Whether you are just booking your first client as a coach or a seasoned pro at it, you are already inspiring and helping people to unlock their potentials. But does your coaching business website show your best side up and convert leads into sales and bookings?
A good website will act like the anchor for your coaching business and help you attract more clients. It also help your audience find you and your content easily.
10 must-have things on your coaching business website to improve conversions
Here are ten must-haves things on your coaching website to improve conversions, whatever your niche is. You can be a life coach, a business coach, a fitness coach, health and diet coach or a time management, these are things things that you really need on your coaching business website.
1) Own your niche
You go to a orthopaedic doctor if you have a knee problem, even if your general physician might know what could be the issue. You go to a specialist, who probably charges a bit more, because you trust his treatments and you want the best.
That is exactly what your business needs as well.
Figure whom you serve specifically, rather than just trying to sell to everyone. While this applies to any business, it is more critical for a coaching business, because you are solving specific problem for them.
You are a weight loss coach, but who are your target demographics? You might work for “women, above 30, who are looking to lose that 30 kg”.
Niche down to the specifics because no one wants a generalist to guide them.
2) First impressions matter
You have about 3 seconds to impress your first time visitor on your website. And you have about 15 seconds to convey they can get from your website and hook them into staying.
Make sure your above fold content (i.e. the first section below the menus) creates an emotional response (“yes that’s true!”) from the reader. Addressing their pain points directly helps to attract the correct audience for your content.
Stating your specialty as a life coach, time management coach, career coach, business coach or even a blog coach, right of the bat helps people to remember you as one, even after they leave your site.
Also that it helps your SEO of your website is an added bonus.
The main reason that your audience followed you to your website is YOU. Unlike other company websites, the business of coaching largely depend on YOU, YOUR FACE AND YOUR PERSONALITY.
And that is why your coaching website cannot get away with a bland coaching website template and stock photos. No, that one dingy photo, taken 10 years ago, in about me section is not enough, especially for a coach!
Whether you are into life coaching, marketing coaching or time coaching, the personal connection is vital and people connect better to real persons, obviously.
The more you pepper your content with your personality, the more the chances of connecting with your audience as a person and the more the chances of conversion into sales.
Take some professional photographs, especially using on your website. It doesn’t have to be all serious and grim. Just remember to stick to the brand colors and mood, but otherwise, have some fun with it.
4) Clear aspirational goals
A person goes to a health coaching website to be inspired and guided towards a healthier lifestyle. Likewise, if you are overwhelmed and always running out of time, you might look for a time coaching website to learn to manage time better or to be more organized and productive in your life.
What I am getting at is, people come to your site looking for a benefit or an outcome towards a goal.
A good coach should help them visualize what they can achieve or manifest with your guidance. Putting the benefits they will derive out of your coaching session in an aspirational way will help your website convert visitors into clients easily.
Please take extra care that your aspirational goals are positive and encouraging, and doesn’t “put anyone down”, especially when you are dealing with tough and delicate situations like weight loss goals or financial guidance.
5) A clear offer
Once you have them hooked, you need to dish out the finer prints. AKA your offer. A good place to list and brief them about this would be on your menu bar, under the header “work with me” or “services”.
While you can be offering a number of services, make sure you explain them all individually and distinguish between the target audience, if they are different.
Even if your services are intangible, you have to make what you will deliver clearly. Some key aspects can be
Will your coaching be 1-on-1 or a group session?
How will your measure your client’s success?
How will you/they keep track of the progress?
How many hours or sessions will you spending, monthly or weekly?
How many hours or sessions do you expect your clients to work on your program (on their own)?
You are the one that has to lead the clients, not the other way around. You have to be prepared with a plan, though it can flexible, you should not expect them to come with one.
6) Show your expertise
Building a website is just one part of the whole online presence. But adding consistent and resourceful content on to your website will improve your authority as well as keep your website fresh.
Use your content to educate and inspire your followers and visitors, and thereby creating a good relationship with them. This personal connect will help you convert readers to potential clients.
