My Blogging Strategy - How I earn a Living through Blogging
I earn a living through mostly through blogging.
I still can’t believe it when I say that, but it’s true, and especially since my teaching income has dried up due to Covid, the blogging income’s all I’ve had coming in, and it’s kept me ticking over. And from October, when I head abroad, my blogging income will be something like 90% of my total income.
Ultimately this income depends on the quality of what I write and targeting that to an appropriate audience.
On my main blog – over at ReviseSociology.com I publish material for free and then that content directs people towards my revision and exam related premium products for sale, and revision webinars during exam season (all of that income lost this year due to Covid).
On Hive, well, you know the deal on Hive – you hustle your way to >30K Hive and do a bit of networking and then people will add you to their autovote and upvote any old lame shit you churn out paying you hardly any attention for the most part, but still ‘paying you’ by voting yer content.
However, because my Hive content and my regular blogging content are interlinked (I have the same identity) I need to maintain some level of quality so as to not look like a total idiot to anyone from mainstream who stumbles across me on Hive.
Long and short of it, my income is dependent on having a decent blogging strategy in place, and here’s what it looks like:
How I blog for ReviseSociology.com
It has taken me years to get here, but here’s how it pads out:
It’s an A-level blog, so the syllabus structures what I write and I’ve evolved into producing teaching resource subscriptions on a two year update cycle, so I write material for these subscription packages, and produce new blogs along the same themes according to my schedule below:
I try to produce 15 posts a month for the blog, which is just over three a week which consists of the following:
- Around 6 new posts per month – between 1200 - 1500 words
- Around 6 quick ‘news or research’ update posts – of around 400-800 words
- 3 Mega-posts – 2000 words plus, and I think it’s these that really pull in the audience.
I’m currently working on Research Methods material, and I will be for most of the autumn, this doesn’t get released to subscription until October, so I’m ahead, but my blog posts go out sooner – I’m currently about two weeks ahead with them.
The mega posts could go out at any time – ATM I’m trying to work on some simple ‘list’ posts of the best research studies for certain topics – kind of grind posts, but there’s a gap in the market for this sort of thing.
I’ve got my writing schedule planned for the next 18 months, then it just repeats.
The important thing is that I’ve got a coherent structure, a long term plan, and I’m generally two-three weeks ahead with my blog posts, and one-two months ahead with my resource-material. It doesn’t make sense to be any further ahead than that, my material needs to be fairly current!
I’ll have to change it if the spec changes, but I’ll get at least a year’s notice of that happening, so plenty of time.
My blogging strategy on Hive
Unlike in the regular blogosphere where my content is crucial to drive resource sales, I could probably write any old shit on Hive and still earn what I do because most people who have me on autovote don’t read most of what I write.
However, being a professional blogger (that is someone who genuinely lives off of blogging), I like to maintain a certain level of quality – because my identity is the same here as it is in Sociology Land.
And there is a synergy between what I do on Hive and what I do on RS.com – this is where I can write about sociology stuff that interests me personally, this is where I can express alternative life strategies that I think any teenager studying A-level Sociology should adopt as early as possible, but I’m better off NOT saying any of that on RS.com because I want that tightly focused on the Spec.
I don’t want anyone to find me from RS.com on Hive, read my stuff and think ‘crypto-bullshitter con artist’, I’d rather they saw I was getting a decent pay-out for reasonable quality stuff.
And I am one of the larger earners on Hive, so if I’m milking it’s not likely to attract decent people, just scam-artists, and they belong on Steem IMO, not here.
Hive Threads
I have ‘seven threads’ of writing on Hive – which I split into shorter daily posts, published on Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.
Then I have three main longer form posts – Early Retirement material, Eco-village material (the model for ERE) and Hive material – all of these I tend to write in advance, and think of these posts as making up sections of chapters in a kind of thesis/ or book if you like.
I tend to try and do all of my Hive writing Friday to Sunday, but some of the quicker form Mon/ Tuesday posts, I might knock out quickly early on in the week.
