I’ve been a freelance blogger for almost two years and I quit my main job three years ago.
My current goal is to become a full time blogger within the next 12 months (June 2024)
That is to increase my blog income so that it surpasses my freelance work.
If you want to do the same, this guide is for you.
Here are 12 tips on how to become a full time blogger.
Table of Contents
1. Assume a new identity
If you want to become a full time blogger, you must assume the identity of one.
What does that mean exactly?
Well, if you’ve been working for someone else for a long time, then your current identity will reflect that.
Maybe you see yourself as:
- A sales representative
- An office clerk
- A waiter or waitress
- An accountant
- A janitor
- A taxi driver
- Or maybe even an employee
Your new identity must reflect:
- A full time blogger
- An entrepreneur
- A writer
- A content creator
- A business person
- A leader
- A CEO
Doing so will help you develop the right mindset.
The mindset of someone who has a clear vision, the willingness to learn, the confidence, and the ability to take enough action.
A blog should be treated as a business and just like any business, it takes time to see success.
Assuming the identity of a blogger or entrepreneur will drastically speed up the process.
2. Calculate how much your blog needs to make it a full-time gig
To become a full time blogger, it’s important to define success.
Otherwise, how will you know when you’ve achieved your goal?
In the case of making enough money as a blogger so you can leave your job, you’ll need to know how much that is.
To do this, first work out how much your current outgoings are. Then see if there are things you can cut back on to lower your expenses.
This will get you to your income levels faster.
Seconds, decide if this figure is sufficient to live on or if you’d be more comfortable making more as a buffer.
For example, if your current expenses are $2,000 per month, your blogging income goal could be $2,500.
Third, calculate how much you might need in savings before you leave your job.
The last thing you want is to rely solely on your blog income, in case it suddenly drops.
Having some funds saved as a backup is a wise move.
Lastly, give yourself a time frame for when you want to be making this amount with your blog.
And give yourself enough time to achieve it.
A successful blog doesn’t generate thousands of dollars overnight, so try to set reasonable standards.
3. Consider becoming a freelance blogger first
I started freelance blogging in September 2021 and it has taught me so much.
If you have the knowledge but struggle to commit to the process, then writing for someone else can boost your motivation.
A lot of new bloggers struggle with confidence and becoming a freelance blogger can help you overcome that.
You’ll also learn how successful blogs are run through their SOPs and content guidelines.
4. Embrace failure
One of the biggest things that set me back in my blogging journey was perfectionism in writing.
Actually, it was more about the fact I hadn’t learned the topic enough and was afraid I’d get something wrong.
I would feel like I had to be an expert in the niche or the content wouldn’t be good enough.
The truth is that this is all part of the journey.
Blogging might not seem like a big deal, but it is a real, serious form of media that some people don’t appreciate.
You probably have the desire to express yourself and blogging seems like the perfect way to do it.
Therefore, it is bound to create some resistance and feelings of imposter syndrome in you.
But, fear is the most common reason why most bloggers fail.
The best way to overcome your fear is to embrace it, learn by doing, and use failures as feedback.
You’ll realize that success happens through failing, not avoiding it.
5. Choose a (profitable) blog niche you’re interested in
Choosing your niche can be the easiest or the most challenging part of becoming a full time blogger.
What makes it hard is trying to find the “right” or “perfect” niche.
Unfortunately, there is no perfect niche. In fact, any niche is a good choice in the beginning.
That’s because the sooner you choose a topic to write about, the sooner you’ll discover what you really want to blog about.
That being said, try to combine a niche that is profitable with something you’re interested in.
I would say passionate about, but that isn’t necessary.
As long as you’re interested in the niche enough to write about it for a couple of years, that’s good enough.
But what makes a niche profitable?
It’s a niche that can be monetized with ads, affiliate marketing, or digital products and has a high return on investment (ROI).
For example, a niche with a high ad RPM of $40+ or a niche with high-paying affiliate programs.
But try not to make your decision entirely on the most profitable blog niches.
Remember, if you’re not interested in it, the income potential might not be enough to motivate you if it’s your first blog.
6. Immerse yourself in the niche
get to know your audience, what they struggle with, and how you can help them
Immersing yourself in your blog’s niche will help you better connect with the reader, understand their needs, and how you can help them.
This is essential, as it’ll help you build trust with your audience faster, and make full time blogging your main gig.
It’ll also help you find better ideas for blog content that resonate with them, bringing you closer to success.
To truly understand your audience, you need to know what they struggle with. What questions do they have? What problems do they face? What motivates them?
By answering these questions, you can create content that speaks to their needs and interests.
But how do you immerse yourself in the niche?
The best way to get to know your audience is through social media. Start posting content on your page and follow other bloggers in your niche.
