Blogging As A Profession | #NaBloPoMo

Some people blog as a mere hobby, others do it professionally.  I consider myself a mix of the two, leaning more toward a profession at this point.  If anything, whether I blog professionally or not, I want my blog to look professional and my writing to be a representation of my professionalism.  As with anything you do, professional or not, there are considerations that should take place and things that need to get done to get to the place you want to be.  Here in today’s post I’ll provide you with some considerations and things to get you started on the route to blogging professionally:

The Feel & Voice of Your Blog

The overall feel of your blog needs to be professional, welcoming, and informative if you plan on blogging professionally.  You need to have something to offer, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be a service.  You can be offering advice or simply giving tips on how to do certain things.  As long as you make it so that your content is such that people seek it out to help them in some way, you’re well on your way to blogging professionally.

The Look of Your Blog

For starts, nearly everything in the world is about aesthetic.  People like pretty things.  You want your site to sound nice, look good, and make people happy when they visit it.  It might not seem like that big of a deal, but it really does impact how people feel about the quality of your content.

Make Your Site Professionally Appealing 

Here are a few ways you can get your site there if it already isn’t:

1. Have an actual domain for your site.  If you are not self-hosted, I strongly urge you to do so.  Take that leap (and investment) and do it.  Brands, especially look for these type of things when considering whether to work with you or not.  You can get hosting and a custom domain through a hosting service like Bluehost.  Through Bluehost, you can get hosting as cheap as $4/mo and their customer service is awesome.  You can purchase your domain right with your hosting for around $11.99.  GoDaddy is also a good place to buy domains, because they tend to run promotions where you can get a domain for as cheap as $8.99.  Once you have your domain, you can always transfer it over to Bluehost.

2. Make your site is SEO optimized.  You’ll want to do this, because you want to make it as easy as possible for search engines to find your site as a they crawl the web.  The Genesis Framework has SEO optimization built in to it, so if you have a site built on the framework then that’s a ton of less work you have to do in the SEO maintenance department.  All of the sites I build, including my own are built are on the Genesis Framework and I can attest that I’ve seen an increase in my stats since having a Genesis Framework built site.

3. Proofread and check your grammar.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m guilty of not proofreading in the past.  Let me tell you, proofreading is your best friend when it comes to writing.  Our fingers aren’t always as fast as our brains, and you can mistype an entire phrase or mispell several words throughout your post.  A quick proofread can catch these things and its better you catch them than your readers.

4. Establish a posting schedule.  This doesn’t mean you have to post daily or even weekly, but it does mean that you have some type of schedule to post consistently.  Your readers will come to expect content from you, and you don’t want your posting to be so erratic that people have no idea when to expect to see posts from you.  So whether you post twice a week or once a month, be consistent.  Your readers will appreciate you for it!

5. Post quality content.  Content is king!  I know we’ve all seen and heard it before, but its true.  Don’t post just to post, I sure don’t.  Even when I feel pressure to post, and don’t really have anything worth while to post, I don’t.  Its just not worth it, because that energy comes across in the post.  People can tell when you’ve just thrown together a post.  Its not worth compromising your blogging integrity just to have something up on your blog.  Be inspired and post content that people can use and appreciate.

Many of the above wickets are maintenance things, meaning that you will need to do them for every post or at least once a week.  Blogging is maintenance, so if you’re going to do it professionally you need to have a good understanding of that.  Your blog can be the most beautiful blog on the block, but if you haven’t put in the time and done the legwork to make it professional its going to be very noticeable.

Blogging is also a job, don’t let anyone tell you its not…and yes, you deserve to get paid.  You deserve to get paid for your time, effort, and the skill you put into doing it.  Make sure that you are putting yourself in a position to where you are, by making sure that you’re crossing all your t’s and dotting your i’s.  If you want to blog professionally do it!  There enough of the pie for everyone!  The only way you will become one of the big guys is to get out there and do it, so DO IT! 🙂

*Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase using one of my links, I will receive a small commission.