Around March-April 2009, I decided to quit my day job to become a professional creator. I started a blog and a YouTube channel.
It has been fourteen years since I made that decision, and not only am I happier now, but I consider this to be the best decisions of my entire life.
Becoming a professional creator was not something I had ever given a lot of thought to prior to the spring of 2009.
But somehow I was lucky enough to meet with some favorable circumstances, and I was brave enough to take that leap of faith and create a new reality for myself.
If you want to read more about my journey to professional creator, here are two posts which will give you a more complete background on my journey as a creator:
- Harsh Agrawal – My Creator Journey So Far
- After 2191 Days of Blogging, & video blogging All I Can Say is “Being a Creator is Incredible!”
Being a professional creator is not an easy job. A lot of skills, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of time are required to turn a blogging passion into full-time, income-generating work.
what does a professional creator do?
Professional creator requires following a schedule and being willing to walk in an unchartered territory. There are many daily, weekly and monthly tasks involved for a professional creator, which we will discuss in the later part of this guide.
Becoming A Professional Blogger: Are You Ready?
First, before you decide to walk down the path of pro-blogging, you need to know that a lot has changed in the past few years. Blogging is not a simple or easy way to make money. That said, blogging is one of the more reputable ways to earn money online, and if you are committed to working hard to learn how to do it properly, you can easily earn thousands of dollars a month blogging. (See SML’s income reports here.)
But always remember: If you are looking to make a living blogging, you need to be serious in your approach and treat it like a professional business.
When I started, there were many other bloggers jumping into the sea of professional blogging. But in 2011 and 2012, the Google Panda update and the Google Penguin update killed many blogs, and many of these bloggers began to transition to other aspects of online marketing.
In short, if you don’t persist, you will fail.
The decision to become a full-time blogger as a profession involves many considerations, such as your social and financial situations.
I started blogging as a full-time career when I was a 22-year-old single man with no family responsibilities, so I was able to accept the risks involved.
In a nutshell, when I started blogging, I worked part-time as a software engineer and looked forward to a new job with Accenture. Instead, in March 2009, I decide to quit everything to become a professional blogger.
During that period, I was earning around $400-500 every month from blogging while working around 3-4 hours a day. So I was pretty confident that if I were willing to work 12-16 hours a day, I could increase my online income quite drastically.
By the time I left my “real job” to blog full-time, my income came in the form of direct ads, Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, and other blogging related services.
What I have learned during my own transition from part-time to full-time blogger is that in order to become a successful full-time blogger earning reliable income, many skill sets are required.
Professional bloggers need to have “professional-level” skills in:
- Writing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Management
If you are already a blogger, you may have already gained many of these skills. And from learning and implementing the things you don’t know, you can acquire any new skill set. This is how I have ultimately learned to become a professional blogger.
Essentially, you need to make yourself different from all the other bloggers out there. You need to be special. You need to be unique. You need to be better than everyone else in your niche.
And in order to do this, you need to focus on building up your weaknesses.
- If you’re a terrible writer, you need to practice writing.
- If you’re a boring person, you need to practice being more engaging.
- If you don’t know what’s wrong, you need to practice taking in feedback.
Identify What You Really Want
If you desire peace of mind while making your own transition to professional blogging, I would suggest that you first work toward earning a fixed recurring income from your blog. Once you’re sure that you can comfortably survive exclusively on your blogging income, then (and only then!) consider kicking your 9-5 job to the curb, and become a professional blogger.
Also, before taking this very significant step in your life, be sure to take some time to create a clear road map and business plan.
Think about things like:
- Where will your traffic come from?
- What will your marketing strategies look like?
- What will your sources of income be?
- How are you going to brand your blog?
- How will you draw attention to your blog?
- How do you intend to expand your blog?
- What new things are you willing to learn?
Really take some time to think about what you want your blog to be. This stage is very important for the future development and growth of your soon-to-be business.
Making The Decision: Becoming A Professional Blogger
It took me almost six months to finally decide to become a professional blogger. It was relatively easy for me in 2009, but recently, the blogging world has become massive. Nowadays, you need to be really well-equipped in order to be able to rely on blogging as your only source of income.
And there’s also something else to remember:
- “Never put all of your eggs in one basket.”
Because the blogging world is so volatile, when working as a professional blogger, you need to make sure you’re protecting yourself in the smartest ways possible. If your income source is from just one blog, you should seek to expand your empire to ensure that some unforeseen issue doesn’t ruin you financially.
That said, a good blog can typically start making a fair amount of income within 4-5 months.
A Tip for College Students:
I always suggest to college students to start their creator’s journey (blog/YouTube/Podcast/Social media), as early as possible. College offers us freedom, social engagement, and endless amounts of opportunities to set our lives up for success.
Have I missed anything? Are there any other points that one should consider before becoming a professional blogger? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.
And if you like this post, don’t forget to share it!
Right now, I am more interested in using my blog towards eventually marketing my programming on the Android. Eventually though, I do want to start earning some money from my blog. It might take me a while to get there since I don’t have anything set aside for it.
I am 13 years old and I have started blogging . This was a great post Harsh . You were 22 when you became a full time blogger . So maybe by the time I will be 18 years old , I can become a professional blogger.
Love to read articles on shoutmeloud as usual. I am also a professional blogger and motivate to read this article on the same. It suits me.
