My blogging career: my answers to questions

Please read and be inspired in any way that you can. I hope the answers (which are true) in this article will inspire a lot of new and old bloggers. At the end of the article, you may decide to give advice on/make a remark about anything related to your own experience(s).

Question 1: what lead you to start blogging?

Answer: It might be funny to say this, but joblessness made me start blogging about 7 years ago. Since I was young, I liked writing, but didn’t have any direction, or know what to do, or where to start from. However, the internet changed my life after I acquired my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but didn’t have any job.

During that time, I always browsed the internet for the fun of it, till one day when a strong thought compelled me to type these words on Google: “how to make money by writing”. Every blogging-related experience I’ve had since that day has made me happy to have Google-searched that popular long-tail keyword, and follow up instructions with consistent action, persistence and patience.

Question 2: Has your motivation changed since starting?

Answer: Generally, it hasn’t. There have been ups and downs on my personal blogging platforms whenever I do freelance writing jobs, but my motivation for both self blogging and freelance blogging has always been quite high, even when I do both at the same time.

Question 3: What has the experience been like?

Answer: Challenging but rewarding ($$$); interesting, self-satisfying and entertaining. I earned my first $10 from a website I blogged on in January, 2012. Since then, I’ve written — and even edited — for quite a number of websites and clients. I got a regular job in May, 2012, and in less than 2 years, while I was doing the job, I started earning at least $1000 per month from freelance writing; at certain times it was much higher than that.

It’s exciting to earn that amount of money (which you might say is little) while living in a poverty-stricken and corrupt nation. Convert $1000 to Naira, and you won’t get anything less than 320,000 Naira. There’s no Ph.D holder (and probably professor) in my country who earns that amount of money as salary from the government or any university/academic institution.

Question 4: Have you learnt anything?

Answer: I’ve learnt a lot: more grammar, more punctuation, and more spelling; I’m still learning. Also, I’ve learnt how to work with time, be more positive, always expectant, organized, patient, and use good criticism to develop myself more.

Question 5: Has your writing style changed?

Answer: My initial writing style has changed a bit because the rules and diversity on the internet have compelled me to change it. I’ve observed that there is/are way(s) the internet works, and most people are adapting their raw talents to it in order to move in harmony with it and succeed to the greatest extent possible.

If what you’ve known from the onset isn’t in line with the internet, then you may have to change and adapt to its tune (one example is SEO) in order to succeed on its platform.

Question 6: Are you planning to write a novel or are you already published?

Answer: I’m planning to write books after I get a domain, publish a lot on articles on it, and start earning a good amount of money from it. Earnings from my site would make it easier for me to give up freelance blogging for clients, and concentrate on my own businesses.

Question 7: What advice would you give to a new blogger?

Answer: It all depends on what the new blogger wants to achieve in blogging. It’s unlikely we’ll have the same goals.

Does the new blogger want to blog consistently or inconsistently?

Does the new blogger want to blog for freelance purposes (clients), or for their own blog?

Whatever the new blogger wants to do, he/she must have passion, be dedicated and disciplined as he/she “works within their own pace”; remember: “work within your own pace”. Don’t try to mimic other people’s work ethics.

However, I want to advice: if anyone wants to be a great blogger, then they must take the bull by the horn:

be hard-working

be regular in writing/posting valuable content

criticize your work, always learn from good criticism, and be positive

reject bad criticism and negativity

always update your knowledge of words/use of grammar (there’s always something to learn)

always interact with your fellow bloggers on their blogs, especially if their blogs are related to your areas of interest

be patient

etc.

THANK YOU.