Photograph shot by Sukaina Rajabali

If you read my last post on How Blogging Became my Career, you’ll know I promised to share with you all the steps you need to take to actually start bringing in money from doing what you love … and in this case that’s blogging.

I’m now earning more money than I did in any office/corporate job I’ve had (and I’ve had a fair few believe me!) and the best part is I’m absolutely loving what I’m doing. I woke up this morning excited to write this blog in the hope that I can help inspire others to take the same leap of faith and show you that it can actually be done and you can get there quicker than you might think.

If you have a passion … if you’ve decided the office 9-5 desk job is no longer what you want from life … if you want to travel, see the world, wake up each morning excited to do what you do and have the ability to make money from that … then you’ve come to the right place.

Maybe the goal is the same salary as you were on in your job you’ve now left, maybe it’s hundreds of thousands, hey, maybe you’re reaching for the stars and millions is in your mind. It can be done, it’s happening every single day. Look at The Body Coach … he started maybe 2 years ago now with a very basic video on home-cooking and is now earning millions and flying all over the world doing exactly what he loves. Why can’t that be you, too?

Step 1 : Start the Blog!

Actually starting is the thing that puts 99% of us off doing something. All possible reasons come into play, “I don’t have enough time”…. “It will never go anywhere” … “I’m not as good as other people” … I’ve said these same excuses but it got to a point that I just thought no, I’m going to do this.

The thing is if you start now, then imagine where you’ll be in a year? Even if you’re not earning money yet, you’ve had a year of building up content, learning from mistakes, improving your writing, finding out who you want to be as a blogger and where your niche lies. That doesn’t always come straight away, I changed my blog name after 3 months of writing because I realised it pushed me in a direction I didn’t want to be in.  If you start now, then you’re already a step ahead of the game and you’ll be amazed how things start growing organically.

Step 2: Content, Content, Content

A blog without content is not a blog that brands will take notice of. If you’re focusing on food, aim to have at least 8 recipes in each section of your menus. If you’re focusing on fashion, post every other day with a new outfit or styling thoughts for 6 months solid. If you’re focusing on travel – travel! Think about where you’ve been before in life, do you have pictures from there? If so, great – post them! Write about weekend stays … beach days …. interesting streets and restaurants – all the things people want to know about when travelling to a new place. And if you can’t get away that much this year, get your friends to guest blog for you and buy them dinner when they get back.

Use outbound links to relevant content and don’t be scared of supporting other bloggers, showing your readers who inspired you! Bloggers have to work together to be successful, we show brands the impact we can have and that’s not done by being ‘all me’. Also, post regularly … readers like consistency and this is one of the most important rules of writing a successful blog.

Step 3: Create a Media Pack

So you now have a blog with amazingly captivating content and you’re ready to really push it out to the world. How do you do that? Not via an email with a link!

You need to create a document, or media pack, that you can send out to introduce yourself to all media agencies that are ultimately going to be the people you work very closely with. First impressions count – there are new bloggers every day and you need to make sure that from the very beginning you are one that people take notice of.

You’re very first media pack which comes with the “Hello I’m Sally and I would love to share my blog with you”  won’t include rates. You first need to build up traffic (which typically comes after your start pushing the blog) and also your relationships.

Here is the Media Pack template I used and still use. It’s really easy to follow and a lovely clean, crisp design. The idea of it is to let people know what the blog is about, why it’s different, and what you can offer as a blogger.

Step 4: Make the Relationships

Where do you start? By saying hello … as with most things in life.

You send out your personalised ‘welcome’ media pack to relevant PR agencies and then ask to meet them for a coffee. Get to know them and more importantly, let them get to know you. PR agencies aim is to connect their brands to it’s ideal customers and you are often a big part of that as a blogger (or influencer as it’s now called!). You will be invited to events, asked to post and be a supporter of their brands – do that.  Before you can start to charge, you need to have two things, a platform which is good enough to do so and relationships cemented so that you are the blogger they think of when a potential collaboration with budget comes around.

Step 5: Create your Rate Card Media Pack

There will come a point when you have done all the above and you feel your blog now has real value and something brands can truly benefit from. That’s the point when you decide how much you want to charge for sponsored blog posts and social media posts, and from that, you create your new Media pack which includes your collaboration rates. These can change as your following increases so don’t be worried that your first fee is the maximum you can ever charge.

It’s so important that when offers start coming in, you only accept those that are true to your brand and what you believe in. If your thing is healthy living like me, don’t go and accept a collaboration with Burger King just because it’s paid. I only ever work with the brands I genuinely love and would use. That way your readers trust you and know that if you’re advocating a product, it’s going to be something good!

So there’s my 5 steps on how to make money from blogging! I hope it gives some the confidence to start and knowledge on how to do so. Did you find this blog useful? Would you like more posts on blogging itself? If you have any questions please comment below and I’d be happy to help!

LLG x