When somebody asks me what I do for a living, I usually say that I am a blogger. Then I get a ton of follow-up questions like “Is full-time blogging really a thing?” or “How do you make money off that?”

My Humble Beginnings

I’ve been in the blogosphere since 2012. Back in the days, I had no idea of the industry’s potential. I knew nothing about blogging, and I had no idea that you can be a full-time blogger and make money from it. I just enjoyed sharing my life experiences online. And after three years, I was already making a few dollars from my blog.

I worked in a BPO company after graduating from college, to gain working experience. But I always felt like something wasn’t right. I always see my day job as something I needed to do to support my needs and wants. But as they say, “First love never dies.” That’s when I decide to quit my job and pursue my career in writing.

Writing has always been my passion. It led me to become a full-time blogger and freelance writer, a passion-based career that affords me a gratifying freedom of lifestyle — being your own boss, flexible schedules. Moreover, you can work wherever you want. But it’s not all roses and buttercups. There is a lot of work that most of you guys never see. There are editorial calendars, HTML codes, SEO, web design, photography and editing, social media, accounting, taxes, answering comments, and website outages. Sometimes, people will steal your photos and try to pass it off as their own. Here’s how I turned my passion for writing into a full-time blogging career.

Discipline

Full-time blogging requires discipline. I find this hard to do at first because there is no compulsion for me to follow discipline, and that’s where laziness dives in. But over the years, I was able to overcome this. But not completely. Here’s what I did: I list out all the things that I should do the next day (answering emails, targetting traffic, writing a new blog post, etc.) My to-do list is one of the things that kept me motivated and disciplined everyday.

Tip: If you want to succeed, you should have a plan that you can work upon and keep a reasonable goal. If you don’t have a target to achieve, you will be less motivated to wake up. Having a home office or working corner on your house will help you be more disciplined.

Adapting to the change

Blogging is not the same thing that was in the pioneer days. Since then, blogging has revolutionized. There is always a new trend that everybody seems to be doing, from MySpace to Facebook, Instagram, and now, TikTok. And it is constantly changing. It can make you feel like you will be left behind if you don’t jump on board.

This is where I learned to adapt to the change. And that matters a lot. As more and more people are diving online, there will be huge competition, especially in influencer marketing. You must be unique enough to face the competition with ease.

Getting Paid

There are several ways to make money in blogging. One of these is Affiliate marketing. This is where I link products that I buy and use myself. When people buy things through those links, I get a small commission for sending them over. Another way is through Blog sponsorships and display advertising. This might be in the form of a sponsored review, social media posting, a guest blog post, a sidebar link, banner, and so on. This is where I get most of my income.

I also earned by creating my own product, such as this book, that you can buy on Amazon.

Growing my skills and targetting more income streams

Depending upon a single blog for all your income can be challenging. I always try to diversify my source of income and open several streams for income generation. I enrolled in different online courses to learn new skills that help me gain clients in freelance writing and digital marketing while growing my own brand.

Also Read: BIR Registration Guide For Self-Employed Professionals

Blogging is not meant for overnight success. People think that it is one of the get-rich-quick-schemes. Publishing some posts, driving traffic, and Google pays you. That’s far from the truth! But with patience, passion, dedication, and hard work, anything is possible! It takes a great toll and time to bear real results.

For me, blogging has been a rewarding hobby-turned-career, and I am so thankful that my work has led me here. And if you have read this far, THANK YOU! I hope you continue supporting this blog.