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  • How blogging made me a better negotiator

    Blogging taught me how to negotiate

    Let me tell you a little story about how blogging gave me the confidence to negotiate my worth.

    I remember the first time I ever made any money off my blog. I was astonished that somebody would pay to place content on it. Blogging – still the easiest yet hardest thing I’ve ever done to earn money.

    From then on, it was a slippery slope, I admit. There was a time when I accepted way too many sponsored posts.

    But despite that, I still didn’t say yes to everything. I was reasonably picky. There were some compromises I just didn’t want to make.

    I started negotiating, somewhat regularly, with potential advertisers. It was easier than I thought. Faceless people behind an email address. A business transaction. If they didn’t want to pay my rates, that was fine. No deal. There are plenty of other advertisers out there who can, and do. I don’t need your money.

    “Hоw dо уоu make mоnеу blоggіng?” I get thаt ԛuеѕtіоn аll thе time. Thе аnѕwеr іѕ ѕіmрlе: Emроwеr Network. But I wаnt to explain it іn more detail tо bе сеrtаіn thаt you аrе clear.

    A “blog” іѕ асtuаllу shortened frоm thе words, wеb log. It started as a place that the оrіgіnаtоrѕ of thе internet posted a log оf thеіr асtіvіtіеѕ еасh dау. When blogs ѕtаrtеd everyone аѕkеd thе ѕаmе ԛuеѕtіоnѕ, “Hоw do уоu mаkе bank blоggіng?”

    Tоdау, blogging іѕ a multi-billion dоllаr іnduѕtrу thаt іѕ аn accepted раrt оf the news сусlе аnd іntеrnеt buѕіnеѕѕ. If you are looking for the make money as a blogger, visit us here.

    I mаkе a full-time lіvіng frоm blogging. I gеt asked еvеrу day аt least twісе a dау, “Hоw dо you make money blogging?” And іt’ѕ nеvеr just a ԛuеѕtіоn; іt аlwауѕ ѕоundѕ lіkе I fоund a way to wаlk on thе сеіlіng. Evеn funnier, is whеn реорlе ѕау, “I tried thаt. Yоu саn’t make a lіvіng that wау.”

    Rеаllу, wеll, I аm. Lоtѕ оf іt. Enough to be аblе tо take vасаtіоnѕ аnd hоmе-ѕсhооl my сhіldrеn. I аm mаkіng mоnеу frоm blogging.

    Well, there are the extreme cases, like Arianna Huffington, who sold the Huffington Post for millions or Perez Hilton, whose blog about Hollywood made him a star (and wealthy).

    There are also those who write blogs for other people. This really doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you want to work for someone else? This provides an easy answer to our question, “How do you make money blogging?” Not writing for other people.

    For most of us, making money from blogging involves making connections and getting lots of traffic from Internet search engines.

    Do this all by yourself – making the connections, getting your blog highly visible by all of the search engines and getting lots of inbound traffic can be very difficult. For many people, it can be a full-time job, with not a lot of pay… for years. Still not the answer to the question, “How do you earn money blogging?”

    Join a blogging network – Empower Network is the largest and most effective of these networks. Their blogging platform sets up that blog automatically with search engines and places your blog in a network.

    So exactly how do you make money blogging? Well, when people land on your blog, there are advertisements and pay per click ads that can generate money.

    The best part of it all is that there really is no ceiling to the amount of money you can make blogging. The more great content you write, the more people will come to your website. Then you’re making money from blogging, lots of it.

    I don’t know about you, but I would rather start making money with my blog today rather than spends months or years trying to get it noticed.

    I’ve lost count of just how many email threads with stingy lowballers I closed off with ‘if your budget increases in the future, feel free to get in touch’.

    And if my blog is worth more than that, then I’M certainly worth more than that.

    Turns out that was really good practice for real life.

    And that is how blogging helped boost my confidence, leading to my first actual pay negotiation.

  • Link love (Powered by impatience, mostly)

    NZ Muse - link love

    This post was brought to you by Solarcity Solar Power Auckland.

    It’s Labour Day weekend! With any luck I’ll be off to the Coromandel soon; it’s probably too much to hope for good weather in October on top of that. But dreams are free.

    Enjoy this week’s links

    Do what you love is the ultimate individualist myth, one that normalizes a world in which most people have jobs that are just barely this side of tolerable, because if we are special enough, hardworking enough, and love the work enough, we will make our way to the top.

