12 Tips to Help You in Becoming a Full Time Blogger (2024)

There are many bloggers out there and some of them blog full time. While it’s easy to blog passively and generate some income, becoming a full time blogger isn’t something that comes easily.

To blog full time means to actively involve in blogging and depend on it for livelihood. You make blogging your main source of income. And yes, blogging is a massive source of income.

The main 4 activities of full time bloggers include:

1. Serious blog research
2. Creating and monetizing their content
3. Promoting their content
4. Connecting and maintaining connections

Professional bloggers are always reading books, blog posts, articles, etc. trying to upgrade and acquire new skills and information to keep up with the competition and move to the next level. In this challenging content marketing industry, to stay abreast and step ahead of your competitors, you must constantly seek to find new ideas.

As full time bloggers launch out for more information every day, they constantly create and publish value-filled content in different formats (blog posts, podcast, videos, pdf, etc). Creating content is one thing. Getting it to the consumers is another thing. Professional bloggers have different content promotion channels. What makes them strong is how much they can get their content out and create a responsive community.

Full time bloggers are connected. Knowing and collaborating with other savvy bloggers keeps them in the flow and moving. The advantages of networking in blogging make up a long list. We are not getting into that now. Let me just share with you some useful tips to become a full time, successful blogger.

#1. Don’t quit your 9-5 job now

If you currently have a job or business and you’re thinking of quitting to blog full time, I want to recommend you hold on until you’ve saved enough money to keep you going for the next 12 months and more.

Creating and publishing blog posts won’t pay your bills. If it was that easy, everyone would be blogging full time. One difficult area of blogging is monetizing your effort. The money is what we need to cater for our responsibilities. But full time bloggers don’t blog for money. YES!

If the desire to make money is your driving force, then I must say you are standing on sandy soil. Don’t blog to make money. Blog to provide solutions to your readers. Once they get satisfaction, they will pay for your services.

#2. Invest in yourself

To succeed as a full time blogger, you must invest in yourself as the blogger. There is a difference between the blog and the blogger. You can put in a few bucks and get a powerful blog in the next few hours. But the success of the blog will highly depend on the blogger behind the blog.

That’s why you must give yourself the necessary skills to carry your blog to the next level. As a well trained blogger, you’ll find out that a huge portion of your income won’t be directly linked to your blog. For instance, if you are hired to train or speak at an event, you won’t be paid as the owner of some powerful blog. You will be paid because you are found qualified to deliver.

My advice is that you get some reasonable amount of knowledge in:

1. Content creation
2. Content promotion
3. Social media
4. Search engine optimization
5. List building
6. Graphics and image processing
7. Product creation
8. Etc.

There are lots of free resources online to learn these things. If you can sign up to paid platforms or be coached by some professionals, that would be a better option.

#3. Choose an evergreen blogging topic

Your main blog should be based on a topic that’s not limited to season or events. Now, as a full time SEO blogger, I can create event-based blogs as well. But, the topic of my main blog is evergreen. Don’t build your blogging career on shallow topics. If you are a Christmas blogger for instance, you will only be relevant during that season.

There is a long list of inexhaustible evergreen blogging topics out there. It doesn’t have to be difficult to come up with one. You just have to pick the right topic based on passion and/or knowledge.

Further Reading: The EASY Way How to Write a KILLER Blog Post in 19 Steps

#4. Create a personal blog

I have seen tough bloggers who rely heavily on platforms like medium to build their content marketing profiles. But I think that’s a big error because such platforms belong to other business people who may one day change a lot of things without your consent.

If you create content and submit to Medium, you surrender the right of ownership to them. They actually decide how to insert links, where to place banners, etc. Will you run your business on someone else’s business?

Fortunately, today, it’s quick and easy to build and own a professional blog. There are several options:

• Start a blog with WIX’s intuitive and user-friendly platform
• Blog on squarespace.com’s powerful platform
• The most common blogging platform is Wordpress

Creating a personal blog gives you access to other tools you may need like professional email services, databases, etc. You may find it difficult and quite limiting to be a successful full time blogger without a personal authority blog.

Further Reading: 41 Tools for Blogging That Will Improve Your Writing and Increase Your Traffic

#5. Create blogging digital products

One of the ways to establish yourself as a professional blogger is to create digital products. Fortunately, it’s easy for bloggers to create ebooks and courses. Once you’ve created content, you acquire necessary skills to transform your content into books and/or courses.

Having blogged for over 6 years, it now takes me less than 72 hours to write value-filled books for my community. One of my recent books Crypto-Monnaeis au Cameroun was written in two days. As a Certified Crytocurrency Expert, I wrote this for my local market. As a Bishop, it took me less than 24 hours to write another book of 34 pages on Faith. Once you write and write, you get trained in writing.