Some ways to create content for your site
Write a series of how-to posts and e-books
Share past client success stories as a post
Include some resources like checklists and templates relevant to your niche
Add some fun quizzes and challenges
Videos and podcasts are great additions too.
If you are new to content creation or you hate doing it, and would rather spend your time on your clients, you can hire a SEO content writer (such as myself, he he!) to help you out.
Call to action is the one vital thing that every page or post in your website should begin and end with. People, especially first time visitors of a site, need a lot of encouragements and reminders to come out of their shells and engage with you.
Some good examples of CTAs are
Schedule a consulting call.
Sign up for your newsletter or
DM you on Instagram.
whichever is your preferred method of communication.
End every blog post with a question for your visitor to respond or even ask them to share it with their friends.
Testimonials and reviews are a great way to convince that your methodology works. According to a recent survey, 9 out of 10 buyers consult online reviews before making any purchase.
Especially for a service offering like coaching, which depends a lot on trust and authority testimonials from past and present clients are critical.
Some questions you can ask them to help them share their feedback are:
How did your coaching help them?
What problems did they solve with their help?
Can they share some number and success stories like, number of clients gained, kilos lost, or a before and after picture etc.
Personal case studies and tangible/photographic evidences (of course with the required consents) will help you get those in dilemma to take the leap of faith.
Adding an “as seen on” or “logos of past clients” tab in your home page can improve your standing and build trust instantly.
9) Easy booking
Now that you have impressed them with your services and expertise, the worst that you can do to your business is making them jump through hoops to book you.
Yes, I am serious. It happens.
Put up a few easy, no-nonsense methods for your visitors to book an appointment with you or at least contact you easily.
A simple way to do that is to add in a contact form in your site. Instead of using a generic contact form, add in a few specific questions about them so that they will understand that you are interested in talking to them. It will also help you look professional when you contact them after you do some homework.
You can go a step further and add in call scheduling app (like Calendly) on your site. A “free” consulting call might help as a great sales funnel.
A site with call scheduling option immediately looks ten times more professional, than without one. And it is pretty easy to set one up.
10) Clean and professional looking website
When I say professional website design, it differs from person to person. But what I mean is, the layout should be easy to navigate and appealing to the eyes.
You can use a free template designs for your coaching business website or invest in a premium theme as well. Again, make sure you have a good hosting and speed too.
Do what works for you, but make sure you are not spending too much of your valuable time in tweaking or DIY-ing the site. For a few extra bucks, you can have your entire site designed and developed by a professional.
A final word
I know building a website might sound intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. In fact more than half of my clients have got their investment on their sites back in the first few months.
So take a leap of faith, and get your own website for your coaching business right now! And ensure you have these must-have things on your coaching business website to improve conversions!
Journaling has been the leader of the “self-care movement”, just behind maybe yoga or meditation. Writing a journal helps not only to help our emotional and mental well-being but also helps us become better writers.
Benefits of journaling for writers
“I spend most of my day writing and the last thing I want to do after my working hours is write.” Yes, I can hear you say that.
I am not making these things up. Here are eight benefits of journaling for writers.
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1) Cultivates the habit of writing regularly
Even though journaling is an informal mode of writing, it gets you started. What better way to start a day or end one whichever you prefer, by churning out a few hundred words on a paper?
In fact, one of my favorite writers Slyvia Plath kept her diary since she was eleven years old and often used it as a tool to “warm-up” her formal writing.
2) Get creative
The freewriting form of journaling helps to break the rules and pressure of formal and result-oriented writing.
If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you.
Madeleine L’Engle of A Wrinkle in Time
Just let yourself loose and just write whatever you want to share with, with no judgment. You can even add poems or haikus if your mood fancies.
You have no idea when the metaphorical idea bulb might switch on. But when they do, you should not be caught unprepared.
I often use my journal as a place to dump my ideas for future posts. Of course, it can be a digital diary, like I have, or a physical notebook.
