I am so ready to get down and teach all those bloggers just starting out, how to look like a professional blogger right from the beginning!

Don’t worry, I’m not telling you to LIE or pretend to be someone you aren’t. Honestly, that doesn’t even work these days.

I am instead, sharing all my TOP secrets and tips to help you get blogging success even FASTER, and make you look like a “blogging professional” right from the beginning so that you can start earning some income from your blogging passion!

A little background about me: I started my blog in 2017, so it’s been awhile. I pursued the crap outta my passion and didn’t give up. About 2 years in of not making money, I decided to hire a blogging coach and shortly after I started making over $1,500 a month from my side hustle! NOW I make up to $5,000 a month from blogging. (of course each month ranges). Blogging is now my full time job and I also am a blogging coach helping other ladies get those same results!

Am I saying that it’s going to happen in a year for you? NO. It could be a year, it could be a few months, or maybe more! It all comes down to how DEDICATED you are and if you decided to INVEST or not. Nothing comes easy. You have to work hard and consistently at your passion in order to see growth.

BUUUT since I know your end goal is to pursue blogging as a stay at home job, I want to share with you some of my tips on how you can look like a “blogging professional” right from the very beginning!

Lets get started.

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Choose the Proper Platform

WordPress is undeniably a very popular platform and soooo many bloggers are still using it today, but many have decided to leave it to build their website on a more user-friendly, easy to design, platforms that give you drag and drop options.

Before I tell you which platform I think you should start your blog on, I want to go ahead and tell you all of the reasons why I think you shouldn’t blog on WordPress.

–Designing Your Website Will Be Extremely Difficult

I’m sorry to say this, but no one else is and I believe it needs to be heard.

Most bloggers that write a “How to Start a Blog” post, say to use WordPress because they will get an affiliate from one of the popular hosting companies like Bluehost and Siteground. Which is fine- I have no problem with bloggers writing posts to make affiliate sales, but they aren’t exactly giving you the full information.

Starting your blog on WordPress is actually extremely difficult because it’s almost impossible to design your own website on it. You would need to hire a designer to make your website look good.

There are a lot of bloggers who are trying to do and write about the same things you are and in order to stand out, you need to have a better website and more detailed and thorough blog posts than your competition.

Designing your own website on WordPress with no website design or CSS knowledge is nearly impossible.

I see sooo many new bloggers struggling with this. They listen to a blogger, they get a WordPress site, and then they spend hours upon hours trying to build a website to just be “good enough.”

And I’m sorry, boss lady, that you’ve been lead in the wrong direction. Your website design really does matter for your blogs success because you need to look professional from the start.

If you’ve been struggling to build your own website, especially on WordPress, I feel ya.

That is exactly why I recommend Showit to all of my clients and blog readers.

“Sure Gen….But What is Showit?“

Showit is the most innovative platform for drag & drop website building without code. Throw everything you know about templates and drag & drop, this is truly unique. Showit offers the possibility to customize templates 100% so you can easily create a unique website without a single line of code. The platform has been specially developed for creative entrepreneurs.

Showit will allow you to design a stunning website on Showit but you will write all of your blog posts with WordPress. It’s absolutely amazing.

If you want to look like a professional blogger from the start, then choose Showit over WordPress. I promise you won’t regret it.

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Focus on Your Blogs Brand

First of all, let’s chat about what the heck branding is: Branding is basically the feeling and vibe your blog/business gives off.

There are a ton of key elements that go into branding such as your name, slogan, logo, colors, and more. But there is also a different side to branding that conveys who you are, your voice, vision and values.

Branding is all about how you make your website visitors feel.

There are a lot of key elements to branding and you can read all about that right here.

But today we gonna chat about why you need to focus on your blogs brand if you want to look like a professional blogger….

Helps you stand out. No matter your industry or audience, you’ll always have competition. Branding helps establish how you’re different and unique.

Being yourself is a great way to stand out, and a great place to start building your brand. Though your competition might have a similar product or service, the way you connect and resonate with people will make you stand out and reach those your competition might not be reaching.

Creates a consistent experience. Consistency is essential for your audience to understand who you are and what you’re about. No matter how they interact with you, your audience should be receiving the same message.

Imagine a brand that’s fun and personable on Instagram, but on their website, they’re serious and hard to connect with. That kind of inconsistency gives your audience whiplash and will make them look elsewhere.

Builds brand recognition. Establishing a consistent message and look will give you a distinct style that people will automatically recognize as yours. Whether they’re scrolling Instagram or Pinterest, they’ll know instantly that the graphic or information is yours, making them more likely to interact and trust the piece. To create this recognition, you need to constantly and consistently be showing up for your audience through your feed, newsletters, Pinterest, the list goes on.

Sparks a connection. Sparking an emotional connection with your audience can be difficult but very powerful to your business. Emotional connection is what changes a prospective client into a brand enthusiast and repeat customer. An emotionally connected and invested audience is more likely to trust and buy from you, rather than from a random person they know nothing about.

Something I’ve been doing to build more connection is showing up in Instagram stories more. Overall, my audience has been more engaged and people are inquiring about my services all because they watched me on stories and felt a connection.

