There is a lot of discussion around blogging as a profession, and whether it’s a legitimate consideration when trying to earn more. I want to share my personal journey and progression with you.
Blogging Life | My Story
How it all began…
I’m not sure how long you will have followed me. Perhaps you came from Instagram back when I first started my first account (wow, how many years ago?!), and you followed me through my many life changes before we settled on home educating, and then started to build a following?
Perhaps you found me after we bought a derelict barn and started our smallholding. Anyone remember Wild and Free at Ashtree?!
My roots began with Instagram, and the blog was born somewhere around 2017, as a free, WordPress address, mainly focused on the barn renovation and smallholding!
Slowly but surely…
I was never a passionate blogger when I first started. Photography was my passion, and the writing always felt like a chore (which is funny considering my stance now), and so consequently I would only post every now and again.
It was easy to continually forget I even had a blog!
But then, as a family we started to post more about home educating, travelling as a family and growing our own food on Instagram, and the connection with our followers grew. They wanted to know more about us, and it gave me the kick I needed to want to tell them or show them more.
But how did you know what to do?
Honestly, I was teaching myself as much as possible. I quickly learned about purchasing a proper domain (hello, theheatonfam.com!), and I kept myself posting far more regularly, with the posts that my audience wanted.
I started to network with the huge array of bloggers, who are all so amazing and supportive. I really found community there! I also found a short course about affiliate marketing on a blog, which I think gave me a great foundation for the baser part of building a blog up in a way that works for if you really want to grow your blog, and have it become a career path for you.
But it doesn’t end there…
Of course, affiliate marketing is not a huge income stream unless you have tens of thousands of followers, so it’s really important to note that as a blogger, you need to have your fingers in all of the pies (so to speak!).
Multiple income streams!
Surely blogging is blogging? What other income streams could you be talking about?
Blogging is not just blogging.
The more you write, and you share and people want to share your work, the more your blog develops and grows. Then this is the point where I would say, for me, blogging became a legitimate income stream.
Once your blog is starting to become more recognised, and shared, companies may pay you to mention them on your blog. They may pay you to write a blog post for them. This amount is a more realistic amount than the commission earned through affiliate marketing if you have less followers on socials.
A world of creativity and community…
I have re-discovered an absolute passion and joy for writing again. I find I can talk about things, design things and create so much that I never get bored of the work I receive.
I get paid to write, photograph and design, which are all genuine passions of mine. I feed on being creative, and I get to be creative all day, every day. It is pure joy.
Some bloggers find connection to history through their writing too. It really can be used to connect you to so many paths you may not have even considered through a blog before.
Something else that I’ve really loved and has been an unplanned for development with this path, is the amount of community and life long friends I have also made through this journey. From Instagram, to facebook, to my blogs and the blogger support… I really feel like I’ve built an extended family through my ‘influencer‘/’blogger’ journey, and it’s possibly one of my favourite parts of the continued growth of this.
Is it a legitimate source of income?
I can say with 100% certainty that it is now a legitimate source of very good income for me, and for brands of course, it’s taking their product and placing it straight into the hands of the people who will genuinely need and love it. Win, win.
Growth as a blogger…
Over the last 4 years, I have gone from dabbling in a free blog with a free domain, with very little interest from either myself or my followers, to running 4 blogs and a creative media company that caters to bloggers, with an extended, virtual family to match too! I LOVE this journey.
I can confidently say that I have personally found blogging as a career option extremely successful, and a fully legitimate option!
It is changing mine and my family’s lives, and has helped to support us through a financial crisis after my husband lost a LOT of business during the pandemic.
If you have questions about blogging, or you’re considering it, please ask away!
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