Love it before you launch it: How to find success in a daunting industry
By: William Shoukri
The blogging world is one that looks intimidating from the outside. All of these amazing professional bloggers seem like experts. It seems as though it takes a degree, diploma, or at least some degree of expertise to even deserve stepping foot in seemingly treacherous waters.
I sat down with bogger Dee Thompson on behalf of the Owls Nest to get some advice for you, our wonderful media studies readers. Dee, has been in the blogging industry since 2012. She began with her blog “Liner, Glitter, and Glow” but has since rebranded to become “A Dash of Dee”. Her blog covers food, travel, and anything else she thinks her readers may be interested in.
Dee and I chatted about how you create your blog, how to market it, how to monetize it and how to ensure its success. I have summarized what I believe to be Dee’s best pieces of advice below.
Just Start!
The hardest part of this process is having the courage to start! “this is honestly something that anyone can do! If you put some time into it, focus on it then it can be an amazing opportunity”. Dee makes sure to tell us right away that anyone can do this. All it takes is some passion and an idea!
Be consistent; “you don’t have to post every day but you need to be reliable, dependable”.
This will help you grow a relationship with your audience. Creating a community of regular readers is key to success in the world of blogging.
Learn to Monetize
Dee and I talked extensively about how to monetize your blog. This is Dee’s guide to making money through your passion!
- Affiliate Networks: “Depending on your niche – you can make money off of the products you talk about” Getting her start in beauty, this is how Dee first started making money through her blog. When you are considered a legitimate voice within your niche, companies will reach out, send you a product and you will receive a personalized link for your readers to purchase the product. Every time someone uses that link, you get a piece of the pie!
- Brand Collaborations: “this is probably my favourite way to make an income. You get to work with different brands on different projects and that is just so cool”.
Brand collaboration is great, and it applies to almost all industries! “Sometimes restaurants will pay me to come in and write about them. – Even resorts and travel agencies will reach out and send me to locations”.
Once you are getting opportunities like this, this is when things get real. Dee stressed this next point more than a couple times throughout the interview that after you start getting some monetary compensation you need to…
Love it before you launch it
“Keeping that authenticity is something that is super important when you start getting these partnerships and it’s something that I think lots of people lose sight of”.
This will be tough! But it is super important to be genuine! “If I haven’t tried something, I’m not going to share it. If I went to a restaurant and I didn’t have a good experience I’m going to tell them this wasn’t a fit for me, I can’t speak on it.”
You’re ready!
If you take anything away from this weeks blog, let it be this. JUST START! The only person stopping you from pursuing this is yourself. Take inspiration from Dee, you don’t need to have a background in writing to be a writer. All you need is some passion, and an idea!
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAufJCA0YgU
https://www.instagram.com/adashofdee/?hl=en
https://www.dashofdee.com/home/