How a blog can help you get a job

by MARKO SARIC

When I started my first blog back in the beginning of 2009, I had no idea that it would end up having readers, who weren’t in my immediate family, let alone become profitable and land me my dream job.

The first time I encountered the benefits of having a fashion blog was when a company contacted me asking me to choose a handbag from their latest line. Even though the high street bag wasn’t in any way unattainable for even a student I felt special and motivated to continue working.

Show off your blog

However, in my early years of being a blogger, I preferred not to tell my friends in the real world about my new hobby. Somehow, I thought a fashion blog would collide with my professional life.

As the blog grew and became an increasing part of me, I slowly started to let my colleagues in on my hobby and imagine my surprise when they not only thought it was a great hobby, they were impressed when I told them about how many readers I had!

Because I opened up about my blog and because I shared my views (and the growing number of readers) people started to think of me as having a special knowledge about blogging. A little while later, an old colleague of mine contacted me asking me to meet with his boss who was interested in adding a blog to his company. That was the start.

After successfully completing the task for the first company, I started contacting companies on my own, branding myself, and adding the blog to my CV citing my experiences with social media marketing and blogging.

Today, I work as the community manager for a site with over 1.000.000 monthly visitors – a job that I have my blog to thank for.

Use your blog professionally

• Experiment with marketing techniques. Don’t just use your blog to have fun writing about your interest, use it to learn about how marketing and business communication works.

• Showcase your skills on your blog. Make sure to do what you do best. Give tips, advice, examples!

• Use your blog for networking. Get to know people from your niche. Learn from them, teach them!

• Build real life relationships. Some of my best friends, I’ve met through blogging. It’s a great way to interact with people who share your passion for blogging, no matter what the topic is!

• Use social media sites to brand yourself. Build a following and engage on social media sites keeping in mind that your creating an image of yourself.

• Add your blog to your CV. Just like any other job, except this is better. This one is your own little company that you’ve built from scratch.

• Don’t call yourself a blogging guru or expert, show that you are one as the world is full if fakers and people with empty promises. Show your skills and help others, but never think you know it all.

These days finding a job can be difficult. Start a blog and give yourself the experience that might be hard to find these days. If your dream is to be a writer, a stylist, a filmmaker, a dance teacher…whatever! Start a blog and take the chance on doing what you really love. It’s hard work, but it’ll pay off!

Milana Saric is a lifestyle blogger who blogs about fashion, beauty and food! Check out her other guest posts on how to start a fashion blog and how to start a food blog.

Be active in social media as a helpful person, not as a promoter

by DANIELA DIAMARE

Anne-Marie Nichols, like so many mothers who do not have time to devote themselves to fitness, wondered how to get in shape.

When she started a blog that could help her focus on losing weight and eating more healthfully she asked herself: “who wants to read about diet recipes and my weight loss plans?”

Starting from her experience as a mother and writing especially for busy moms and their families she found the answer and her niche.

Now she is a healthy food and lifestyle blogger at This Mama Cooks! On a Diet where she inspire families to live healthier with a minimum of fuss.

Anne-Marie how and why did you start a blog?

I started my blog This Mama Cooks! eight years ago to document my Thanksgiving plans. Since then it’s morphed into a healthy lifestyle and food blog called This Mama Cooks! On a Diet.

How much time do you spend working on the blog?

I have a terrific team at Folivision, so I spend very little time doing anything more technical than adding ad code in my sidebars.

I spend most of my time cooking, writing, photographing, posting, promoting my content and being active in various online communities that fit my niche (mom bloggers, foodies, healthy folks, etc.)

Blogging is a full time job for me, but that also includes social media consulting work I do with agencies and brands outside of my blog.

What is your best advice when starting a blog?

Sit down and figure out if your blog is a business venture or a hobby. Once you’ve figured that out, everything else from goals to what email address you’ll use will fall into place.

What is your best advice on how to grow a blog?

Spend time creating great content and knowing SEO, of course. Then find time to promote content on social media sites like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook by being active in those communities as a helpful person, not a promoter. If people like you and what you’re saying, they’ll come to your blog for more.

What is your biggest success and biggest mistake as a blogger?

My biggest success was being hired to write a blog for ClubMom (now CafeMom). When the call went out to the mom blogging community about the gig, many of us realized that blogging had become way of making a living and was no longer just a hobby.

My biggest mistake was not switching over to a self-hosted WordPress blog sooner! Once I did that, my traffic and opportunities grew.

A blog is all about content… not moving pixels

Robb Sutton is a dad, blogger and business owner who writes about how to successfully grow a business and raise a family at the same time.

By sharing events of professional and private life he provides guidelines for those who want to find the balance between business and family life.

