Turn Your Blog Into a Business

A couple weekends ago, I was lucky enough to attend a brunch with 30 other London bloggers, including blog / Instagram legends - Niamh at Eat Like a Girl and Michael at Symmetry Breakfast. We chatted and learned about how to turn a blog into a business while making new friends.

Photo: About Time magazine.

Since it was such an exciting event for me, I wanted to share one tip I learned from each of the experts I met that day.

1. Find your pitch!

Rebecca, a freelancer for the Telegraph and the editor-in-chief of About FCKING Time magazine gave the wise advice that you need to be able to summarize your offering in 2 lines - whether you are drumming up traffic to a blog post, trying to work with a brand, or writing a freelance article. The pitch should give the gist of your post or idea while being catchy (think of it as your elevator pitch). For me, that means I'm going to move away from simply titling my blog posts with the name of the recipe.

2. Be flexible when working with brands, but make sure it works for you.

Sometimes brands will approach you with a specific project in mind, but the budget is lower than what you would like to charge (or no budget at all). Instead of saying no,  Niamh from Eat Like a Girl suggests that you offer the brand something else that you can accomplish within their budget. For example, if the brand asks for a recipe to be developed and has a budget of £50 while you normally charge £200, you could instead offer to do something else you'd be happy doing for £50, such as a product review. There are many ways to work with brands, so be flexible, but also make sure it works for you. It's important to work with brands in a way that builds your blog.

3. Make it a commitment.

Michael from Symmetry Breakfast impressed us with his morning routine. Every single day, he is up at 6 AM and prepping breakfast by 6:30 AM. He's done with the breakfast and snaps his photos by 7:30 AM. To keep his feed real, he doesn't photo ahead of time, but takes the time and effort to take each photo each day. Talk about commitment!

4. Time your posts so it works with your audience.

About Time magazine have found that their readers prefer health-focused posts on Monday to 'detox' from the weekend. But by the end of the week, their readers are more interested in fried foods and more indulgent treats. Every blog will have a different audience, but Angelica, the mag's editor-in-chief, emphasized the need to respond and time your content so it reaches readers at the right time.

5. Build elite followers.

Alex, Yelp's community director, shared the importance of finding your "elite" readers and building relationships with them. These are the readers that come back to your blog over and over again. They are the readers that comment on your posts and will tell other people about your site. Make sure you let them know they are your "elites" and be approachable to them. Perhaps that's setting aside an afternoon to work in a coffeeshop and letting your readers know they can pop by for a chat?

There's so much to learn about blogging and I'm so glad that I was able to sit down with so many great bloggers and experts and chat about these topics. The event was hosted by About Time magazine and Yelp London. Thank you for your generosity and for providing a space for us to meet, network and learn!

Photo: About Time magazine.