When it comes to blogging, you could say that Anna is a veteran. She’s been online since 2010, and her blog – Real Ways to Earn – often ranks very high when you search for “how to make money online.”

Anna spends a lot of time looking for resources to help people who want to make a living while working at home, and her posts are always very in-depth and chock full of valuable links.

And today, we’re lucky enough to have Anna as our Freelancer Spotlight guest! She’s going to share why she started blogging and what her main challenges are. 

Thanks for chatting with us, Anna!

What do you do and how long have you been in business?

I’m a blogger. I’ve been blogging since June of 2010.

What got you into blogging? Was it what you expected?

My blog is about work at home jobs.

I started the blog because, at the time, I was a mom of two boys under the age of five; I desperately wanted to contribute to the household income (without actually leaving the house).

Every day, I was researching and digging around to find how I could do that. There was so much out there that I thought it would be a good idea to have a website or page where I could list them all and share with family members and friends who wanted an at-home income, too.

It definitely wasn’t what I expected. Blogging is very rewarding but also very hard work if you’re doing it right.”

I had no idea what I was getting into.

(Gina’s tip: Blogging to grow your business is so worth it. Here’s how blogging regularly for one year helped me to grow my traffic and my influence.)

What has been most challenging part of blogging so far?

I’m a person who likes to know that a project can be finished.

But, there is no way to really “finish” a blog. It’s continually begging to be updated.

I know it may seem silly, but that has been kind of hard for me. The constant stress of knowing it will always need brand new content and updates as information expires.

Did you ever want to quit?

I did want to give up after the first few months.

I felt like I was doing all this writing for no reason because nobody was reading, and I couldn’t understand how to get traffic.

I think in August 2010, I only published one or two blog posts because I was that close to quitting!

I was close to quitting. But luckily, my enthusiasm came back around and I just kept plugging away. I’m so glad now that I did.”

What would you love to pay someone to take off your plate?

I would love to pay someone to handle the technical stuff.

When things break, it’s very stressful and frustrating for me to try and figure out how to fix it on my own. My host (Liquid Web) has always been pretty helpful, though.

I also don’t particularly enjoy dealing with advertisers directly. It would be great to have someone negotiate for me on my behalf, since that whole process makes me uncomfortable.

What task in your own business would you like to do more of?

I have over 800 posts on my blog, and I love going back through them and finding new ways to monetize them and make them better and more helpful overall. I do this as often as I have the time.

What are some big successes you’ve had recently?

Every time I get an email from a reader letting me know that I helped them find a way to earn from home, it feels like a big success!

It makes me feel good knowing that my blog is actually helping someone, especially since that’s why I put it on the web in the first place. While earning a good income from my blog is absolutely fantastic, at the end of the day, that’s not what I had in mind when I started it.

I just wanted it to be a helpful resource for people who needed it.”

What are some specific strategies, tactics or pieces of advice that helped you grow your business?

I know that making friends with other bloggers in my niche helped a ton.

Trust me, as much as you may want to feel like people in your niche are your “competition,” it’s better to realize they’re just trying to do the same thing as you.

Making friends and then learning from each other is the way to go!”

I also tried to learn what I could from bloggers who seemed to have already “made it” and paid attention to how they were marketing, promoting and what tools and resources they were using.

I did that even with bloggers who weren’t in my niche.

What are you most excited about for your business next?

I’m anxious to get some more e-books published.

I currently have three out there, and I want to do more. I like writing e-books because as I mentioned how a blog can never be finished, an e-book can be.

I feel like that’s where the true passive income is.

(Gina’s tip: If you’d like to set up your own website or blog, Daryn put together a great tutorial.)

Anna Thurman is a work at home mom and blogger. She’s been researching and writing about work from home jobs since 2010. Her findings are published via her website, Real Ways to Earn. You can also connect with Anna on Twitter.