His experience as a blogger is interesting and you’ll find it useful to read his blogging insights below.

How and why did you start a blog?

Everything started with wanting to create a trail review site based on user reviews from mountain bikers. About 5 minutes in to the process, I realized it is really hard to have user reviews when you have no traffic.

The blog was started in an attempt to attract readers that would then review their favorite trails, but it ended up completely taking over. That is Bike198.com as you see it today and that is what got me first into blogging.

How much time do you spend on your blog?

All week. I don’t think there is a single moment of the day when I’m not at least thinking about it. Several hours of each day are spent physically doing something to the site.

What lesson would you share with people who want to start a blog?

Stick with what you are good at. There is going to be a time when you start bloggingthat you are going to want to create a blog for everything you like. That is a bad idea.

Allocate your resources to building up a solid blog that you enjoy. If you spread yourself too thin, you will not accomplish anything and your work will suffer.

What is your best advice on how to grow a blog?

Content. A lot of content. While marketing your blog is very important, if you have no content… none of that matters.

In the beginning, just get a simple logo and design then hammer out content. I watch too many beginning bloggers obsess over their blog design and that could be time they could spend writing. A blog is all about content… not moving pixels.

What is your biggest success and biggest mistake as a blogger?

Biggest Success: Mainstream media exposure.

Biggest Mistake: Picking a hard to remember domain name in the very beginning. Always pick a domain name that people can remember if you tell it to them on the street… they will remember it.

I took a leap of faith and traded my attorney job to dive into blogging

Lori Popkewitz Alper is the founder and editor of Groovy Green Livin, a blog that inspires readers to live a healthier, greener and more sustainable lifestyle.

She uses the word “platform” to describe her blog like many bloggers who in their blogs see new possibilities to grow a business.

Several elements make her blog interesting and useful, such as an original content that reflects her interests. The “platform” supports her passions. Business comes as a consequence of that.

Lori, how and why did you start a blog?

My passion for natural, non-toxic living began over 12 years ago after seeing first hand how living an organic, non- toxic lifestyle can directly affect your health and well being. I began sharing information with my family and close friends – they would ask questions and I would find answers.

My commitment and dedication towards living a greener lifestyle was strengthened when two of my children were diagnosed with life threatening food allergies at a very young age.

When my youngest child began kindergarten I decided to spend the school year learning everything I could about blogging and what it meant to have an online presence. I started off knowing nothing.

I began to focus on how to create a blog and how I could make a living through blogging. After dedicating the year to figuring this blogging thing out I took a leap of faith and decided to trade in my day job as an attorney and dive head first intocreating a blog.

Thankfully my family was very supportive of this big lifestyle change. The plan was to focus on sharing information and creating a community of like-minded folks concerned with living any shade of green. And so my blog, Groovy Green Livin, was born.

How much time do you spend blogging?

I spend anywhere from 20-25 hours a week working. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m blogging on my site during those hours. I am running a business and my blog is the platform. I am very active in social media and devote a chunk of my day to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.

I spend time working with advertisers, brands and PR agencies trying to find products that my readership would enjoy learning about. I also write for multiple external sites and have social media clients. My days vary and I love that about my job.

What is the lesson you’d like to share with new bloggers?

Set boundaries and stick to them. For example, if you have 2 hours to write a post devote those two hours to writing and be careful not to get sucked into social media. I’m going to have to reread this one myself. I’m still not very good at setting boundaries and sticking to them! Work in progress.

What is your best advice on how to grow a blog?

When I first began blogging a well-respected blogger gave me some good advice which has stuck with me: “write from your heart”. When I’m writing I always think about what I like to read or what catches my attention and try to apply that to the piece that I’m working on.

Also, form community. Visit other blogs, comment, compliment and be sincere. Add your powerful and important voice to the discussion.

What is your biggest success and biggest mistake as a blogger?

My biggest success by far is the incredible connections I’ve made through blogging. From brands to bloggers, there is such an amazing group of men and women out there filled with humor, intelligence and passion. Also, it’s sometimes being in the right place at the right time. One highlight is my recent appearance on ABC World News to discuss Bisphenol A (BPA).

The list of mistakes is long. As I tell my kids, it’s how we learn. The biggest mistake I have made is letting blogging take away from family time. Sometimes when I am kissing my kids goodnight I’m also thinking about that long list of “to-dos” waiting for me. I let it get in the way of time with my kids and that’s not OK in my book. Everything else can wait. My kids are growing and I want to be there.

How To Build Your Blog Brand

Branding is a concept from the marketing world and refers to name, design or any other feature that distinctly identifies one blog from the others.

Your blog brand sets you apart from the other bloggers and your visitors will associate that specific look and feel with you. Your branding gives you the power to shape how your blog visitors see and navigate your blog, how they use it, how much they like it and what actions they take.