Credit: Giphy
Either way, just pouring those somewhere before they permanently vanish into thin air is a good way to ensure you have a repository and never having to get caught thinking about what to write about.
4) Slay the writer’s block
That brings me up to my next point.
As writers, we are constantly looking for ways to better our craft. Yet, we know that the only way to become a better writer is to write more.
Journaling would keep your writer’s block away because you are writing regularly. And you have a repository of ideas or prompts to go back to if you ever get stuck.
Writing a journal can offer a way to switch your style by writing from what you do for a living, say being a website content writer or a novelist, and ensures you have a variety to choose from.
Whether you are working on your next crime thriller or a witty play, journaling can help you get into your characters’ heads and discover their voice.
Developing their personality and eccentricity would make their characters more interesting and help you understand their motivations for what they do.
Credit: Giphy
There are several sassy dialogues that I have written in my journal, that I might someday use in my book in the not so near future.
6) Research the details
I write quite a bit of business articles and white papers and I do a lot of research and collect data. Guess where I write them down, so that they will be available when I need them?
Yes, on my digital notebook/journal! You can do this even on a Google Doc.
Even if you are in the business of writing fiction, you will need details about places, history, or even famous people. Overprepare than the opposite is my motto.
7) Challenge your self-doubt
Artists often suffer the case of self-doubt, and a writer is no stranger to that as well.
But writing a journal can help you tackle the signs of self-doubt because you getting some writing done each day.
And just a flash-through of how much you have written down day after day will give you the booster of confidence you need.
Even Nobel laureate Steinbeck had his moments of doubts. But he trudged through it with the help of his diary, which was eventually published under the name Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath.
In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration. Consequently, there must be some little quality of fierceness until the habit pattern of a certain number of words is established. There is no possibility, in me at least, of saying, “I’ll do it if I feel like it.” One never feels like waking day after day. In fact, given the smallest excuse, one will not work at all. The rest is nonsense. Perhaps there are people who can work that way, but I cannot. I must get my words down every day whether they are any good or not.
John Steinbeck, Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath.
8) Up your self-care game
Writing a journal can often help us to stop and reflect on our actions and intentions. Journaling can also help you unbury your emotions and dump your anxieties and fears. It clears your mind and improves your mood drastically.
Credit: Giphy
It even can help you understand your triggers and help to avoid or tackle them by identifying the pattern.
A happier mind is a sharper mind and helps to improve your writing craft, doesn’t it?
Final word
Journaling may not be for everyone. There are so many benefits of journaling, especially for writers. But it is not the only way to improve your writing or practice self-care.
Many writers swear by writing a journal and so many more who love journaling as a self-care practice. But some people can’t get into it or keep up with the journaling habit.
So do what works for you, do not add in more pressure than it already is!
Fewer than 50% of small businesses and start-ups survive the first year. And with the global pandemic throwing a curveball, things are not going to be any easier soon. It is high time to rethink some of your marketing strategies for small businesses to improve your lead conversion and brand visibility.
Creating a Small Business Marketing Strategy
Small businesses often start with a limited budget – money and time, especially when it comes to marketing and strategy. In fact, we spend most of our time behind lead generations that we forget to spend time laying the foundation – strategy and planning.
Here are a few marketing techniques and tips to consider, especially if you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur.
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Creating a brand for your business
A brand is the identity of your business and it defines what your business stands for to yourself, your employees, and your consumers. It is how you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Identifying your brand identity forms the first step in establishing your marketing strategy. Once you identify what brand is going to be, ensure it is communicated throughout your business practices.
Branding includes everything from your logo to the tone of your social media posts and the presentations you show your clients.
Identifying your audience
Knowing who and where your audience is and catering to them makes a lot of business sense, than just trying to be everywhere at once. Small businesses can thrive on serving niche markets and assert their dominance.
To start with visualize your ideal dream client/customer and understand their behavior.
Where do they come from?
How old are they?