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Start an Email List From the Beginning

Focusing on how to start and grow an email list is one of the most important blogging tasks to prioritize from the very beginning in order to make a professional blogger salary.

The main reasons why growing an email list is so crucially important is because its YOURS. You own it and you don’t have any competition trying to tear you down like beating algorithms.

An email list will also have a WAY higher engagement rate than social media will. More people will open your emails and click on your links than they would if you were to post something on Instagram.

Pssstt, Instagram doesn’t even show your posts to half your readers.

You also need to think about your email list like this- Your email list is FULL of people who raised their hand and chose to receive emails from you. They are interested in you and your content.

So how does an email list make you look like a professional blogger?

By sending out weekly newsletters, you start to build a relationship with your blog readers. They will begin to feel like they know, like, and trust you.

Plus, writing emails isn’t very easy for someone to do, so if you are writing and sending out emails, you will instantly look more professional.

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Have the Correct Blogging Pages

There are some very important blogging pages that you need to have on your blog in order for you to look like a professional blogger. These pages include:

-Home

-About

-Contact

-Privacy Policy

-Terms and Conditions

-Disclaimer

-Disclosure

These pages also need to have important sections that will make your reader feel like you are an expert at blogging.

Each page needs to be built on a certain strategy, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

Be Consistent

I am so serious about this! Nothing screams “NEWWWWBIE” than not being consistent. I will be so honest with you. In the beginning it’s vital to be consistent, and keep being consistent with all that you do!

Starting out as a blogger you will have many moments where you sit there and say “UGH, I don’t want to do this, it’s not worth it, I will NEVER grow.” I get it. I have been there and done that.

Do you want to know what 75% of bloggers do when they get to that point?…

They take a long a** break and give up. Your audience will start to wonder, where the hell did you go? They start to lose trust in you, and it doesn’t make you look profeshhhh at all.

I know this has been a lot of “the truth hurts” moments, but I am telling you how it is! You need to stay consistent. Long breaks can really hurt you. I know that breaks are important but if you disappear on your audience for months at a time, they will never trust you.

Trust is important especially when it comes to making money through your blog! You NEED a trusting audience, and one way to get your audience to trust you is to consistently put out your best content and to be as consistent as possible!

Blog Legally

Why You Need To Protect Your Blog Legally

Let’s be real, when you are starting a blog, the legal side of blogging is the last thing on your mind.

There’s so much that goes into starting a blog, from setting up Showit (or WordPress) to writing posts to starting an email list and so much more.

The legal stuff doesn’t seem as important as the other things.

Or you don’t even know about it.

But it’s actually a lot more important than you think.

It’s Required By Law To Have Legal Pages On Your Blog

Having legal pages on your blog is required by law.

It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging as a hobby or making money with your blog, you are required by law to have legal pages on your blog.

Besides the fact that it’s required by law, having legal pages is also important for working with brands.

Lots of affiliate programs and ad networks will not accept you unless you have legal pages on your blog (especially a privacy policy).

Therefore, if you’re planning on making money with your blog, it’s essential to have proper legal pages.

These legal pages are:

1. Privacy Policy

2. Terms And Conditions

3. Disclaimer

4. Disclosure

Write Killer Blog Content

New blogger’s always have the expectation that they need to be a professional writer to look like a professional blogger. While you do need some basic knowledge of writing-you do not need to be an amazing content writer who makes no mistakes. There are ways to work around this and tools you can use like Grammarly.

If writing isn’t your strong point, don’t be discouraged. Hint: It’s not mine either and I still find ways to make it work.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to make blogging sound easy. There is a lot that goes into writing a perfect blog post but it’s not rocket science.

“SO Gen, then how do I write killer blog content so I can look professional?”

1. Make your blog post lengthy. A blog post that is 1500 words + will make you look a lot more professional than a small 300 word post. The lengthier, the better.
2. Break up the text so that the reader can easily scroll through it.
3. Plug your post into Grammarly after it is finished to correct errors.
4. Write posts that educate and help people. Blogging is not a journal where you talk all about you. That doesn’t work anymore. You need to write posts people actually want to read.
5. Be entertaining. Write your blog posts as you would if you were talking to someone at a bar. Spice up some words, use jargon, be funny if you want to. Be yourself. People like reading content that is from an actual human, not a robot. You can also spice up text by italicizing and bolding words. Hint: Drink a glass of wine before you write a post. You will be more likely to write from your personality.
6. Write with confidence. Nothing more important than writing with confidence. If you believe in yourself, others will too! That’s one thing that I learned throughout my journey. Through blogging I was actually able to find my confidence. Now I am confident in everything I do, especially when reaching out and speaking with other bloggers.

Network

It’s so important to network with other bloggers if you want to be a professional blogger with a professional blogger salary. You don’t just grow alone, but you grow together! Guest posting on other’s sites is HUGE. It not only helps improve your SEO (search engine optimization and ranking higher on google) But it also helps you to get noticed by more people! Plus you might even make some great blogging friends!

I suggest joining my community Boss Lady Bloggers if you are wanting to network and collab with other bloggers! It is a small group but we all help each other grow and learn together!

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I hope you enjoyed these tips!

Happy blogging!