So you want to be a blogger?

Introduction

So I started this blog about 10 months ago.  Initially I did it for the money.  Well after 3 months and 20 views a day, I realized my dreams of retiring on the beach with this blog was NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  And with credit card affiliates tightening up, good luck with that.  So why do I still blog 5-6 days a week?  And what does it take to blog that often?  Let me explain.

 

Blogging is time consuming!

It usually takes me 30 minutes to an hour per post.  I usually write whatever pops up in my head.  I then schedule it for the next day or two.  Then I’ll re-read and proof it maybe 1 or 2 more times before it gets sent out.  And because I’m a narcissist, I’ll read it after it’s been published.  Usually, I’ll still see a typo here and there, and depending on if I have time, I’ll fix it or not.

I try to have at least 2 days’ worth of content queued up.  Sometimes, it will be 9pm and I still don’t have a story queued up another day.  You can usually tell when that has happened when the post is short.  These days, I try to have 3-4 days’ worth of content queued up, and if a topic becomes more time-sensitive, I’ll queue it up for the next day and push the other posts back a day.

This doesn’t take into account the time it takes to THINK OF WHAT TO WRITE.  Usually I’ll read something or someone will suggest a topic, which makes it easy.  Most of the time though, I think of what to write myself.

 

Don’t write about the news!

Let me tell you now – DON’T write about travel news.  Think of this whole miles and points blogging community as a newspaper.  You have DoC who will give you the credit card news daily.  You have DDF who will give you good deals on Amazon items.  You have Bighabitat and Orensmoneysaver to give you reselling tips.  You have TPG, VFTW and OMAAT to give you airline and travel news.  Then you have FM and MMS giving you MS related news.  Thus, does the hobby need ANOTHER news reporter?

Think of your small little blog as a newsletter in your small little town of 100 people.  Sure, it’s great that you are letting them know the Chase British Airways Visa card is now up to 100K or SPG is giving a 20% bonus on miles purchased, but eventually, they will learn of a site called Frequent Miler or Million Miles Secrets or Doctor of Credit.  Doctor of Credit is like the Brian Williams of MS related news minus the helicopter ride.  He’s like the New York Times of deals news!  He will crush you!  So unless you plan on hiring people in Bangladesh to write the news before him, don’t even bother writing about the news.  Now I’m not saying it can’t be done (remember, there was a time before Doc), but it’ll take a lot of time and resources to topple those guys.

Also, for all those MMS Friday bloggers who write trip reports “for your friends and family,” well I hope you like blogging for 20 views a day.  I mean, how many big trips can you take in a year?  3-4 weeks per year?  What are you going to write about the other 48 weeks out of the year?  The news?  You will be crushed!  When I say crushed, I don’t literally mean crushed.  I mean you are on page 100 of Google search aka you are nonexistent!  Hahaha.  Sorry, did I bust your bubble?  I’ve clearly been watching too much Mr. Wonderful from “Shark Tank.”

 

Be unique!

So now that we’ve decided you shouldn’t write about the news, what SHOULD you write about?  I don’t know.  I’m not you.  I don’t know your interests or what you’re good at.  What I do know is this – people like stories and people like funny people.  I randomly heard about a blog called something like “Confessions of a call girl” (I’ll let you Google that yourself) where it was a call girl writing stories about her encounters.  I thought she was a great writer.  Eventually, her story became a TV series.  Now I don’t know how you can become a good writer if you’re not one today.  I think you have to ENJOY writing.  I do know that people like to read conversational writing vs reading a from a textbook.  So your style of writing matters too.

Pretend you had a section in this miles and points newspaper.  Do not try to be on the front page!  I put myself in the editorial section.  I write stories on various topics.  I MS, I resell, I take out car leases, I try to flip houses, etc.  Because I write on so many random topics, that’s why I’m in the editorial section.  Or maybe I should be in the Personal Finance section.  My point is – think of a niche and stick to it (e.g. reselling)  Have I mentioned to not write about the news?

 

Why do I keep blogging?

Let’s be clear here.  I make less than $100 A MONTH on this blog through ad revenue and Amazon purchases (thanks people; I really do appreciate it.)  And if it takes me an hour per post and I crank out 20 posts a month, that’s 20 hours for $100, which equates to $5/hr.  This is vastly under my MS threshold of at least $80/hr.  So why do I even bother writing?  Even writing this last paragraph makes me question why I even bother.  When you blog, you will have these up days (you look at your Amazon ad revenue) and then you have these down days (realize you only made $1 today.)  I can tell you that if I was still getting 20 views a day from friends and family, I would have quit a long time ago.  If you want to read a blog that I once started and stopped, read about my reviews of movies before I fell asleep – http://moviesthatmademesleep.blogspot.com/

So why do I blog? I do it for the social networking aspect of it.  I love hearing and responding to people.  I feel I’ve gained as much knowledge from my readers as I’ve dished out.  I also do it for the little 5K SPG referral credits (thanks to everyone who signed up by the way.) which is in a way a poor mans cc affiliate revenue. I also do it for the little crumbs of cheese I get from the Amazon affiliate link.  I also do it because now people sorta know who I am (good and bad with this – aka internet trolls.)  But mainly I do enjoy writing, but I wonder how many stories I can come up with. Heck, TBB already has put an expiration date on my blog, so I’m sure it’s a matter of time before I hit the proverbial wall (talking to you George Martin.)

 

So you still want to start a blog?

After reading all that and you feel like you have something to contribute to the ‘miles and points newspaper,’ then go start your blog.  And write something unique and special that interests people.  Then do it 20 timese a month.  Then do it for another 3 months.  Then hope one of the bigger bloggers link to your blog a dozen times so people know you exist.  Then keep at it and ask yourself why you even do it.  That’s when most bloggers stop writing just because the time commitments are just too great and the returns are nearly 0.  Then power through that feeling and keep going strong!  Rome wasn’t built in a day! You can dooooo it.

By the way,  if you ever want to guest write for me to get you started, just let me know at vinh@milesperday.com; I’ll be happy to post it and get you started.  Plus you’ll save me an hour that day.