Thank you so much to Angela of The Freebie Junkie for taking the time to share her blogging tips with us. I’m so excited to be featuring several bloggers over the next few weeks – real-life successful bloggers – and hearing their thoughts and tips about blogging! So, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, and be inspired!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog:
My name is Angela and I’m a working Mom of two. The Freebie Junkie is a place to find freebies and deals so you can save on the things you need enabling you to buy the things you want. You’ll also find engaging family orientated product reviews and giveaways.
How did you get started with blogging?
After having my second child I turned into a freebie and deal junkie to offset the cost of two in diapers and daycare and would share my deals with my friends through email. I started The Freebie Junkie website to make it easier for everyone to grab time sensitive freebies and deals and not clog up their emails. Two years later The Freebie Junkie has grown tremendously and offers product reviews, cash and product giveaways as well as freebies, steals and deal scenarios.
What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started because it would have saved you so much time and energy?
Blogging is an ever changing and big learning curve. It is overwhelming at first but focus on your blog content and feeding your posts to facebook and twitter. Then once you have that set in place can you start branching out to other social media outlets such as pinterest, stumble, Google+ etc. Find a blog buddy that you can learn from.
What is your balancing secret in managing a blog and a family?
What is the biggest mistake you made and how did you fix it?
What has been your best readership building tactic?
Cash giveaway promotions with other bloggers – it builds readers fast.
What has been your most successful way to make money?
Sponsored campaigns but this only comes from having good blog stats so work on your core content, building readership and this will come in good time.
What is one tidbit of advice that you would offer to a new blogger, just starting out?
Keep it simple. Determine a goal and directive and stick to it, consistency is the key. Once you have established a routine and loyal fan base then can you start to branch out and add more to gain additional readership.
Still Have Questions?
Leave them in the comments below – then be sure to head over to Angela’s blog – check out her cute design and learn all about the freebie deals going on right now!
Table of contents for Real Life Blogging Stories
- Blogging Tips From Real-Life Successful Bloggers: So, How Much Do You REALLY Make?
- Blogging Tips From A Real-Life Successful Blogger: An Interview With Stephanie @KeeperOfTheHome
- Blogging Tips From A Real-Life Successful Blogger: An Interview With Laurie Hise
- Blogging Tips From A Real-Life Successful Blogger: An Interview With Kristin @TheFrugalGirl
- Blogging Tips From A Real-Life Successful Blogger: An Interview With Angela Walker
- Blogging Tips From A Real-Life Successful Blogger: An Interview With Erika Bragdon
- How I Wrote An E-Book: An Interview With Blogger Prerna Malik
- How I Wrote An E-Book: An Interview With Blogger Liz Latham
- How To Gross Over $30,000 In Your First Year of Blogging – Or, At Least, How We Did It Here At Blogelina
What is “do follow” ?
When your links are “do follow”, they allow the search engine bots to follow them to the other blog or site. This can have an affect on your SEO. “No follow” links do not allow the search engine bots to follow them.
I was wondering about this also, because I’ve read and been told that you are penalized by Google in SEO ranking if you don’t add a rel=”nofollow” to links that are paid or advertisements on your blog. And the stuff about leaking too much link juice in general. Could you explain more about why it’s a mistake not to add “do follow” links for sponsored campaigns? Thanks!
Woof Woof Mama recently posted..$19 for Three Bags of Healthy Dogma Treats in Peanut Butter, Apple, and Banana – Includes Shipping!
I checked with Angela on this because I was a bit confused by her sentence – she said that it should have read “nofollow”, not “do follow”.
Thanks for clarifying…I got worried I’d been doing it wrong! Love your blog and all your advice and tips!!!
Woof Woof Mama recently posted..Giveaways and Sweepstakes for Mamas and Papas!
Thank you for the info. I’ve been really good at keeping up with content since I set my goal to do so in January. However I hadn’t posted in two weeks b/c life became super busy. You motivated me to pick up where I left off. Running a blog is a little more difficult than I imagined, but I can’t wait to see where it will take me.
Tea Todd
Tea Todd recently posted..HOW WE ROCK OUR HAIR
Oh, I follow The Freebie Junkie on twitter and love all the deals.
I’m curious, what is your criteria of what makes a successful blogger, Blogelina? Are you basing it on stats, monetization, or general popularity?
Melanie recently posted..Welcome to the 74th Hunger Games. Let the Parodies Begin!
Melanie, I based the blogs I chose for this interview series on Alexa stats and number of followers.