Content monetization has its limit: Nandita Iyer, Saffron Trail

Nandita Iyer, Blogger - Saffron Trails and Author - The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian shares her thoughts on various aspects of blogging.

Blogger-cum author Nandita Iyer's journey has been quite an awesome one over the last decade. She started blogging in 2006 at a time, when the term 'blogger' was still new, she decided to chose her niche 'healthy vegetarian cooking' and diary her recipes in her blog saffrontrail.com.

She even conducts healthy cooking workshops for individuals and companies.  Iyer, author of The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian has written about easy-to-follow delicious, healthy vegetarian recipes in her book.

In a detailed conversation with Social Samosa at #SamosaTalks, Iyer shared rich insights on the blogging industry.  Sharing tips on how to monetize a blog to working with brands, Iyer covered an array of topics, clearing most doubts that occupy a blogger's mind.  Excerpts below.

According to you what is the next big thing in blogging for 2018?

Today it is no longer about the dominance of English language, regional influence is also becoming very important. A lot of people are consuming regional content and therefore it is doing really well because there is a whole lot of unexplored audience to reach out to. Secondly, video itself is a huge thing as compared to written blogs. It gives them great reach as compared to text or pictures alone. Thirdly, mobile traffic is really peaking, so your blog needs to be mobile friendly.

Blogging as an industry is almost cluttered - how can bloggers create their own mark of individuality?

I think niche is the new mass.

Rather than focusing on the entire world, it is very important to build a set of audience who are interested in what you do. So, create specialized content in your niche because it really helps you to connect with your exact audience.

Also Read:  Devinder Maheshwari, Beebom on being a tech blogger in India

Can you throw some light on blog promotion?

In current times, blog promotion has become a real big thing because what is a blog without its traffic. I feel paid promotion is not sustainable in the long run because you cant sit and do paid promotion for every post. The organic way in which you can promote is build up a good presence across social media platforms. Also remember not to use these social media channels to only promote your stuff, then no one will really be interested. Be a part of different groups on Facebook that are around the topic of your blog.

How can one support their blogging career through alternate monetary avenues?

Blogging takes a lot of time to make money. Content monetization has its limit. So for alternate supportive avenues, depending on your talent you can branch out. Like you can conduct cooking and writing workshops, or write e-books. Blog gives you a platform to build an audience and these set of people will come to you when you decide to branch out.

How do you decide the pricing for a blog post when you're working with brands/pr agencies?

You need to work out what your per hour rate is and then break down into smaller expenses that often get ignored. The number of followers, the amount of engagement and also the effort that goes into making a post, plays a crucial part in deciding the pricing. It is also a bit of trial and error, but it really helps, if you spend one time in thinking about it. Document everything on an email, don't give out any hasty numbers on the phone.

One should always remember that before you make money or do anything, first value your own brand. 

You need to find out, what are the right brands for whom you need to work with. When you approach brand, you need to have a good media kit - an one pager, where you can share details like who your audience is, page views, what you write about and your niche. It reflects that you are a professional blogger.

It is very important to have good reach. If you don't have the necessary traffic to engage then why would any brands want to associate with you. Vanity blogging is actually on its way out, so write what your audience wants to see and not what you want to write about.

Throw some light on organic follower building on Instagram/Facebook?

Even on organic, be regular, be consistent, have a theme and a niche. You can't afford to update 5 posts in a day and then stay silent for the next few days. Sticking to your theme helps to grow amazingly well even on Facebook. Always look at it this way, tomorrow if you are selling them an e-book, having a workshop or marketing your own book, these are the people who would like to attend.

You can watch the entire interview below.