From Blog to Business: Anjali
Welcome back! It has been a while! I was on vacation for a week and then it was the Fourth of July so I took a little break but I am back with another interview! Today you will learn about Anjali who is a blogger from New Zealand! She talks about her journey through blogging on her blog called This Splendid Shambles and how she turned it into a successful business!
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links.
What inspired you to start your blog?
When I was 17, my friend recognized my love of photography and writing and suggested I start something called a ‘blog’. This was back in 2008 and I didn’t know much about blogs. But I started one anyway, and it’s been an incredible journey.
Is blogging your profession or just a hobby?
For years and years my blog was a hobby, but one that I whole-heartedly loved. After 12 years of blogging, in 2020, I decided to kick it up a notch and help other women with their blogs. Now my blogging is a part of my business, and I love helping women start and grow their blogs, and do it with confidence.
Can you tell me some of your strengths that helped you in blogging?
I’m a very creative person, so that has always helped. I’m also a big lover of stories and I think that helps in the content creation side of things. Running out of ideas or struggling to come up with new things to blog about has never been an issue for me, and I think that’s been a real skill that has helped over the years, for sure.
How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently?
Time is one of those things that so many bloggers struggle with. How to ‘have enough time to write blog posts is a common theme running through the minds of bloggers. And I get that, I’ve been there. But you make time for the things you love, right? So I prioritize setting aside time every week to work on my blog, and I stick to it. I batch my content for the following weeks/months and schedule everything ready to go.
What do you think is the best strategy that worked well for you to get more traffic to your blog?
Pinterest is by far the best platform for the content on my blog. The majority of my traffic comes from Pinterest. It’s an incredible search engine and it’s so worth getting on board if you’re not already.
How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?
I’ve written about staying motivated as a blogger on This Splendid Shambles, and in that post, I talk about some of the ways that I stay motivated. These include things like remembering the WHY of what I’m doing; engaging with my community and getting hyped up and amped by them and what they’re achieving; writing something every day to keep those creative juices flowing, and staying accountable.
Do you have any specific goals for the rest of this year?
Sure do! I’ve just launched my blog coaching so one goal is to have coached 5 women on their blogging journeys. I’m also planning on launching a blogging podcast by the end of the year too.
How active are you every week? How often do you communicate with your followers?
I generally publish 2 – 3 blog posts per week, and all those posts are shared on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and my blog Instagram account, @anjalikay. I’m very active on my business Instagram, @thissplendidshambles, and am there every day on Stories, publishing helpful blogging, Canva, Pinterest, and social media tips, as well as doing IGTVs with fellow creators and bloggers. If I’ve published a post that is relevant to THAT community, then I also share it as a post, or I chat about it in my Stories. I love Instagram for connecting with people!
A lot of people think that blogging is an easy way to make money online. Do you have some tips for those people who are interested in making money from the blog?
There are few ways you can make money through your blog: affiliate links, sponsored posts, coaching, courses, products, paid webinars, and ads. Every blogger is different, every creator is different, so some ways aren’t going to work for you, or you may not have the experience yet for coaching or don’t like ads, etc.
Affiliate marketing is good for beginners, especially if you’ve got a niche where you can mention a related product in every single post. If you’re the creative sort and you can recognize that sweet spot between what you’re good at and what the world needs, then you can create digital (or physical!) products to sell on your blog, or through a site like Etsy.
My advice is if you feel drawn to one or two types of monetization, then do some research and see what you can discover. Or get in touch with other bloggers who have done the same and ask them how they went about it.
How do you generate new ideas?
Ideas are my JAM! I love generating new ideas and I’m going to toot my own horn here and say I’m pretty good at it. I even created a course for others to learn exactly how I go about generating a ton of ideas every month for my blog. But essentially, I look at the things that my audience has liked in the past, what they’re struggling with, what they’re interested in, and create posts that are encouraging, entertaining, educational, and/or inspiring.
If you had the chance to start your blog over again, what would you do differently?
