A Modern Mom’s Life is a year old now! My blog life is still a bit of a struggle, but I feel like I’m finally comfortable with the amount of posts I’m creating. Plus, I taught myself how to make a static front page. (Yay me!) So it must be time to expand my horizons a bit, right?
If I’m ever going to make money in this arena I have to put myself out there. I feel like I can hide behind the blog, and just be an anonymous mom blogger, but that’s not going to get me anywhere in, is it?
It’s time to branch out. My first baby step was getting business cards made. I think they look pretty good, although the text could have been a font size larger, now that I have them in hand. They’ll do, and if I manage to distribute 250 of them, I’ll edit the font for the next round.
Let me tell you, deciding what to put on a business card is hard work! What do I want to gain from them? How do I want to be approached? What services do I want to provide? I went with Writer, Photographer, Social Media Marketer. These are things I do, and I’m pretty good at. And they are what I want to continue to do going forward. As PawPaw Ray commented on my Instagram, “Business cards are the one place ‘less is more!’”
Local networking is tough. I went through a spurt of writing to local businesses and attractions but I rarely got any responses. So I went back to working on my social following, and just writing for my blog. I think focusing on my blog life is the best way to grow my online presence.
Now that I’m seeing a bit more growth on my blog I’m thinking about taking a different direction. Not for the blog itself, but for alternate ways to get my words out into the world.
I want to write for others. I’d love to be published on some other websites. And I’d love to support others on my own blog. But I don’t really want to do it for free. Guest posting on other blogs is great, and it helps get your name (and your blog) out into the blog-o-sphere. I would be very happy to do a little more of that. So far I’ve been on 2 other blogs, but I didn’t see too much traffic coming to my blog from that.
Instead I’m starting to look into being a content writer. So far I’ve contacted one company (website) and they replied. But when I responded with a few questions I didn’t hear back. I must have scared them away. But I’m so new at this I have no idea what I’m doing, or what people are looking for. I need a smidge of guidance! Maybe I’ll devote some time over the next week or two to delving further into the world of freelance content writing. But if you know of anywhere looking for writers (who will answers questions when I have them) please, let me know!
All that being said, I have also been approached for a sponsored post. This will be my first one and I’m quite excited. It actually has a local slant which makes it more interesting. I’m not sure what I can and can’t share at this point – I’m still waiting on “more information” and a meeting time – but stick around and I’m sure you’ll hear all about it!
I plan on sharing anything useful I come across on my journey to be a freelance writer of some sort. I’ve read a lot from Elna Cain, and I enjoy her posts on becoming a freelance writer. I’m hoping to try out a few more of her tips in the coming weeks.
I am so excited to expand my horizons and continue to grow in my blog life. Do you have any tips or websites for me to check out while I learn all I can about freelance writing? Or networking ideas for my local aspirations? I’d love to hear them – go ahead and share with me in the comments!
~Jess
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