4 Years of Blogging: Motivation, Mistakes & Money

Personalised Card: Kitschnoir

Firstly a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me so far. Blogging has been such an amazing experience, I am so grateful for all the love and opportunities that have come from this platform.

Yesterday was my blog’s fourth birthday! I have pretty much documented every year of my blogging journey so far, you can also find all my blog related content in my For Bloggers category.

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Motivation

Blogging has been such a personal journey for me, the motivation to keep going comes from seeing the pieces I write for my blog come to life and create a space for conversation within my home and with the people around me. Blogging has given me the space I needed to use my voice, and I am forever grateful.

A huge bonus is the comments and the support from everyone who reads my blog and my parents telling everybody they meet their daughter is a blogger.

I’d love to give you all these useful tips on how to stay motivated but for me, writing and starting a blog has been something I needed. It doesn’t feel like a chore, I defiantly have moments when I found it difficult to stay consistent, especially when writer’s block becomes more of an issue. However I reminded myself that being a writer and creative is one of those things you cannot force, you can’t switch it on, but you can definitely encourage creativity.

Mistakes

Any mistakes that I am aware of I have tried to figure out how to fix them. I’m learning every single day and although I don’t believe you need any special qualifications to start blogging, a little knowledge about the business side of things helps.

I might have shot myself in the foot, by not providing constructive criticism when reviewing products. It is key to remain professional and to give feedback on how the company may want to change/improve things in the future. Just bear in mind that you are being watched (not in a creepy way) you just never know who is reading and viewing your work.

I learned that I didn’t need to say yes to every opportunity that was presented to me, it’s okay to say no, especially If you haven’t established what it is that you wanted out of the opportunity.

Now with more experience I know it is perfectly okay to say that you’re not the right person for the job you’re being asked to do and to even recommend someone else for the opportunity. Something I have done a few times before, not only are you able to still help the brand/company out, it allows you to still keep that relationship with them for anything they may have for you in the future. Make it known that you would be open to working with them in the future if a particular opportunity comes up.

Money

The money side of blogging is still something I am figuring out. The topic of how much to charge and for what feels a little hush hush within the community sometimes. However anytime I have asked I have had some positive answers. I have previously been told to start at £50 for a paid blog post, and this does depend on your readers and followers and what is involved.

Before charging for anything I would suggest asking around, ask people you may have already worked with for free, ask the PR company you already have a relationship with if they have an estimate for how much they would pay for a full blog post review/feature.

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An example for how you might want to work out your price: £10 per 100 words (300 words) + £10 Per hour spent on a blog post (2 hours) = £50 + I would also include the time it takes to create the content around it; photography, promo posts, etc. This will vary depending on your own stats.

*I have a post coming next week that will go into more detail regarding doing free work and paid work.

There are some helpful posts on the money side of blogging that I would highly recommend reading:

The Money Behind Your Blog – Madeline Wilson-Ojo

3 Ways to Make Your First £20 As A New Blogger – The CoCo Creativ

The Influencer Pay Gap – Specifically highlights the inconsistency and inequality within the influencer industry especially when it comes to race.

Also shout out to This Girl Can Write A for the feature in her April Favourites, loads of new podcasts to get into, thank you!.

I hope this was helpful not only for newbies but for anyone who may want to know more about the blogging industry. If you have any other questions let me know.

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Thank you again for reading and supporting!