{"id":1566,"date":"2016-10-11T20:15:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T03:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2016.seattle.wordcamp.org\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2016-11-22T06:54:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T14:54:50","slug":"hobby-blog-to-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/hobby-blog-to-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The One Change that Turned My Blog from a Hobby into a Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kimberly Gauthier, Dog Nutrition Blogger for Keep the Tail Wagging<\/a> and WordCamp Seattle 2016 Speaker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"10How many times have you sat staring at your blog\u2019s analytics, wondering what you could do to make the numbers finally start ticking skyward? I was told not to obsess about my blog\u2019s analytics. \u201cJust produce quality content,\u201d they\u2019d say. I\u2019ve learned that publishing blog posts isn\u2019t enough and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve figured this out as well.<\/p>\n

In 10 Blogging Habits that Kill the Competition<\/a>, I will be sharing the 10 things I did to help me take Keep the Tail Wagging from a small blog in a big pond into one of the leading dog nutrition blogs on the Internet in less than three years.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m going to share the principal change that made the biggest impact.<\/p>\n

Niche Blogging<\/h2>\n

When I narrowed my blog\u2019s focus to raw feeding, I left an ocean of pet bloggers and found myself in a small pond. Within a year, my traffic increased 500% and I was labeled an authority in raw feeding.<\/p>\n

Sounds simple, right?<\/p>\n

Looking back, it was the simplest thing in the world. It was also a complete accident. I stumbled upon this good fortune, because I had a dog with allergies and a reader who wanted to know more about what I was feeding him.<\/p>\n

After my accidental fortune, I began to pay more attention to what was working for my blog.<\/p>\n

Create a Unique Voice<\/h2>\n

Although I was in a small niche, I wasn\u2019t the first person to blog about raw feeding; not by a long shot. I was, however, the first person to approach the topic as a novice who was learning alongside her readers. I\u2019m not a veterinarian or a canine nutritionist and never felt comfortable telling others what to feed their dogs. As a result, my blog became a place where people could get information and ask question without feeling the pressure to transition their dogs to raw.<\/p>\n

Without realizing it, I had created a unique voice.<\/p>\n

Promote What\u2019s Working for You<\/h2>\n

When the traffic began to grow, I saw more monetization opportunities. It was tempting to throw every banner ad in the pet sphere on my blog, but I\u2019ve learned from past blogging experience that this rarely works.<\/p>\n

Instead, I promoted what was working for me and my dogs. I began addressing problems and offering the solution that worked for my dogs and sprinkled affiliate links throughout.<\/p>\n

I had integrity and the audience that followed me because I didn\u2019t judge them, added my recommendations to their shopping carts.<\/p>\n

Becoming a Big Fish in a Small Pond<\/h2>\n

None of this happened overnight. It takes a tremendous amount of focus, passion, and discipline to build a successful blog. And for me, it took a bit of luck as well. At WordCamp Seattle, I plan to share everything that I\u2019ve learned and that I\u2019m doing that has landed me on the first page Google results for \u201cdog nutrition blogger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on Kimberly’s session!
Get your WordCamp tickets<\/a> today!<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kimberly Gauthier, Dog Nutrition Blogger for Keep the Tail Wagging and WordCamp Seattle 2016 Speaker How many times have you sat staring at your blog\u2019s analytics, wondering what you could do to make the numbers finally start ticking skyward? I was told not to obsess about my blog\u2019s analytics. \u201cJust produce quality content,\u201d they\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11704063,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,976634],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speakers","category-wordcamp-sessions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ait7-pg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11704063"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seattle.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}