What are their spending patterns?
What are their trigger points?
Once you know your audience well enough, you can craft your marketing strategy and content to attract them.
Identify your unique selling point
Why should someone buy your product, not your competitors? What puts you ahead of your competitors? Is it your economic pricing or discount? Or are your products more durable than theirs?
Identifying your USP or value proposition helps you to differentiate your brand and product from the hundreds, if not thousands, of other competition.
And then it is just a matter of convincing your customer by explaining why he should get your product.
More videos and images
When it comes to convincing your customer or explaining things to others, a picture is a hundred times better and a video is a thousand times better.
The rise of mediums like Youtube, Instagram stories, reels and posts, and Tiktok videos have proved time and again – most people would prefer visual content.
Of course, that doesn’t mean written content is faded out, but visual and written content supplement each other now, more than ever.
Invest in online advertisements
With the number of posts, stories, and videos being posted on social media rising exponentially, it is not smart to wait for our brand to organically.
Advertising aka boosting your content on social media is a lot cheaper than offline ads. And you get to target your audience based on their demographics and geography as well.
Advertising on social media or any other site is not only time-saving but is also very user-friendly. Anyone can do a promotion in a blink of an eye.
Create your own website
Establish your online presence by creating your own website. Your website can act as the home base for all your online activities. And owning a website is neither time-consuming nor too expensive these days.
Correct Search Engine Optimization techniques and paid advertising like Google ads can put your brand and your website on top of the search results.
Content marketing as a tool
Content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy that works well both for small and large businesses alike. It revolves around sharing as much value and information as possible to your clients to solve their problems and building a last relationship with them.
It includes everything from writing blog posts that translates your product features into desirable benefits to your customers to an Instagram story that you shared. Some of the important types of content are:
Blog posts
Podcast
Infographics
Images and videos
White papers and case studies
eBooks
You can enlist more outside help to handle your content marketing, especially when you have a business to focus on.
Use email marketing to nurture leads
While blog posts and social media posts focus on attracting the attention of your prospective clients, email marketing is how you can convert them into leads and sales.
A drip marketing campaign or automated email campaigns are a series of email letters sent on a set schedule following a particular event, say an abandoned cart or signing up for a free product.
Such campaigns are more effective if you deliver the right message, based on the demography and interests of your audience, at the right time, say two months before the event, like Christmas or back-to-school season.
In conclusion
There are no one-fit solution when it comes to marketing strategy. You might have to choose a few of these strategies and find out what works for you. Capitalize the short-term wins and double down on what works.
Which of these marketing strategies do you focus on as a small business owner or an entrepreneur? What are your pain points when it comes to content writing? Let’s chat.
Does writing seem daunting to you? For most people, writing doesn’t comes naturally. Here are few most common grammar mistakes in writing that even writers miss. I hope the list help you to avoid them and help you write like a pro!
Common grammar mistakes in writing
As someone who grew up with a healthy dose of books as a part of her childhood, the love for the language and grammar came to me quite easily. But not everyone has the time or interest to do that. Even if you are a native speaker, sometimes these pesky English grammar might get the best of you.
So I put together this nifty list of common grammar mistakes we tend to make while writing to avoid that scenario and the embarrassment.
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1) Mixing up common words
Writing in English can be tough, especially if it is not your native language. And one of the most cruel inventions of the language would be the homophones.
I can hear your “the what now?” already.
Homophones are pair of words that sound the same, but have different spelling and different meanings. Some of them are:
Your or you’re
It’s or Its
Their or there or they’re
Lose or Loose
Bear or bare
Whether or weather
Principal or principle
Stationary or Stationery
And for obvious reasons, they are one of the most common mistakes people make while writing. All you have to remember which one goes where and you are set for life.
2) Using a wrong word
Not just similar sounding words, but there are few other notorious word pairs that people commonly substitute for.
I was or I were
Then or than
Few or Less
Accept or except
Could Of or Could Have
Who or Whom
Affect or effect
Take a minute to understand the differences between them and learn to using them appropriately could save some embarrassment in the future.
