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For many of us, making $10 online does not seem to be a big deal. But for the millions of people out there, starting a new blog, maintaining it, adding contents, attracting a decent amount of traffic, monetizing it and getting online business, the feeling of earning the first few bucks is nothing less than exciting.
I still cherish the feeling of making the first 10 dollars online for a variety of reasons. This altered my approach towards the emerging field of freelancing. No greater impetus than this could have been given to a university student than this.
With this background, this blog post has two-pronged objectives. First, I want to share my experiences with my colleagues, fellow researchers and academics, how they can effectively use their skillset to make extra money online at any stage of their life with any level of qualification.
Secondly to motivate the young graduates to realize that it is genuinely possible to build a career as a freelancer without seeking a government job.
How did I start blogging?
It is almost two years since I started blogging. I embarked on this exciting enterprise as a passion. The intention was to provide for a soapbox. A platform to share my experience, research work and insight with the academics, research fellows and scholars. To contribute more positively to the area of my personal and professional interest was another powerful impetus.
At that point in time, I had not realised that it could be a supplementary source of income. But at the end of the day, it turned out to be intellectually stimulating and financially rewarding.
The initial lukewarm response towards my blog posts
When I posted the first of my few blog posts, the response was not overwhelming. Nevertheless, sooner I realized that this was all about rich content. The contents, the viewers were interested in. I needed to add something to the blog that makes it unique, intriguing and appealing.
READ MORE: My reflections after a year of blogging: A story of self-learning and motivation
I took up some of the hot topics from the realm of higher education, my professional interest and emerging google trends such as challenges confronted by the higher education institutions, public sector reforms, universities governance, digitalization, human resource management, research, academic leadership, universities’ resilience and financial crisis confronted by the universities in Pakistan. Since then, I chipped in, at least, an article a week, to the content making it more absorbing and engaging.
Soon, these efforts culminated in a blog, ranked, visited and monetized in a timely manner. Though the process wasn’t daunting, but it took longer than I anticipated since I happened to be in full-time employment and continued to be haunting for postdoc opportunities besides working on my youtube channel and other of my blogs.
Prospects for young graduates to enter the field of blogging
As unemployment is soaring in the country, a big number of Pakistani are looking for an alternate source of earning. Considering the meagerly low salary being offered in the private sector, online business and freelancing are all the rage in the country. Here, one used to be free from the constraints of time and space and can work independently for clients round the clock around the globe.
In the year 2018, as the World Bank and various freelancing sites reported, there were more than 60, 000 freelancers, in Pakistan and this number and the earnings being made from freelancing has been increasing, day by day, which is very encouraging. In terms of the most popular categories among freelancers, one can see that web development, data entry, mobile applications, graphic designing, software development, creative writing, developing social media posts, blogging, digital marketing, search engine optimization and vlogging are the most sought-after to specialize in and work.
Lessons learned
How long does it take to make money blogging and how much money one can make depends upon ones’ personal initiative, skillset, capacity and willingness to work hard. My website started bringing some decent amount per month now but it took me a lot of hard work to get to this point. Had I started it a bit earlier, somewhere close to the finishing of my academic career, it would have been much better. This is why I advise the young graduates to move towards freelancing more seriously and make a great deal much more earlier.
READ MORE: Some of the messages I received on the first anniversary of my blogging
The best thing about freelancing is that there are no limitations. There are dozens of ways to make money blogging. That is both incredibly liberating and extremely gratifying at the same time. The bottom line is that, if someone just wants to make extra money, on top of a full-time job, that is perfectly doable these days and that is why so many people are drawn to the world of blogging and online business.
The next milestone
The next milestone for me on this road is to guide and groom young graduates – how to start freelancing, particularly, blogging and vlogging, in order to become job creators rather than job seekers and to engender employment opportunities not only for them but for other unemployed people in the society as well.
What do you think?