It’s been two years since the very first Pesta Blogger when we won the women issue category. It didn’t occur to us at that time that we would be back to Pesta Blogger as one of the hosts for the Blogpreneur breakout session. I admit it, it’s nice to be back there with an upgraded status..:D, cause that means we’ve progressed, right?..:) It’s also nice when others (in this case, the committee) recognize our hardwork, although we can assure you that most of the time, managing Fashionese Daily doesn’t feel like work..:) (Look, I’m all smiles!)
So what is a blogpreneur, you asked? My take is, it’s someone who receives a paycheck by blogging his/her way. Exactly what Affi and I have done here at Fashionese Daily. I believe there are only a few blogs who have received some advertising revenue. But what sets us apart from the rest of the bloggers is the fact that they still have a day job to maintain, while for us, blogging is what we we’re all about, day in day out.
The blogpreneur breakout session was a full house, which shows that many people wanted to know how to monetize their blogs. (Or so I thought) because turned out, there was a misconception on blogpreneur definition because many of them were actually wanted to sell products online and wanted to learn on how to improve the sales and promote their businesses. Can you see the difference between (1) making money by selling products through your blog and (2) make your blog generates money?
We happen to fall into the second category. The first category is more on the e-commerce (online business) side. If your main interest is to make money right away, the first one is your best choice. But of course, it needs money to make money, right? I also own an online shop and shop online a lot..:D so I do know what it takes to build a notable online shop (which I will not go into details in this post), but I just want to quickly point out that it would be so much easier to gain trust from prospective customers if you have already established your online persona by being actively involved in popular social medias. Obviously, there’s a lot more homework that you need to do in addition to that, but let’s save that for another post :p
I might be the minority here, but I do believe that it’s possible to be a full time blogger. It’s not easy, although it looks easy, and it won’t happen overnight but it’s a realistic goal. The key is to find topic that you are passionate about. It can be about gardening, cooking, parenting, health & fitness, music, photography, the range is endless. Try this: think about ten different things you’re going to write in that particular topic. If you can only think of less than 10 then it’s going to be hard to make it pass three months. You know what, if you can’t find niche topic, you can write about anything under the moon that excites you as long as the blog is neatly managed and maintained and have a huge readers.
Thomas, Affi, Me, Tjejep & Lita.
There are a few strategies to attract more readers to your blog. But I notice that some people forget the very basic strategy of it all, humility. Blogging means letting your personality shines through your post, and that’s what make blog interesting. Blogging also means communicating with the world, it’s a two-way medium, and just like in the ‘real’ world, humility can take you a long way. The online world can be more brutal because everyone has something to say and everyone is a critic. I know it’s hard to please everyone but at least we can try our best to avoid attracting hate comments. Yes, it’s about packaging your words and present it in a way that won’t make people think you’re some tasteless snob who brag for a living. The misses-know-it-all attitude gotta go too, because chances are, there are others who are secretly reading your blog that know more than you do.
In addition to passion (sprinkled with some good attitudes), having a purpose is another reason to make your blogging days even more worthy as blog is a powerful tool to spread news, ideas, positivity and inspiration. And in FYI, we have purpose too here in Fashionese Daily, and it’s not to make you file bankruptcy 😉
Anyone here interested in starting a niche blog? (Please say yes!)