3) Misusing Commas
Slewing commas randomly in a sentence is not only annoying but also can make the sentence muddled. Neither does missing a comma.
Where do we commonly mess up when using a comma?
The notorious Oxford commas – just add one before the and when it is a series of items
Missing a comma when you address directly
Example: Let’s eat, Grandma! Vs Let’s eat Grandma!
Missing a comma before a conjunction (for, and, but etc) joining two independent clauses
Missing a comma in case of appositives
Example: Emma, Anna’s sister, just arrived.
The comma rules are, I agree, generally confusing. But if you avoid these most common mistakes, you are almost there.
4) More active, less passive
While it is not grammatically wrong to choose passive sentences in general, using too many of them is a sure shot way to lose the attention of your reader.
Let me give a very simple example:
Passive: It is a young adult book that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Active: People of all ages can enjoy this young adult book.
Also passive voice sentence tend to be more confusing, especially when they are longer. An easy rule to remember is to avoid “is/was” and “by the subject” when framing sentences.
5) (Ab)using quotation marks to add emphasis or irony
I think this is one of my pet peeves.
It annoys me when people use quotation mark to emphasis a word. While It is one thing to use “air quotes” when you talk, using them in business writing context is just plain wrong.
It creates a sort of ambiguity in the reader’s mind about the intention of the writer. Would you “trust” someone who writes “so good”?
Use quotation marks where they are supposed to be – when you quote someone.
6) Improper use of the apostrophe
Apostrophe is one of my favorite punctuation marks. Yes, I have a favorite punctuation marks and it is not that weird given I am a writer!
And the rules regarding the apostrophes are not that difficult, but unfortunately they are one of the most common mistakes in writing.
An apostrophe mark is usually used to show possession (Gayathri’s notebook) or contraction (She’s read it already). There are other cases, but let’s not go into details.
Instead, let me tell you where an apostrophe is wrongly used
Never use it with a possessive pronoun like hers, his, theirs. (No more hers’ or who’s)
When it is a plural form, use it after the -s. (Example: Teachers’ lounge, dogs’ park)
7) Vague and ambiguous pronouns
Any good writer strives for clarity in his sentences. And nothing kills that clarity faster than a vague pronoun. A vague pronoun usually includes it, this, that and which.
Example: Emma told Anna that she would meet Carol. Who is the “she” in the above sentence? Is it Emma or Anna that will be meeting Carol?
8) Parallelism
Parallelism refers to a matching or parallel grammatical structure within a sentence, much like its geometry namesake. Generally it means there is a repetition of elements, tenses and ideas.
Parallelism makes a sentence concise and easier to read.
Example: We drove through the desert, swam in the seas and living in a tent. Correct: We drove through the desert, swam in the seas and lived in a tent. (tense has to match)
Example 2: The girls went to back to their respective house. Correct: The girls went to back to their respective houses. (Plural form should match)
Which of these common grammar mistakes got the best of you? Do you love English grammar and writing like I do? Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? Let us chat.
Despite your claims that you want to just blog for fun, I am sure all of us want to have a successful blog, deep down. When I started as a full time book blogger, all I wanted was publishers to look my site and send me free books. That is what success meant to me, then.
Then once in a while, I would come across a post about how someone received 1,00,000 views in a month and I would feel like I had to get me some traffic. Some days, it would be all the engagement and comment some other blogger is getting. Or the number of followers.
Basically I wanted them all and worked towards not one particular goal. Did I reach some of my goals? Maybe. Did I get all of them? Not really. But am I a successful book blogger, according to myself? I still dunno.
What is success to you as a blogger?
When I started blogging, I just wanted to claim a space on the internet to call it a home, where I can talk about things that mattered to me. But as things (and myself) evolved, I wanted to have a successful blog and I had no clue what a successful blog was.
