for them and did not work for them in terms of growing their blog.

Blogging is hard and being an entrepreneur involves a lot of time and effort. However, if blogging is a dream of yours, you can make it happen. I never thought at 24 I’d end up being my own boss making twice the income I’d be making if I went on to become a teacher.

So, even if you’re a total newbie to the blogging game, don’t feel intimidated or overwhelmed. We ALL have to start somewhere!

Start a profitable blog for $2.95 per month here!

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About the Author

Alexis is a blogger over at FITnancials, a website dedicated to helping readers create a healthy lifestyle and gain financial freedom. On FITnancials, she has a free resource library filled with printables related to weight loss, meal planning, budgeting, and more.