Additional LEO posts
Since I discovered LEO – I’m also planning to do some addition writing here – I’ve got a rough schedule as below – I haven’t managed to stick to it yet, but I might power through and start doing more writing as time allows
The posts 1 and 2 column kind of overlap with my Early Retirement stuff, and the Hive/ Leo reviews overlap with the Hive stuff, so these aren’t necessarily extra posts, it’s just a structure so I’m producing a variety of material over the course of a month.
How it all fits together…
- Monday-Thursday 7. 30 – 15.00 – ReviseSociology.com, sometimes I do Hive posts in the later part of the early afternoon.
- Friday – Sunday – anytime of the day: Hive and Leo posts…
Final thoughts – having a strategy
I manage to maintain my output on about six hours a day, which I’m quite happy with.
I think the most important thing is having the longer form posting strategy in place, so for some posts at least you’re thinking about ‘writing a ‘teaching bundle’ or a ‘book’ or even an informal ‘PhD’ (a real step up from the formal ones if you ask me) and your 500-1500 word posts are contributing towards these larger products, rather than just being reactive or micro-posting all the time.
I’ve bolded up everything in the tables that makes up the ‘longer form’ posts in the tables above!
If you do longer form posting it makes it much more satisfying, you end up with a ‘finished product’ to sell every so often too.
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Well yeah, but if the content turns to shit that auto will go elsewhere, at least for me anyway.
I need to start writing in advance - never worked on something (unless it took multiple days) that hasn't been posted on the same day.
Have a look at some of the trending posts here on Leofinance, you'll see that autovote case is not the case for everyone!
I don't think it is on Hive either.
I'm sure this is why @therealwolf wants the change he's proposing - he's currently thinking 'I'm having to vote shit (or at least mediocre content) to get a curation return and I'd rather not be forced into this'.
So ATM, I think a lot of people are keeping their AVs switched on because 1. there's precious little to vote and 2. Well, it's a damn hassle to keep tweaking it isn't it!
Honestly, the long-form writing is the best habit I've established - you can just zone into something for a couple of days at a time, and then it posts at sometime in the next month - I don't even remember writing today's blog post on RS, it was that long ago I wrote it.
Reactionary keep-up writing is not as productive for me. Then again, there are some posts you have to wait to write and daily-publish for various reasons.
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I agree the tribes, even with LEO, looks a bit circular with the high stakeholders.
Wolf's idea is interesting, but I'm with you that posting will drop, and with there being no effort to collect and more effort to share, why would people bother.
I linked an older post from Taraz, slightly different but with more options - lock some up, play with some as we do now.
Overall, probably best to wait for SMT before radical changes to the native token. I don't think it's the current mechanics are that shit, and we're just tied to BTC like every other token.
I think ultimately the Wolf is looking to keep more of that 'individual reward pool' for himself as a very high stake holder - he's quite young and probably hoping Hive is going to sustain him for decades.
It's different for me - I'm fine if Hive just stays a side income. I don't need it to retire on!
He does have a point now we've got communities with their own tokens, but I agree with you, what he's talking about is years down the line, and then just maybe. Hopefully we'll have SMTs by then.
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Likely - I'd like that too but am not banking on it just yet :)
Funny that stake is due to him facilitating votes to some god awful content.
I know he's an odd one - it seems that he's had a genuine conversion - he knows what it'll take to stop him voting on shit, because, well, he's been there! This is his solution
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I guess this would put Hivewatchers out of business? Over four full downvotes from Wolfy to those guys this past week.
Well it would I guess.
I think I'll leave investigating why he's DVing them, sounds like Drama. I Miss the Drama token.
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It's interesting to see your posting strategies and schedule.
I was trying to have something similar for Hive but my posts are just too random, lol. So I just go with the flow, write and publish whatever I feel like sharing that day.
Hey whatever works!
