Kitty Lusby: Going Pro: How To Make Your Blog Pay Your Bills

Kitty Lusby: Going Pro: How To Make Your Blog Pay Your Bills

professional blogger Kitty Lusby speaking at WordCamp LA 2016 on Going Pro – How To Make Your Blog Pay Your Bills
Kitty Lusby

Abstract

Blog monetization is always a hot topic, but what does it REALLY take to go full-time?

Professional blogging is a business…potentially a very profitable one. With the right strategy, skills, and mindset, you can build a revenue stream from your WordPress blog that supports your lifestyle.

In this session, we’ll discuss why you need a business plan and how to write one, and how to develop a monetization strategy that makes sense for you. Plus, we’ll discuss exactly how you can use your WordPress blog to develop an income that supports your lifestyle, even if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of unique web visitors every month. We’ll probably also have a few laughs at the speaker’s expense. It will be a good time.

Kitty Lusby speaking before a filled auditorium at CSULA for WCLAX
Kitty Lusby, WordCamp LA ’16 “Going Pro – How To Make Your Blog Pay Your Bills”

Realistic Expectations

Professional blogging is probably not what you think. It takes time. It’s not fast & easy fame & fortune.

Blogging

Blogging is not writing. It is not copywriting. It is blogging.

You will suck for a while. You will not make money. Your friends & family will not read your blog.

Business Skills

Professional blogging is a business. You need business skills.

  • Networking Skills (you have to talk to strangers!)(try Uber or Airbnb!)
  • Leadership Skills – you’re building a community with your readers
  • Emotional Maturity (the bigger you get the more nasty things people will say about you (nobody throws stones at trees that don’t bear fruit))
  • Priority Management
  • Pro Blogging is not Romantic

2 Main Blogging Professions

  • Freelancing & Consulting
  • Self Monetization & Marketing (takes longer but higher long term income potential)
  • (pick one!)

Write a Business Plan

  • Research
  • Math!
  • Dependent Income – renting your audience’s attention to somebody else ($)
  • Independent Income – marketing your own products & services to your own audience ($$$)
  • Active Income – put in time, get money
  • Passive Income – build something that continues to generate income long term: Rental Properties, Book Royalties, etc
  • Smart Bloggers monetize multiple ways
  • Passive & Independent is your strongest strategy

Blogging vs other writing styles

  • Conversational Style – less formal
  • Branding elements – specific elements to your audience – if your audience is Lawyers, then don’t write on a 3rd grade level
  • Images, Videos, Graphics
  • Interactive
  • Super-Hyper-Focused on an individual group you’re talking to

Links

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