Q&A: All About Blogging

I think I should just switch up my posting days to Monday/Wednesday/Friday since that seems to be what I end up doing anyway lately! Oops!

Ok. Today I am sharing a highly requested post with you all and I am actually really excited to finally have this published and readily available to share. I get so many questions about how to start a blog and be a blogger overall. I have been wanting to get a whole blog series up delving the steps I took to get to where I am now (and I have a long way to go still!), but that would be A LOT of blog posts. SO, I thought I would at least scrape the top of the topic off by doing a Q&A: All About Blogging. Then I can go from there based on what else you all would like to more know about specifically.

SO, let’s get started! (If you have questions you would like to have answered as well, please leave them in the comments below!)

Q: Why did you start blogging?

Right before I found out I was pregnant with my first child I had recently left my job as a spa manager. My husband and I were making plans to move and make changes in our life, and then one day I took a pregnancy test and it was positive! We soon moved into a new home and when I was about 7 months along in the pregnancy I started to get stir crazy!

I needed something to do to keep me busy until my daughter was born. I asked several of my family members for advice and finally my dad asked me why I don’t just blog like I have always wanted to do. In the past I had “started” many blogs in the past only to quickly stop because life just got too busy. Now I had the time to really dedicate to it and I loved to write! SO, I decided to give it go and threw myself into blogging 100% full-time, and fell in love with it.

After a few months of blogging it started to gain traction and I knew I wanted to keep at it, so here I am today! I love what I do and I am so thankful to be able to do what I love each and everyday!

Q: Who takes all your photos?

I actually take 99% of my photos myself! Occasionally I will have a family member or friend snap a photo for me, or hire a photographer, but most of my photography is done with a tripod and remote! When I started blogging I knew I needed to have great photos in order to provide better content, but I did not have anyone to take the pictures for me. It was also just a hobby in the beginning and therefore I could not justify hiring a photographer. SO, I invested in some equipment and taught myself how to take all my own photos and still do this today!

I get a lot of questions on what equipment I use to blog and take my own photos so I will link all these here in the widget below!

Q: How do you make money blogging?

Ok this is probably the most asked questions I get above and beyond any other. Everyone wants to understand how bloggers actually make money and how they are able to afford all the clothes and makeup they constantly are promoting. And that is a very legitimate question!

There are a few ways that bloggers are able to make a living doing what they do and I will touch on some of them below…

#1 – Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is probably the number one way bloggers make money. Or at least it is one of the more popular ways. Affiliate marketing is the process of making a commission by promoting other company’s products. For example if I am talking about a shirt I am wearing and you want to buy the shirt for yourself, if you use the link I provide to you to make the purchase, I then would receive a small commission on that sale.

RewardStyle is one of many monetization platforms for influencers that allows them to create affiliate links for thousands of retailers. You may know it as LikeToKnow.It which is the app that RewardStyle created for buyers to shop each influencer individually. This is one of the top performing revenues for myself and many other bloggers you may know!

#2 – Placement Ads

Once a website is getting good traffic you can sell space on your site to run banner or link ads. Companies will either pay-per-click or pay a one time/weekly/monthly/yearly fee to have their ad placed on your website and in front of your audiences’ eyes. This is a good way to have dependable income you can count on while blogging.

#3 – Paid Collaborations

Another popular way and honestly my favorite way to make money blogging is through paid collaborations. You can either outsource collaborations, receive requests organically, or sign up through a sponsored content network. Outsourcing collaborations is where you make a list of brands/companies that you want to work with and reach out to them yourself to create a collaboration where you pitch your services and fees. Organic collaborations are where brand or companies reach out to you and you can negotiate your rates based on their budget. And finally sponsored content networks are available for you to create a profile with all your influencer stats and rates and they will find and send collaboration opportunities to you that you then have to apply for or negotiate.

I love paid collaborations because it gives the opportunity to work with brands and companies directly and create relationships. I also love to promote and review products that I truly believe in and stand by and be able to share that with my readers!

#4 – Selling A Product/Service

Finally, selling a service or product is another way that bloggers make money. You might have seen ads on instagram or facebook asking you to sign up for an E-Course or to buy an E-Book. That is an example of a blogger that creates their own products to sell. Others have Etsy shops or work for an MLM company and promote their products directly on their website.

Q: How did you grow your audience/engagement/traffic?

This is a question I get a lot in regards to my social media accounts too, specifically Instagram. Growth is something that is different for everyone and there is no secret to growing quickly! Some just gain traction faster then others!

I am constantly working towards steady organic growth and I actually love the process. The friends I have made along the way, the conversations I have had, and everything I have learned is all a part of the process! Taking the time to engage back has been the key to my growth on Instagram. Instagram is a funny social platform in which I truly believe it is smart enough to know if you are genuine just by how you act when using the app. If you are genuine in your comments, real in your captions, and use the app regularly and because you enjoy it, Instagram will be able to see that and you will get more exposure to other real users just like you!

Growing my blog traffic has been and continues to be a learning process for me. I am no where near where I would like to be with this and that is a goal of mine for 2019, to grow my blog exposure! However, I do spend a lot of time making sure my posts are consistent, that I have quality content, and I use SEO to help rank with Google! I also recently started using Pinterest, and I am excited to see growth there this year as well.

Q: Do you blog full time?

I definitely try to! As a full time mom, being a full time blogger is pretty hard to accomplish. I typically get in at least 20 hours of blogging time each week. I get most of my work done in the early morning or late at night! As my girls get older I plan to work more full time hours on my blog, but until then my top priority is them.

Q: What advice can you give to beginners?

• It is never too late to start a blog
• Be original and post consistently
• Focus on doing well and not growing fast
• Be Patient!
• See more tips in a full blog post I wrote HERE