Ask HN: I recently lost my job, I want to pursue blogging as a career. Thoughts? - thescribbblr
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diablo1
Well you won't exactly become Kottke overnight. Blogging requires that you
build the habit of blogging. I like to write on an airgapped machine to trial
out some posts before they go live to the masses.

If my post looks good, then I move it off the airgapped machine to my main
device where I upload it to my Ghost instance and then seen by thousands, or
even millions if it gets picked up by other bloggers/news outlets who would
amplify your message and spread it far and wide.

Providing you have monetized it, you can generate revenue, although to really
earn properly from it you would need a small staff of writers and master
Commission Junction / Amazon Associates and you would need to consistently
churn out well written high quality posts and also build your audience
organically over time.

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thescribbblr
So it's like monetizing a blog is a hard task?

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diablo1
It depends on how much you want to earn from it. Most people are happy with
Adsense and like their income from that, but to really earn properly you need
to have guest writers, paid promotional posts, and be doing affiliate
marketing. You also need to be as authentic as possible and not give the
impression you are just doing the blog for money (as many sites do). Like
anything, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

~~~
thescribbblr
Thank you for the guidance. But is there any live example or a blog link that
I should definitely follow before I start blogging.

And which topic should I write about. How should I decide this?

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diablo1
Just as an example: there's a site Tom's Guide that monetizes in an article
here: [https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-
vpn](https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-vpn)

The site is huge and they're doing affiliate marketing on multiple pages, not
just my example link.

Also: The articles are also authoritative, authentic and not mere blogspam.
They explain everything in detail and offer insights; the affiliate links are
not the sole purpose: they want to write a blogpost too!

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thescribbblr
Wow I was unaware about it. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

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tdom
The truth is, it's hard to find a good loyal audience to monetize. My main
blogging revenue is Medium Partner Program. Since beginning of 2020 I made
around $500 from something like 5 articles. I don't blog a lot but I have
access to pretty popular programming publications on there, allowing me to
reach a wider audience. I also made some money from people reaching out to
write posts for them. It's not a lot, but considering I only have 1.4k
followers and treat my blog as more of a reminder/documentation for myself in
the future, it's also not bad.

Medium can suck though, as their algorithm decides whether your posts will be
shown on the homepage. Personal self hosted blogs on the other hand can be
hard to optimise for search engines, which is something medium is great at.

Don't try to make blogging your main thing. You will either fail or it will
take along time for you to see any decent sums in the first place. Do it on
the side, and if it takes off then you can consider doing it full time.

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thescribbblr
Awesome insights and suggestion. Can you share your blog link please ?

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tdom
You can find my medium blog here:
[https://medium.com/@td0m](https://medium.com/@td0m)

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thescribbblr
Thank you

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rwol
What will you blog about? Make sure the audience is big enough that you can
make money from it. Too big though and you might get lost in a sea of voices.
Quality content and marketing is key. It’s been awhile since I blogged though
so someone else might have better advice regarding marketing / social media
platforms / SEO rankings.

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verdverm
Do you have a following or technical writing / journalist skills? I hear
you'll make peanuts, so do you have writing skills useful to startups / biz
that you can freelance with while you build the blogging side up?

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thescribbblr
I used to write about Indian startups two years ago.

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verdverm
Do you write daily?

What brings about this desire and direction for a career change?

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thescribbblr
No, I stopped writing the blog a long time ago. But, I always wanted to start
a blog. Since, this covid and lockdown situation, till I get a job I want to
pursue this.

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verdverm
I also would like to write more but more often than not find myself writing
code.

Still trying to figure this one out and I think I'm getting closer. If I
remind myself that I really like talking about this subject and that I want to
share what I know with as many people as possible, so that they might grow on
my shoulders, than I can find some energy.

"The hardest part is starting." ~ someone notable

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thescribbblr
Yes, starting something is the hardest part. Since, 2 weeks I am
procrastinating.

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verdverm
Then you will probably want to find something else to do every day, day after
day, for years, yea?

If you aren't excited to do that thing every day, why are you doing it?

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econcon
It's hard to make money blogging. I suggest becoming a YouTuber instead,
consuming YouTube content is lot easier.

And if you want to make money, I suggest you try e-commerce.

