Robbi Hess

Can You Make Money Blogging?

While you may not have gotten into blogging with the idea that you were going to quit your day job and live a life of writing, watching television and eating bonbons, right? Blogging can help you bring in some money but as with anything you have to work at it. Very few people jump into blogging and achieve overnight success.

Even if you take famous examples such as the blog that was made into a movie, Julie and Julia, consider how many days she was working and writing on her blog before she achieved “overnight success.” Blogging can bring you in money if you work at it and have a focus for your blog. Keep in mind too that if you hear that Jane Doe is making money blogging about extreme couponing and you feel you want to jump on that bandwagon, make certain you love extreme couponing. If you don’t love what you write about, the idea of blogging will become a chore and it will show in your work.

10 Ways To Grow Your Business Through Social Media Marketing

Social media moves and changes more quickly than the seasons – in some instances it seems to change and morph from one sunrise to the next! As a small business owner you’re faced with the daily task of working in and growing your business, so how to you keep up with the fast moving tide of social media?

Wrote Down My Dream, Made It Come True

For years I'd taught writing classes and was always great at telling the adults in the classes that "writers write" and to "make time to write something for yourself or toward your goals everyday." It was great advice and I patted myself on the back every time I gave the would-be writers in my class these words of wisdom. 

I realized though, that I was a lot of talk, but not much action. True, I write for a living and earn my livelihood as a blogger and social media consultant but when it came to my own writing -- my romance novel, my ebook series, etc. -- they were always on the back burner because, 'I have clients to write for, I just don't have time for me." 

As I saw the 2011 winding down I realized that yet again I didn't practice what I was preaching. I still hadn't written or published a romance, I still hadn't written my ebook. I knew I didn't want to end the year with these two things still no crossed off my To-Do list. I'd had enough of carrying these two goals forward from one calendar year to the next. 

Working To Be Resolute in 2012

Every year I ponder whether I should put together my New Year's Resolutions. I sit down with pen and paper and come up with the usual, "Lose weight," "write every day," "exercise more," etc. You know the drill. Those vague resolutions that eventually fail and then make you feel bad about yourself? We've all been there, right?

One thing I found extremely difficult to keep up with was the "exercise more" especially when I lived in New York. It's hard to get out and exercise when it's snowing and blowing and I was never much on team sports -- which I consider a gym to be. 

What's Twitter Doing For Your Business... Really?

Chances are you’re signed up for Twitter and you use it occasionally but you wonder if it’s truly doing anything to help you and your business. Is there just too much noise on Twitter to make a difference? Are the masses really reading your tweets? For the longest time I really didn’t get the point of Twitter. I have followers, I follow people but truly, how am I supposed to keep up with the thousands – sometimes more – of tweets that come in on a daily basis?

If you spend even 30 minutes a day connecting with people – and on Twitter you can connect with high profile people – think Nathan Fillion! And he does his own tweets. Many high profile people actually do their own tweets and who knows, if you follow them maybe they will follow you. Regardless of how you think of twitter – micro-blogging or public instant messaging – you might want to get on board as it’s been reported that between 5,000 and 10,000 new people sign onto Twitter every day and it’s estimated that there are around 5 million users. Looking for potential business partners? There they are!