To ask if you make money from blogging?

[sukitea]

Just that really, and how? Apart from the obvious bit of having an interesting read, what do you do to bring in an audience? Do you approach companies for review products or vice versa? Any hints/tips welcome.

I don't directly, but I work in a similar area.

You need an angle. There are thousands of people blogging about being a parent, or make up, or shopping, or home interiors. How are you different? What do you have to set you apart from the crowd?

I would like to do travel reviews for a niche market (think holiday destinations/hotels/restaurants for a BME group). This isn't a big market as far as I have researched. I have travelled quite a bit and have a 'bank' of places I could use, but not sure how to do it? In honesty I would want some form of benefit/reward from the places I was advertising.

If I approached a hotel and asked for a few free nights in return would that be CF territory?

Suki, you would be laughed out of the place unless you have thousands of followers and can show your marketing value to them. Also, usually places find you, not you find them.

I don't know much about blogging or how to make money from it I'm afraid.

I would, however, read something coming from that angle though. It really is something that I try and research before travelling somewhere and it's pretty much impossible to do it apart from through word of mouth. You can't exactly phone up a resort and say 'do you think your area has racist undertones?'

Suki I read recently about a restaurant who was asked to provide free food for a blogger and he just tweeted it as he was sick of being asked for this .

Yes.

I don't want to boast but last month earned nearly £35!

My 2 pence worth think advice is that you would be laughed at for suggesting being paid for good reviews (or reviews of any sort) without a very substantial readership. To get this readership you need some good SEO, cross channel promotion and a USP.

Make a business plan, consider basic SWOT Analysis* and how to monetise your work.

To turn this into any significant benefit to you, it is likely to take a lot of time and money and honestly, I wouldn't imagine that anyone would invest in a blog at the moment. IME, you need to already have a name for yourself before blogging becomes worthwhile.

My £35 p/m blog is a couple of years old, is anonymous and is 'professional' but informal commentary on advances in my field. It's more for me to synthesise my thoughts than anything else; monetised with adsense.

*which I suspect would help you realise that your hotel idea can't work

Thanks for the replies, this is the sort of advice I am after! Saddy I would also love stuff like this, as you say it isn't really the sort of thing that you can ask a proprietor, so it is good to have someone who has been there to get a feel for things.

So next question is then how to build an audience quickly?

topic great advice thank you. How should I build my empire name? Is Instagram a good way?

You're not going to do it quickly. You might not be able to do it at all, unless you have something very special to offer.

You don't build an audience quickly. Try focusing on creating high quality content. Then people come to you. However, just because brands come to you doesn't mean you need to go with them. It's not a whimsy you can fall into and expect to go viral. Some do, but then I think I'm the only person who doesn't find things like the Unmumsy Mum an Hurrah for Gin funny or interesting.

There are various sites that give advice on creating a blog and monetising it. Here's one. (I have no idea how useful that advice actually is, some of those sites are probably better than others).
But you certainly won't be getting any freebies as an absolute beginnner with no followers, because there's no benefit at all to the hotel/venue in having you write a blog post that no one will read.

Have you any professional writing experience? Ever had anything published (a poem about flowers in the school magazine 20 years ago doesn't count)? Being able to list previous successes on your blog site will help. What's your social media presence like right now - do you have a lot of Twitter followers? Do you post about your trips on Facebook and get attention for it?

The way to build a following is: just start. Build the blog (this is pretty idiot proof with sites like Wix and wordpress that give you idiot-proof templates). Start writing on it. Put a link to Google Adwords - for your first few months it will be pennies per month if anything, but it's a start. You will need to use Twitter/Instagram/FB as well.

If you're good, and there's demand for what you have to offer, it might well work out for you, but it really isn't something you can do overnight.

I suggest you have a read, OP:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/23/michelin-starred-restaurant-hits-bloggers-cheeky-request-free/

Absolutely laughable that you'd go about asking for freebies when you've just started out and have yet to establish your blog.

Sukitea, please don't start a blog. You're not doing it for the right reasons and you haven't given us any indication that you have a background/skillset that makes you suited to it. Are you a writer? Have you worked in marketing/PR? Do you have a high quality camera and strong photography and editing skills?

The internet is full of shitty blogs made by people more interested in earning money than producing good content.