Also what ‘successful’ is to me may not be a big deal to you, or the vice versa. How does even measure success? What are you imagining the success of blogging to look like?
Putting out quality content, regularly
Consistency has always been my pitfall. Publishing regularly and consistently is one of those goals that I used to struggle constantly. I know I set myself to fail when I chose to post four times a week. I succeed in failing often, or even worse, I get those burnouts that lasts for weeks.
So my view of a successful blog was publishing engaging content like a clockwork. I am in awe people who have been blogging about books for years like Cait from Paperfury and Pages Unbound.
Becoming an authority on the subject
If you need to learn about something online, one of the first sites you remember is Wikipedia. That is because Wikipedia is an authority on the subject. Same goes to IMDB or Goodreads for film/book reviews.
Getting to a place where you are known for the type of content you publish is definitely a good measure.
I know I am up for snarky posts when I think of Shruti from This is lit and it is going to some YA related books from Charvi from Not Just Fiction.
Likewise, you know are always get to read interesting discussion posts if you go to Nicole’s blog at Feed Your Fiction Addiction.
I love it when people come to my site specifically with the goal to read my reviews and thoughts on a book, or a bookish discussion. It helps ranking high on the Search Engine Results Pages.
Community driven engagement aka comments and shares
Blogging may just be my elaborate ruse to find people who share my interests, for all you know.
Are you like me? How much does it matter to you when you get comments in your blog or a mention in others’ blog?
Page visits and traffic
Apparently, some people receive millions of visits on their blogs each month. It sounds really far away from my reality.
But again, who would not want people flocking down to YOUR site to read YOUR opinion about things that matter to YOU. I sure do.
Is that what you want to get out of blogging? Do you want your site to be internet famous? Or just steady and regular traffic on your blog would keep you motivated to keep writing?
Talking about my dream of publishers and authors knocking at my door (not literally, though) with ARCs and book mails, one of the main criteria they look for is the number of followers on your blog and social media.
The more you have, the more successful you appear to be on their radar, and thus on everyone else’s view. If book blogging is a number’s game to you, the follower count is one of the stats that you should definitely be following.
Here is a shameless self promotion plug in: If you like my posts, do follow me here or on any of the social media. And sure, you can buy me a coffee!
Earnings from blog
Many of us dream of earning money from our blogs, even if it means a few cents from the affiliate links. Definitely book blogging is one of those niches that has fewer scope for monetization. Nonetheless, we are working around it.
So it is a good idea to consider the earnings from a blog as a measure to success. And earning doesn’t have to be just in terms of money, freebies and products to review are all some of form earning for the effort and time we spend on the blog.
Generating leads for business
This is something I spoke of on my recent post on how book blogging is not just for fun but a good way to build a portfolio for yourself. And several bloggers, including myself, use it generate queries and leads for our business.
Being asked to contribute to a website or review some product/book related to your niche is definitely one of the telltale signs of a successful blog. It means people trust that you do a great job and maybe willing to pay for it.
Learning a new skill
As the adage goes, there is nothing permanent in life, except change, right? A successful blog is constantly evolving and a good blogger has to keep learning new tricks and techniques.
Do you know more than what you knew last year? Do you strive to keep learning things that might help you and your readers? Now that is a thing successful bloggers would keep doing. Keep it up.
Being a successful blogger is not one number or factor. It can be combination of these factors. We will see more about each of these measures in detail in the following weeks.
While I have mentioned all the different methods to measure success as a blogger, what is it that ticks you? What gets you excited and motivated is your way to success.
Earlier I spoke about how book blogging is so unlike other blogging niches and how we book bloggers blog mainly for ourselves. While there is no harm in that, I feel disheartened when some book bloggers dismiss their work as “oh, I blog just for fun”. My dear book bloggers, please stop doing that.
Recently I read a very powerful post by Marie about how book blogger’s services are not valued enough, and that completely resonated with me. And maybe, just maybe, such a dismissal from ourselves stems from that or just worsens it.
