Week 40 - learning to turn my blog into a brand

If I'm 100% completely honest with myself, even though I never started writing this blog to get attention or for it to make money, there is a little part of me that would love to be talked about and asked to write on a professional level.  But its never something I've given much real thought to as the idea of blogging as a full time job seems like quite a lonely life to me and not particularly sustainable.

I just wanted to write and have a bit of an opinion.  The first year I did my blog in 2011 it was really fun.  I'd fallen out of love with London and needed something to realise how amazing it can be. I made myself do something new each week and it was great.  The reason I came back to the blog this year is because  I just wanted to write again but me being me meant I had to up the ante and put this ridiculous challenge together of learning something new every week.  It has been super hard work and actually a bit of a chore because its so hard to find things I genuinely want to do and also things that I can learn in just a day.  I haven't loved it unfortunately.  

I'm nearing the end and I saw this course and thought more about it as something to learn rather than how to best market my blog - obviously or I wouldn't be doing this right at the end of the year.  Even though most of what we heard, was fairly self-explanatory to me, it made me think about things a little differently.  I am actually considering a new Londonnew52 for 2017 and I even have two ideas.  Lord help me.

The evening was part of the wonderful array of classes offered by the Guardian. The teacher, Charly Lester is the creator of 30dates.  Her blog began as a challenge to go on 30 dates before she was 30 and it became such a hit that since then, she has become the global editor of dating for Time Out, editor of Guardian Soulmates, she consults for numerous publications, makes appearances on TV and radio and is the founder of the UK dating awards.  Her rise to success over just 3 years has been incredible and yet she sat with us as humble as anything, just wanting to impart as much knowledge as she possibly could.  

Charly Lester

She took us through the basics of what makes a good blog, whether you have a niche, how to get your audience increased and ways in which to monetise your blog.  Most of what she said was pretty common sense to me, but the thing I really took home was that if you are to have a successful blog with thousands of readers, you really have to put in the work.  Unfortunately, these days its not just about blogging everyday, there's all the extra faff that goes with it.  Twitter, Instagram, blah, blah, blah.  The problem that I have is that I just don't care enough.  I have this constant struggle with technology and how much I hate this transient life we now live in, everything is so easy to throw away in a matter of seconds.  Plus, I have no interest in prattling on about my life on twitter.  But, if you want to be heard, you have to somehow plow through the shit.  

For me, I know I've had a great idea, doing something different every week for a whole year is clever and interesting and persistent, but, I only post once a week, the same with twitter and so I'm never going to get the mega readers without pushing it out a bit more.  I've never really thought of making a concerted effort in asking friends to share the blog because I just don't want to push people.  Maybe I should do it more?  One thing Charly did say is that posts should be no more than 500 words.  Whoops.  I've definitely fallen foul of that one!  Well, the last few have been a lot shorter so know that moving forward!

Ultimately you shouldn't set up a blog to make money, you have to just love what you're doing and blogging about.  If the money comes, its a great bonus.  This year, annoyingly, I haven't loved it.  But I also know that when it finishes I won't have regretted it.  Charly was so open about everything and it made me really think about carrying the blog on next year.  I'm thinking of either trying a new restaurant in London every week or trying to get through 52 different countries through restaurants in London every week.  What do you think?  Would love to hear your thoughts.