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When you decide to make the move from hobby blogging to pro blogging you may find you need to make some changes in how you do things to succeed, especially if you are having trouble succeeding as a home business.

A hobby is an activity you do on the side, for fun. A hobby blog is a blog you work on in your free time. It may or may not generate an income but it’s not a full time job and doesn’t produce a full time income. A hobby blog can be a really well written blog with a large audience if it’s done right but the blogger treats it more as a leisure time activity than a job. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a hobby blog, but if you want to be a professional blogger and either turn your hobby blog into a profession or start a new professional blog, you might find it easier if you make some changes.

How To Succeed as a Pro Blogger

Take It Seriously

What do your friends and family know of and think of your blogging? Some people still don’t really get blogging and might take your interest in it lightly. This isn’t as big of a deal if you have a hobby blog. If you want your blogging to be your business though, you need to take your blogging seriously and help others to take it seriously too.

When the topic of blogging comes up with someone, how do you describe it? How do you describe your blog? Don’t make jokes about blogging to non bloggers. Save those for your fellow bloggers who will understand the joke. Talk about blogging when someone asks what you do for a living. I’m not a stay at home mom who blogs. I’m a work at home mom or I run my own website.

If blogging is your job, than it’s just as important as any other job you may have owned.

Dress for Success

There is no right or wrong type of clothing to blog in but what works for one person might not work for another. Also if you are switching from hobby blogging to pro blogging, what worked as a hobby blogger might not work for your anymore. Some people can get business-like wearing anything, even bunny pajamas, while others need a full business suit to be productive. If you are having trouble succeeding and especially staying focus and on task, try changing what you wear to blog.

Even if you blog in your regular every day wear, you can get yourself in the business frame of mind more by taking the time to freshen up in the bathroom and add shoes. Do your hair, put on makeup if that’s your thing and dress to shoes. You might just find it helps you be more productive. When you are done your work for the day, you can kick off your shoes, let down your hair and then your mind will know work time is done.

After polling 27 bloggers I found that 13 work in everyday attire while 14 work in pajamas/loungewear. No one said they work in business attire. This is just a very small sampling of course.

If you are successfully staying on task while you work and succeeding in your blog business in the clothes you wear now than there is nothing wrong with that. However if you are having trouble with success, perhaps try something new.

Follow a Schedule

A problogger really needs some sort of schedule. What type of schedule you have will be determined by your other commitments in the day and the way you work best. If you do your best work in the morning, schedule your blogging time for the morning. When can you focus more, when the kids are at school or after they all go to bed?

If you find it hard to schedule certain times of the day for things (for example you have to work around a baby that doesn’t have a set schedule yet) than schedule certain days of the week for certain tasks. As an example perhaps you write posts on Mondays and Wednesdays, schedule social media on Thursdays and work on post promo on Tuesdays. You will also want to have an editorial calendar to plan out your content.

The reason to have a schedule is so that you can’t just postpone something because you don’t feel like working. A business is only successful if the employees and the management actually do the work that needs to be done. Without a schedule, it becomes to easy to take a day off which turns into a few days and all of a sudden it’s been a week and then a month since you posted. A professional bloggers needs to post regularly enough that the readership he or she has built up doesn’t forget about them. When you are working on your schedule, don’t forget breaks for meals and down time (TV, reading or playing games.)

Be Authentic

This is VERY important. Think of what makes you trust someone else as a friend, a resource, a human. What makes you believe in a person or a business or a blog/website? They are trustworthy because they don’t pretend to be something they are not. They are authentic, they are their true self.

For more great information on blogging, business and working at home, I’m sharing a few ideas from my favorite bloggers:

• Setting Blogging Goals and Accomplishing Them by Ellen Blogs
• 3 Secrets for Working at Home with Twins by Mom on the Side
• 5 Unbelievably Easy Secrets to Achieving Work-Life Balance as a WAHM by Pretty Opinionated
• 12 Must Have Tools for Successful Blogging by Sunshine and Sippy Cups
• The Advantages of Working From Home by Philzendia
• Passion Planner Review by The Guavalicious Life

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