Well, I got the 30K Hive part done but not the rest of it. 😎
Yeah, I get some auto votes but no where near enough to make a decent income out of, at least with current Hive pricing. But I’ve not done a really concerted job of networking. I’m probably one of a small number of Hivelandians who are among the top 500 HP holders who’s also never used Discord.
@arcange needs to make a new badge!
Like this? 😁
Sweet! Thanks.
!ENGAGE 30
ENGAGEtokens.Oh very nice!
The question now is how to award it?!
Made it just for fun on this comment thread.
But if you want to integrate it into HiveBuzz, feel free to contact me on Discord or Telegram
!BEER
View or trade
BEER.Hey @arcange, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @revisesociology for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.Shouldn't you also be drawing a state pension? I would have thought that that would dwarf any income made from blogging ... I have to assume now that it's not the case ...
Well I'm a few years off the pension yet!
Blogging's quite lucrative when you link it to products to sell, but it's the products that bring in the money!
Good idea to up your game :)
I always like your schedules but I do such a lot of long form writing for work, I'm all written out by the time that's done!
Oh that is a shame about work, that must be a bit annoying burning through all your energy on that.
I've got to admit that now I'm updating the sociology spec for the benefit of other people, and doing no teaching, that's quite manageable without the teaching, I don't imagine it's different anywhere else, having unreasonable demands placed on you!
I couldn't output like this if I was working full-time, no way!
Beauty is that you've got curation!
Well, they do pay me :)
Yeah, curation is amazing and much more relaxing!
Good luck with your plans, though, looking forward reading about your adventures in Portugal. I guess this means you'll miss the UK meet up in September?
Well I guess pay is one advantage of working.
I'm planning on coming to the September meet up, I should be able to make it.
Fab!
You're so disciplined!!! I'm always a lastminute.com person. I wish I could have a stock of posts ready.
You should try it, it's a nice way to write!
About the autovotes:
You are on my autovote list, as you probably know :)
But this doesnt mean that whatever you do I will keep voting .
If at some point I see that you are starting do do shitpost, and this is on a regular basis I will stop the autovote.
Not that my vote is that big :)
This is my take, cant speak for others.
Oh, and back at ya! That's how I deal with my AVs!
I did say 'most' people!
I dont have you on autovote because in genuinely read your stuff..
Argh..Im going to put you on autovote RIGHT now and keep reading hahaha. The smart man speaks
(if I remembered where the hive autovoter was ..sighh)
oh what a great comment, but I wasn't fishing!
Thanks for reading my ramblings!
Hivevoter I think it's called. But you don't have to honestly!
No but you deserve it...You go for steadily quality and with that deserve it
Hey cheers, I do like writing, I feel like I've hardly started too!
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You are doing a huge part of the job. To be honest, I couldn't do that. It's complicated. But your article inspires me to work. Thanks you.
Cheers for sharing your schedule, and it's certainly very interesting to see how you manage your blogs. Personally, I've always written to my heart's content, never a plan in sight. Maybe I should consider something like this, just to make my posting timetable a bit more consistent :-D
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A timetable's not for everyone, just go with what works I say, it helps me for sure!
That's true, and I might procrastinate too much for any timetable to be of use anyways, lol! Cheers for the advice, mate :-D
Really interesting read, thanks for sharing.
I'm still reasonably new to this 'Hive Blog' thing... and I'm enjoying creating posts and articles... but its hard work trying to keep it interesting. Its just as hard to keep the posts varied as well. I don't want to write the same post over and over again, and I seem to spend half the time just trying to work out what to write about next...
Your little table/schedule is the obvious solution that I evidently wasn't capable of working out for myself, so thank you for that 😉
I can now put a bit of effort into creating my own 'schedule' and hopefully start blogging a bit more consistently...
Hey thanks, I do find that writing to a schedule helps, as does having a longer series of posts to write.
It also helps that there are some people who invite posts on a certain topic, that I can write to!
Great post, you're clearly way more organised at posting than I. You've given me food for thought when posting my photography on Hive, thanks for that :-)
Hey cheers!