“You are your brand”

Start by asking yourself what is your brand? Each blogger projects her brand through everything she does, from the way she writes, the way she presents herself and the way she interacts in the social media. The blogger is the brand of the blog.

When starting your blog there are three important branding elements to consider:

• Your blog name

Think of potential names for your blog. Many bloggers and blog readers think of a domain name as the blog brand, the easiest way to identify the blog.

A good blog brand name can be as simple as your full name. Many bloggers are fine with branding their blogs with their personal names. Some go by a pseudonym. Some have descriptive brand names like How To Make My Blog.

Make your blog brand memorable. Take your time to decide your blog name as it will be hard and confusing to change it later on.

See more on how to choose your blog domain name.

• Your blog logo and design

Blog graphics enhance and define the overall style, look and feel of the blog. Your blog logo and the design of the blog are integral part of your blog branding.

Your blog header logo is the most prominent visual aspect of your blog, make sure it is good. It can be an image, a symbol or you can push personal branding even further and use image of yourself. The logo should be able to attract your visitor, it should be easily recognizable and your blog name should be prominent in the graphic.

Unless you have good design skills, it is recommended to hire a professional to create a unique header image for you.

Premium themes are a simple and affordable way of having unique blog design without needign to hire a professional deisgner. With free themes you risk that your blog looks like many other blogs that use the same theme, so using a premium theme is the best way to build your blog branding. I use Thesis Theme personally.

See more on how to design your blog.

• Your blog voice

The voice and the tone you use on your blog is another element that impacts your branding. It is important to consider how you want to portray yourself. You can be a bit more detailed about it and think about what kind of content format you will be producing and other technical aspects like the length or the way you present the content.

I know bloggers who are very aware of this and have started a different persona online, but I always believe that being yourself is the way to success. Pick a voice that suits you, and keep a consistent voice across your pages and posts and the different social media platforms.

I prefer to write in authentic voice, my writing is basically is how I speak in a conversation. I find that when the writing sounds like people speaking, the visitors are listening. This voice also helps me get to the point as it is very straightforward and easy to understand.

It is not all style over substance

Remember that blog branding can be accomplished simply with a good name and a single logo image or more advanced with an entire custom built design theme. It is all down to you in how far you wish to go with your branding.

And don’t worry it is not all style over substance – your content still does the hard work in spreading the word about your blog so keep publishing the best content.

What To Do (And Not To Do) When Monetizing Your Blog

Whether it’s the reason you made a website in the first place, or just something that popped in your head after you started a passion blog, the idea of monetization is something that many bloggers consider.

Whether you are the former or the ladder, I wanted to offer some quick ideas on how to make money blogging with do’s and don’ts for each.

Here they are:

Affiliate Offers

Affiliate offers are when you suggest a product to your readers that you did not create in exchange for a cut of the profit. There are TONS of affiliate networks to choose from (Clickbank, Commission Junction, Max Bounty, to name a few) and there is an affiliate program for just about any product or service you can think of.

Here are some do’s and don’ts:

• DO – Offer your readers products that you have tried out and had success with.
• DON’T – Suggest a product that you have never tried or that you have no information about.
• DO – Offer your readers the BEST product in the particular niche at hand.
• DON’T – Suggest certain products just because the commission is higher.

The key here is to build trust with your readers. If you don’t have trust, they will not buy any of the affiliate offers you suggest.

Make Your Own Products

This is WAY easier than most people think and it can be one of the best ways to make money on your blog. It works particularly well for niches that don’t seem to have much commercial value.

Let’s look at a niche like personal development. If you owned a personal development blog, your best monetization choice might be to create an eBook and sell it for $5.00 – $10.00. As long as you have loyal readers, you will be able to sell something like this.

Note:

• DO – Make products that are valuable.
• DON’T – Create products just to make money.
• DO – Offer a fair value for the product.
• DON’T – Overprice (or underprice) the product.
• DO – Sell your product to visitors who have subscribed and trusted you.
• DON’T – Try to push the product on people the first time they visit your site.

I always talk about VALUE and this is especially important when selling your own digital products. The bottom line is that your products need to be much more valuable than a typical blog post. Take the time to ensure this.

Sell Advertising

This is a quick and fairly easy way that many bloggers choose to monetize their blog. By utilizing a service like Google AdSense you can be up and running with advertising in a matter of minutes. However, don’t let the ease of use distract you from some key do’s and don’ts:

• DO – Place your ads in a place that won’t cause them to heavily distract readers from the content of your blog.
• DON’T – Turn your entire website into a giant advertisement.
• DO – Think about your visitors first and advertising dollars second.
• DON’T – Concentrate more on profit than building a great website with solid readership.