Book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’
I am a freelance writer, and every minute I spend on my blog is a minute I am not spending on my client aka I am not earning.
And that is how I came to realize how valuable book blogging generally is, given the number of hours I spend on it. I know it is a late realization and this came after about 8 years of blogging.
Since then, I sincerely want more book bloggers to understand that they are working really hard, for fun or not, and they should begin seeing their value, first. And sure you can blog for fun, but there is more to book blogging than you realize.
Let us talk about the benefits of book blogging and why book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’.
To be honest, this whole thing pisses the hell out of me. So if this post sounds a bit harsher than my usual nice tone, I apologize right now.
Your blog is your identity
When was the last time you tried to find a person online? We all know they don’t exist if Google or other search engine can’t find them.
And that is exactly what you are doing with your blog. You are creating a brand online for yourself, consciously or not. You talk about things you like and dislike, and you are brave enough to tell it so to the entire world.
Your information is already out there via social media, and through blog you have a say at how you make it available to others.
You are building your portfolio
Whether you use a self hosted site or not, you can use your blog as a portfolio for your business or style.
I am a freelance writer who started out with my old book blog as my sample writing portfolio. Even now when I have enough clips to show around, I never fail to link Elgee Writes as a sample.
Speaking of business, I know several book bloggers (including me) who started to “blog for fun” and then leveraged that to develop their business.
This practice is not new to the blogging world, irrespective of the niche.
There are so many book/reading/writing related businesses that one could start, based out of your site. For instance, I offer beta reading services and writing services. And almost every other business enquiry comes right from this site.
I might write a detailed post on bookish business ideas soon. If I forget, feel free to remind me.
While it might seem hard to get a steady size-able income from book blogging alone in the current scenario, it is definitely possible. And there are several other prominent book bloggers who do that very well.
Even I have used affiliate links (not anymore) and still display ads on my site to grab those meager bucks. It is not really hard and every cent would count towards your next book haul right?
You work hard for those freebies
Let us be honest, many of us started their book blogs, and are still working towards getting those free review copies and ARCs from the publishers.
You are working your asses off to get those copies, reading and reviewing them and then promoting the heck out of it. And are you kidding me with “oh it is just blogging for fun”?
Credit: Tenor
And bloggers from other niches, do similar posts and even get paid for it. That topic is for another day, but hey, your blogging skills are no lesser than theirs just because it comes for free.
You help authors achieve their dreams
The next time you feel down or not motivated about book blogging, think of the countless authors, especially independent ones, that you are helping out through your shout outs and reviews.
I don’t think I have to explain the importance of posting reviews on the portals like Amazon and Goodreads for authors. So your hard work into book blogging is definitely important to them and they value it.
You are learning new skills
Book blogging, and blogging in general, involves acquiring new skill set. Most of us learn about blogging and everything around it like creating images for the blog, SEO or analytics on job, without much formal training.
And that is no mean feat. Just because we learn them out of our special interest doesn’t mean it gets any easier or that it is fun.
I started blogging about ten years ago. Everything I have learnt about digital marketing, content writing and even technical stuff like keyword research or Google analytics stemmed from this site.
Credit: Gfycat
I am sure you have learnt so many new things for and through your blogging too. And that should have involved considerable amount of time and effort. So how dare you put yourself down and dismiss it?
You slay collaborations
The amount of work and creativity some book bloggers put into their posts astounds me. The number of hours they put into research and collaborate with other bloggers is unbelievable.
These collaborative and team working skill are highly valuable and cannot and should not be dismissed as they are done for fun.
You may never know when they are going to be useful in your life.
In summary
Being students, full time employees, freelancers or whatever your work status looks like, is not easy, and in top of that ‘real life’ you are killing it in the book blogging world. So don’t be so easy to dismiss your hard work as ‘just for fun’.
Do you ever feel that your book blogging lifestyle is not taken seriously? What do you think we, book bloggers as a community do to be taken more seriously by publishers, authors and others? Let us talk.
