What After Blogging? Here Are 5 Things You Can Do

After successful blogging, what do you do next? Here are 5 things you can do, after blogging and monetize your services too. 

I entered the blog-o-sphere in 2008 primarily as an avid blog reader. In 2009, I started my own private blogs in which I used to write occasionally. In 2010, I shared my blogs with a few friends and family; and received very encouraging feedback and response.

Almost all of them suggested that I should make my blogs public and write more  simply because  I wrote well and everyone enjoyed reading my blogs.

Profession and location is also no bar.

Profession is also no bar (And trust me, my blog is read by students, teachers, IT professionals, media representatives, homemakers, entrepreneurs, writers, and authors, CXO’s, etc.) and of course! Location no bar! (India, America, Europe, etc. etc. etc.)

So obviously I’m doing something right. However, over the recent past a lot of people are asking me “Ok! You write a blog… So what next?”

Hmm… Good question and honestly, I did not have a befitting response until I looked around to see what other successful bloggers have done beyond blogging. In this post, I am listing my observations and views on what you can do after you’ve started your blog-venture.

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Here are 5 things you can do beyond blogging:

Write a Book

Most successful bloggers seems to have authored / co-authored a book at a time when their blogs were at the top.This seems fairly logical because writing a blog for a long time really improves your thinking skills, your writing skills, your observation skills and your own self-discipline; All of which are absolutely essential to write a book! There are several differences between a blog and book primarily in terms of the topics you can write about, the publishing process and the feedback process. Nevertheless, a book is a possible option for any blogger!

Training

Many successful bloggers I’ve seen get into Training Services. So what do they train about? Well, anything that has a market demand right from ‘How to create a Successful blog?’ to ‘How to lead a balanced life?’ – As long as you know something, have put it into practice, have created a repeatable model to replicate the ‘success mantra’ – You can create training program! And then with technology, you have several options for the delivery mechanism – from the age old class room training to self-paced e-courses / modules which anyone can access anytime online. Of course, they charge for this; but every session comes with some freebies – So if you’re lucky you can get access to a wealth of best practices free-of-cost!

Pursue a new hobby

Interestingly from my personal observations, most bloggers start off with blogging as a hobby. Once they achieve some level of success and mastery, they definitely explore a new hobby, which combines their blogging skills, and the new hobby in pursuit. Classic examples are cookery blogs or photography blogs.

Consulting and Advisory Services

Again, many bloggers get into paid consulting and advisory services through or because of their blogs. It could be services on marketing, blogging, writing, social media, branding, training, etc. Again, as long as there is a market, these have potential. The big plus is that you can reach to potential customers through your blogs and if anyone connects with you for leveraging your services, they have some idea about your strengths and what to expect!

 New / Alternate / Additional Job / Employment

Again, a pleasant discovery was that most bloggers appeared to have either

(a) Changed jobs after they started blogging – I mean why not? If you are a good blogger and are able to successfully articulate your point of view on one / many subjects for a long period of time it means that you know the subject, you understand it from more than one dimension, you think and you find time to write (which means you have some internal self-discipline and motivation!). Aren’t all these invaluable skills in any job market? In some cases, the new jobs and employment were in the same field but with more than one additional benefit (monetary and otherwise) and in some cases they were a complete career switch (So for e.g.: An entrepreneur turned to an author) and/ or

(b) Had additional employment avenues because of their blogging efforts. So either a paid blogging avenue through a sponsored post or an enhanced personal brand due to their work being published in one / more blogs of global repute.

And last but not least, of course do continue blogging.

So, what do you think I / anyone can do after they’ve written a blog?Leave a comment to let me know.

First published here

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