11 Things What I Learned Since I Became a Professional Blogger and Writer

I've been in a reflective mood lately, so I'm going to share some of my thoughts with you. These are the lessons I've learned in the year and a half (is that all?) since I became a professional blogger.

1/ Content really is the most important thing on a blog

The more content I write, the more traffic I get, irrespective of niche or type of blog. I know a lot of people will argue this point and they will talk about quality of content and information overload, but I've found it to be true on several blogs.

When I ramped up my posting in January on all my blogs, the traffic went through the roof. When I slowed it down in May, it dropped significantly. That may not be the case if you're Chris Brogan or Copyblogger, but it is if you're Mike Cliffe-Jones.

When I write more, I get more traffic.

And the more traffic I get, the more subscribers I get, which leads me neatly onto:

2/ Your email list is the best source of income for a blog

I can't tell you how many times I've read that and written that. But still, people leave it to "someday."

Do it now, please! Start building your email list right now.

Let me give you one example. We signed up for an affiliate offer on one of our blogs. We wrote a great post about it, which to date has been read by over 5000 people. 10 signed up for the product. We sent one email to the 1032 strong email list for that blog and 61 people bought. And that happens time and time again.

If you want to start today, I recommend Aweber, and here are my reasons: How I use Aweber

3/ Blogging really is bloody hard work

I didn't start this with rose tinted specs. I had an inkling it would require work - I've run my own businesses for years. Despite that, I was unprepared for how hard it actually was in the beginning. Aside from physically getting everything done, there was such a steep learning curve, which really taxed my mental faculties.

I wish I could say it gets better, but it doesn't. Just when you get into the groove on one aspect of the job, something else crops up - a new joint venture perhaps. And all the while, you're building your social media presence, so you're responding to an ever growing tribe of other people and getting way more email.

I'm in this for the long haul, and my medium-term plan is to be able to travel the world whilst running this business. I'll be able to do that, but I'm under no illusions about it - I'll still be working full time hours while I do so.

But here's the thing:

4/ You need to maintain a real life outside of blogging

This is so, so important. My life is completely manic. I cram so much into it that my feet don't touch the ground from one day to the next.

And I wouldn't have it any other way. Going to events, socialising, doing sports, scuba diving, surfing, training for a triathlon and working full time means that I pretty much never sit down and read or watch TV.

But all those things provide me with stimulation and the energy to put in the hours I do at my PC.

So don't stop doing other stuff when you start blogging - keep doing it, and find the time from somewhere else. Give up television or get up earlier!

5/ Sometimes you have to say no

As my presence has grown online, the number of requests for participation in projects has grown along with it, and so have the pleas to "Just tweet this" or "please promote that for me."

At first you'll tend to take every opportunity, but over time you'll learn that you simply can't. Saying no, if you're a person who likes being liked, is hard. But it's a skill you'll need, and one I have honed over time, without regret. It means when you do say "Yes!" you can give it your all, and give that person some real value with your time.

6/ It's who you know and not what you know

Connecting with the right people can make a huge difference. People like Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, David Risley and my partner Nathan Hangen have significantly impacted my business.

I'm not talking here about reading their blogs, I'm talking about being able to go to them for advice, about them promoting my products and about them introducing me to their much larger networks.

I sort of achieved this by accident. I didn't really "go after" anyone, but by being sociable and I hope, helpful, I was just welcomed into their circles. And each connection started either by commenting on their blogs or chatting via Twitter.

7/ Techy bits, themes, design, widgets and plug ins don't actually matter

It's the area where we bloggers waste the most time in my humble opinion. Tweaking the theme, adding the latest greatest widget or researching the coolest app to put on our phones.

If you've got a design people can read, and where everything works, the rest really isn't that important.

It's what you say that matters.

8/ You can make a decent living as a blogger

I wanted...no, let me rephrase that.. I needed to create a full time income as a blogger within a year. And I did - if you want to read how, then get a copy of the case study I wrote.

There were many times when I thought I'd made a huge mistake - those days when I was putting in 16 or 17 hours and earning 87 Cents from Adsense were so, so discouraging.

But I persevered, and I learned that:

9/ Blog income does not grow linearly

Our blogging income doubled between March and July last year, then did so again between July and September. That's genuine exponential growth, and it's wonderful to experience the feeling. Sadly too many bloggers never get to that point. But once you do, you begin to realise that:

10/ Blogging for an income is a really secure profession

It may sound bizarre, but our income from blogging is largely automatic, and is spread across dozens of sources, which makes it a really secure way of earning a living.

If I had an accident and couldn't work for a couple of months, not much would change. If Google stopped Adsense tomorrow, it would cost me a few hundred dollars a month, but the world wouldn't end for me. If 10% of my advertisers stopped paying, it wouldn't be business critical. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

When I was running my real estate business, I started every month at zero. I knew I had to sell or rent so many houses to pay the overhead, and then so many more to pay me a wage. With this business, I start every month knowing that a few thousand dollars are headed my way, and that feels good. And because of that:

11/ We have options for the future

We've created something very sellable - a web business with an ongoing income, which means we could choose to cash out at some point. Or we could employ people to run it for us, or even outsource a lot of stuff, leaving the parts we enjoy.

What we do have is choices we can make when we want to make them. And that's been created with a business that was bootstrapped from day one and had no initial investment - some would say the perfect business model.

What about you? What have you learned on your journey?