I would niche down a lot more. When I started I didn’t know what I was doing. It was all over the place and while I have learned a lot since then, there are some things that I would have changed, niching down being one of them. This Splendid Shambles is a wonderful collection of all the things I love, and I do love it. But if I were to start over, I would focus on just blogging tips or just books. Having a narrower niche is going to be better in the long run.
What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful blogger?
You need to be patient; it’s hard to grow a blog overnight. You won’t start seeing results straight away.
You also need to be consistent; it shows your audience that you’re here for the long game and that you love connecting and creating. It also helps Google recognize that you’re updating your blog.
The other skill I would say is that you need to be willing to learn. Blogging is a huge learning curve, and if you think you know it all and you’re good to go, you’re not going to be open to learning something new, especially in this fast-paced ever-changing world.
Considering the fierce competition in today’s business world, how would you highlight your blog and make it stand out from the crowd?
This is something that I talk a lot about with my clients and in my courses. If you’re writing a blog post, chances are that a bucket-load of other people online have written that exact post. There’s someone who has written about 20 Ways to Increase your Pinterest Traffic, or How to Sew a Pillowcase, or even A City Guide to London … those posts have been written, possibly hundreds of times. But you have something that they don’t: you. Your personality, your story, your strengths, and weaknesses … all of the things that make you you are the things that are going to make you stand out. We’ll get lost in the crowd as bloggers if our posts are the same as a hundred others. Use your voice, your platform, your blog as a way to encourage, entertain and educate, but interweave your story and your personality.
Courses
I noticed you offer courses on your blog. How did you decide to offer courses on your blog? What kind of courses are available and what is the price?
Yes! So the main course I offer is called Confident Content Creation, and it’s everything you need to crush your content creation. If you’re struggling with your blog content, what to write, how to know what your readers are looking for, or you don’t know how best to utilize social media in collaboration with your blog, then this is for you.
I created Confident Content Creation because during my conversations with bloggers I realized that the biggest struggle they had was knowing what to write. They didn’t know how to generate those ideas that were going to keep their blog up to date, and they didn’t know how to be consistent in those posts. And that’s when I knew I had to create Confident Content Creation to help those struggling like this.
How did you go about creating the courses?
After recognizing that there’s a struggle or a need out there in the blogging world, I get to market research. And market research is just getting in touch with bloggers and business owners who have a blog component to their websites and asking them questions. To create a great course, you need to know why you’re making, and what content you need to include to help people solve their problems. Then I map out the course, write the content, and put it all together in Canva. I use a platform to put the course into so it’s easy to access for everyone and launch it!
Anjali was kind enough to give me a discount code for me to share with you guys for her course! Use the code: BRIANNASBANDWAGON20 to get 20% of her Confident Content Creation Course
Coaching
I also found that you offer to coach on your blog. What is blog coaching and what can people expect and get from it? And anything else about coaching you want to tell?
Yes! I’ve recently started offering blog coaching. Blog coaching is a chance for bloggers to hang out with me for a month! If you are struggling with your content creation, keep running into roadblocks, aren’t sure what to post for your audience, don’t know how best to utilize social media for your niche, or simply need an ear to hear you out, and give advice …then I’m your girl!
Bloggers and business owners with a blog can jump on a FREE discovery call with me so we get to know each other a little more, and we can chat about the kind of support you’re looking for and how I can help.
If we’re a good match, then for 4 weeks you get daily Monday – Friday Voxer support where you can flick me any questions, concerns, random thoughts that pop up throughout the day, as well as weekly 60-min Zoom calls where we can dive deeper into strategy, using Social Media, Pinterest, or anything you like.
As well as those two areas of support, you also get custom content created just for you. Whether that be Canva templates for your socials, a list of blog post ideas, a content calendar for the following month – we would chat about what would be the most helpful for you.
If you’d like to book a free 30-min discovery call, you can do that here! I’d love to meet you!
Anything else you would like to share about your blog?
I’m always keen on guest posters, so if you like to write about books, travel, creative DIY projects, or blogging/social media/Pinterest, feel free to get in touch!
