Interview With Brainless Blogger

Nikki Albert lives in Alberta, Canada and has been blogging in the chronic illness niche for over a decade. She lives with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Migraine with Aura, Depression, and Vertigo. She also writes fantasy fiction and is an artist.

1. What do you find most challenging about blogging or running your business?

The most challenging thing about blogging isn't the writing or the social media it is the time and energy required to maintain it of which I am in limited supply. I have to write and do social media promotion when I can. I break it up into chunks.

2. Describe your experiences with some of the people you’ve met while blogging or doing business?

With blogging in my niche, you meet a lot of awesome health advocates. They are great to collaborate with and you can help each other spread content. You can brainstorm ideas. Help each other with sites to use or things to try. It is a very welcoming environment.

However, there are always those that are less creative that tend to just re-use content they find elsewhere and slap their name on it. You find that with content you create for your social media and some specific sites that simply do not spend the effort to create their own- just take what they can from others and paste it to their own format. It is just something you have to deal with.

3. What networking do you do that helps your blogging or business?

I am a blogger who is chronically ill so all the networking I do is online within chronic illness blogger groups and blogger groups. Both of these help in various ways to get your name out there as well as learn new tips and tricks.

4. How do you come up with material/content for your business or blog and keep ideas fresh?

Life and curiosity. Through my own experiences, I can come up with a great deal of content that appeals to my audience. However, I have a lot of curiosity about topics in the area I write for coping and well-being that also generates all sorts of different content. And also add in a splash of humour because some of my posts are just straight-up humour posts.

5. What’s your strategy with your blog or business in general?

To inform people about chronic pain, coping and overall well-being methods in a relatable manner through my experiences and some humour. I aim to write two posts a week consistently for my readers. I do a regular mailing list for them. I plan to build from the base I have created.

6. What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers or a business can give its customers?

Informed, researched content that they can learn something from without having to do the research themselves and in a way that is broken down and understandable.

7. What are some tips for people interesting in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?

Google ads are important to have in a way that does not interfere with the readers’ experience. Too much and that is just spamming. You can also do affiliate ads with Amazon in posts that fit the post. And affiliate with products you believe in personally to add as well. It also helps to have a mailing list where you can have ads, freebies and a product to sell. Your product could be an ebook, a book, a course, or something else but a product helps with income.

8. What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and / or your blog?

I have created a solid social media platform to promote on which helps. On my social media, other than my blog posts, I create content that is tagged with my blog page and these get shared- helping me promote my blog without any effort on my side. I have specific groups where we promote each other in various ways. Doing guest-posts on other blogs occasionally also helps with visibility. Pinterest is great for niche blogs and for that Tailwind works exceptionally well and is worth using.

9. What was the most challenging moment in your blog content development process or starting your business and why?

I have changed in goals and as a writer which means constantly updating old content. I am still updating old content to fit my current goals and motivations.

10. If someone was interested in blogging or starting a new business, what would be a few things you would suggest?

If you are interested in blogging pick your niche and your focus. Stick to that. Always utilize quality royalty-free images and at least 1 Pinterest image in your post. Visuals increase readership a great deal. Read up on SEO, keywords, and using an effective title to draw in readers. Create a nice simple design on your blog that is readable and not bogged down by too many ads or extras. Choose a colour palette for your blog and your content creation. Consider load time as a factor always. Therefore, while you want images you also want to condense those images before using them so the load time does not get too high- people will leave if it is. Those are the main factors to get any blogger started.

What social media do you use?

Blog: https://brainlessblogger.net

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/brainlessblogger

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nikki_Albert

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainless_blogger

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrainlessBlogger