• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Business Coaching
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Free Facebook Group
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
Allison Lancaster

Allison Lancaster

Online Business Management & Virtual Assistant Coaching

How To Be a Successful Blogger: The One Thing You Must Have

by

Now that I have been blogging for awhile, I get e-mails almost daily from people who want to start their own blog. There are a few questions that I get asked pretty often, one of them being “how do I make money as a blogger?”. While this is a great question and one I asked myself after blogging for a few months, this isn’t really a question that someone who hasn’t even started a blog should ask (at least not in my opinion). If your sole goal of starting a blog is to make money, then you are heading down the wrong path.

Blogging is hard work. I spend hours drafting a blog post, proofreading, taking photos, editing photos, designing graphics, promoting on social media, and more. I cannot tell you how much time I spent on designing my website. All of this hard work went into my blog before I even thought about making any money from it. I knew that I wanted to have a place to gather my thoughts, share them with others and hopefully help someone else in the process. Of course, I wanted my blog to be successful. I wanted someone to read it. I wanted to help someone. If I made money in the process, then great. So, when a potential bloggers comes to me and asks “how do I make money as a blogger?”, I try to steer them in the right direction. The question that should be asked is “how can I be successful with my blog and what does that look like?”.  If making money is somewhere in your ‘bigger picture’, that’s a wonderful goal, but please understand: making thousands of dollars your first week in blogging is rare to impossible.

[If You’re Ready to Start Working With Brands, Here are Some Resources]

This brings me to my next point: what does it take to be successful as a blogger? There are multiple tools that I use daily to maintain my blog, protect it, promote it and update it. While these tools are great and something I will likely post about in the future, I am a firm believer that there is one thing you MUST have to be successful as a blogger: integrity. Integrity is something that I have always worked hard to maintain in both my personal and professional life, and my blog is no different. To me, integrity in blogging looks like this:

Know your ‘why’, why are you blogging? Why do you love to write? Why did you start your blog? If you know your ‘why’, you are less likely to compromise.

Be protective of your brand. This looks different for each blogger.

No matter what, never ever copy another person’s ideas or photos. Not only is this illegal, it’s easy to spot and find and it will ruin your integrity as a blogger. If you are out of ideas or content, don’t copy others’ content, just take a break.

Be willing to learn and make friends. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever ‘met’ are bloggers. They have taught me so much and we have become good friends. Be willing to learn from other bloggers, community over competition.

When it comes to working with brands, be transparent. Don’t promise 10,000 sales. They know you are lying and there is no way you can deliver on this. Share your statistics and let the brand make their decision. 

Don’t compromise your integrity to earn a dollar. I cannot tell you how many times I have turned down working with brands or guest bloggers because their product or vision didn’t fit my blog and brand. This may be because I’ve used the product before and I wasn’t impressed. It could be because the guest blogger didn’t have a post that I felt was useful for my readers, instead it was just them trying to sell a product. Sure, I could have earned money from posting or writing about these items, but at the end of the day- I would have been compromising my integrity. To me, that isn’t worth any amount of money.

What does integrity look like to you?

 

 

Filed Under: Blogging

Sign Up for our FREE Resource Library For Business Owners

I was on a call yesterday with a client who said " I was on a call yesterday with a client who said "I am so glad that I have you in my corner for Pinterest...several SEO experts, including Brandon of RankIQ are saying how important it is to diversify traffic sources, now more than ever...and Pinterest is one they are talking about."⁠
⁠
With all of these changes, I am NEVER the one to say "purchase my course, it'll fix it all" or "hire me, it will solve your problems"...that's just not me. I respect budgets (I'm a small business owner too, I get it)....and I don't want you to make any rash decisions.⁠
⁠
That being said, I have had a large number of people DM me this week and email me asking about pricing for services/courses (I am assuming because of the above recommendations I am referring to) so I wanted to make it easy for you all to find the links. ⁠
⁠
They are listed at the link in my bio...again, please don't make any rash purchasing decisions (from me or anyone else) BUT If you are ready to hire/purchase a course...I'd be honored to hear from you.⁠
😍Thank you SO much!! 😍Thank you SO much!!
Happy Monday!!⁠ I'm BACKK 🤣 After traveling f Happy Monday!!⁠
I'm BACKK 🤣 After traveling for the last couple of weeks, I am back in the office today and ready to hit the ground running. ⁠
⁠
While I as away...as tends to happen🤣Google rolled out their latest update which I am sure you are aware of. ⁠
⁠
I have seen a LOT of posts In various groups on this update so I won't recap It (if you have questions, let me know and I can point you to an article about it)....but I do have a few things to say based on what I've seen on the interwebs the last few days:⁠
⁠
👉DON'T PANIC...I know, it's difficult. There are a lot of scary comments/posts that I've seen about huge traffic losses from this update, etc. If you have been hit, first I am so sorry- this is so frustrating. Secondly, don't panic. When we panic as humans, we tend to make rash decisions (i..e deleting 300 posts, hiring someone to 'fix it' for $10k, etc.<< all things I've seen happen before). Give it some time. No one knows what will happen, there is a ton of speculation BUT...give it time, don't panic and stay the course. You can absolutely adjust things over time to meet the new best practices but panicking and just throwing everything out you've been doing for the last year(s) is not going to do any good. ⁠
⁠
👉DIVERSIFY...I've preached this a lot but I'm saying it again. Diversify- income streams & traffic sources. Again, don't panic and add 10 new things to your plate but if you haven't been focusing on Pinterest lately, maybe It's time to shift some resources to that for example. ⁠
⁠
👉BUILD YOUR EMAIL LIST...Whether it's creating a new lead magnet, adding a call to action slide to your web stories, creating pins for your existing lead magnet or just simply making your opt in more visible on your site...just do it 🤣⁠
⁠
I've seen a LOT of these changes over the years and the one thing I can say is that bloggers are resilient. Keep on keeping on, try not to get frustrated (I know, easier said than done) and remember your 'why'. 😍
I LOVE seeing results like this! This is the last I LOVE seeing results like this! This is the last 30 days on a client's account...results are for HER pins leading to HER site! 🥳⁠
⁠
It's not too late to book our done-for-you Pinterest services for Q4 but time is running out! Usually, we are fully booked for the remainder of Q4 by mid-October each year. Grab your spot now at the link in my bio!
Load More Follow on Instagram
Allison Lancaster

Copyright Online Business Solutions by Allison R. Lancaster, LLC · 2022
Accessibility
Privacy Policy Disclaimer & Terms of Use

Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}