    Renting is lethal:

    Every year people die prematurely in winter in New Zealand, a phenomenon unheard of in the coldest parts of Europe and North America, where houses are built and heated to protect people from winter cold. People are more likely to die in winter in New Zealand if they live in rental housing, because it is likely to be older and in poorer condition than houses which are owner occupied, and which provide more protection from the cold.”

    The GATE approach to networking:

    Give: The most important point about this is that you give a true gift. Something you provide with no expectation of return. You find someone who you want to help and you help them in the best way you can.

    Ask: Make a commitment every day to ask for something that you need. There are people in your life who are waiting to help you. Take the time to let someone know about a challenge you are having or something you could use insight on. Acknowledge what you still need help with and reach out.

    Thank: Take the time each day to identify someone in your life who has done something for you and give them a clear account of how they have helped you. Say thank you in a meaningful way and make sure that the other person understands the value they added to your life. All too often we thank people in less than three sentences. We can do better.

    Experiment: Every day look at your existing social systems and try something new. This could be as simple as choosing to use a different location for your one on one meetings or changing the language you use when you greet someone. In all of our social interactions there are hundreds of variables. Experiment and find new ways of interacting.

  • Link love (Powered by matters of the heart)

    NZ Muse - Link love - blogging roundup

    Thoughts for the week:

    It’s amazing how powerful inertia and fear of change is.

    It’s amazing how long people can tolerate living in limbo.

    This week’s links

    Ask yourself the hard questions

    When financial fatigue gets the best of you

    Class mobility, decision fatigue and budget failure 

    The times when you need to say no

    What exactly makes a happy marriage?

    Marrying for money

    And on a lighter note:

    What happened when I tried being white (oh how I relate! Today I love my straight hair and my weirdly shaped eyes, but not that long ago I was obsessive about my lack of lashes and flat nose)

  • Link love (Powered by brainstorming and planning)

    NZ Muse - Link love - blogging roundupConfession: I’m a bit of an employment snob.

    My career so far has seen me alternate evenly between working for big brands / household names versus smaller organisations.

    I’ll admit, that prestige, or instant recognisability, has been hard to leave behind. It’s so easy to say, I work for X and have a stranger understand right away, rather than have to go into an explanation of the company. Giving that up was definitely a factor I considered.

    This week I was part of a strategic planning session around sharpening our mission, if you like – in order to guide our work, and also (fringe benefit) enhance our employment brands (yeah, I hate myself a little bit for having just typed that sentence). I’m 150% behind what we do and am stoked to really see it gaining traction.

    Fittingly, this week’s links are all about career, fulfillment and getting ahead:

    The changing nature of creative careers

    Forget about finding your passion – ask yourself these questions instead

    When personal problems spill over into your job performance

    Every writer should read this when feeling low

    Two questions that guided a journey from poverty to Yale

  • Link love (Powered by shortbread and rain)

    Things that are hot:

    • Men with dogs
    • Men with babies
    • Men in the kitchen
    • Men who are nice to their mothers

    (be still my heart)

    This week’s links

    Nobody on the internet is living the life you think they are

    Money lessons from a rich uncle

    Stop worrying that people are looking at you

    Feeling ‘meh’ about working

    Oddly specific fears for my children and how to raise a feminist son (Plus: my list of parenting fears)

     

  • Link love (Powered by the winter blahs)

    NZMuse - Link love roundup with awesome reads from the week

     

    As tagged by Revanche.

    1. What’s the best thing you’ve purchased or been given in the past six months?

    New handbag. SO overdue.

    1. What’s your favorite snack? (No one gets to say fruit.)

    But I love (some) fruit! Probably not my favorite, though. Honey roasted peanuts, then. Or any form of chips.

    1. What form of exercise do you hate the most. (“All” is a perfectly acceptable answer.)

    Let’s go with all. Particularly any form that involves equipment/machinery.

    1. If you could afford/manage to live anywhere, where would it be?

    Right where I am, only owning instead. (A crash pad in NYC wouldn’t go astray, either.)

    1. What’s the geekiest hobby or pastime you have?

    I don’t know, tracking my money?

