Design credit: Emily of Emily's Reading Room
Today's topic for Armchair BEA: "Today we will be sharing tips that will help you move your blog forward or perhaps your own personal goals of writing and making an income from what you love to do. Today we'd love you to share your top tips for getting beyond your blog! Have you done any freelance writing? Are you monetizing your blog and how so? How do you make connections outside the book blog community on the internet? If none of these apply we'd love for you to share a fun aspect about your blog or life that may be completely separate from books!"
Hrm, I haven't gone out of my way to monetize my blog. I did become an Audible partner earlier this year, which was definitely cool as I really like the company. Right now, I'm having fun just blogging. I've had people ask me if I could turn blogging into money but unfortunately, I'm not sure that's going to happen right now. I don't have an interest in pursuing it at the moment.
Blogging has allowed me to participate in a couple events that I would not have had the chance to do otherwise. One is Armchair BEA (ahem!). I've gotten to do quite a few author chats, which is really cool. A couple months ago, I "went" to a video chat by Melanie Benjamin (author of Alice I Have Been and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb). I was so excited that I was invited!
In a lot of ways, I feel like my blog is still growing (I've been at this for about 1.5 years now). Maybe once I have a little more time in, I'll take the big leap "Beyond the Blog."
What have you done "beyond the blog?"
I write a little bit in tomorrow's post about how our blogs are always changing and growing which they must do to stay fresh.
ReplyDeleteI love blogging and while I wish I could make some money that is the last reason that I blog.
New follower
Yes, money would always be nice but I'm not going to go out of my way to make that a point of my blog.
DeleteAw that picture is adorable.
ReplyDeleteI have no interest in monetizing either!
Hehe, I love the lolcats :)
DeleteI've commented on a few other blogs about the monetizing thing; that's not what I'm in it for either. I am using my blog to network with other writers and learn about the publishing industry, I just stumbled upon the book blogging world in the process. I don't feel like I offer the type of content that would necessitate running ads. I just like to post my own book reviews, link to articles, write up about TV and related interests, to keep it fun.
ReplyDeleteI love that kitty picture. I love most kitty pictures.
That's definitely one thing that I've loved about book blogging. I know so much more about the publishing world now and it's really fascinating to me!
DeleteMonetizing a blog is really hard to do. That is to be successful at it. One person I know who did sponsored posts through a website didn't get all that much from them (it was a personal blog, not a book one). If I got some more traffic, I might consider it, once I get it on my hosting. But my web host has it so people can directly donate to the hosting cost, so its an alternative. And I dislike seeing loads of picture ads on some of the blogs I've been to. Especially on blogger hosted ones.
ReplyDeleteI especially hate the ads that make noise and move! They're especially annoying!
DeleteMy blog has definitely evolved from where it started, in a good way! I haven't had too much luck with monetization either, but it's really interesting to look into options
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time, I’d love to hear from you at my armchair BEA post.
Evolving is so important!
DeleteI've been at this for several years and I've made about $100 from adsense and about $100 from Amazon. I've gotten some free goodies other than books, but if I was in the for the money, I'd either be working harder at it, or get out
ReplyDeleteThere are so many other benefits besides the money!
DeleteI have been happy plodding along. Blogging takes a lot of work and this week I am like flying all over the place trying to stay up with my commitments. I do it for free and for love. I don't like to let anybody down so I maybe say yes too much...lol!! Which can get tricky. I am learning there are only so many hours in a day and I have a family that needs my time too. I love what I do , but I have to have balance. This can be a little tricky sometimes.:D:D
ReplyDeleteMichelle
Yeah, I think I'm finally finding that balance. It's hard to maintain though!
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