I hear it all the time, “So companies just send you stuff for free?” and “You actually make money just blogging about stuff?” and I have to silently laugh inside. Okay, sometimes I really do laugh because I find it sort of funny.
People often ask me how I do it, how I was able to make blogging my full time job and how I am able to earn a decent living with it. Well I’ll tell you, so just keep on reading.
I just started a blog one day and right away companies came knocking at my door, offering me money and products and trips just to get featured on my amazing blog!
Sound too good to be true? Well it is, because that’s all a lie.
Blogging isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Money didn’t just magically appear in my account one day. In fact, I blogged for a couple of years before I made anything worth actually bragging about.
Before that, I worked hard at building my brand. I worked on getting people to actually read my blog. I had to create social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter to share my posts and interact with what few readers I had. Then I had to seek out companies who would actually let me review their products, even though I didn’t have sky high numbers like many of my fellow bloggers. Now mind you, building all of the numbers (readers and social media followers) and then searching for brands and finding their contact info was almost a full time job in itself. I worked every day, from the time the kids walked out the door in the morning, until the time they got home in the afternoon. Sometimes, I worked even longer.
I networked with other bloggers. I made wonderful friends who have helped me along the way, and I’ve done the same for them. I became an active part of the community. Because that’s what blogging is essentially, a community of influential people.
But it didn’t stop there, not even close.
I had to continue to learn. I read countless articles and gained a lot of knowledge, but that still wasn’t enough. Now it was time to do something with everything I learned. So I worked harder with different strategies, while still doing the things to build my brand like in the beginning. Oh, and then I had to join even more social media networks to stay on top of the game. And I had to try to actively use them all.
Before I knew it, the products were rolling in and I was loving it. I knew the UPS and FedEx drivers by name. My neighbors thought I was a compulsive shopper with the number of packages I received every day. My kids and my husband loved it and got excited to test out new products all the time. But it wasn’t just free stuff coming to my door every day. It was products that I had to write about, to spread the word about; companies that I promised to promote. I got busy, so busy that some days all I did was write reviews; but I couldn’t stop because I had made a commitment to these companies and I owed them space on my blog in exchange for their product. I had to build my relationships and keep them strong if I wanted other companies to trust me enough to work with them.
I sent out pitches almost every day and 90% of them would either decline my offer or not even bother to respond. So I’d follow up in a couple of weeks and get almost the same response. But I didn’t let it get me down because at least some were willing to work with me. I just knew that I had to continue to work harder, and so I did.
Eventually the pitches started coming in to me. It was wonderful, companies were finally starting to notice me! I was getting a few big ticket items here and there and it was awesome. I started getting even more excited about what I was doing, but I knew that it meant that I had to work even harder to get on more lists and be seen by more companies and PR agencies.
Big opportunities started rolling in. I became a Frigidaire Test Drive Mom through Mom Central and got to review a brand new stove. Sam’s Club offered me a spot in their Sharing the Savings Blogger Program thanks to being a VIP member of the MomDot community. I was writing post after post for them and racking in the gift cards. Before I knew it, they were flying the group of us out to Bentonville, Arkansas for a tour of their headquarters and other exciting activities. I got to fly in an airplane for the first time in my life and these opportunities were just amazing. It felt surreal, yet I knew that I had to continue to work harder.
The community was changing, more people were starting blogs and competition was getting stronger. So I had to rethink some things and work harder. I needed to write better, take better pictures and find new ways to make myself stand out.
But it was working. More companies were reaching out to me and I didn’t have to spend so much time pitching. The pitches started coming in like crazy and I eventually had to bring on other writers to work on reviews. Companies started reaching out to me for advertising space. I was starting to make real money! Then I found networks that would allow me to join sponsored campaigns. Things were looking up and I was proud of myself for sticking through the rough times and continuing on with my dream. But I still wasn’t making all that much. I figured I needed to do something more and eventually started hosting Twitter parties for Collective Bias.
So where am I at now?
Today, you’ll find me working even harder than I did in the beginning. If I leave my email for a day, it takes hours to catch up the next day. I turn down many pitches for review because they either don’t fit for our families or none of us has the time for it. I do get a decent amount of sponsored work. I have deadlines to meet, often more than one post due each day. I have to promote our content so that new eyes can see it and my sponsors get a decent ROI. I even hired help for this aspect because I simply do not have enough time in a day to do it all.
My days are no longer filled with pitching companies, but instead with making recipes, taking and editing photos, writing articles, promoting content and reading emails; with the occasional Twitter Party in between all the madness. But through it all, I still have to stay on top of the game. I am constantly learning.
I absolutely love what I do and I am so blessed to be able to do it. But it took hard work, long hours and five years to get where I am today. There’s no way that it would have happened overnight and that’s the moral of today’s story. I don’t want you to think “Oh, I’m going to start a blog so that I can stay home and make money” because that’s just not realistic. There is work involved and I do believe that almost anyone can do it, but you need to have the drive to want to succeed and the ability to put your all into it. You need to work hard to build your brand and be open to constant learning because things are constantly changing and that’s what this business is all about.
Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear from you. Do you have any advice to give to someone who wants to start blogging or anything else you’d like to share? Please just keep it “nice” as I sort of wrote this post with a hint of humor to make a point that you can’t just start a blog and expect anything to happen overnight!
