I recently met a woman who was starting a blog. She asked me if I had any advice and I resorted to my (slightly snarky) automatic response:
“Don’t expect to make any money.”
Okay, I admit that’s a big pessimistic, and it doesn’t really help. (It’s true and realistic, but that’s a blog post for another time.)
What I should have done was given the advice that my dad has given me ever since I started showing interest in writing:
“Do what you love, even if you have to do it for free. Keep doing it and keep improving and at some point, someone will pay you to do it.”
It’s the best advice I’ve ever received.
The Beginning of Beat, Broke, Backpacking
I started a music blog back in college. I didn’t want to be a full-time music blogger and I certainly didn’t think I’d make any sort of cash from it. The music blog was just a way to practice and write and learn hands-on what it took to create a blog. I mimicked the style of the stories I saw on Pitchfork and NME and tried to make the blog look nice.
After a few months, people started to reach out to me. A band wanted me to review their new song and I got to review some headphones for free. SEO was a foreign concept and I had no idea how people found me. It was cool to hear from people, but I also had no idea how my reviews would make any sort of difference to their brands or products. I was just doing something I thought was cool, and doing it over and over again to get better.
As you can guess, I eventually scrapped the music blog and started Beat, Broke, Backpacking. I still kept the content and used it to apply for guest posts and my first copywriting job.
To this day, I probably haven’t made even $200 from product reviews and guests posts on my blog. I make my money by writing blog posts and content for other clients. BBB is a personal project that gives me the freedom to make mistakes, explore different types of content creation, watch SEO strategies play out in real time, and enjoy travel writing.
Oh, And I Wrote an Ebook!
This is a very weird way to introduce the ebook I just published on Amazon, but it’s also what inspired this project.
When I volunteered at a yoga retreat in Sydney, I met yoga teachers and chefs who asked me if I had ever written an ebook for a client. I have written content for ebooks before, but never was involved in the publishing process. I never like to turn down work by saying, “I don’t know how to do that,” but I also didn’t want to jump into an opportunity that was going to overwhelm me. At one point I’d love to help clients go through the entire process from creating a concept to publishing an ebook…so I just did one myself.
So, that’s how Ground Under Your Feet began. It’s a small ebook with eight sets of flows and Yoga poses for different…occasions. Restorative yoga for anxiety. Yoga for surfing. Pre-Pole Yoga. Each comes with a different playlist that I’ve included on a separate blog post.
This has been a really fun little project and I hope you find some value in it. Since this is my first time publishing an ebook and publishing a big set of Yoga flows and poses, I would love some feedback. Send me an email and tell me what you think. What can I improve for next time?
Because there will be a next time. I love freelancing, but I noticed that I spent an extra amount of time poring over each decision and working until the late hours of the night on this ebook. Lately I’ve been worried that I’ve been running out of steam, but this project just showed me that the right projects and ideas will help me reach a boiling point.
So Yeah! Here’s the Ebook!
A big shout out to my friend Charlotte Lee who shot the cover and also the beach photos throughout the ebook. Please review and share the book if you enjoyed it! Thank you so much!