Get to know Kitty Lusby, a full-time professional blogger, in today’s speaker interview.
Kitty moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in order to have 24-hour access to tacos. An entrepreneur since her teen years, Kitty’s blogging career finally launched in 2014 with a series of freelance gigs that eventually grew into a successful business. She began to make a name for herself as she built her clients’ brands along with their blogs, and that skill eventually led to a massive rebranding of her personal blog, which is now a resource for bloggers and business owners alike. Among her other attributes, she’s smart, funny, good looking, and single. She discusses all of this and more at KittyLusby.com.
What should we know about you that you haven’t included in your brief, third-person, professional biography?
My brief, third-person, professional biography is obviously near perfect, but I confess that I am a more complex and interesting person than one paragraph can manage to convey. What you should know is that I’ve written copy and blog posts for more than 10 separate industries, and in addition to being published on various blogs around the net, my work has appeared in magazines, short story compilations, and even form letters for collections agencies. Also, I have a pet rabbit named Buford, and I enjoy collecting tacky coffee mugs.
Kitty’s tacky pirate mug
You undoubtedly have had an innumerable amount of incredible tacos, but what is that one astounding taco you’re still chasing to this day?
The holy grail of tacos are taco cart tacos. You know, the kind where someone’s Mexican grandma makes a huge pot of tamales and the meat options include beef cheeks and tongues. One of my fondest taco memories, though, was a filet mignon taco with shiitake mushrooms at Tommy Bahamas. It was definitely NOT Mexican, but it was still a transcendent taco experience. They had it as a special once and I haven’t seen it on the menu since. Keep hope alive. They’ll eventually run that special again…right?
What unique blogging habits, if any, have you developed that most bloggers wouldn’t consider?
I refuse to wear pants while I work. Pants restrict the creative process. My blogging process involves planning things on paper, dancing around my living room, and occasionally taking naps. Lots of my blog post ideas come from online forums, too – if I see a lot of people asking the same question, or if I see a lot of people giving questionable answers to a certain question, I blog about it.
What are the benefits of becoming a “Kitty Elite” member?
I guess you’ll have to become Elite and find out.
What’s one small step can bloggers take today to start them on a journey towards owning and operating a profitable blog?
The obvious step is to start blogging. If someone is really serious about blogging as a career, though, the step they should take right now is to start writing a business plan. It’s important to figure out how the money is going to be generated and do the appropriate research and planning.
Can you recommend any resources to help people accomplish this research and planning?
Blog monetization is always a hot topic, but there’s a ton of misinformation and misconceptions around good monetization habits. In a nutshell, most people who teach monetization or sell online training courses focus mainly on ways you can “rent” your audience’s attention to someone else’s business for a minuscule percentage of revenue. Affiliate marketing, adsense, and sponsored posts might seem like the easiest way to make money, but they’re neither easy nor smart if you want to build a career. Good monetization strategy comes from marketing your own widget to your own audience. Here’s a blog post that goes deeper into this: http://kittylusby.com/blog-monetization/
I’ll have a blogger-specific business plan resource available on my website in the next 30 days, but for now, I recommend that new blog entrepreneurs take a look at the Small Business Association’s guide to business plans. It’s fairly comprehensive, and startlingly impressive for a government resource: https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/write-your-business-plan
Head over to the Blue Whale at 1oam on Saturday, September 10 at WordCamp Los Angeles to catch Kitty’s presentation Going Pro – How To Make Your Blog Pay Your Bills.