    This week’s links

    An astute blogger recently noted that she knows of no couples with a female breadwinner that are 100% okay/happy/comfortable with that. And with the recent implosion of the only other couples I know who also fall in this category … well, this piece on the dilemma of the powerful woman resonated

    We can’t afford to buy in our cities; that doesn’t make us entitled millennials

    Such wise words by a commenter on this piece about knowing when to quit: “There are 3 components of our careers, the work we do, the people we work with, and the money we make. We need to be happy with the majority of these things. ”

    Lots of good stuff to dig into in this series on the future of work

    Sometimes it’s nice to have nice things

    It’s okay to love money

    Storytelling vs staging your life (on social media)

    I’m too old for wayyy too many things

  • Link love (Powered by hunger and hope)

    NZ Muse - Link love

    Just a wee gem of relationship advice I came across recently that I wanted to share…

    (Paraphrasing here:)

    If the current trouble/conflict/problem were to immediately resolve itself, would you then still want to leave at that point?

    Such clarity, it made me cry.

    This week’s links

    Most of this is going over my head. But lots of smart people in the comments discussing house prices and the NZ situation.

    Things I won’t be telling my future kids

    Lessons learned from a breakup

    Musings on money and marriage

    A financial gut check

    Why some people seem to have it all

    Advice for people in their 20s

    Don’t let your resume be a roadblock to your career

    Navigating friendships as your finances change

  • Link love (Powered by ramen and flowers)

    NZMuse - Link love roundup with awesome reads from the week

    So much going on that I just can’t write about right now.

    Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

    This week’s links

    FUCK YES to everything in this Modern Love piece on marriage

    The struggle for self-acceptance

    Things you don’t anticipate about being a stay-home parent

    Dealing with financial stress

    Emotional reward doesn’t pay the bills

    The things you want in life will happen at their own pace

    Your life is an occasion – rise to it

  • Link love (Powered by setbacks, enough said)

    NZMuse - Link love roundup with awesome reads from the week

    Ahh, it couldn’t last forever. Generally our flatmates are great, and not around very much (plus, we’re pretty self-contained with our downstairs floor). Don’t get me wrong, there are perks. Company when you want it, awesome meals when we convince the resident chef to do us a solid, cheaper bills split more ways. We have a good camaraderie going on most of the time, almost Friends-like.

    But the housekeeping honeymoon is definitely over.

    I refuse to do what I tried to do in previous houses, and shoulder the majority of the work just so it gets done. As long as we’re here, I’ll simply live with common areas that quite aren’t up to my standards – again, this is okay as we have 3 rooms of our own downstairs – bedroom, little lounge, spare room – plus our own bathroom.

    It feels like T and I have been in a pretty good housekeeping groove for our own real estate. He isn’t home as much as I am (that’s by choice, between sports + socialising) but I’m making a conscious effort to restrict my cleaning to ‘cleaning time’ when we’re both home.  Yes, I have higher standards, and yes I’m home more often because I’m a homebody, but it’s really important to me not to be saddled with like 90% of the cleaning nonetheless.

    This week’s links

    A pretty awesome guide on starting a new job, the right way

    Outrage over the housing market is justified

    Millennials thriving financially have one thing in common: rich parents

    You can work more. You can save more. Or you can want less

    On attractions outside of marriage

    Ramifications of the recession – the physical and emotional edition

    Musings about models of work, employment and entrepreneurship

  • Link love (Powered by mussels and coconut cake)

    NZMuse - Link love roundup with awesome reads from the week

    I’m pretty sure I’ve now crossed over into my ‘late 20s’. I’m really starting to understand birthday dread!

    That said, 27 wasn’t half bad. Low expectations are the key.

    My birthday is smack bang in the middle of winter, so it’s pretty much always wet and cold. I’ve cried on far too many of my birthdays, having been let down by friends. Last year I wound up at the doctor’s half convinced I had a kidney infection; thankfully it was just a bad UTI.

    This year it fell on a Monday (the first birthday I’ve spent at work in YEARS). We had a big launch, there happened to be tons of food around, and then I went out with T and one of our flatmates for dinner. I can’t say I thought I’d be living with flatmates at 27, but our setup ain’t bad. It’s definitely my favourite of all the shared living arrangements I’ve endured over the years.

    This week’s links

    You’re not alone. We’re all in this together 

    On dealing with disappointment 

    Recovering from the recession

    Surviving the emotional rollercoaster of unemployment 

    The road to financial freedom 

    What does it mean to be partners?

    Maybe the ultimate post about money 

    Happy weekends!