Blog Academy

I would say the best skills you can have to pursue your blog is your passion, curiosity, and eagerness to learn. This is how I started to learn everything from simple HTML and CSS coding, to SEO, and overall writing for the web.

Other beneficial skills are marketing, a good eye for design, and good storytelling. It of course helps if you are good at writing. Actually, the list can be pretty long here, which is why I always go back to saying that curiosity and eagerness to learn is key here (unless you are able to outsource parts of the work). The opportunity you have with your blog is to keep on developing these different skills which can help you in other ways in the future.

When you are new to blogging it helps to spread the word amongst friends and peers within the community you are writing to, if you are already connected to it.

Otherwise your go-to places to make people find your blog is Pinterest. This should be your number one traffic focus place if you are in the creative sphere where images play a major part of your communication.

Other places you should hang out, for people to find you is: commenting and connecting on likeminded peoples blogs, reaching out to people over Instagram and Twitter, as well as following them. Focus on trying to be in groups and communities where you think you can provide value with what you are writing about on your blog. Your traffic and interest for your site will come natural after awhile, as long as you keep on being consistent.

For the long term game, learning about SEO is key. This usually involves creating long form content pieces that is answering peoples questions. It may take time but over time, this type of traffic will come in as almost “passive” traffic and can in the end lead to you generating passive income.

Yes, it is possible to set up a free blog. The difference between having a free blog and a blog like my own here is that mine is not hosted through let’s say WordPress. If you do not pay for a company to host your site and also pay to get your domain name, your blog will be part of the WordPress domain: example, designstudio210.wordpress.com.

Since you probably want to be able to own your own domain (example like mine designstudio210.com), for your business or personal brand. Opting for a for a self hosted site, like mine here, is your best option. But this means that you need to pay for a company to host it (store it online). Without this service your blog will not have a place to “live” online.

Having a blog on the topic that you are passionate about or have an expertise in can give you plenty of opportunities within the job world. It might land you the connections, network and opportunities you are after within your specific niche.

You will also be learning plenty of the skills involved around the business and blog side, which can grow experience in fields such as SEO, marketing, PR etc. I know many people who instead of running their blog purely to earn money, are running their blogs to network and build a personal brand within their field. Which can lead to other opportunities like book deals, speaking arrangements etc. Or growing their CV on the side.

In fact this is how Design Studio 210 started, I was studying interior design remotely and wanted to connect with like minded peers, as well as connecting with suppliers. I at the same time had an interest for creating websites and content creation which in the end landed me a full-time career within digital marketing. Which I now work in a more senior leadership role. All this because of the curiosity and eager to learn while doing on the blog.

No real money on education is needed here. Learn by doing. And ask people who you look up to blogging for advice and help. Everyone are usually super friendly and helpful.

This is a tricky question. I am sure you have seen income reports of some bloggers making money after a few months to a year. Some of those bloggers have also already started plenty of blogs before they succeed, while of course others might actually be making money from their first blog within months. Usually though it takes time for your blog to establish solid traffic and an engaged audience to get traction both from affiliate sales, to sponsorships as well as ad revenue.

My advice here is, if you are looking to actually pursue your blog as a potential side income is: select a niche that you like to talk about, make sure there are sponsorship deals and advertisement deals available for this niche, and do plenty of research of content that people are actually interested in. I have written more about this in how to pick a blogging niche.

Finding a system to create amazing content that will give value to your reader, is important, before focusing too much on all the different income sources in the beginning. As it might distract you from the quality of your content.