Read the comments people leave on other bloggers’ posts and leave helpful comments where you can.
Great places to do this are in Facebook groups or on Twitter.
You’ll start to gain insight into what your niche needs help with and it can start to grow your following at the same time.
7. Set tangible blogging goals
In a previous tip, we looked at calculating how much money you’ll need to make blogging full time.
But if this is the end goal, what are the smaller goals that will get you there?
This is essential because when you set tangible blogging goals, you’ll stay on track to finally being able to quit your job.
To get you started, here are a few goals you’ll want to set for your blog:
- Number of articles you’ll publish each month
- The number of words written per day
- Traffic milestones (e.g. 100 pageviews per day in 3-6 months)
- Income breakdown ($2,500 pm in 2 years, $1,000 pm in 1 year, $200 pm in 6 months, $100 pm in 4 months, etc…)
When you break your goals down like this, you make them seem more real as you see yourself getting closer to them each month.
Remember, it’s not important to hit the goals you set yourself every time. Use them as a guideline and adjust if you need to.
Your results will act as feedback that can be used to keep things moving forward.
Side note: Use my free niche site calculator to work out how much traffic you’ll need for your income goals. You can also work out how many articles you’ll need to reach this amount.
8. Choose how you’ll monetize
Knowing how you’ll monetize in the beginning will significantly influence how quickly you can transition to full time blogging.
It will also help you align with your goals.
For example, if your goal is to drive tons of traffic, then your choice of monetization would be best suited for ads or affiliate marketing.
Or maybe you want to grow an engaging email list or membership site. Then a monthly subscription or selling digital products would be a good option.
When you know which monetization method to focus on, you can dedicate your time to creating valuable content, growing traffic, and helping your audience.
9. Learn SEO basics
A blog’s most effective form of traffic comes from organic search results.
This is how most people will find your content on the Internet.
Social media can work, but you have to consistently engage with your audience to drive consistent traffic.
The best way to future-proof the growth of your blog is to optimize your articles for search engines, also known as SEO.
Learning SEO for niche sites is a great way to get started. You only need to know the basics, because once you publish content, it can be further optimized in the future.
10. Develop a consistent publishing schedule
It is absolutely essential to adopt the skill of consistently posting new content.
The only way you’ll make enough money as a full time blogger depends on the volume of content you’ve published.
Is it possible to make a lot of money with 30 articles?
Sure, but you’ll need tons of backlinks and an extremely rigorous content strategy to pull it off. And probably your own product.
The type of person who succeeds with little content has spent years developing a system that has worked for them.
For you, your initial goal should be to earn enough money from your blog to pay the bills.
And to do that with the least amount of mental overwhelm, you have to start publishing consistently.
You don’t want to get fixated on developing the perfect strategy, perfecting the perfect blog design, or creating your own product.
These things will slow you down.
You simply need a list of keywords for articles to publish and to start writing the first one.
It might take you some time to publish consistently, but start small and focus on developing the habit.
Follow my time management for bloggers article and you’ll be posting content faster in no time.
Pro tip: Instead of trying to publish 20 articles in a week, aim for consistent growth. If it takes a week to publish one article, that’s fine. Keep doing that for a few weeks and it’ll turn into two per week, then three.
Eventually, you’ll find it easy to publish one article per day, but it takes time in the beginning.
11. Avoid these mistakes
In the world of blogging and business, there are NO mistakes.
Only lessons.
Sure some painful lessons can be avoided, but many of us have to experience the lessons ourselves to learn from them.
With that said, there are some blogging mistakes (or lessons) you can avoid if you know about them.
They are:
- Getting distracted. See shiny object syndrome
- Trying to get everything perfect
- Not choosing a niche
- Not defining your blog avatar
- Neglecting keyword research
- Ignoring SEO
- Not tracking your progress
All these lessons can be learned along the way, but the sooner you educate yourself about them, the better.
You can learn more about these in my article blogging mistakes.
12. Use AI to your advantage
Thanks to AI, becoming a full time blogger is easier than ever, but it needs to be used correctly.
A lot of people will publish tons of AI generated content and still expect it to be ranking in 12 months.
That’s unlikely.
Sure, AI content has come a long way, but it should be used responsibly.
That being said, if you develop an effective AI blogging strategy, you can use AI to your advantage.
You’ll be able to publish way more content in a fraction of the time.
Moreover, AI can help you generate content ideas you never would have thought of and better optimize your content.
Overall, AI content tools can have a positive impact on your blogging journey.
Conclusion
That’s it for this post. Full time blogging is entirely possible when you commit to it.
Choose your niche and start posting content. Try not to worry about the quality.
Aim to publish your first 100 articles and the results will guide you in the right direction.