I’ve been going to a lot of blogging and social media events around town lately. In these events, the speaker is usually giving a talk about some aspect of being a professional blogger. Meaning, they are trying to teach attendees (many of which have just started blogging) how they can grow into becoming professional bloggers in their own right. As in, how they can actually make money with blogging.
I’ve covered the different ways bloggers make money in the past, but in this article, I’m going to detail what professional bloggers do that helps get them paid in the first place.
They seek opportunity.
Professional bloggers don’t just sit on their behinds and wait for money making opportunities to come to them. Sure, with enough time and exposure, those opportunities do start to come to them, but professional bloggers know they need to hustle.
That means showing up to events. It means when they meet someone at an event they can possibly do business with, they give them their card.
I recently went to a workshop that was all about how bloggers can get sponsorship opportunities. I ran into the speaker at another freelancing event around town and she mentioned how not a single one of the bloggers at the first event even bothered to give her their card. This was after she’d just spent 45 minutes telling them that she was looking for bloggers to partner with!
I admit that I didn’t give her my card either at the first event (I got distracted helping someone who was new to blogging), but I sure as heck gave it to her the second time I saw her. The point is this: Professional bloggers pay attention to these cues and put themselves out there.
They are adaptable.
I was recently on a coaching call with a couple of clients who are also professional bloggers and they exemplified what it means to be a pro. They hosted an event that didn’t turn out the way they’d expected. What was meant to be an opportunity to teach young people about finances turned into a networking event for adults.
Rather than getting all hung up about it, they went with the flow. The end result is they ended up meeting people they could partner with for some cool opportunities.
Now I have to admit that I’ve coached plenty of aspiring professional bloggers who would not have done this. Instead, they would have focused on what went wrong and then completely miss the chance for a different opportunity.
They are determined.
Blogging is not something you can make money from quickly. In fact, I didn’t even start making decent money from my own blog until relatively recently.
People who are serious about becoming professional bloggers know this. That means they don’t quit after six months just because they aren’t seeing any money. It means they keep trying to learn new things. It means they keep showing up to do the work.
Final Thoughts
While there are several more things professional bloggers do – like invest time and money in social media – these three keys are at the core of everything. If you’re able to cultivate these three qualities, you’ll be well on your way to joining the ranks of professional bloggers.