If you have, as it sounds, no relevant background or audience, be prepared to put in a significant amount of time, effort and your own money to make it successful.

Sorry, cross post with Inarut!

It's not a quick way to make money. I used to write a blog and had a few thousand followers. I still earned a pittance doing it and spent hours marketing it on social media every week. The successful blogs you see out there have either hit a niche before everyone else (zoella made millions by discussing her mental health issues before anyone else was really doing it, there are now probably millions of people copying her), or they come from wealthy backgrounds and can pump money into branding themselves and having amazing photos taken etc, or they just strike lucky (which can still take years).
If you want to start one up then go for it, but don't expect to earn more than a few £ per month for at least a year or two

I had a beauty and makeup blog about 8 years ago before the whole thing really took off, and I made a small amount through sponsored posts/content, got quite a lot of freebies and the odd night away for an event. I started it because I enjoyed it rather than with the aim of getting free stuff, which was a pleasant bonus. However, it's not something I'd ever try to get into now, it's become a big industry and a saturated market and these people do it as a full time job (and tend to be young, rich to start with and have a certain look too).

You would need thousands upon thousands of followers across the various social media channels, and firm evidence of engagement for any business to be able to justify giving you some of their product free - be that a meal in a restaurant or a night in a hotel. I just don't think it's possible to get into any more.

@sukitea

firstly, this isn't really my area of expertise (hence the meagre returns) but do work in technology so have a vague understanding.

The reason there are books and books and books about this subject suggests that you can't be given much helpful advice in an AIBU post where the details you've given are fairly vague to begin with!

Begin with a SWOT Analysis. You'll get your thoughts in order. From what I gather so far, your business ideas are short on opportunities and high in threat. I don't know there's anything you offer that Trip Advisor (especially with area experts and ability to ask a question) can't.

SWOT

Read blogs about how to make blogs. Read E-Commerce books, watch youtube videos about SEO and content writing. Practice writing. Learn how to code properly. Understand UX and UI design on the web. Make sure it's optimised for mobile users. Read and learn a lot. Whilst you're doing so, you may well have a very good idea or refine a vaguely good idea.

Stop using 'think' synonymously with 'such as' or 'for example'. It's annoying think fingernails on a blackboard

I blog about travel. I don't get paid for it at all. I do it because I enjoy it. If you only want to do it for the rewards you shouldn't do it to be honest.

What is your market? You cannot make anything unless you know your market. What do they want? How much money do they have? How do they like to spend it?

I think those days are over unless you've got thousands of followers. Then I'd assume the establishment would find you rather than the other way round.

Sorry, but you don't just "start a blog and get the money/freebies!"
It doesn't quite work like that.
You start a blog because you like writing, are good at it and want to do it.
You write because you want to. People read it and you build up a following which doesn't happen overnight.
It takes time.

When I worked in SEO we'd pay bloggers to stick links on their pages, make sponsored posts etc. However, we'd use long established blogs with lots of traffic, usually in niche markets. Rates would be up to £200 for high quality links.

It's probably a nice source of side income for stay at home parents or those who just love to write, but it's not a full time income. It's harder to get readers now, since most people prefer following people on Instagram etc.

Hi op
I write a travel blog, for fun not money
There are zillions of travel bloggers.
To find out how to make money look at sharon gourlays site 'wheres sharon' she's one of the world's top travel bloggers and gives lots of information.

Hotels will only give you free stays if you are a blogger with a massive following, a high DA, thousands of visitors per month. It will take time to get to that level.
Read blogging for dummies.
Spend a lot of time on social media marketing.
Look at trips 100.

How much ti.e per week do you think you'll have to spend on your blog?

You need to do a lot more research before you get started and don't expect NY free trips any time soon!

Good luck!

www.digitalnomadwannabe.com/

Is Sharon's other site where she explains how to make money from blogging

I used to have a blog, it took about 3 years or so before I started being approached by PRs and companies offering products for placement and the occasional paid placement by which point I was garnering in excess of 10,000 unique views a month. I think the most I was ever paid was £50 for a placement, but they wanted full editorial rights on the copy and in honesty the money wasn't worth the hassle.

I blogged for the fun of it, I definitely wouldn't have gone into it expecting to make a living from it. Sure there are those that do, but these days the market is so over-saturated it's hard to stand out from the crowd.