If you are going to throw ads on your site – be tasteful.

Create A Cost/Month Membership

This is a great way to ensure passive income into the future. The hard part is that you have to create something REALLY valuable in order to command a monthly fee.

If you are really experienced in a subject, you might be able to pull this off.

For example – Distilled (an SEO consulting company) recently started a program called DistilledU (It is essentially a course for learning search engine optimization). They charge a monthly fee to join, which gives you access to the material/forums/support and so on…

Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” for creating membership programs:

• DO – Create a full service solution to a problem that is remarkably valuable.
• DON’T – Create a membership program that people are going to regret signing up for.
• DO – Keep pricing and recurring payments very transparent.
• DON’T – Trick people into signing up with flashy pricing schemes.

This method of monetizing can be very hard, so expect a lot of time and effort to go into getting this off the ground!

Wrapping Things Up

The fact is – there are TONS of ways you can make money with a good readership. The key is to analyze what your strengths and weaknesses are and choose a method from there.

This article wasn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of every method for monetizing available, but rather just a way to get you thinking.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to speaking with you in the comments section! Please feel free to share other methods for monetizing or some do’s/don’ts that I missed.

Jason is a professional internet-marketing consultant and spends his free time writing at MethodSEM, where he teaches his readers how to create a respected and profitable blog. Follow Jason on Twitter @methodsem for all his latest posts and updates.

7 Tips To Speed Up Your Blog Page Load Time

Blog visitors are key to success of your blog and as a blogger it is your job to increase visitor numbers. One way to attract more visitors is to speed up your blog load time and create a faster, more efficient, and improved visitor experience.

Your visitors will love you for it, so might Google and other search engines. Your blog might rank higher in search results as page load time is one of the ranking factors.

Check your blog load time

First thing first: Let us check your blog’s current load time speed. Run the blog speed tests at these two sites to see how fast or how slow your blog is currently:

• Google’s PageSpeed Insights
• GTMetrix

Any score above 75 is pretty good in my book as it means that your site loads faster than the average. If your score is below 75 or if your want to get an even better page loading time, continue reading for some not-too-techy tips to speed up your blog page load time.

How to speed up your blog page load time

• Choose the right host

Having a hosting account is the first step towards having a speedy site as free hostsare usually not too fast and reliable.

Eventually you may outgrow the hosting account and may need to upgrade to a dedicated server but at first it is more than enough to run your blog from a standard hosting account that you can get for around $50 per year. Bluehost is WordPress’ preferred choice.

• Choose the right platform

Your blogging platform is what you build your blog on, so it is important to get that right. For bloggers WordPress is the option to go for. It is free, it is open-source and comes as a very light and speedy platform out of the box.

WordPress is used by the majority of big bloggers and gets regularly updated with cleaner and leaner coding and functionality. See how to install WordPress.

• Limit the number of plugins you use

I love WordPress plugins as they allow me to add any functionality to my site that I may wish to have. The more plugins you add, the more CSS and Javascripts you have on your blog though, and that hurts your blog’s speed and load time. Keep a close eye on the amount of plugins you have installed.

I’m currently down to 7 plugins on my blog, down from having some 20+ not too long ago. Check the impact each plugin has on the site load by testing the site with the plugin activated and without the plugin. Consider whether the plugin truly adds any value to your blog before installing it.

Ballpark figure is to try and keep your WordPress blog to 10 plugins or less installed and activated.

• Choose the right Theme

Premium themes like Thesis and Genesis are developed clean coded, they give you a great flexibility and are speedy out of the box. Premium themes also allow you to customize your blog and in many cases add few pieces of custom code instead of installing another plugin.

Premium themes also have support behind them and are continuously upgraded and improved. This is not always the case with the free-to-use WordPress themes.

• Keep the image size low

Images are an integral part of any blog, they brand your blog and they keep your visitors interested in your blog posts.

What many bloggers do wrong is that they upload the high quality image and resize it inside the WordPress interface to fit their blog post area. This is not good as the size of your images will be huge and will negatively impact the load time.

Keep the image size low, somewhere around 50kb or less for main post image. You do that by resizing it to the exact size you need and compressing it by using “Save for web” or similar in your image editor before you actually upload it to your blog.

• Cache your blog

This is arguably the simplest way of speeding up your blog’s load time. Install a caching plugin and activate it. It will automatically speed up your blog by generating static files and serving those files to your visitors. I use “W3 Total Cache” and it does a great job. Search for it in your WordPress plugin interface and activate it.

• Use a Content Delivery Network

“W3 Total Cache” plugin allows you to add CDN (Content Delivery Network) support as well. CDN makes your blog load much faster by offloading the static files to data centers around the world. I use MaxCDN on this blog which also compresses some my blog’s files.