Blogging has become a pretty big phenomenon and more people seem to be getting on the bandwagon so to speak. I can still remember when I found out someone who I gamed with on Facebook had a mommy blog. At the time I was not sure what all that met but I at least found some cool recipes on her blog. People who I started to admire in the work at home community also were running successful websites and blog and from there I fell in love. But let's get down to business for a minute, how many people do you know who blog? And how many are taking it seriously?
The thought of taking blogging seriously might be scary for some people. There is a lot of people who blog and don't make income from it because they don't know how. Those are the people who got genuinely interested in just blogging about a passion in most cases. And then there are people like me who have tried out numerous topics and let the blog die, not good!
The first thing to decide is what you want out of this blog. Is this just a spot to share ideas, maybe vent. Or perhaps you want to sell a service and share words of wisdom and attempt making money from it. Most blogs I stumble into that are successful are making money some how. It may not be always in your face because some people don't flood their page with advertising space but instead sell a service or product.
I have been blogging on and off now since 2009 or so and the same thing would always happen. Due to lack of motivation or outside job interference I could never seem to get it all down. In most cases I wasn't posting enough content but also was not promoting my blog enough and building a name for myself. In the work at home community I try to do that by posting honest comments to forums and sharing information when I can. I learned a lot and I know it can take a long time to get anywhere with blogging and the money part.
When Should You Take Your Blog Seriously?
Gaining an audience is a big step and once you get that audience it might be a good time to start developing a plan to keep them coming back. My goal and dream has always been to be a writer and for me having a blog lets me work on that in a small way without being published or widely known. I know that my readers is a small audience due to me only using certain traffic methods to get viewers and only free methods.
My advice if you start out a free blogging platform like I have chose to do, in time if you keep things updated and notice comments or maybe even people contacting you through email or social media, this might be a good time to expand. In the future I do plan on getting a domain name because it will look much more professional then using blogger. Plus it will make me feel more business like and might even make me smarten up and take things more seriously.
Here is a quick list of when to take it serious
* Your readers have established a large following and you don't want to let them down.
* You are well organized and making list and ideas.
* You already planned to make this into something but lose motivation, try stepping up to the task and refresh and re do! See if it gets better!
* You want to quit your day job and turn your blog into your FULL time job.
* Your blog is making you some money and now you want to grow it!
* You love what you blog about, so keep going.
This list could go on and you know why? Because we all have different reasons as to why we will or won't take our blogs seriously. I can raise my hand and embarrassingly say I have stopped blogging about old niches because I wasn't making money. Sure, and I also wasn't educated how to get traffic. I am no guru by any means but I can tell you with a lot of hard work and building a positive image of yourself and your blog online you in time will find an audience and if you choose can make some money. I am not going to say a full time income because that is hard but it does happen for some people.
Something to remember though that some bloggers are not making much from their blog, maybe they make more selling an ebook series for example but use the blog as a place for people to find them. See there is tons of reasons why people blog.
Don't forget though just because you decide to take blogging seriously it doesn't mean you need to hugely focus on money. A lot of people who start might be a stay at home parent or might work full time and do the blog as a hobby and that is okay! If someday it happens your blog can support you then awesome but don't put a big wish on it. I say this because I think all bloggers who are making money will agree with me that it is hard and takes a lot of effort, commitment and time but most important patience.
I have a lot of patience luckily and try not to think of money much but just the joy of loving what I do. That can help a lot to start blogging with a love for it and not a love for money.
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Thank you for another passionate writing.
. I know how you feel I am guilty as charged too for letting blogs go. Sometimes it isn't motivation loss but finding a new site to work on, like how you mention joining a new writing site. It can be way to easy to get side tracked that is for sure.
