A successful career in blogging depends upon a lot of factors. For example; the choice of your niche, keywords, marketing efforts, blog persistency, and not to forget – ‘continued learning’. We live in a world where things change quite rapidly. What used to work well one year ago may not work that well today. Similarly, what works today may not work one year forward. Therefore, the only way to ensure our survival is to keep learning and be updated with the latest and greatest happenings in our career. Through this post today, I will share some valuable tips on how to ensure your career advancement or growth as a blogger?
Blogging: An underestimated career option
Let’s face it. Blogging is no one’s first choice as a possible career option. Why? Because the society we live in still believes that blogging is just a casually maintained online journal, and that you can’t make a living out of it. As a result, we are often forced to limit our vision to only traditional career options like Medical, Engineering, Charted Accountants, and Business Management. Thanks to the millennials who are now proving that blogging or vlogging as a career option can be as potentially viable as the traditional ones.
Do you know? During the year 2020, Ryan Kaji, a 9-year-old boy made a whopping $29.5 million from his YouTube channel!
The truth is that blogging isn’t an overnight success. You shouldn’t expect a windfall just because you’ve created a new blog and started writing 10 articles a day! It takes years of hard work and a continuous learning curve before you start seeing the first ray of success.
Today, blogging is no longer a non-productive hobby for your creative outlets. Blogging is a full-blown online business that can make you a decent living, or perhaps even a fortune, if you chase it seriously will all the right efforts. That being said, it’s equally important to know what does it takes to ensure your career advancement as a blogger. That’s what my post for today is all about.
4 ways to ensure growth in your blogging career
1.) Enroll for a good blogging course
There are two ways to learn blogging. One is called ‘Practical Learning’ and the other is called ‘Theoretical Learning’. Practical learning is the one that you gain by doing things yourself. In this context, you create your own blog and start writing and marketing yourself, without having any prior knowledge. You do 10 things, fail at 8, and gradually learn what works and what doesn’t. Over time, wisdom and practical knowledge is developed and you turn professional in your field. I belong to this category.
The second route is called ‘Theoretical Learning’. Here, you first acquire all the required knowledge and learn from the basics. So, if you first want to accumulate all the knowledge and basics, then there are many good courses on blogging that you can enroll into. And… Even if you are already a mature blogger, going through such courses will only help you brush up your skills. The best part is, most of these courses are free. Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, and Hubspot Academy are good places to start with. In addition, I will encourage you to go through this post on Ryan’s blog where he has reviewed 27 best blogging courses for bloggers.
2.) Join reputed blogging groups/communities
Joining online groups / communities of interest helps you discover interesting new developments, along with views, and opinions from a diverse group of bloggers with varying levels of expertise. Apart from the benefits of helping you build a network of influential contacts; these conversations can also expose you to unique ideas / topics that you can cover on your own blog.
Some of the good facebook groups in this category are:
The Reddit community on Blogging is also a very popular, resourceful, and helpful place to get started.
My advice is: Don’t just join a community for the purpose of just scrolling through its feed endlessly. Be open and participate. If someone has posted a question related to your core competency area, go ahead and answer it with the best of your knowledge. Similarly, if you ever have a question related to your own blog, don’t hesitate. Ask it. The more you participate, the more you will be able to build your network and contacts. This also gives you exposure. You never know, who starts liking your work and ends up linking to your blog in his/her latest blog post?
3.) Attend Webinars and Conferences
Attending live webinars and conferences is a great way to learn directly from the industry veterans and experts, expand your knowledge base, and upskill. Unlike conferences which require you to travel and be physically present to listen to your host, webinars are much more convenient. Since webinars or webcasts are online events organized by hosts, they are much more flexible as you can join them even while relaxing in your bed/sofa. Another benefit is that webinar hosts generally record their webinars. So, if you’ve registered yourself for a webinar, and you somehow miss it live, the host can always email you the recorded session later on.
Here is the list of my favorite webinars/live video resources:
- Webinars by Content Marketing Institute – If you are passionate about Sales and Content Marketing
- Hubspot Webinars – Again if you are interested in sales and content marketing
- Google Search Central – If you are interested in learning SEO, and improving your Google rankings
- Google Digital Garage (Live Training) – a place to learn/brush up your skills and strategies related to digital marketing, social media, analytics, and branding.
4.) Invest in good books
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
George R.R Martin
The meaning of this quote is: When you are reading a book, you are not just gaining knowledge, but also you vicariously experience the life of author. Imagine the vast knowledge and experiences you might collect when you read a hundred good books in your lifetime!
The importance of good books for bloggers is no different.
Here is the list of books that I recommend as worth reading for all the bloggers:
- Secrets for blogging your way to a six-figure income – by Darren Rowse (Problogger)
- How to blog for profit – by Ruth Soukup
- Atomic habits – by James Clear
- How to be a writer – by Ruskin Bond
- WordPress for beginners – by Dr. Andy Williams
Share your experience as a blogger
Whether you are blogging on a part-time basis or permanent basis, what has been your experience so far? How do you make sure that your career grows? What is the source of your learning? Please share.
Interesting tips, Abhishek. I have to agree that Reddit communities are of great help – Good for healthy engagement of knowledge with like minded professionals.
I enjoyed reading this article. So much to learn 🙂
Thank you 🙂