I have several books in the market to my credit. These all generate income steadily. I’m not just saying this because I have success with it. It works for everyone. Neal here is the author of four social media books. Take a look at his bookshelf. This is proof that full time bloggers create digital products, establish their leadership and make more money from it.

Further Reading: What is Blog Marketing? How Can It Work for Your Business?

#6. Connect with other bloggers

Full time bloggers are connected. Fortunately, as you create and publish value packed content, you stand out and attract attention from like-minded savvy marketers. Here are just a few ideas to network with other full time, professional bloggers:

• Comment on their blogs
• Follow them on social media
• Help them resolve issues
• Invite them to speak at events/write for you
• Write for them
• Buy their products
• Link to their content
• Mention them in your eBooks
• Send free copies of your products to them
• Periodically send them personal messages to check out how they are doing
• Share and promote them

Don’t seek to connect with bloggers who are way above you. Look for industry bloggers who measure your strength. They are easy to connect and grow with.

#7. Monetize wisely

There are many ways to generate income as a blogger. But you must not implement every method that’s said to earn money. Some income channels may not be efficient for you. For instance, Google Adsense is a common method in the industry but it’s not one on my list.

We have other channels like Affiliate Marketing, Production Creation, Sponsored Contents, Banner Ads, paid events, etc. But you must be able to deal efficiently with these money making methods. Without an effective money making strategy, you’ll end up wasting resources and struggling as a full time blogger.

#8. Cleanup for productivity

To succeed as a full time blogger, you must be productivity oriented. Have a content marketing plan and be disciplined. Create time for distractions on social media and other entertainments in life. Some simple tips to increase productivity as a full time blogger include:

• Create a blogging environment void of distractions from family, TV, Music, Telephone, etc.
• Create time for research, time for writing, time for promotion
• Create time for family
• Create time for distractions
• Get involved in some sportive activities

#9. Don’t bow to hard times

Just like in any other activity online and offline, there are bound to be challenging moments. Man is never in full control of things. There are going to be moments of burnouts, lack of excitement, environmental challenges and several other events that may make it quite harsh to keep flowing.

As a full time blogger, you must be ready for such moments and provide backup resources to turn to when difficult times hit. As a full time blogger, there come moments I get down health-wise, not being able to access my Wordpress dashboard. But content flow continues –

1. From trusted blogging friends I have in place
2. From auto-publication of scheduled content

I always have some content written ahead of time to fill the gaps of my absence. If my blog is hacked, it won’t have a massive impact on my income flow. That’s because I have other sources of blogging income not directly linked to my blog.

#10. Establish a content promotion strategy

Content promotion is as important as content creation. Without a clearly defined content promotion strategy, you may end up being the only reader of your blog articles. But I must underline here that getting the word out to the readers isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Generally, you’ll have to pay attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when creating content. Building and maintaining an active email list will also help in your promotion.

Social Media should be part of your promotion strategy but you’ll have to do it correctly to see results. Neal Schaffer here is a Social Media expert. Contact him for useful and result-driven Social Media Marketing tips.

Further Reading: 10 Ways How to Promote Your Blog

#11. Do not neglect security

One major concern online is security. You can’t be a successful full time blogger if you do not take stands to protect your blogging business. This has to do with proper management of passwords, avoiding public WI-FI hotspots, keeping your local computer virus-free to avoid damages to your system, avoid visiting websites susceptible to infecting your computer, etc.

Many full time bloggers live the dotcom lifestyle. This brings in the temptation of connecting to public free WI-FI (at airports, restaurants, hotels, malls, etc). I often tell my coaching students to avoid these enticing free Internet at all cost. But if they must do for some reasons, they should avoid login in to their critical accounts. Alternatively, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) may help protect you and your system on Public WI-FI. If you do not know where to get true VPN, check out thispost on how to download a VPN in 3 simple steps.

VPNs will help in several ways, including masking your IP address, encrypting your form data thereby reducing the risk of man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, etc.

Further Reading: Facebook VPN: How to Unblock Facebook Wherever You Are

#12. Give yourself time

Time is an inevitable growth factor in any industry. You won’t become a full time successful blogger the second year of your blogging. Well, there are rare cases, but for the most part, you’ll have to give yourself time and push things upward.

• Time allows you to build a solid and balanced SEO profile
• Create and publish enough content that ranks
• Build a solid Social Media profile
• Connect and maintain healthy relationships with other bloggers
• Gain mastery of blogging
• Develop a sustainable business in the industry of blogging

Conclusion

Being a full time blogger is a huge dose of excitement to me. The freedom, the money, the connections, etc. make it a whole new experience each day that goes by. But I’m also conscious of old age. A time is coming when I won’t be able to sit on my laptop and create content the way I do now. So I’m taking steps to cover those days through:

• Building and educating a family
• Saving and investing in landed properties
• Creating other offline businesses that will be run by family.

Blog wisely so you don’t drive your old age crazy.

Hero photo by Alex Jumper on Unsplash

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