Thanks
Hi,
Grеаt tірѕ Harsh! It’ѕ hаrd tо bесоmе а рrоfеѕѕіоnаl blоggеr іf уоu аrеn’t ѕurе whеrе tо ѕtаrt, but luсkіlу thеrе аrе рlеntу оf оnlіnе rеѕоurсеѕ tо hеlр оnе fіnd thеіr wау.
Best regards,
Amrik Virdi
This is great inspiration for a newbie to the blogging world. I’m in the process of honing the vision for my blog before I launch it, and this post really sums up everything I need to keep in mind before I take the plunge. Looks like I’ve got lots of hard work ahead of me!
It is not possible to create a full-time income online within a few weeks, or even a few months, you have to test yourself in the world of blogging to see whether it has something for you or not. That’s my advice.
Who says that professional blogging is tough. Its not at all hard to become a professional blogger, but there is a simple catch – you must dedicate yourself completely to become one. Then you won’t face any hurdles between you and your blogging success.
Though it was an awesome post Harsh. I would love if you write more such posts centered around blogging. Thanks for this great article.
I personally think that if an employed man wants become a professional blogger then he should start a blog and should operate it side by side. He should also learn all the blogging techniques at that time (may be in the sundays or off times). And once he starts making a descent amount of money he should leave his job.
Anyways, very nice post for those who want to be a professional blogger.
nice points Harsh and thanks for putting my question here.
I’ll definitely look upon ur points and try to act upon them
Hope me too get success
Hi Abhishek. I suggest you to get one of your own domain name, preferably a .com or .org one, nevertheless keeping the subject of your blog in mind you can also go for .in domain name. And I also suggest you to transfer your blog to WordPress platform instead of blogspot because WP looks more professional, easily manageable, lots of useful plugins available and its SEO friendly….
Every blogger have to atleast work hard for 1 year then he can enjoy the fruit of blogging.. 🙂 Really Funny and Interesting to do it regularly..
I would suggest while in college, develop two to three mini sites which keep giving you revenue. They can work as money pump for remaining life.
I agree with your Vivek and this will help them to cover some of their bills in future.
Well that is true if the mini sites are making you good money regularly. Which in fact is not what the real picture is like. It may stop producing money at one point of the time..
Yes, College time is the best phase to start. I agree on that.
You get a lot of time.
And even if someone doesn’t get a job after finishing college, then can always count on this 🙂
I too trying for fulltime blogger..
As im newbie for blogging im working morethan 12hours a day making backlink and submitting to social website but i cant reach the minimum traffic of 10k views per month..
im soooo tired..
Any one knows any SmaRt WoRk to achieve that target
If so…Please…. share here 🙂
It will b very helpful for me
taking full time blogging profession is difficult in india….
Tushar “taking full time blogging profession is difficult in india….”
Its not difficult at all in INDIA in fact on the contrary it’s very easy and much more rewarding in India. Consider that you are earning $500 per month through blogging. Now weather you stay in US or India, there won’t be much difference in your revenue generation through your blog. But if you stay in US you can barely pay your rent with $500, but if you are in India than $500 is equivalent to 25000 INR. You can have a decent living (+ some savings may be) in India with that much money. So in that way its really good to earn some extra money through blogging if you are in India. But one more thing blogging and earning money is not everybody’s cup of tea. It requires hardwork, patience and dedication like any other thing in which you want to succeed.
Any blogger who wish to be successful, FIRST thing he needs is to be PASSIONATE about the thing which he/she wants to blog. If you want to be a professional blogger, that means you should be very very much PASSIONATE. It is only than your blog would be having quality content with regular updates.
First identify which are the things you are passionate about and find out how other blogs in that niche is doing. Do not turn PRO till you are assured of a higher income than what you are/would be other-wise earning. I agree with Harsh when he says following:
“If you want peace of your mind while becoming a professional blogger, I will suggest first start making a fixed recurring income”.
For me, I loved to guide younger ones in their careers/career exam.
That was how I started blogging two year back. But although I am earning good, with 250000+ monthly visits, I have still not turned PRO. The reason? I would wait for that day when I am assured of $2K earning RECURRENTLY per month from my blog. May be that would require another 2 years of PASSIONATE blogging!
You are right that the best time to start a blog is in college. In that time, people have their own time to manage, and have many resources to write.
nice points Harsh and thanks for putting my question here.
I’ll definitely look upon ur points and try to act upon them
Hope me too get success 🙂
Thanks a lot’
Atul
You welcome Atul. I’m sure the same question will be in the mind of other bloggers as well. Wish you luck with your future venture.
Regards
Harsh
Blogging needs a lot of passion, creativity & confidence. On the contrary to what people think, initially it’s more difficult to earn online than your regular job. One cannot turn a Pro & expect to become a Amit or Harsh in a year 🙂 Perhaps it needs a lot of patience than anything else. My technology blog is approx. 3 months old with a PageRank of 2 and a daily unique visit of 90. Still, I can’t see any noteworthy mention from monetization.
Basant talking about monetization, it comes eventually with traffic and trust. Blogging is a social networking event IMO, the more you give to public, more traffic and trust you will build with time.
Professional blogging needs lot of dedication and efforts from you. So for professional blogging, first secure yourself from financial aspects then quit your job. Obviously you need a lot of support from your famil and friends eespecially. Without help of friends no one can be a scuccessful blogger. Build your community and then watch & see.
Thanks for useful insight Imran and I agree with you. Before jumping into deep sea of professional blogging, one should have financial security or some kind of back up. Professional blogging is a vital decision of any one life and one should look at all the aspect before taking final decision.